monied Muslims are…observed.'
'Yacoub and I were talking about marriage once and I told him that mine hadn't lasted very long, that my wife had left me for a prominent judge,' said Falcon. 'I told him about Consuelo. He told me that his own marriage was just for show and that he was gay and that the fashion industry suited him.'
'Why?'
'Because it was full of attractive men who weren't looking for a permanent relationship which he couldn't offer.'
Silence. Juan let it be known that it was time to move on.
'So what happened after you became friends with Yacoub?' asked Pablo.
'I saw him quite a lot at the beginning, several times over three or four months. I'd started learning Arabic and went down to see my Moroccan family in Tangier whenever I could. Yacoub would invite me over. We talked, he helped me with my Arabic.'
The CNI men drank their beers in unison.
'And what happened with Consuelo?' asked Juan, blowing smoke out into the night air.
'As I explained, I'd already told Yacoub about Consuelo and my interest in her. He was quite happy to come to Seville and try to help me out. He liked the idea of being a go-between.'
'How long was this after you'd split up with Consuelo?'
'Nearly a year.'
'You took your time.'
'You can't rush these things.'
'How did you communicate,' asked Pablo, 'if she wouldn't speak to you?'
'I wrote her a letter and asked her if she'd like to meet Yacoub,' said Falcon. 'She wrote back and said she would very much like to meet him, but it would have to be alone.'
'You never even got to see Consuelo?' said Juan, amazed.
'Yacoub did his best for me. They liked each other. He asked her out to dinner on my behalf. She refused. He offered to play gooseberry. She turned him down. There were no explanations and that was the end of it,' said Falcon. 'Why don't we have another beer and you tell me the purpose of this intrusive and personal examination?'
In the kitchen Falcon caught sight of his transparent reflection in the darkened window. He hadn't revealed himself to that extent since being in the hands of Alicia Aguado more than four years ago. In fact, he hadn't been intimate with anyone other than Yacoub since then. It hadn't exactly been a relief to talk to strangers like that, but it had brought back a powerful resurgence of his feelings for Consuelo. He even saw himself in the reflection of the window unconsciously rubbing the arm that had brushed against her yesterday. He shook his head and opened another litre of beer.
'You're smiling, Javier,' said Juan, as Falcon came back. 'After an ordeal like that, I'm impressed.'
'I'm solitary, but not depressed,' said Falcon.
'That's not bad going for a middle-aged homicide detective,' said Pablo.
'Being a homicide detective isn't such a problem for me. There aren't that many murders in Seville and I crack most of them, so my work with the homicide squad actually gives me the illusion that problems are being resolved. And, as you know, an illusory state can contribute to sensations of well-being,' said Falcon. 'If I were trying to resolve something like global warming, or the oceans' dwindling fish stocks, then I'd probably be in much worse mental shape.'
'What about global terrorism?' asked Pablo. 'How do you think you'd cope with that?'
'That's not my job. I investigate the murder of people by terrorists,' said Falcon. 'I realize that it can be complicated. But at least we have a chance at resolution and tragedy brings out the best qualities in most people. I wouldn't want your job, which is to foresee and prevent terrorist attacks. If you succeed, you live as unsung heroes. If you fail, you live with the death of innocents, the scourge of the media and the admonishment of comfortable politicians. So, no thanks-if you were thinking of offering me a job.'
'Not a job exactly,' said Juan. 'We want to know if you'd be prepared to provide a connective piece or two for the intelligence jigsaw?'
'I've told you that I'm not really spy material any more.'
'In the first instance, we'd be asking you to recruit.'
'You want me to recruit Yacoub Diouri as an intelligence source?' asked Falcon.
The CNI men nodded, gulped beer, lit up cigarettes.
'First of all, I can't think what Yacoub could possibly tell you, and secondly, why me?' said Falcon. 'Surely you've got experienced recruiters who do this sort of thing all the time.'
'It's not what he can tell us now, it's what he could tell us if he was to make a certain move,' said Pablo. 'And you're right, we do have experienced people, but none of them have the special relationship that you do.'
'But my 'special relationship' is based on friendship, intimacy and trust, and what will happen to that if one day I say: 'Yacoub, will you spy for Spain?''
'Well, it wouldn't be just for Spain,' said Gregorio. 'It would be for humanity as a whole.'
'Oh, would it really, Gregorio?' said Falcon. 'I'll remember to tell him that, when I ask him to deceive his family and friends and give information to someone he's only known for the last four years of his complicated life.'
'We're not pretending it's easy,' said Juan. 'And equally, we're not going to deny the value of such a contact, or that there are moral implications in what we're asking of you.'
'Thank you, that's put my mind at rest, Juan,' said Falcon. 'You said 'in the first instance'-does that mean there's a second one as well? If so, you'd better tell me. I might as well try to digest that with the first lump of gristle you've just thrown me.'
The CNI men looked at each other and shrugged.
'We've just been told that they're going to release the antiterrorism unit of the Seville CGI into this investigation,' said Juan. 'We think there's a mole leaking information and we want to know who it is and who he's leaking it to. You're going to have to work closely with them. Your insight would be invaluable.'
'I don't know what makes you think I can do this work.'
'You've just scored very high points in your interview,' said Pablo.
'What was my score on moral certitude?'
The CNI men laughed as one. Not that they found it funny, it was just the relief at having got the ugliness over and done with.
'Do I get anything in return for all this?' asked Falcon.
'More money, if that's what you want,' said Juan, puzzled.
'I was thinking less in terms of euros and more along the lines of trust,' said Falcon.
'Like what?'
'You tell me things,' said Falcon. 'I'm not saying yes or no, you understand, but perhaps you could tell me what's so important about this annotated copy of the Koran that we found in the Peugeot Partner…'
'That's not going to be possible at this juncture,' said Pablo.
'We're beginning to think that what we've found here in Seville,' said Juan, overriding his junior officer, 'is the edge of a much larger terrorist plan.'
'Larger than the liberation of Andalucia?' asked Falcon.
'We're inclined to think that it's a sign of something that's gone wrong in a plan that we know little about,' said Juan. 'What we think we have in our possession, in the form of this copy of the Koran, is a terrorist network's codebook.'
17
Seville-Tuesday, 6th June 2006, 21.00 hrs
The restaurant was in the middle of the first service to the early tourists, before the main rush of locals at 10 p.m. Consuelo left her office to keep her second appointment with Alicia Aguado. She had been out only once, to her sister's house for lunch. They had talked exclusively about the bomb until the last minutes of the meal when
