has no respect for these rules. He is an outsider. He does things which are only to his advantage. He is the sort of person who gives no thought to the nature of a man such as Vasili Lukyanov.'
'But Lukyanov used to work for Senor Revnik,' said Falcon.
'Perhaps you are not aware of the extent of the disagreements between Senor Revnik and Vasili Lukyanov,' said the voice. 'Giving a man a beating when he is unable to repay a debt is permissible, but we draw the line at raping and beating a man's daughter. It proved very costly for Senor Revnik to extricate Lukyanov and his friend from that situation. Senor Revnik is even more furious now that he has returned from Moscow to find more than eight million euros and other property missing. You may not know this, Inspector Jefe, but nobody steals from a vor-v-zakone. There is only one punishment for that, which in this case has been carried out by the Ultimate Power.'
'This is all very well,' said Consuelo, who could feel herself being sidelined, 'but if you're not holding my son then I am unclear as to what you are proposing.'
'We do have a proposal,' said the voice firmly. 'The most important part of this proposal from your point of view is that you do not enter into negotiations with Yuri Donstov. He is probably offering to return the boy if the Inspector Jefe can get his hands on the money and some disks which were stolen by Lukyanov.'
'The money is impossible. It's already been banked,' said Falcon. 'We know what's on the disks.'
'They will be happy with the disks. They contain substantial bargaining power. Extortion is a core business,' said the voice.
There was an omission there that Falcon did not miss: the disks were a lot more than just an ordinary business tool.
'As you know,' said Consuelo, 'I am a businesswoman. Normally in business I negotiate with someone who has something I want. I might use a broker if they bring specialist knowledge, but in our situation here, you are trying to become the broker when I am already in direct contact with the person who has what I want.'
'I don't think you've listened to me very carefully, Senora Jimenez. Not only have I explained what sort of a person Yuri Donstov is – a man with no code of honour and no rules, who has turned his back on the very people who made him a vor-v-zakone – but also that he is running an operation which will very soon cease to exist. I doubt you are in the habit of doing business with bankrupts,' said the voice. 'The other advantage to you, Senora Jimenez, is that you don't have to do anything. We will get your son back for you. You just have to sit and wait.'
'But I still have to call Yuri Donstov. He has already sent me an email saying that his patience is not infinite – as if mine is.'
'You tell him that there are complications. First of all, you cannot get the money because it is in the bank, and secondly, you have been approached by another group who say that they are the ones holding your son. You no longer know who to believe, and he must give you incontrovertible proof of your son's wellbeing before you do anything. I'm sure, with your experience, that you are an expert at playing for time in a negotiation.'
'But how are you going to get my son back? You are all men of violence. If you're going to fight this out, killing each other, I do not want my son to be in the middle of a war.'
'Believe me, Senora Jimenez, this is not a unilateral action. Pressure can be applied in all sorts of ways -'
'That sounds like a slow process,' said Consuelo. 'I don't have that sort of time. My son is in the hands of a monster. I'm not going to wait while you gradually squeeze this… this infected boil out of your organization.'
'Do not expect me to be explicit, Senora Jimenez,' said the voice. 'The Inspector Jefe has a personal interest in all criminal activity, even if it is for the general good.'
'I don't know what to think any more.'
'We're going to hang up now,' said Falcon. 'We need some time to make a decision.'
'Promise me one thing, Inspector Jefe,' said the voice, 'that you will delay, in any way you can, your negotiations with Senor Donstov. If you are unsure of our capabilities in this matter, please come back to us so that we can take the opportunity to convince you.'
'One last thing,' said Consuelo. 'What do you want out of this?'
'A small reward,' said the voice, and cut the line.
Falcon leaned back in his chair. Consuelo stared into the desk.
'You did a brilliant job,' said Falcon.
'I don't know what to think any more,' said Consuelo, repeating herself, trying to force some logic past a gigantic emotional obstacle.
'Think about the two parties you've spoken to,' said Falcon. 'How do you feel about them?'
'At least these people didn't threaten me or threaten to harm Dario, but then again, they're not holding him. Maybe they'd be more unpleasant if they were,' said Consuelo.
'What did you think when they asked you to hold and started talking about getting permission from a higher authority?'
'They were discussing a change of approach,' said Consuelo. 'Initially they were going to play a game with us: pretending they had Dario, but when I asked for the simple proof they realized the hopelessness of their gambit. They are being persuasively reasonable because they are weak. We have access – or rather, you have access – to what they want, but they can't give us what we want. So they make us believe that we are dealing with a monster and offer to intervene and be strong on our behalf. The only problem for me is -'
'What they're planning to do.'
'By the sound of it, they're going to kill Yuri Donstov. He's muscling in on their territory, breaking all their codes of conduct and they will use guns and, I don't know, rocket-propelled grenades to take him out.'
'I'm beginning to think that Lukyanov was very important to Donstov's organization,' said Falcon. 'The voice told us that Donstov's operation will 'soon cease to exist', which probably means that Donstov's supply lines of heroin will be cut, or already have been.'
'That is if we believe everything the voice tells us,' said Consuelo.
'Lukyanov, with the eight million euros, was bringing cash flow to the game and his expertise in prostitution. And, because we're talking about girls rather than heroin, the supply can come from anywhere.'
'Then there are the disks that Lukyanov was supposed to deliver,' said Consuelo. 'But you don't know what they're planning to muscle in on.'
'One of the guys on the disks is a civil engineer who heads up the construction arm of Horizonte,' said Falcon. 'I also know that one of these Russian groups has their claws dug into the mayor's office and that a crucial meeting will take place in Seville very soon, probably between the I4IT/Horizonte consortium and the mayor and other relevant departments.'
'Is time becoming an important factor for them?'
'The meeting is due to take place within the next twenty-four hours.'
'Businessmen consorting with prostitutes? Is that such a terrible thing these days?' asked Consuelo, shrugging. 'Raul went whoring. Some of the people I do business with, especially in property and construction, take cocaine, go to orgies. We're not mired in Catholicism any more.'
'But I4IT is an American corporation, owned by two reformed addicts who are born-again Christians. They'll take you in as a sinner, but you have to reform. They would not tolerate the sort of behaviour you're talking about by any executives in any of their companies. Those guys would be out of a job that probably pays more than a million euros a year and puts them in a position to make double that in the black economy.'
'In that case, the one thing the voice was not quite straight about,' said Consuelo, 'was the disks. They are very important to Leonid Revnik.'
'A further admission of weakness would not have looked good,' said Falcon. 'They'd be saying we don't have the boy and we're desperate for what you've got.'
'Would you give them the disks, Javier?' asked Consuelo, that question burning inside her, too hot for her not to let it out.
'Dario is my responsibility…'
'Have you noticed that?' said Consuelo, cutting in, suddenly unable to bear hearing his response. 'Neither of the Russian groups has mentioned the original reason for abducting Dario, which was to get you to stop your investigations into the Seville bombing.'
'They've effectively done that by killing my best witness, Marisa Moreno,' said Falcon. 'And the voice did offer me the men who planted the bomb. He certainly knows what I want.'
They lapsed into silence, looking at each other. Too much going on in their heads. Falcon checked the time. Ten minutes past midnight. Nearly two hours since the email was sent from Donstov.
