The Hidden Assassins

22

Seville-Wednesday, 7th June 2006, 16.00 hrs

Yesterday's emotionally charged workload, followed by the three evening meetings, an uneven night's sleep, the flight and the tension caused by the uncertainty of his mission had left Falcon completely drained. He'd briefly told Pablo that Yacoub had agreed to act for them, but not without conditions, then he'd hit his seat in the Lear jet and passed out instantly.

They landed at Seville airport just before 2.30 p.m. and split up agreeing to meet later that night. Back at home, Falcon showered and changed. His housekeeper had left him a fish stew, which he ate with a glass of cold red wine. He called Ramirez, who told him there was to be another big meeting at 4.30 p.m. and gave him a very thin update, of which the best news was that Lourdes, the girl they'd pulled out of the wreckage yesterday, had regained consciousness for a few minutes just after midday. She was going to be all right. There was no news on the electricians or the council inspectors, except that Elvira had arranged a press release and there'd been announcements on TV and radio. Nothing extraordinary had come out of the interviews with the Informaticalidad sales reps. The one remarkable element in Ramirez's report was his praise for Juez Calderon, who had been handling a very aggressive media.

'You know I don't like him,' said Ramirez, 'but he's been doing a very good job. Since our big news yesterday the investigation has been completely stalled, but Calderon is making us look competent.'

'Realistically, what's the earliest we can expect to get to the epicentre of the bomb?' asked Falcon.

'Not before 9 a.m. tomorrow,' said Ramirez. 'Once they get down to the rubble directly over the mosque they're going to be working by hand, under bomb squad and forensic supervision. That's going to take time and the conditions are going to be horrible. In fact, they already are. The stink down there gets into you like a virus.' 'It's been confirmed with 99 per cent certainty that one of the dead in the mosque is a CGI source,' said Comisario Elvira, opening the 4.30 p.m. meeting. 'We won't have complete confirmation until the DNA samples are matched to those taken from his apartment.'

'And what was he doing in there?' asked Calderon.

'Inspector Jefe Barros has the report,' said Elvira.

'His name is Miguel Botin, he's Spanish, thirty-two years old and a resident of Seville,' said Barros.

'Esperanza-the woman who gave Comisario Elvira the list of men believed to be in the mosque-she had a partner who was in the destroyed building,' said Falcon. 'Was that Miguel Botin?'

'Yes,' said Barros. 'He converted to Islam eleven years ago. His family came from Madrid and his brother lost a foot in the March 11th bombings. Miguel Botin was recruited by one of my agents in November 2004 and became active just over fourteen months ago, in April 2005.'

The only noise in the pre-school classroom was from the mobile air-conditioning units. Even the steady grinding of the machinery outside had receded as Barros began his report.

'For the first eight months Botin had very little to tell us. The members of the congregation, most of whom were of non-Spanish origin, were all good Muslims and none of them were in the slightest bit radical. They were all sympathetic to the story of his brother and they were all outraged by the London bombings, which occurred not long after Botin became active.

'It was in January this year that Botin first started to detect a change. There was an increase in outside visitors to the mosque. This had no noticeable effect on the congregation, but by March it seemed to be having a discernible effect on Imam Abdelkrim Benaboura. He was preoccupied and appeared under pressure. On 27th April my agent made a request to plant a microphone in the Imam's office. I had a discussion with the Juez Decano de Sevilla, who was issued with my agent's report. The evidence was deemed to be largely circumstantial and a bugging order was refused due to a lack of hard evidence.

'On my agent's request, Botin stepped up his activities and started following Imam Abdelkrim Benaboura outside the mosque. Between 2nd May and the date of this report, which was Wednesday, 31st May, Botin saw the Imam meet with three pairs of men, on ten separate occasions at ten different locations around Seville. He has no idea what was said at any of these meetings, but he did manage to take some photographs, only two of which show clearly visible people. On the basis of this report, with the photographic evidence, another bugging request was made last Thursday, 1st June. We did not receive a reply prior to the explosion yesterday morning.'

'How many men are visible in these two shots?' asked Falcon.

'Four,' said Barros, 'and since the CGI in Madrid have sent down a set of shots from the apartment they raided yesterday, we've been able to identify two of them as Djamal Hammad and Smail Saoudi. We have no idea yet who the other two men are, but the shots are currently in the hands of the CNI, MI6 and Interpol. Obviously I would like to have made this information available sooner, but…'

'What about these ten different locations?' said Calderon, cutting in on the self-pity. 'Is there anything exceptional about them? Are they near public buildings, addresses of prominent people? Do they appear to be part of a plan of attack?'

'There's a significant building within a hundred metres of each meeting place, but that's the nature of a big city,' said Barros. 'One of the meetings was in the Irish pub near the cathedral. Who knows if that was the perfect cover for three Muslims who didn't drink alcohol, or whether their meeting outside the only remaining structure of the twelfth-century Almohad mosque was significant.'

'When was the first request to bug the Imam's office turned down by the Juez Decano?' asked Falcon.

'On the same day it was applied for: 27th April.'

'And why wasn't the second bugging request authorized and acted on?'

'The Juez Decano was away in Madrid at the time. He didn't see the application until Monday afternoon-5th June.'

'What was Miguel Botin's description of the Imam's state of mind during this month when he observed him more closely?' asked Falcon.

'Increasingly preoccupied. Not as engaged with his congregation as he had been the previous year. Botin became aware of him taking medication, but wasn't able to find out what it was.'

'We found Tenormin on his bedside table, which is a prescription for hypertension,' said Gregorio from the CNI. 'We also found an extensively stocked medicine cabinet. His doctor says that he has been treated for hypertension for the past eight years. He'd recently been complaining of heart rhythm problems and was on medication for a stomach ulcer.'

'When will we get access to the Imam's apartment and your findings?' asked Falcon.

'Don't worry, Inspector Jefe,' said Juan, 'we've been working with a forensics team since the moment we opened the apartment door.'

'We'd still like to get in there,' said Falcon.

'We're nearly finished,' said Gregorio.

'Does the CNI have an opinion about Botin's findings and the Imam's doctor?' asked Calderon.

'And has someone gained access to his mysterious history?' asked Falcon.

'We're still awaiting clearance on his history,' said Gregorio.

'The Imam was under a lot of pressure,' said Falcon, before Calderon could mount another attack on Juan. 'Hammad and Saoudi were known operators in the logistics of attacks. They met with the Imam. Were they asking the Imam to act in some way? Perhaps they were calling in a favour, or a promise made some time ago in his inaccessible history. Under those circumstances, what do you think would put a man like the Imam under severe stress?'

'That they were asking him to do something that would have very grave consequences,' said Calderon.

'But if he believed in "the cause" surely he would be happy?' said Falcon. 'It should be an honour for a radical fanatic to be asked to participate in a mission.'

'You think the pressure came from being a reluctant accomplice?' said Gregorio.

'Or the nature of what he was being asked to do,' said Falcon. 'There's a different pressure in storing an unknown product for a week or two, say, and being asked to actively participate in an attack.'

'We need more information on the Imam's activities,' said Elvira.

'It hasn't been confirmed yet, but we think it likely that Hammad and Saoudi were in the mosque when the building was destroyed,' said Falcon. 'Confirmation will come with DNA testing. The other two men photographed by Miguel Botin have to be identified and found if we want to know how the Imam was implicated.'

'That is in hand,' said Gregorio.

'I'd like to talk to the agent who ran Miguel Botin,' said Falcon.

Inspector Jefe Barros nodded. Comisario Elvira asked for a resume of the situation with the electricians and the council inspectors. Ramirez gave the same very thin update he'd just given to Falcon.

'We know the CGI antiterrorist squad did not have the mosque under surveillance,' said Falcon. 'We have two men posing as council inspectors, who were clearly intent on gaining access to the mosque. The electricians were responding to a blown fuse box. We have to look at the possibility of a link between the fake council inspectors and the electricians. I cannot believe that a legitimate electrician would not have come forward by now. The obvious advantage of being an electrician is that you can bring large quantities of equipment into a place, and witnesses have confirmed that this was the case.'

'You think that they planted the bomb?' asked Barros.

'It has to be considered,' said Falcon. 'We can't ignore it just because it doesn't fit with the discoveries we've made so far. It also does not exclude the possibility that there was already a cache of explosives in the mosque. We must talk to your agent. What state of mind is he in?'

'Not good. He's a young guy, only a little older than Miguel Botin. We've been recruiting in that age group because they can connect more easily with each other. His relationship with Botin was close. The two of them had a religious connection.'

'Were they both converts?'

'No, my agent was a Catholic. But they both took their religion seriously. They respected and liked each other.'

'We'd like to speak to him now,' said Falcon.

Barros left the room to call him.

'The forensics need to make contact with the wives and families of the men who were in the mosque,' said Elvira. 'They have to start extracting DNA as soon as possible. The woman who represents them, Esperanza, says she will only talk to you.'

Elvira gave him the mobile number. The meeting ended. The men dispersed. Elvira hung on to Falcon.

'They're sending me some more people down from Madrid,' he said. 'No reflection on you or your squad, but we both know the demands that are being made. You need more foot soldiers and these are all experienced inspector jefes and inspectors.'

'Anything that's going to relieve pressure, I'm happy with,' said Falcon. 'As long as they don't complicate things.'

'They're under my jurisdiction. You don't have to deal with them. They'll be assigned where they're needed most.'

'Have the Guardia Civil been able to get more information on the route of Hammad and Saoudi from Madrid to Seville?'

'It's taking time.'

Barros pulled Falcon aside as he left the room.

'My agent's not back from lunch yet,' he said. 'They'll call me as soon as he gets in.'

'It's just gone 4.30 p.m.,' said Falcon, giving him his mobile number. 'He's running a bit late, isn't he?'

Barros shook his head, shrugged. Things were not going well for him.

'What's your agent's name?'

'Ricardo Gamero,' said Barros.

Falcon called Esperanza and they arranged to meet in some nearby gardens. He asked to bring a female police officer with him.

Cristina Ferrera was waiting for him outside the preschool. He briefed her on the way. Esperanza recognized Falcon as he got out of the car. Introductions were made. They piled back in. Esperanza sat next to Falcon, Ferrera was behind, staring at Esperanza as if she recognized her.

'How are the women holding up?' asked Falcon. 'I imagine the circumstances are very difficult for them.'

'They oscillate between despair and fear,' she said. 'They're devastated by the loss of their loved ones and then they see the news-the assaults and damage to property. They feel a little more secure since your Comisario came on television and announced that violence against Muslims and vandalizing of their property would be dealt with severely.'

'You're their representative,' said Ferrera.

'They trust me. I'm not one of them, but they trust me.'

'You're not one of them?'

'I'm not a Muslim,' said Esperanza. 'My partner is a convert to Islam. I know them through him.'

'Your partner is Miguel Botin,' said Falcon.

'Yes,' she said. 'He wants me to convert to Islam so that we can get married. I'm a practising Catholic and I have some difficulties, as a European, with the treatment of women in Islam. Miguel introduced me to all the women in the mosque to help me understand, to help me get rid of some of my prejudices. But it's a big leap from Catholicism to Islam.'

'How did you meet Miguel?' asked Ferrera.

'Through an old school friend of mine,' said Esperanza. 'I ran into the two of them just over a year ago, and after that Miguel and I started seeing each other.'

'What's your friend's name?' asked Falcon.

'Ricardo Gamero,' she said. 'He does something in the police force-I don't know what. He says it's administrative.'

Seville was a village, thought Falcon. He told Esperanza what they needed from the women and said that Ferrera would accompany her to collect and mark up the DNA samples.

'We'll need a sample from Miguel Botin as well,' said Falcon. 'I'm sorry.'

Esperanza nodded, staring into space. She had a clear, unadorned face. Her only jewellery was a gold cross at her neck and two gold studs in her ear lobes, which were visible as her slightly crinkly black hair was scraped back. She had very straight eyebrows and it was these that first gave away her own emotional turmoil, and then the moisture flooding her dark brown eyes. She shook hands and got out of the car. Falcon quickly told Ferrera how Ricardo Gamero fitted in and asked her to find out if Esperanza knew what her partner had been doing.

'Don't worry, Inspector Jefe,' said the ex-nun. 'Esperanza and I recognize each other. We've been on the same path.'

The two women moved off. Falcon sat in the airconditioned cool of the car and breathed the stress back down into its hole. He made himself believe that he had time on his side. The terrorist angle of the attack was not, at the moment, in his hands, nor was the Imam's history, but progress had been made. He had to concentrate his powers on finding a link to the fake council inspectors and the electricians. There had to be another witness, someone more reliable than Majid Merizak, who'd seen the inspectors and the electricians. Falcon called Ferrera and asked her to find out from the women if there was anybody else who might have been in the mosque on the mornings of Friday 2nd June and Monday 5th June.

He went back to his notebook, too much occurring to him for his brain to have any chance of remembering detail. The first bugging request the CGI made to the Juez Decano was submitted and refused on April 27th. When did Informaticalidad buy the apartment? Three months ago. No date. He called the estate agency. The sale went through on the 22nd of February. What was he expecting? What was he looking for? He wanted to apply pressure on Informaticalidad. He was still suspicious of them, despite the performance by the sales reps in the police interviews. But he didn't want to apply pressure directly. It had to come from another source, other than the homicide squad. He wanted to see if they would react.

Maybe if he could find someone who'd been recently fired, or had "moved on"', from Informaticalidad they would still know people at the company, perhaps even some of the guys who'd used the apartment on Calle Los Romeros. He found the lists given to him by Diego Torres, the Human Resources Director. Names, addresses, home telephone numbers and the dates they left the company. How was he going to find these people at this time of day? He started with the employees who'd left the company most recently, reasoning that they might still be out of work until after the summer. He hit answer machine after answer machine, number no longer in use, and then, finally, a ringing tone that went on for some time. A female voice answered sleepily. Falcon asked for David Curado. She shouted and threw down the phone, which took a soft landing. Curado picked it up. He sounded just about alive. Falcon explained his predicament.

'Sure,' said Curado, waking up instantly. 'I'll talk to anybody about those wankers.' Curado lived in a modern apartment block in Tabladilla. Falcon knew it. He'd been there years ago to observe a hostage situation across the street. Curado came to the door stripped to the waist, wearing a pair of white short trousers as seen on the tennis player Rafael Nadal. Like Nadal, he looked as if he went to the gym. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead.

The apartment was hot. The girl who'd answered the phone was lying splayed across the bed in a pair of knickers and a tiny vest. Curado offered a drink. Falcon took some water. The girl groaned and rolled over. Her arms slapped against the mattress.

'She gets annoyed,' said Curado. 'When I'm not earning I don't turn on the air conditioning during the day.'

'Dav-i-i-id,' said the girl in a long whine.

'Now that you're here,' he said, rolling his eyes.

He got up and flipped the switch on the fuse box. A light mist appeared at the vents. The girl let out an orgasmic cry.

'How long did you work for Informaticalidad?' asked Falcon.

'Just over a year. Fifteen months, something like that.'

'How did you get the job?'

'I was head-hunted, but I did the research to make sure that I was head-hunted.'

'What was the research?'

'I went to church,' said Curado. 'The sales guys at Informaticalidad were the best paid in the business, and it wasn't all commission-based money. They paid a good basic salary of close to €1,400 a month and you could triple that if you worked hard. At the time I was working like a slave for €1,300 a month, all commission. So I started asking around and it was weird; nobody knew anything about how this company recruited. I called all the agencies, looked through the press and trade magazines, the internet. I even called Informaticalidad themselves and they wouldn't tell me how they recruited. I tried to get friendly with the Informaticalidad sales crew, but they brushed me off. I started looking at who they sold to, and it didn't matter what prices I offered, I could never make a sale. Once a company started buying from Informaticalidad, they bought exclusively. That's why they can offer the high basic salary. They don't have to compete. So, I began looking at the individuals in the companies they sold to and tried to get friendly with them. Nothing.

'I couldn't get anywhere until a buyer from one of these companies got fired. It was she who told me how it worked: you've got to go to church, and you mustn't be a woman. So I qualified on one score, but I hadn't been to church for fifteen years. There were three churches they used: Iglesia de la Magdalena, de Santa Maria La Blanca and San Marcos. I bought myself a black suit and went to church. Within a couple of months I'd been approached.'

'So you got the job, the money, the nice apartment,' said Falcon. 'What went wrong?'

'Almost immediately they started to cut in on my free time. We were sent on courses-sales training and product information. Normal stuff. Except that it was almost every weekend and there was a lot of repetitive company ethos shit and religion, and it wasn't always easy to differentiate between the two. They also did this other thing. They'd partner you off with a senior guy who'd been with the company for two or three years, and he would be your mentor. If you were unlucky and got one of the "serious" ones, they'd fill your head with even more shit. I saw people recruited at the same time as me who just disappeared.'

'Disappeared?'

'Lost their personality. They became an Informaticalidad man, with a glassy look in their eye and their brain tuned to one frequency. It gave me the creeps. That,' said Curado, leaning forward conspiratorially, 'and the total lack of women in the whole sales force. I mean, not one…'

'How did you get along with your mentor?'

'Marco? He was a good guy. I still talk to him occasionally, even though it's forbidden for Informaticalidad men to talk to ex-employees.'

'Why did you leave?'

'Apart from the lack of women and all the brainwashing shit,' said Curado, 'they wouldn't let me into where the big money was being made. Like I said, they sold to companies without having to compete, so you got the good basic salary. But if you wanted to make the big commissions, that was all in converting new prospects to the Informaticalidad way. Once they'd been converted, you got commission on everything that was sold to that company -ever.'

'And how did that work?'

'I never found out. I never got beyond the lowest tier of salesmen. I did not have the right mentality,' he said, tapping his forehead. 'In the end they forced me out through boredom. I was nothing more than a formfiller and a post boy. Taking orders, passing them on to "supply". It was the way they got rid of you at Informaticalidad.'

Falcon took a call from Inspector Jefe Barros.

'I'm on my way to an apartment on Calle Butron,' said Barros. 'You'd better come along as well.'

'I'm in the middle of an interview,' said Falcon, annoyed.

'Ricardo Gamero was late coming back from lunch, so I sent another of my agents round to his apartment. There was no answer. The woman in the apartment below let him in. She said she'd seen Gamero going up, but hadn't seen him leave. The agent called back and I told him to get in there any way he could, which was when the woman started screaming. There's a central patio in the block. She'd opened the window to shout up the well. He was hanging out of his bedroom window.'