'How do you think Alejandro Spinola is involved?' asked Ferrera.
'I know he introduced Marisa Moreno to Esteban Calderon and that connection was an important element in the Seville bombing conspiracy,' said Falcon. 'I'm sure he was put up to that by the Russians. As far as this building project goes, he's in a unique position, working for the mayor, to be able to give the Russians or Horizonte valuable inside information.'
'We don't have any proof that Spinola was a friend of Arenas and Benito,' said Ramirez, 'but he clearly knows Juan Valverde and Antonio Ramos.'
'Hopefully tonight we'll prove that he's the link between the Russians and the I4IT/Horizonte consortium,' said Falcon. 'But you'll notice that there are two important people missing from all this dodgy dealing.'
'Alfredo Manzanares from Banco Omni and Cortland Fallenbach, the owner of I4IT,' said Ferrera.
'And one of the projects in the contract is the construction of Banco Omni's high-rise – presumably with Banco Omni's money,' said Ramirez.
'Manzanares will want everything above board,' said Falcon. 'Which is where it will probably all go wrong for Spinola, and therefore the Russians, which could result in violence.'
'Or spoiling the show,' said Ferrera.
'I don't want to repeat myself,' said Ramirez, worried, 'but we could really use some back-up for this operation.'
'Let's look at the security arrangements when we get there,' said Falcon. 'And we have to remember, Jose Luis, it's quite possible that nothing will happen at all.' They checked their watches. Ramirez pulled out of the petrol station and drove back to the hotel entrance. Falcon phoned ahead. The gates opened as they arrived and they drove up to a large senorial house. A bell boy told them where they could park the car out of sight. They got out, stretched their legs. Expensive cooking smells wafted out of the kitchens. The bell boy took them through the kitchens and into the manager's office behind the reception area.
The hotel manager was with his head of security. They laid out a plan of the hotel. The main building had a large patio in its centre around which was the reception area, a restaurant with three private dining rooms, a set of toilets, a conference room, a cinema with another set of toilets, two shops, one for perfume, the other for jewellery, an art gallery with a further set of toilets and the main security office. In the grounds were the nine suites and the presidential suite. Each suite was a flat-roofed bungalow with a large bedroom and bathroom, a living room with dining facilities, a sauna and mini-gym. Outside each suite was a car port, a private terrace and a small swimming pool. There was another larger swimming pool in the palmerie, which was the centrepiece of the garden. On the other side of that was the presidential suite, which was a two-bedroomed house with bathrooms, dining room, living room, kitchen and full staff. Outside it had its own gym, sauna, hot tub, swimming pool, terrace and bar.
'This is where the King and Queen stay when they come,' said the manager.
The head of security showed them the extent of the perimeter fence, which consisted of five-centimetre-thick steel bars two and a half metres high, topped with razor wire. There was a three-metre-wide dog run on the other side and a further fence. Every metre of the perimeter fence was filmed by CCTV cameras, which were under constant supervision in the screen room of the main security office.
'We provide the minimum requirement,' said the head of security, 'but if we have ministers or heads of state they will usually bring their own people.'
'Have this Horizonte/I4IT group brought any of their own people with them, or made any special security requests?'
The security man shook his head.
'If you want to move around the hotel without drawing attention to yourselves you should wear the staff uniform,' said the manager. 'Black trousers, white shirt, black waistcoat for men and a black belted dress for women.'
'Do you know what the mayor's delegation are doing after the event?' asked Ramirez.
'They're all going back to the city. The car bringing them will wait.'
'How many security guards patrol the grounds?'
'Four in the grounds, two in the main building, one of whom looks after the CCTV screens,' said the head of security. 'All armed.'
'What could go wrong?' asked Ramirez, cheerfully.
The manager looked at him nervously. They shook hands and the head of security took them on a tour of the main building. He described what the mayor's group would be doing, where and when. Drinks and canapes at ten o'clock in the conference room. A half-hour show in the cinema at ten thirty, followed by dinner in a private dining room at eleven. They inspected the projection room at the back of the theatre and were introduced to the technician, who had just been briefed by Antonio Ramos, the chief engineer of Horizonte, as to what was required and been given the necessary DVD showing the proposed construction project. They'd completed the sound-system test and were ready to go.
Outside in the lush gardens, privacy was the theme of the nine suites. Once inside, or out on the terrace, there was no sense of there being a neighbour. A good thirty metres separated each suite. At night security guards were told not to walk in the lit areas but to keep to the dark.
'There's camera entry to each suite,' said the head of security, 'and light sensors if you approach the front door or terrace.'
Falcon's team went back to the security office and changed into their staff uniforms in the toilets. The only problem was for Ferrera, who had nowhere to put her gun in the simple black dress. Falcon and Ramirez tucked theirs down the backs of the trousers and covered them with the waistcoats. Ferrera left her revolver in the security office, went to reception to check on the changes in the reservations, saw Taggart's cancellation and Fallenbach's booking of the presidential suite. On the way back she took a call on her mobile.
'Alejandro Spinola has just left home in a taxi,' said Ferrera, coming into the security office. 'He's heading out of the city on the Huelva road. Looks as if he's coming early. Detective Serrano wants instructions.'
'I don't want any more people in here, or it'll look too crowded,' said Falcon. 'They should wait down the road in that petrol station we were in.'
They went into the CCTV-screens room with the head of security.
'Why are all these screens on the right dark?' asked Ramirez.
'They only light up if the sensor on the terrace of any of the suites is triggered,' said the screen supervisor. 'Nobody's sitting out at this time of night so they're all dark.'
'How does it work with guests arriving?' asked Ramirez.
'When they make the booking they give their car registration, model and colour and the number of people who will be staying. When a car arrives at the gate we check it against our list and, if it complies, let it in. If we have VIPs staying and they bring in other guests, we'll ask them to roll down the window and identify themselves to the camera. Our guest list today have not asked for anything unusual so we'll admit everybody on the vehicle registration. Of course, we have another opportunity to check the people in the car when they arrive at reception. In fact, here's a car arriving now.'
A dark BMW had pulled up at the gates. The guard at the screens checked it against his list, let it in.
'This is the guest party registered as Sanchez,' he said.
The car came up the drive, parked in front of the main building. A young woman got out of the passenger side of the car. She was tall, with extraordinary long legs, and was wearing four-inch heels. Her hair bounced on her shoulders as she made her way to the reception.
'No secret cameras in the bedrooms?' asked Ramirez. Ferrera hit him on the arm.
'Names?' asked Falcon.
'Isabel Sanchez and Stanislav Jankovic. She's Spanish, he's a Serb,' said the guard.
The woman appeared on the screen at reception, handed over her ID and her partner's passport.
'Can we isolate her face?' asked Falcon. 'Download it and send it back to our organized crime experts, Cortes and Diaz in the Jefatura.'
'Who do you think it is?'
'On the basis of Cortes's description of Viktor Belenki's girlfriend as 'fucking gorgeous' I thought she might be worth checking out,' said Falcon.
Ferrera went to take her laptop out. The guard at the screens told her not to bother. He downloaded the image, pasted it into an email and sent it off to Diaz. Thirty seconds later Diaz was on the line, confirming Isabel
