Balance of Power

“We’re in this together,” Hood said.

Hood rolled his lips together. It was the closest Herbert had seen the boss come to losing it.

Hood collected himself quickly. “How are you both? Do you need anything?”

The compassion was real. Herbert had always said that when it came to sincerity in government Hood was in a category all by himself.

“We’re still pretty shaken up,” McCaskey answered, “as I’m sure you are. But I guess we’ll be all right. As a matter of fact, Aideen seems to be in a pretty combative mood.”

Liz nodded knowingly. “Countershock,” she said softly.

“How so?” Hood asked.

“Well, she kind of took Deputy Serrador apart for getting cold feet,” McCaskey said. “I called her on the carpet for it but I have to say I was actually pretty proud of her. He had it coming.”

“Darrell,” Hood asked, “is Aideen there?”

“No, she isn’t,” said McCaskey. “I left her in her room with Deputy Ambassador Gawal from the American embassy. They’re on the phone with my friend Luis at Interpol, discussing security measures if you decide to keep us here. Like I said, she’s pretty worked up and I wanted her to have time to settle down a little. But I also didn’t want her to feel left out of the process.”

“Good thinking,” Hood said. “Darrell, are you sure you feel up to talking now?”

“It’s got to be done,” McCaskey said, “and I’d rather do it now. I’m sure I’ll feel a lot lower when all of this sinks in.”

Liz gave Hood a thumbs-up.

Herbert nodded. He knew the feeling.

“Very good,” Hood said. “Darrell, we were just discussing the idea of you two staying. How do you feel about that — and what’s the problem with Deputy Serrador?”

“Frankly,” McCaskey said, “I’d feel fine about staying. Only the problem isn’t me. Aideen and I just came from Serrador’s office. He’s made it pretty clear that he doesn’t want to continue.”

“Why?” Hood asked.

“Cold feet,” Herbert suggested.

“No, Bob, I don’t think it’s that,” McCaskey said. “Deputy Serrador told us that he wants to talk to the investigators and to his colleagues before he decides whether to proceed with our talks. But it seemed to me — and this is only a former G-man’s hunch — that that was bull. Aideen had the same feeling. I think he wanted to shut us down.”

“Darrell, this is Ron Plummer. Deputy Serrador was the one who initiated these exploratory talks through Ambassador Neville. What does he possibly gain by terminating them?”

“Terminating them?” Herbert muttered. “The son of a bitch didn’t even start them!”

Hood motioned the intelligence chief to silence.

“I’m not sure what he gains, Ron,” McCaskey replied. “But I think that what Bob just said — that was you grumbling, Bob, wasn’t it?”

“Who else?”

“I think that what he said is significant,” McCaskey said. “From the time Av Lincoln first put Serrador in touch with Martha — at Serrador’s request, remember — the deputy has insisted that he only wanted to talk with Martha. She’s murdered and now Serrador doesn’t want to talk. One conclusion, the obvious conclusion, is that someone who has access to Serrador’s political agenda — as well as his calendar — killed her to intimidate him.”

“Not just to intimidate him,” Plummer pointed out, “but to shut down everyone who’s a member of his pronationalism team.”

“That’s right,” said McCaskey. “Also, by attacking Martha, they send a message to our diplomats to stay out of this matter. But I still feel that those are the things we’re supposed to think. I don’t believe that they’re the real reason behind the killing.”

“Mr. McCaskey, this is Carol Lanning with State.” Her voice was composed, though just barely. “I’m coming in a little late on all of this. What else is going on here? What does somebody want our diplomats to stay out of?”

“I’ll take this one, Darrell,” Hood said. He fixed his eyes on Lanning. “As you know, Ms. Lanning, Spain has been going through some serious upheavals over the last few months.”

“I’ve seen the daily situation reports,” Lanning replied. “But it’s mostly separatist Basques attacking antiseparatist Basques.”

“Those are the very public disputes,” Hood confirmed. “What you may not know is how concerned some of Spain’s leaders are about other recent events involving violent attacks on members of the country’s largest ethnic groups. The government has conspired to keep these very, very quiet. Ann, you’ve got some intel on this.”

The slender, attractive, brown-haired press liaison nodded professionally but her rust-colored eyes smiled at Hood. Herbert noticed; he wondered if “Pope” Paul did.

“The Spanish government has been working very hard with journalists to keep the news out of the press and off the air,” Ann Farris said.

“Really?” Herbert said. “How? Those ambulance chasers are even worse than the Washington press corps.”

“Frankly, they’re paid off,” Ann said. “1 know of three incidents in particular that were hushed. A Catalonian book publisher’s office was burned after distributing a new novel that seriously bashed the Castilians. An Andalusian wedding party was attacked leaving a church in Segovia in Castile. And a Basque antiseparatist — a leading activist — was killed by Basque separatists while he was a patient in the hospital.”

“Sounds like a lot of brushfires,” Plummer said.

“They are,” Hood agreed. “But if those fires should ever join up they could consume Spain.”

“Which is why local reporters have been bribed to bury these stories,” Ann went on, “while foreign reporters have been kept away from crime scenes altogether. UPI, ABC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post have all filed complaints with the government but to no effect. That’s been going on for a little over a month now.”

“Our own hands-on involvement in Spain began just about three weeks ago,” Hood continued. “Deputy Serrador met secretly with Ambassador Neville in Madrid. It was a very quiet backdoor get-together at the U.S. Embassy. Serrador told the ambassador that a committee had been formed, with himself as the chair, to investigate this growing tension between Spain’s five major ethnic groups. He said that during the previous four months, in addition to the crimes Ann mentioned, over a dozen ethnic leaders had been murdered or kidnapped. Serrador wanted help obtaining intelligence on several of the groups. Neville contacted Av Lincoln, who brought the matter to us, and to Martha.”

Hood’s eyes lowered slowly.

“And if you remember correctly,” Herbert said quickly, “as soon as Deputy Serrador had a look at our diplomatic roster he asked for Martha specifically. And she couldn’t wait to get her arms around this situation and make it hers. So don’t even think about second-guessing what you did.”

“Hear, hear,” Ann Farris said quietly.

Hood looked up. He thanked them both with his eyes then looked at Carol Lanning. “Anyway,” he said, “that was the start of our involvement.”

“What do these groups want?” Lanning asked. “Independence?”

“Some do,” Hood said. He turned to his computer screen and accessed the file on Spain. “According to Deputy Serrador, there are two major problems. The first is between the two factions of Basques. The Basques comprise just two percent of the population and are already battling among themselves. The bulk of the Basques are staunch antiseparatists who want to remain part of Spain. A very small number of them, less than ten percent, are separatists.”

“That’s point two percent of the population of Spain,” Lanning said. “Not a very considerable number.”

“Right,” Hood said. “Meanwhile, there’s also a long-simmering problem with the Castilians of central and northern Spain. The Castilians make up sixty-two percent of the population of Spain. They’ve always believed that they are Spain and that everyone else in the country isn’t.”

“The other groups are regarded as squatters,” Herbert said.

“Exactly. Serrador tells us that the Castilians have been trying to arm the separatist factions of the Basques to begin the process of tearing the Spanish minorities apart. First the Basques, then the Galicians, the Catalonians,