The Hidden Assassins

34

Seville-Thursday, 8th June 2006, 21.50 hrs

'I think we should get Eduardo Rivero on his own,' said Falcon, 'without any sense of support from Jesus Alarcon and Angel Zarrias. Tateb Hassani was in his house, as his guest, and he was murdered there in his offices. If we can break him first, I'm sure he'll give us the rest.'

'What about the transport?' said Elvira. 'Can we get our hands on the car that took the body from Rivero's house to dump it in those bins on Calle Boteros?'

'The only sighting we've had of that car has been by an elderly alcoholic who was looking down from a height of about ten metres at night. All we've got from him is that it was a dark estate,' said Falcon. 'Ramirez is round there now, with Perez, trying to find a more reliable witness. We're also checking all the cars in Rivero's name, and his wife's, to see if any match the basic description.'

'And who's watching Rivero's house?'

'Serrano and Baena are keeping Angel Zarrias under twenty-four-hour surveillance. They won't leave until he does,' said Falcon. 'What about a search warrant for Rivero's house?'

'I'm worried about that, Javier,' said Elvira. 'Rivero might not be the leader of an important party, but he is a huge figure in Seville society. He knows everybody. He has important friends in all walks of life, including the judiciary. The trump card you hold at the moment is surprise. He doesn't realize that you've identified Tateb Hassani and located him at his house in the days before his murder. If I apply for a search warrant I have to make the case and reveal everything to the judge. The vital advantage you have has more opportunities to leak.'

'You'd rather I tried to break him first?'

'There are risks either way.'

'They're having a meeting now and they'll probably have dinner afterwards,' said Falcon. 'Let's see what the next hours bring us and we'll confer before we make the final move.'

Falcon went back to his house to have something to eat and to think about the best way to get Eduardo Rivero to talk. Inspector Jefe Luis Zorrita called, wanting to talk to him about Ines's murder. Falcon told him that now was the only moment he could spare.

Encarnacion had left him some fresh pork fillet. He made a salad and sliced up some potatoes and the meat. He smashed up some cloves of garlic, threw them into the frying pan with the pork fillet and chips. He dashed some cheap whisky on top and let it catch fire from the gas flame. He ate without thinking about the food and drank a glass of red rioja to loosen up his mind. Instead of thinking about Rivero, he found his mind full of Ines again, and it was playing tricks on him. He couldn't quite believe that she was dead, despite having seen her lying by the river. She'd been here only…last night, or was it the night before?

It was stuffy in the kitchen and he took his glass of wine and sat on the rim of the fountain in the patio, under the heat, which was still sinking down the walls like a giant, invisible press. They'd made love in this fountain, he and Ines. Those were wild, exhilarating days: just the two of them in this colossal house, running naked around the gallery, down the steps, in and out of the cloisters. She had been so beautiful then, in that time when youth was still running riot. He, on the other hand, was already carrying his ball and chain, he just didn't know it, couldn't see it. It occurred to him that he'd probably driven her into the arms of Esteban Calderon, the man who would eventually kill her.

The doorbell rang. He let Zorrita in and sat him down in the patio with a beer. Falcon had just finished describing his marriage to Ines, her affair with Calderon, their separation and divorce when his mobile vibrated. He took it in his study, closed the patio door.

'We've had some luck with the car,' said Ramirez. 'There's a bar on Calle Boteros called Garlochi. Strange place. All decked out with pictures and effigies of the Virgin. The bar has a canopy over it like a float from Semana Santa. It's lit with candles, they burn incense and the house cocktail comes in a glass chalice and it's called "Sangre de Cristo".'

'Suitably decadent.'

'It's always been shut when we've checked the area before. The owner tells me he was closing up on Saturday night, or rather, early Sunday morning, when he saw the car turn into the cul-de-sac and reverse up to the bins. He described it just as Cristina's witness had, except that he got a good view of it when the car reversed out of the cul-de-sac. He recognized it as a Mercedes E500 because he wanted to buy one himself but couldn't afford it. He also looked for the registration because he thought the three guys were behaving suspiciously, but that was nearly a week ago. All he could remember was that it was a new type of number which began with 82 and he thought that the last letter was an M.'

'Does that help you?'

'Baena just called me to say that three other cars have now turned up at Rivero's house,' said Ramirez. 'We've checked the plates and they're owned by Lucrecio Arenas, Cesar Benito and Agustin Cardenas. We're running a search on those people…'

'Lucrecio Arenas introduced Jesus Alarcon to Fuerza Andalucia through Angel Zarrias,' said Falcon. 'I don't know anything about the other two.'

'Listen. Agustin Cardenas's car is a black Mercedes Estate E500 and the registration is 8247 BHM.'

'That's our man,' said Falcon.

'I'll get back to you when I know more.'

Falcon went back to Zorrita, apologized. Zorrita waved it away. Falcon told him about the last time he'd seen Ines. How she'd unexpectedly turned up at his house on Tuesday night, swearing about her husband and his endless affairs.

'Did you like Esteban Calderon?' asked Zorrita.

'I used to. People were surprised. I only found out much later that he and Ines had been having an affair for the last part of our short married life,' said Falcon. 'I thought he was an intelligent, well-informed, cultured person and he probably still is. But he's also arrogant, ambitious, narcissistic, and a lot of other adjectives that I can't retrieve from my brain at the moment.'

'Interesting,' said Zorrita, 'because he asked me if you'd go and see him.'

'What for?' asked Falcon. 'He knows I can't talk about his case.'

'He said he wants to explain something to you.'

'I'm not sure that's a good idea.'

'It's up to you,' said Zorrita. 'It won't bother me.'

'Off the record,' said Falcon. 'Did he break down and confess?'

'Nearly,' said Zorrita. 'There was a breakdown, but not in the usual way. Rather than his conscience forcing out the truth, it was more as if he suddenly doubted himself. To start with he was all arrogance and determined resistance. He refused a lawyer, which meant I could be quite brutal with him about the way he'd abused his wife. I think he was unaware of the intensity of his rage, the savagery it unleashed and the damage he'd done to her. He was shocked by the autopsy details and that's when his certainty really wavered and he began to believe that he could have done it.

'He described arriving at his apartment as if he was telling me about a movie and there was some confusion about how the script played out. At first he said that he'd seen Ines standing by the sink, but then he changed his mind. In the end, I think there were two Calderons. The judge and this other person, who was locked up most of the time but would come out and take over.'

'Ines said he needed psychological help,' said Falcon, 'but I don't think she had something as serious as schizophrenia in mind.'

'Not clinical schizophrenia,' said Zorrita. 'There's a beast inside most of us, it just never gets to see the light of day. For whatever reason, Calderon's beast got out of the cage.'

'You're convinced he did it?'

'I'm certain there was nobody else involved, so the only question is whether it was premeditated or accidental,' said Zorrita. 'I don't think his lover stood to gain anything out of Ines's death. She didn't want to marry him. She's not the marrying kind. She admitted that they'd had a "joke" about "the bourgeois solution to a bourgeois institution" being murder, but I don't think it was her intention that he should go off and kill his wife. He'll try to make out it was accidental, although no court is going to like the sound of how he abused her beforehand.'

Zorrita finished his beer. Falcon walked him to the door. Ramirez called again. Zorrita walked off into the night with a wave.

'OK, Cesar Benito is the Chief Executive of a construction company called Construcciones PLM S.A. He is on the board of directors of Horizonte, in charge of their property services division, which includes companies like Mejorvista and Playadoro. The other guy, Agustin Cardenas, is a bit more interesting. He's a qualified surgeon who runs his own cosmetic surgery clinics in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. He is also on the board of Horizonte, in charge of their medical services division, which runs Quirurgicalidad, Ecograficalidad and Optivision.'

'It looks like a gathering of the conspiracy to plan their next move now that the first phase has been successfully completed,' said Falcon.

'But I'm not convinced that we've got the full picture,' said Ramirez. 'I can see Rivero, Zarrias, Alarcon and Cardenas poisoning Hassani, and probably Cardenas did the work on the corpse, but none of these guys fits the descriptions of any of the men in the Mercedes E500 who dumped the body.'

'And who planted the bomb, or gave orders for it to be planted?'

'There's a missing element,' said Ramirez. 'I can see the money and the power and a certain amount of ruthlessness to deal with Tateb Hassani. But how could you get somebody to do the work in the mosque and rely on them to keep their mouths shut?'

'The only way to find that out is to put them under pressure in the Jefatura,' said Falcon, hearing the doorbell. 'Give Elvira an update. I've got a meeting with the CNI here. And tell Cristina she has to get a sighting of Tateb Hassani, as late on Saturday evening as possible. It's important that we have that before we talk to Rivero.'

Pablo and Gregorio went straight to the computer. Gregorio set to work, booting up the computer and getting access to the CNI's encrypted site, through which they would 'chat' to Yacoub Diouri.

'We've arranged for you to talk to Yacoub at 23.00 hours every night, unless you agree not to beforehand. That's 23.00 Spanish time, which is 21.00 Moroccan time,' said Pablo. 'Obviously you have to be on your own to do this, nobody even in the house with you. The way in which you recognize each other is that each time you make contact you will start with a paragraph of incidental chat in which you will include a phrase from this book-'

Pablo handed him a copy of Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marias.

'On the first day he will choose a phrase from the opening paragraph of page one, and you will respond with a phrase from the closing paragraph of page one,' said Pablo. 'Once you've recognized each other you can talk freely.'

'What if he doesn't use the phrase?'

'The most important thing is that you do not remind him and you don't respond with any classified information. You include your introductory phrase in your opening paragraph and if he still doesn't rectify the situation you log off. You must then not communicate with him until we've checked out his status,' said Pablo. 'The other thing is: no printouts. We will have a record on our website, which you will not be able to access unless we are here with you.'

'I still don't understand how you know that Yacoub will be accepted so easily into the GICM,' said Falcon.

'We didn't say that,' said Pablo. 'We said that he would be accepted into the radical element of the mosque in Sale. You have to remember Yacoub's history; what his real father, Raul Jimenez, did and how his surrogate father, Abdullah Diouri, retaliated. That did not happen in a bubble. The whole family knew about it. That is the source of a certain amount of sympathy with some of the more radical elements of Islam. Don't ask any more…let's just see whether Yacoub has made contact with the radical element in the mosque and, if he has, how quickly he'll be put in touch with the high command of the GICM.'

'So what is the purpose of my conversation with him?'

'At this stage, to let him know that you're here,' said Pablo. 'Ultimately, we want to find out what was supposed to happen here in Seville and whether they still have the capability to make it happen, but we might have to be satisfied with confirmation of the history at this stage.'

The communication started at 23.03. They made their introductions and Falcon asked his first question.

'How's your first day been back at school?'

'It's more like the first day as a new member of a club. Everybody's sizing me up, some are friendly, others suspicious and a few are unfriendly. It's like in any organization, I've come in at a certain level and been welcomed by my equals, but I'm despised as a usurper by those who thought they were becoming important. There's a hierarchy here. There has to be. It's an organization with a military wing. The striking difference is that the commander-in-chief is not a man, but Allah. No action by this group, or any of the others that they read about, is referred to without mention of the ultimate source of the commands. We're constantly reminded that we're involved in a Holy War. It is powerful and inspirational and I've come back feeling dazed. Home seems strange, or rather, extremely banal after a day spent with people so certain of their place and destiny in the will of Allah. I can see how powerfully this would work on a young mind. They're also clever at depersonalizing the enemy, who are rarely specific people-unless you count Tony Blair and George Bush-but rather the decadence and godlessness that has engulfed the West. I suppose it's easier to bomb decadence and godlessness than it is men, women and children.'

'Any talk about what happened in Seville on 6th June?'

'They talk about nothing else. The Spanish satellite news is avidly watched for more information, but it's not so easy to work out the extent of their involvement.'

'Any talk about Djamel Hammad and Smail Saoudi and what they were doing bringing 100 kilos of hexogen to Seville?'

'I'm not sure how much is speculation and how much is hard fact. You must understand that these people are not the GICM themselves. They support the actions of the GICM, and some members have been involved in their activities, but mainly on the home front. Don't think that I've walked off the street into a tent full of mujahedeen with AK-47s. At this stage, I can only tell you what has happened rather than what will happen, as that is only known by the GICM commanders, who, as far as I know, are not here.

'My friends tell me that Hammad and Saoudi have worked for a number of groups, not just the GICM. They fund themselves through cash-machine fraud. They were only involved in recce, logistics and documents. They were not bomb makers. The hexogen came from Iraq. It was extracted from an American ammunitions cache captured at the beginning of 2005. It went via Syria into Turkey, where it was repackaged as cheap washing powder and sent to Germany in containers, for sale to the immigrant Turkish community there. Nobody knows how it got to Spain. The total quantity sent to Germany in the washing powder consignment is believed to be around 300 kilos.'

'Any speculation about how they intended to use it?' asked Falcon.

'No. All they say is that everything in the Spanish press and news is total fabrication: Abdullah Azzam's text, the MILA, the intention to attack schools and the biology faculty and the idea of bringing Andalucia back into the Islamic fold. They want to bring Andalucia back into Islam, but not yet. Making Morocco an Islamic state with Sharia law is the priority and we talked about that, which is of no interest to you. The current strategy, as far as foreign operations are concerned, is not specific, although they are still very angry with the Danish and think they should be punished. They want to weaken the European Union economically by forcing huge expenditure on antiterrorist measures. They plan to attack financial centres in Northern Europe, namely London, Frankfurt, Paris and Milan, while conducting smaller campaigns in the tourist areas of the Mediterranean.'

'Ambitious.'

'There's a lot of big talk. As to their capability…who knows?'

'The hexogen in Seville doesn't seem to fit with their general strategy.'

'They say the hexogen exploding was nothing to do with them.'

'And how do they know that?'

'Because the "hardware" for making the bombs had not arrived,' wrote Yacoub. 'Given that Hammad and Saoudi were recce and logistics, I assume there were others who were due to arrive with the "hardware"-the containers, plastique, detonators and timers-from some other source.'

'How much of this do you believe?' asked Falcon.

'There is definitely something going on. There's a tension and uncertainty in the air. I can't be more specific than that. This is information that has come to me. I am not enquiring as yet. I haven't asked about operational cells in Spain, for instance. I can only gather from the way people talk that there are operators in the field doing something.'

Falcon's mobile vibrated on the desktop. He took the call from Ramirez while Pablo and Gregorio talked over his head.

'Cristina has found a domestic who saw Tateb Hassani on Saturday evening, before dinner. His name is Mario Gomez. He says that the dinner wasn't served but laid out as a buffet, but he saw Tateb Hassani, Eduardo Rivero and Angel Zarrias going up to the Fuerza Andalucia offices just before he left, which was around 9.45.'

'He didn't see anybody else?'

'He said no cars had arrived by the time he left.'

'I think that's going to be good enough,' said Falcon and hung up.

'Ask him if he's heard any names, anything that will give us a clue as to a network operating over here,' said Pablo.

Falcon typed out the question.

'They don't use names. Their knowledge of foreign operations is vague. They are more informative about the present state of Morocco than anything abroad.'

'Any foreigners?' asked Pablo. 'Afghans, Pakistanis, Saudis…?'

Falcon tapped it out.

'One mention of some Afghans who came over earlier this year, nothing else.'

'Context?'

'I couldn't say.'

'Where does the group meet?'

'It's in a private house in the medina in Rabat, but I was brought here and I'm not sure I could find it again.'

'Look for clues in your surroundings. Documents. Books. Anything that might indicate research.'

'There's a library which I've been shown, but I haven't spent any time there.'

'Get access and tell us what books they have.'

'I have been told/warned that there will be an initiation rite, which is designed to show my allegiance to the group. Everybody has to go through this, whatever your connections to the senior members may be. They have assured me that it will not require violence.'

'Do they know about your friendship with me?' asked Falcon.

'Of course they do, and that worries me. I know how their minds work. They will make me show allegiance to them by forcing me to betray the confidence of someone close to me.'

The 'chat' was over. Falcon sat back from the computer, a little shattered by the last exchange. The CNI men looked at him to see how he'd taken this new level of involvement.

'In case you're wondering,' said Falcon, 'I didn't like the sound of that.'

'We can't expect just to receive information in this game,' said Gregorio.

'I'm a senior policeman,' said Falcon. 'I can't compromise my position by giving out confidential information.'

'We don't know what he's going to be asked to do yet,' said Pablo.

'I didn't like the look of that word "betray",' said Falcon. 'That doesn't sound like they're going to be satisfied with my favourite colour, does it?'

Pablo shook his head at Gregorio.

'Anything else?' said Pablo.

'If they know about me, what's to say they don't know about the next step we've taken?' said Falcon. 'That I came over to make Yacoub one of our spies. He employs ten or fifteen people around his house. How do you know that he's "safe", that he's not going to be turned, and that they still think that I'm just a friend?'

'We have our own people on the inside,' said Pablo.

'Working for Yacoub?'

'We didn't just think this operation up last week,' said Gregorio. 'We have people working in his home, at his factory, and we've watched him on business trips. So have the British. He's been vetted down to his toenails. The only thing we didn't have, which nobody had, was access. And that's where you came in.'

'Don't think about it too much, Javier,' said Pablo. 'It's new territory and we'll take it one step at a time. If you feel there's something you can't do…then you can't do it. Nobody's going to force you.'

'I'm less worried about force than I am by coercion.'