Sanchez as their informer known as Carmen.
'So this Serb, Stanislav Jankovic, is in fact Viktor Belenki, right-hand man to Leonid Revnik,' said Ramirez. 'Do you have any cameras outside the front doors to the suites so we can pick up his face?'
'Once inside the car port they have total privacy,' said the head of security, 'but, of course, they can check the identity of someone coming to their door with the camera entry system.'
'This must be Alejandro Spinola's taxi arriving at the main gate,' said Ferrera.
'What do you do in this scenario?' asked Ramirez.
'He has to identify himself and state his business,' said the head of security.
Alejandro Spinola got out of the cab and pressed the buzzer, identified himself to the camera. He was told to go to reception. They opened the gates.
Isabel Sanchez had her room key by now, went back to the car which moved off to her suite and reversed, out of sight, into the car port. Alejandro Spinola arrived in reception. The cab returned to the front gate.
'We can do voice in reception as well,' said the guard. 'That being where we're most likely to have conflict.'
The guard at the screens flipped a switch. They heard Spinola ask to speak to Antonio Ramos. The receptionist put a call through. Spinola spoke to Ramos inaudibly. The receptionist summoned a bell boy.
'Any ideas what this is about?' asked Ramirez.
'I should think it means that the Russians have got their hooks into Spinola, possibly some time ago,' said Falcon. 'They've told him who appears on the disks and he's going to use that information to the best of his ability.'
'To blackmail the I4IT/Horizonte consortium round to the Russian way of thinking?' said Ramirez. 'He's leaving it late in the day.'
'Nothing like an imminent contract-signing to speed up the process,' said Falcon. 'He's giving them forty-five minutes to agree to the RussiansW demands, with Fallenbach breathing down their necks. I think you could call that brinkmanship.'
The bell boy appeared, leading Spinola down the path. Viktor Belenki came out of his suite and lit a cigarette, got Spinola's attention, nodded.
'Go in close on Belenki,' said Falcon. 'Send a shot of him back to Diaz, just to check.'
Even in black and white Belenki was impressive, with blond hair and high cheekbones, and an animal muscularity under a white shirt and black trousers. He paced in leisurely fashion up and down outside his suite, smoking all the while, taking the night air. Spinola went into Ramos's suite. Several minutes eased past. Diaz called to confirm that the so-called Serb, Jankovic, was Viktor Belenki.
'Look at the state of Valverde,' said Ramirez.
Juan Valverde, the I4IT Europe boss, came out of his suite, fists rammed into the pockets of his towelling robe which gaped to show a pair of brief swimming trunks. His jaw was set and he looked thunderous under knitted eyebrows. He walked across to Antonio Ramos's suite.
'He's had at least some of the bad news,' said Ramirez.
Viktor Belenki started on his third cigarette. Suddenly he stood still. A development. Juan Valverde came out, his towelling robe now done up tight, looking less ominous, more scared. Antonio Ramos followed him, staring into the path as if he couldn't quite believe this was happening to him. They walked quickly over to Alfredo Manzanares's suite.
'I wouldn't involve the banker at this stage, would you?' asked Ramirez.
'We don't know how Spinola has put the Russian's proposal to them,' said Falcon. 'Valverde and Ramos must have a good relationship with their bankers, if not Manzanares personally. They're either going to try talking him round, or invoke the earlier agreement, whatever that was, between his predecessor, Lucrecio Arenas and the Russians.'
Viktor Belenki seemed content with the way things were going. He dropped his cigarette, crushed it underfoot and, hands in pockets, kicked it on to the grass.
'Are you seriously expecting violence here?' asked the head of security, reacting to the tension in the room.
'By all accounts, we're dealing with some very unpredictable people,' said Falcon.
'But he's just one guy, isn't he?'
'We don't know,' said Falcon. 'There is no existing photograph of Leonid Revnik and only a gulag shot of Yuri Donstov, although he does have extensive tattoos – if we can get that close. The only instantly recognizable mafia man we can identify is Nikita Sokolov, an ex-weightlifter.'
'Another party at the gate,' said the guard at the screens. 'This is the Ortega couple.'
The car came through the gates and up to the main building. A man and a woman got out, went into reception. They were both in their late forties, obviously Spanish. Senora Ortega had an extensive list of demands, which she elaborated during the check-in process.
'You can't invent a woman like that,' said Ramirez. 'So, only the Cano party still to arrive and Alejandro Spinola's dinner companions, the mayor's delegation.'
'Did you see the Zimbricks or the Nadermanns when they came in?' asked Falcon.
'Sure,' said the man at the screens. 'They looked like tourists.'
'Do you have copies of their passports?'
'On the screen over here,' said the head of security.
Falcon clicked through the Nadermanns, but his hand faltered at the second American passport, belonging to a Nathan Zimbrick. Staring out of the screen was Mark Flowers.
'Have you got anywhere on the property which would do as a lock-up?' asked Falcon, clearing the screen, unable to compute what the CIA agent's presence meant.
'We've got some staff buildings down by the perimeter fence, where drivers can sleep,' said the head of security. 'There's a room there we could use to keep people until the Guardia Civil can come and take them away.'
Fifteen minutes passed. Viktor Belenki went inside, came back out in an expensive-looking suit and tie. Valverde and Ramos left Manzanares's suite on their own, hunched, not talking, body language declaring their complete failure. They headed off to the presidential suite.
'So Alfredo Manzanares told them to fuck off,' said Ramirez, 'and then called their boss to tell him his senior executives have been compromised.'
'Cortland Fallenbach knew about this,' said Falcon. 'I'm sure of it.'
'He was only booked in when Charles Taggart's suite was cancelled,' said Ferrera. 'I don't think this evening was originally a part of his schedule.'
'Valverde and Ramos have been the main contacts for the mayor and the town planning office for a long time, so Fallenbach probably sees the value in keeping them in place until the deal is signed,' said Falcon. 'Then they're out of their jobs.'
Ten more minutes. They stared at the entrance to the presidential suite where they'd seen the two men disappear. Nothing.
'Look at Belenki,' said Ramirez.
The Russian was leaning slightly forward and staring into the night as if he was beginning to suspect they'd all somehow escaped over the perimeter fence. He turned and went into the car port. At that moment Alejandro Spinola came out of Ramos's suite at a sprint. He'd obviously been waiting for Belenki to disappear and, as Ramos's suite was the furthest bungalow from the main building, he had a good hundred metres to cover.
'Spinola's realized or been told that Manzanares has rejected the deal and he doesn't want to get caught in the open,' said Falcon. 'He wants to be safe in a public space to give the Russians the bad news.'
Belenki came out of the car port, crossed the path and headed across the grass to cut Spinola off.
'Let's go,' said Ramirez.
'Wait,' said Falcon. 'Let's see where they end up. No sense in running around the hotel when we can see it all here.'
The cameras showed two men crossing the patio. Belenki had his arm around Spinola, hugging him tight. Spinola was terrified. They went into the toilets by the art gallery.
'No cameras in the toilets,' said the head of security.
