'I don't feel any closer to knowing why you want to recruit Yacoub Diouri.'
'The jihadis are in need of another big coup. Something on the scale of 9/11.'
'But not as 'small scale' as a few hundred people killed on trains in Madrid and the underground in London,' said Falcon, not quite able to stomach this level of objectivity.
'I'm not diminishing those atrocities, I'm just saying that they were on a different scale. You'll learn about intelligence work as you do it, Javier; you're not in the trenches, seeing your friends getting killed. It has an effect on your vision,' said Pablo. 'Madrid was timetargeted, with a specific goal. It wasn't a big, bold statement. It was just saying: This is what we can do. There's no comparison to the operation that brought down the Twin Towers. No flight or hijack training. They just had to board trains and leave rucksacks. The most difficult aspect of the operation was to buy and deliver the explosives, and in that we now know they had considerable help from local petty criminals.'
'So what is the big coup?' asked Falcon, uneasy at this breezy talk of death and destruction. 'The World Cup in Germany?'
'No. For the same reason that the Olympics in Greece was untouched. It's just too difficult. The terrorists are competing with specialists who have been planning security at these events for years. Even the buildings are constructed with security in mind. The chances of discovery are increased enormously. Why waste resources?'
Silence, as the Mercedes tyres ripped over the tarmac towards the airport, which was smudged out by the early-morning haze.
'You don't know what it is, do you?' said Falcon. 'You just know it's coming, or maybe you 'feel' it's coming.'
'We have no idea,' said Pablo, nodding. 'But we don't just 'sense' their desperation, we know it, too. The design of the Twin Towers attack was to generate a fervour in Muslims all over the world, to get them to rise up against the decadent West, which they feel has humiliated them so much over the years, and to turn on their own dictatorial leaders and corrupt governments. It hasn't happened. The disgust level is rising in the Muslim world at what the fanatics are prepared to do-the kidnapping and beheading of people like the aid worker Margaret Hassan, the daily slaughter of Iraqis who just want to have a normal life-these things are not going down well. But the demographics of the Muslim world lean heavily on the side of youth, and a disenfranchised youth likes nothing better than a demonstration of rebel power. And that is what these radicals are in need of now: another symbol of their power, even if it's the last bang before they die out with a whimper.'
'So what has this bomb in Seville indicated to you?'
'The fact that hexogen was found is a cause for concern and, judging by the level of destruction, it was not a small quantity. Just the use of this material, which the jihadis have never used before, makes us think that the design was not to frighten the population of Seville, but something bigger,' said Pablo. 'The British have also revealed that local sources have heard talk about something 'big' about to happen, but their intelligence network has picked up no changes in any of their communities. We have to remember that, since the July 7th London Underground bombings, those communities are more aware, too. This makes MI5 and MI6 think that it will be an attack launched from the outside, and Spain has proven to be a popular country for terrorists to gather and plan their campaigns.'
'So how are you expecting Yacoub Diouri to help you?' asked Falcon. 'He doesn't do much business in England. He goes to London for shopping and the two fashion weeks. He has friends, but they're all in the fashion industry. I'm assuming, by the way, that you want Yacoub to act for you because he's not involved in international terrorism, but that he might have contacts with people whose involvement in these activities he is unaware of.'
'We're not going to ask him to do anything unusual or out of character. He attends the right mosque and he already knows the people we want him to make contact with. He just has to take it a step further.'
'I didn't know he attended a radical mosque.'
'A mosque with radical elements, where it is possible, with a name like Diouri, to become 'involved'. As you know, Yacoub's 'father', Abdullah, was active in the independence movement, Istiqlal, in the fifties; he was one of the prime movers against European decadence in Tangier. His name carries huge weight with the traditional Islamists. The radicals would love to have a Diouri on their side.'
'So you know who these radical elements are?'
'I go to church. I'm a moderate Catholic,' said Pablo. 'I don't have much time to get involved in church-related business or socialize with other members of the congregation. But even I know all the people who hold strong views, because they can't keep them in and they can't disguise their history.'
'But you can have powerful convictions and have enthusiasm for radical ideas without being a terrorist.'
'Exactly, which is why the only way to find out is to be involved and get to the next level,' said Pablo. 'What we're trying to find is a chain of command. Where do the orders come from to activate the dormant cells? Where do the ideas for terrorist attacks originate? Is there a planning division? Are there independent recce and logistical teams who move around, giving expert help to activated cells? Our picture of these terrorist networks is so incomplete that we're not even sure whether a network exists or not.'
'Where are the British in all this?' asked Falcon. 'They're expecting another major assault from the outside. They must know about Yacoub from his trips to London. Why haven't they tried to recruit him themselves?'
'They have. It didn't work,' said Pablo. 'The British are very sensitive to anything that happens in southern Spain and North Africa because they're in the middle, with their naval base in Gibraltar. They are aware of the potential for attacks, like the explosive dinghy launched at the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. They have sources in the ex-pat criminal communities operating between the Costa del Sol and that stretch of Moroccan coast between Melilla and Ceuta. The nature of the drug-smuggling business is that it is cash heavy and requires access to efficient money-laundering operations. Other criminal communities are inevitably involved. Information comes from all angles. When we told the British that hexogen had been used in the Seville bomb yesterday, it resonated with something they already knew, or rather something they'd heard.'
'Did they tell you what that was?'
'It needs to be corroborated,' said Pablo. 'The most important thing, at this stage, is to find out whether Yacoub is prepared to act for us. If he's already turned down the Americans and the British, it could be that he's not interested in that sort of life, because, believe me, it is very demanding. So let's see if he's a player and take it from there.'
The car had arrived at a private entrance to the airport, beyond the terminal buildings. The driver talked to the policeman at the gate and showed a pass. Pablo dropped the window and the policeman looked in with his clipboard. He nodded. The gate opened. The car drove into an X-ray bay and out again. They drove beyond the air cargo area until they arrived at a hangar where six small planes were parked. The car pulled up alongside a Lear jet. Pablo picked up a large plastic bag of that morning's newspapers from the floor of the Mercedes. They boarded the jet and took their seats. Pablo flicked through the newspapers, which were full of the bombings.
'How about that for a headline?' he said, and handed Falcon a British tabloid.
THE SECOND COMING? COUNT THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST: 666 6 JUNE 2006
20
Casablanca-Wednesday, 7th June 2006, 08.03 hrs
The plane touched down just after 8 a.m. Spanish time, two hours ahead of Moroccan time. They were met by a Mercedes, which contained a member of the Spanish embassy from Rabat, who took their passports. They were driven to a quiet end of the terminal building and after a few minutes they were through to the other side. The Mercedes drove to where the rental cars were parked. The man from the Spanish embassy handed over a set of keys and Falcon transferred to a Peugeot 206.
'We can't have an embassy vehicle turning up at his residence,' said Pablo.
The diplomat handed over some dirhams for the tolls. Falcon left the airport and joined the motorway from Casablanca to Rabat. The sun was well up and the heat haze was draining the colour from the dull, flat landscape. Falcon sat back with the window open and the moist sea air baffling over the glass. He overtook vastly overloaded trucks farting out black smoke, with boys sitting on top of sheet-wrapped bales, their legs hooked around the
