The Hidden Assassins

13

Seville-Tuesday, 6th June 2006, 16.55 hrs

'What did you make of him?' Falcon asked Ramirez as they made their way back to the pre-school for a meeting with Comisario Elvira and Juez Calderon.

'The difficulty with these people is not disentangling the truth from the lies. I don't think Sr Harrouch is a liar. He's been an immigrant for sixteen years and he's developed the knack for telling you the story which will give him the least amount of trouble, and makes his people appear in the best possible light,' said Ramirez. 'He says the Imam has never preached a radical word in his life, but he faltered over the Imam's linguistic ability. Why wasn't he happy about revealing the languages the Imam could speak? Because it was German. Not only the Hamburg connection, but it also means he's moved around Europe. It's making the Imam look more suspicious.'

'He was straight about the two young guys turning up with their cardboard boxes.'

'Of sugar,' said Ramirez. 'He was very emphatic about that. He was reluctant to reveal anything more about them, though. He wanted to be able to say he knew them, but he couldn't. He wanted to be able to stand up for them in some way. But if they're just shifting sugar around, what's the problem? Why does he feel the need to protect them?'

'Loyalty to other Muslims,' said Falcon.

'Or repercussions?' said Ramirez.

'Even if they don't know each other, there's a sense of allegiance,' said Falcon. 'Sr Harrouch is a decent, hardworking man and he'd like us to think that all his people are the same. When something like this bombing happens they feel embattled, and the instinct is to put up the defences all around, even if he ends up defending the sort of people he may abhor.'

Elvira and Calderon had been joined by Gregorio from the CNI.

'There have been some developments in Madrid,' said Elvira. 'Gregorio will explain.'

'We've been working on the notes found in the margins of the copy of the Koran, from the Peugeot Partner,' said Gregorio. 'In the meantime, copies of the notes were faxed up to Madrid and they made comparisons with the handwriting of the van's owner, Mohammed Soumaya, and his nephew Trabelsi Amar. They don't match.'

'Do the notes reveal anything?' asked Calderon. 'Are there any extremist views?'

'Our expert on the Koran says that the owner of this book has made interesting, rather than radical, interpretations of the text,' said Gregorio.

'Have you found Trabelsi Amar yet?' asked Ramirez.

'He was still in Madrid,' said Gregorio, nodding. 'He was just keeping out of the way of his uncle until he got the van back, which was supposed to be this evening. When he heard about the bomb he went into hiding, which was obviously not part of the plan, because the best hiding place he could think of was a friend's house, not some prearranged safe house. The local police picked him up a couple of hours ago.'

'Has he identified the people he lent the van to?' asked Ramirez.

'Yes. He's very scared,' said Gregorio. 'The CGI's antiterrorist squad in Madrid say he hasn't been behaving like a terrorist at all. He's been happy to tell them the whole story.'

'Let's start with the names,' said Ramirez.

'The shaven-headed guy is Djamel Hammad, thirtyone years old, born in Tlemcen in Algeria. His friend is Smail Saoudi, thirty years old, born Tiaret in Algeria. Both were resident in Morocco and still should be.'

'What sort of records have they got?'

'Those are their original names. They've operated under a lot of pseudonyms. They were medium-to high-risk terror suspects, by which I mean they were not likely to actually carry out attacks, but they have been suspected of document forgery, recce and logistical work. They both have relatives who have been active in the GIA-the Armed Islamic Group.'

'And how did Trabelsi Amar get to know them?'

'They're all illegal immigrants. They came across the straits together, on the same shipment. Hammad and Saoudi made him their friend. They got him to Madrid and helped him with his documents. Then they called in the favour.'

'Didn't he find their slickness…suspicious?' asked Calderon.

'It was convenient for him not to,' said Gregorio. 'Trabelsi Amar is not very bright.'

'What's the story with the van?' asked Ramirez.

'Amar has been working for his uncle making deliveries. He also did a few things on the side, to make himself some extra cash. He ran errands, some of them were for Hammad and Saoudi. Then they asked to borrow the van; the first time for an afternoon, the second time for a whole day. It all happened gradually, so that when they asked to borrow the van to go to Seville for three days and said they'd give him €250, Trabelsi Amar just saw the money.'

'How did he explain that to his Uncle Mohammed?' asked Ramirez.

'He rented the van from him for € 30 a day,' said Gregorio. 'He might not be bright, but he could still work out that he didn't have to do anything and he'd be €160 up on the deal.'

'So presumably he knows where Hammad and Saoudi live.'

'They're searching the apartment as we speak.'

'When exactly did Amar go into hiding?' asked Ramirez. 'When he heard about the bomb, or once it was reported that the Peugeot Partner had been found?'

'As soon as he heard about the bomb,' said Gregorio.

'So he'd probably worked out already that his new friends weren't just ordinary guys.'

'What about their relationship with the Imam Abdelkrim Benaboura,' asked Falcon, 'apart from the fact that they were all Algerians?'

'The only connection we can see at the moment was that Benaboura was born in Tlemcen, which doesn't mean much.'

'We've found out more about the Imam from a member of the mosque than we have from the CNI and the CGI put together,' said Falcon.

'We still don't have the authority to access any more information,' said Gregorio. 'And that includes Juan, who, as you've probably gathered, is a very senior officer.'

'The Imam is a player of some sort,' said Ramirez. 'I'm sure of it.'

'What about this group, the MILA, who, according to the television news, have claimed responsibility for the blast?' asked Falcon.

'It's not a group we've ever heard of having an active terrorist dimension,' said Gregorio. 'We've heard about their intention to "liberate" Andalucia, but we've never taken it seriously. With the current military set-up in this country it's just not possible for anyone but a major power to secure a region of Spain for themselves. The Basques haven't achieved it and they don't even have to invade.'

'And what did the CGI in Madrid know about Hammad and Saoudi being in Spain?' asked Calderon.

'They didn't,' said Gregorio. 'It's not as easy as it sounds to trace unknown radicals in a huge, constantly changing immigrant population, some of whom are legal and others who've been smuggled across the straits. We know, for instance, that some of these people come over, perform two or three tasks in this country and then move on, to be replaced by others from France, Germany or the Netherlands. Quite often they have no idea of the purpose of what they're doing. They deliver a package, drive a person somewhere, raise some money from stolen bank cards, travel on a train at certain times to report on passenger numbers and time spent at how many stations, or they're asked to look at a building and report on its security situation. Even if we catch them and extract their task from them, which is not easy, all we end up with is a little strip of footage that could be one of a hundred operations that might make up a major attack, or might just be something that ends up on the cutting-room floor.'

'Does anyone have any opinion about what Hammad and Saoudi might have been doing?' asked Falcon.

'We don't know enough. We hope to know more after we've searched their apartment,' said Gregorio.

'What about the hood and the Islamic sash?' said Ramirez. 'Isn't that what operatives wear when they videotape themselves before a suicide mission?'

'No comment from the CGI on that,' said Gregorio. 'Based on the interview with Trabelsi Amar, they think the guys were logistical and nothing more.'

Ramirez gave a report on the deliveries to the mosque, the council visit last week, the power cut on Saturday night and the electricians' repair work performed on Monday morning. Falcon held back on disclosing his findings from the interview with Diego Torres of Informaticalidad until they had more information from interviews with the sales reps.

'Do we know anything more about the explosive used?' asked Calderon.

'The bomb squad have given me this report,' said Elvira. 'Based on their preliminary investigation of the site, the distance from the epicentre to the furthest flung pieces of debris, and the extent of the destruction of the first three floors of the building, their conservative estimate is that three times the quantity of hexogen was exploded than was necessary, if the intention was to destroy the apartment block.'

'Do they deduce anything from that?' asked Calderon. 'Or is that left up to our, inexpert, assuming?'

'That's what they're prepared to put in writing at the moment,' said Elvira. 'Verbally, they tell me that to destroy a building of this size, with demolition knowledge easily found on the internet, they would need as little as twenty kilos of hexogen. They say that hexogen is commonly used in demolition work, but primarily to shear through solid steel girders. Twenty kilos expertly positioned in an ordinary reinforced concrete building would wreck the whole block, not just the section that was actually destroyed. They deduce from this that the explosive was located in one place in the basement of the building, more towards the back than the front, hence the damage done to the pre-school. They thought that it could have been as much as one hundred kilos of hexogen that exploded.'

'Well, that sounds like enough to start a serious bombing campaign in Seville,' said Calderon. 'And if this is a group with plans to liberate the whole of Andalucia…'

'You probably haven't seen the latest news,' said Elvira, 'but we're on red alert all over the region. They've evacuated the cathedral in Cordoba, and the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada. There are now special patrols going through the tourist resorts on the Costa del Sol, and there are more than twenty roadblocks along the N340. The Navy are off the coast and there are Air Force fighters on all major airstrips. More than forty helicopters are running up and down the main arterial routes through Andalucia. Zapatero is taking this threat very seriously indeed.'

'Well, he has the demise of his predecessor's political ambitions as an example,' said Calderon. 'And nobody wants to be the Prime Minister who lost Andalucia to the Muslims after more than five hundred years of Spanish rule.'

They weren't quite ready to laugh at Calderon's cynicism. The sense of all that activity described by Elvira was too powerful, and, as if to reinforce his words, a helicopter passed rapidly overhead, like the latest despatch to a new crisis point. Falcon broke the silence.

'The CGI antiterrorist squad in Madrid think that Hammad and Saoudi were providing logistical support for an unknown cell that was going to carry out an attack, or series of attacks. Clearly, a delivery of some sort was made on Monday 5th June. A single hood and sash were found in the delivery vehicle, possibly indicating that either Hammad or Saoudi might become operatives. It also might indicate that one of them was going to return the van to Madrid, so that Trabelsi Amar had his van back as arranged.

'What history can show us is that, prior to the March 11th attacks in Madrid, two cell members went up to Aviles to pick up explosives on the 28th and 29th February. They allowed themselves a full ten days to prepare for the attacks. In our scenario, here, we are being asked to believe that the hexogen in raw, powder form was delivered on Monday, and that on the same night they started preparing bombs so that they were all ready to go on Tuesday morning. Then at approximately 8.30 a.m. there was an accident and the explosion occurred. I realize that this is not impossible, and in the history of terrorism there probably exists an incidence of delivery, preparation and attack being carried out within twenty-four hours, but if you're a group planning the liberation of Andalucia this doesn't seem very likely.'

'What's the scenario you envisage?' asked Gregorio.

'I don't. I'm just picking holes. I was trying to find a line of logic, but there were too many breaks. I don't want our investigation to go down a single path within the first twelve hours of the incident,' said Falcon. 'We're probably going to have to wait two or three days to get forensic information from the mosque, and until that time I think we should keep both possibilities open: that there was an accident in the bomb-making procedure, or that this was an attack on the mosque.'

'Why would someone want to attack the mosque?' asked Calderon.

'Revenge, extreme xenophobia, political or business motivation, or perhaps a combination of all four,' said Falcon. 'Terror is just a tool to bring about change. Look at the havoc wreaked by this bomb. Terror focuses people's attention and creates opportunities for powerful people. The population of this city is already fleeing. With that sort of panic, unimaginable things become possible.'

'The only way to contain panic,' said Comisario Elvira, 'is to show people that we are in control.'

'Even if we aren't,' said Juez Calderon. 'Even if we don't have the first idea where to look.'

'Whoever is behind this, whether it's Islamic militants or "other forces", they've planned their media assault,' said Falcon. 'The ABC received the Abdullah Azzam text in a letter with a Seville stamp. TVE tells us that the MILA have called to claim responsibility.'

'Would they be claiming responsibility for blowing up a mosque and killing their own people?' asked Calderon.

'That's an everyday occurrence in Baghdad,' said Elvira.

'If you send something like Azzam's text to the ABC then you're expecting to launch an attack imminently…not even within twenty-four hours,' said Gregorio. 'As far as I know, Islamic militants have never advertised their exact intentions; all the big ones have come out of the blue, with the intention of killing and maiming as many people as possible.'

Gregorio took a call on his mobile and asked to leave.

'We've had this preliminary report from the bomb squad about the explosion,' said Falcon, 'but what about the explosive? Where does it come from and what are all these different names for it?'

'Hexogen is the German name, cyclonite is American, RDX is British and I think the Italians call it T4,' said Elvira. 'They might each have signatures, which enables them to identify the origin, but they're not going to tell us.'

'We could use some shots of Hammad and Saoudi,' said Ramirez.

'If they're into document fraud there'll probably be a load of photographs in their apartment in Madrid,' said Falcon. 'Has there been an update on the demolition work outside yet?'

'They're still saying forty-eight hours minimum, and that's if they don't come across anything to slow them down.'

Juez Calderon took a call, announced the discovery of another body and left. Falcon made eye contact with Ramirez and he left the room.

'Still no news on the CGI?' asked Falcon. 'I expected to be pooling resources and efforts with the antiterrorist unit, and the only person we've seen is Inspector Jefe Ramon Barros, who doesn't say very much and appears humiliated.'

'I'm told that their job is more to do with gathering data at this stage,' said Comisario Elvira.

'What about some lower level people to help with the interviewing?'

'Not possible.'

'This sounds like something you can't talk about…'

'All I'm going to say is that since March 11th one aspect of counterterrorism measures has been to check that our own organizations are clean,' said Elvira.

'Don't tell me,' said Falcon.

'The Seville branch is under investigation. Nobody is giving any detail, but as far as I can gather, the CNI ran a test on the Seville antiterrorism unit and did not get the right result. They believe they have been compromised in some way. There are some high-level discussions going on now as to whether they should be allowed to participate in this investigation or not. You're not going to get any active help from the Madrid CGI either. They're working flat-out on their own informer network, and they've got the whole Hammad and Saoudi mess to sort through.'

'Will we be getting informer feedback from the Seville CGI network?'

'Not for the moment,' said Elvira. 'I'm sorry to be so reticent, but the situation is delicate. I don't know what the members of the antiterrorism unit are being told to make them believe that they are not under suspicion, but the CNI are trying to play it both ways. They don't want the mole, if he exists, to know that they're on to him, but neither do they want him endangering the investigation without them knowing who he is. Ideally, they want to find him and then release the CGI into the investigation and give themselves the chance of using him.'

'That sounds like a risky manoeuvre.'

'That's why it's taking so long to decide. The politicians are involved now,' said Elvira. Outside, the grind of machinery had become the acceptable ambient noise. Men moved like aliens in a grey lunar landscape over the stacked pancakes of the floors, with snakes of pneumatic hose trailing behind. They were followed by masked men with oxyacetylene torches and motorized saws. Swinging above them was the crane's writhing cable. The hammering, growling and howling, the clatter of falling rubble, the momentous gonging as sections of floor were dropped into the tippers, kept the curious crowds at bay. Only a few TV crews and photojournalists remained, with their cameras trained on the destruction in the hope of zooming in on a crushed body, a bloodied hand, a spike of bone.

Another helicopter stuttered overhead and wheeled away to fly over the nearby Andalucian Parliament. As he trotted down Calle Los Romeros, Falcon called Ramirez to get the name of the worshipper mentioned by Sr Harrouch, who used the mosque in the mornings. He was called Majid Merizak. Ramirez offered to join him but Falcon preferred to be alone for this one.

The reason that Majid Merizak was not one of the casualties in the mosque was that he was ill in bed. He was a widower who was looked after by one of his daughters. She hadn't been able to prevent her father from heading down the stairs to find out what had happened; only his partial collapse had done that. Now he was in a chair, head thrown back, wild-eyed and panting, with the television on full blast because he was nearly deaf.

The apartment stank of vomit and diarrhoea. He'd been up most of the night and was still weak. The daughter turned off the television and forced her father to wear his hearing aid. She told Falcon that her father's Spanish was poor and Falcon said that they could conduct the interview in Arabic. She explained this to her father, who looked confused and irritable, with too much happening around him. Once his daughter had checked that the hearing aid was functioning properly and had left the room, Majid Merizak sharpened up.

'You speak Arabic?' he asked.

'I'm still learning. Part of my family is Moroccan.'

He nodded and drank tea through Falcon's introduction and visibly relaxed on hearing Falcon's rough Arabic. It had been the right thing to do. Merizak was far less wary than Harrouch had been.

Falcon warmed him up with questions about when he attended the mosque-which was every morning, without fail, and he stayed there until the early afternoon. Then he asked about strangers.

'Last week?' asked Merizak, and Falcon nodded. 'Two young men came in on Tuesday morning, close to midday, and two older men came in on Friday morning at ten o'clock. That's all.'

'And you'd never seen them before?'

'No, but I did see them again yesterday.'

'Who?'

'The two young men who'd come in last Tuesday.'

Merizak's description fitted that of Hammad and Saoudi.

'And what did they do last Tuesday?'

'They went into the Imam's room and talked with him until about one thirty.'

'And what about yesterday morning?'

'They brought in two heavy sacks. It took two of them to carry one sack.'

'What time was this?'

'About ten thirty. The same time that the electricians arrived,' said Merizak. 'Yes, of course, there were the electricians, as well. I'd never seen them before, either.'

'Where did the two young men put these sacks?'

'In the storeroom next to the Imam's office.'

'Do you know what was in the sacks?'

'Couscous. That's what it said on the side.'

'Has anyone made a delivery like that before?'

'Not in those quantities. People have brought in bags of food to give to the Imam…you know, it's part of our duty to give to those less fortunate than ourselves.'

'When did they leave?'

'They stayed about an hour.'

'What about the men who came in on Friday?'

'They were inspectors from the council. They went all over the mosque. They discussed things with the Imam and then they left.'

'What about the power cut?'

'That was on Saturday night. I wasn't there. The Imam was on his own. He said that there was a big bang and the lights went out. That's what he told us the following morning, when we had to pray in the dark.'

'And the electricians came in on Monday to fix it?'

'A man came on his own at eight thirty. Then three other men came two hours later to do the work.'

'Were they Spanish?'

'They were speaking Spanish.'

'What did they do?'

'The fuse box was burned out, so they put in a new one. Then they put in a power socket in the storeroom.'

'What sort of work was that?'

'They cut a channel in the brickwork from a socket in the Imam's office, through the wall and into the storeroom. They put in some grey flexible tubing, fed in the wire and then cemented it all up.'

Merizak had seen the blue transit van, which he described as battered, but he hadn't seen any markings or the registration number.

'How did the Imam pay for the work?'

'Cash.'

'Do you know where he got the phone number of this company?'

'No.'

'Would you recognize the electricians, council inspectors and two young men if you saw them again?'

'Yes, but I can't describe them to you very well.'

'You've been listening to the news?'

'They don't know what they're talking about,' said Merizak. 'It makes me very angry. A bomb explodes and it is automatically Islamic militants.'

'Have you ever heard of Los Martires Islamicos para la Liberacion de Andalucia?'

'The first time was on the news today. It's an invention of the media to discredit Islam.'

'Have you ever heard of the Imam preaching militant ideology in the mosque?'

'Quite the opposite.'

'I'm told that the Imam was a very capable linguist.'

'He learnt Spanish very quickly. They said his apartment was full of French and English books. He spoke German, too. He spoke on the telephone using languages I'd never heard before. He told me that one of them was Turkish. Some people came here in February and stayed with him for a week and that was another strange language. Somebody said it was Pashto, and that the men were from Afghanistan.'