Arenas.
Elvira was alone in his office, standing by the window, peering through the blinds as if he was expecting insurgents in the street. Without turning round he told Falcon that he was going to have to prepare for a major televised press conference whose time, as yet, had not been set.
'The CNI will be here in a minute,' he said. 'Did you get anything from Alarcon?'
'Nothing. He's resigning later this morning,' said Falcon. 'He had a very unappetizing lesson on the nature of power from his old master.'
'Who seems to have met his nemesis,' said Elvira. 'A card was found on the diving board of his swimming pool. An identical card was found on Cesar Benito's body in his hotel room. Arabic script. A quote from the Koran about the enemies of God.'
Elvira finally turned round when he sensed something thunderous developing behind him.
'Are you all right, Javier?'
'No,' he said, gritting his teeth. 'I'm not all right.'
'You're angry?' said Elvira, surprised. 'It's very dismaying, but…'
'I've been betrayed,' he said. 'Those bastards from the CNI have betrayed me, and it's cost us the possibility of a resolution to this entire investigation.'
A knock on the open door. Pablo and Gregorio came in. Falcon wouldn't shake their hands, got up and went over to the window.
'So, what's going on here?' asked Elvira.
Pablo shrugged.
'I recruited a Moroccan friend of mine…' started Falcon, and Gregorio tried to interrupt by saying this was all top-secret CNI business and not for public consumption. Pablo told him to sit down and shut up.
'My Moroccan friend has infiltrated the group which positioned Hammad and Saoudi with the hexogen in Seville. The group demanded that he show his loyalty by passing an initiation rite. This required him to ask me who was behind the Fuerza Andalucia conspiracy. I refused to do this. At which point there was a very timely breakdown in communication-'a problem with new encryption software'. Since then, I have not been able to contact my friend. I do not think that the deaths of Cesar Benito and Lucrecio Arenas are unconnected with what happened. I believe that my refusal to help was intercepted and replaced with the information my friend required. The fact that these two men were found dead with quotations from the Koran on, or near, their bodies seems to indicate that revenge has successfully been taken.'
Elvira looked at the CNI men.
'Not true,' said Pablo. 'It proves nothing, but we can show you the transcripts. It's true that your refusal to help did not go through before the system failed, but we did not replace it with anything else. The encryption software problem has still not been solved and we are now thinking of going back to the original software so that we can at least make contact with your friend. On the subject of the deaths of Arenas and Benito: the detectives and forensics on the ground in Marbella and Madrid have independently told us that they believe this to be the work of professional hitmen. They say that, whilst they have no record of any individual 'hits' being taken out by Islamic jihadists, they do have records of professional hitmen using these methods.'
'Agustin Cardenas had just given me Cesar Benito,' said Falcon slowly.
'We know,' said Pablo. 'We spoke to Madrid. They've picked up the recording he mentioned in his interview with you.'
'You nailed him,' said Gregorio.
'For the murder of Tateb Hassani,' said Falcon. 'Don't you think the families of the people who died in El Cerezo deserve a bit more than that?'
'They might get it in court,' said Elvira.
'You said it yourself on Tuesday night,' said Pablo. 'Terrorist attacks are complicated things. You only have a chance at a resolution. At least in this one the perpetrators have all suffered.'
'Apart from the electrician who planted the Goma 2 Eco,' said Falcon. 'And, of course, the people who are so contemptuous of law and order that they will assassinate anybody who might make them vulnerable.'
'You have to be satisfied with what you've achieved,' said Pablo. 'You've prevented a dangerous group of Catholic fanatics from developing a power base in Andalucian politics. And in the process, through the actions of Hammad and Saoudi, we have uncovered an Islamic jihadist plot. Juan doesn't think that that is such a terrible outcome.'
'Which brings us back to the business in hand,' said Elvira. 'Hammad and Saoudi. Their faces have been all over the news and there's been a terrific response. Unfortunately, there have been sightings from all over Spain. They've been seen on the same day, at the same time, in La Coruna, Almeria, Barcelona and Cadiz.'
Elvira took a call on his mobile.
'Chasing Hammad and Saoudi is a waste of time,' said Pablo. 'It's been four days. They'll have done whatever needed to be done and got out. The only thing that will help us now is intelligence.'
Elvira came back into the conversation.
'That was the Guardia Civil. They've had a confirmed sighting of Hammad and Saoudi, early on Monday morning 5th June, on a stretch of country road near a village called El Saucejo, about twenty-five kilometres south of Osuna.'
'And how do we know this is a bona fide sighting?' asked Pablo.
'They were changing the back tyre, driver's side, on a white Peugeot Partner,' said Elvira.
42
Seville-Saturday, 10th June 2006, 10.00 hrs
'We thought we'd lost you back there,' said Pablo.
'I thought you'd lost me,' said Falcon.
'Are you still with us?'
'I'm tired, I'm shocked that my sister's partner is so deeply involved in this; I've been disturbed by what's happened to Yacoub and, because of these two assassinations, I've lost the possibility of a resolution to my investigation,' said Falcon. 'Maybe you're used to this in your world, but in mine it feels lurid.'
'I told Juan when we first came up with the idea of using you that we were expecting too much,' said Pablo. 'Operating in two worlds, the real and the clandestine, is the quickest way to paranoia.'
'Anyway, I'm out the other side now,' said Falcon. 'I think we should go to El Saucejo.'
'I can't,' said Pablo. 'Juan's just recalled me to Madrid. There's a lot of internet 'chatter' and now there's been some movement as well. He can't spare me down here to help you…'
'So what are you going to do about Hammad and Saoudi, the other quantity of hexogen, the 'hardware' that didn't arrive and the 'disruption to a plan which has required a lot of reorganization'?' said Falcon. 'Isn't that what you'd call intelligence? Yacoub has been frightened half to death to get this stuff for you.'
'I don't know what you're expecting to find in El Saucejo,' said Pablo. 'Hammad and Saoudi sitting on some hexogen, helping people pack it into the 'hardware' and carrying on with the plan? I don't think so.'
Falcon paced the room, chewing on his thumbnail.
'This hardware…that keeps getting referred to. It doesn't sound as if it's easily available, not something you go down to the shops and buy,' said Falcon. 'For some reason it sounds to me as if it's been custom made for a certain task.'
'It could be. Keep having ideas. Keep feeding them to Yacoub and see if he can come back with something relevant. That's all we can do.'
'You said the only thing that would make you sit up and get interested in our investigation was if we found that the Imam, or Hammad and Saoudi, were not in the mosque when it exploded,' said Falcon. 'And now you don't seem to give a damn.'
'Things have moved on. I've been recalled to Madrid. I'm being asked to look at other scenarios.'
'But don't you think it's significant that the original hexogen was brought to Seville, that there's additional hexogen out there, that Hammad and Saoudi are alive and well, and we know that there's an intention to attack?'
