The Wreckage

10

Luca works late. His body has an internal clock that will not let him sleep before the early hours. He sits at the kitchen table working on his laptop, answering emails and making notes for a story. On the wall above the table there is a map of Baghdad, already out of date because the areas of control have changed, along with the locations of the checkpoints.

Nothing about his apartment really belongs to Luca or couldn’t be left behind if he had to evacuate, except for the photographs. Only one of them is of Nicola. The rest he gave to her family with her clothes and mementos.

Eight months have passed, yet he still imagines seeing her face in crowds or in cafes as he drives by. Once or twice he’s caught a glimpse of someone with the same dark eyes or feminine walk and has wanted to shout out and wave and run to her. Luca doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he understands how the dead haunt the living.

He looks at his emails. There are messages from commissioning editors and his publisher. The latest chapters of his book are due. He’s also late delivering a feature for The Economist.

His mother has left six messages, most of them indecipherable. When Luca was last home he installed voice recognition software on her computer because she couldn’t type. Now she just yells at the screen and the words get jumbled.

Her latest missive could be about his great-aunt Sophia or about his mother’s cat Sophocles. One of them is dead. Run over. There’s mention of a funeral. He’s none the wiser.

Opening the paper cartridge on his printer, he takes out the sheets of blank paper and pinches one corner, flicking through the pages. Several printed sheets flash amid the white. Hidden notes. Retrieving them, he looks at the first page.

050707

Bank of Baghdad:

US$1.6m

062207

Rasheed Bank:

US$3.8m

070107

Dar Al-Salam Bank:

US$28.2m

081107

Middle East Investment Bank:

US$1.32m

030208

al-Warka Bank:

US$1.2m

061808

Industry Bank (ransom payment):

US$6m

072909

al-Rafidain Bank:

US$6.9m

092709

Bank of Iraq:

US$5.3m

020710

Rasheed Bank:

US$15.6m

021210

Iraqi Trade Bank:

US$1.8m

Luca adds another robbery to the list:

082310

al-Rafidain Bank:

Amount Unknown

Half a billion US dollars stolen in four years. This is on top of dozens of smaller robberies that netted Iraqi dinars. The amounts seem almost inconceivable, but so many things in Iraq defy belief. Billions have washed through the country since the invasion, funding reconstruction, repairing infrastructure, paying for security. The robberies have become so commonplace that banks have stopped using armored vans because they draw too much attention. Instead they use private couriers in ordinary cars loaded with sacks of cash, making high-speed dashes across the city.

Opening a file on the laptop, Luca continues writing a story, using two fingers to type.

IRAQ: Three bank employees are dead and four are missing after the latest armed robbery to rock Baghdad-the eighteenth this year in a city that has become the bank robbery capital of the world. The robberies and ransom demands in Iraq are escalating but nobody can say if this is the work of insurgents, criminal gangs or sections of the Iraqi security services…

Luca’s mobile rattles on the tabletop. He catches it before it topples off the edge. It’s Jamal.

“They found the missing bank guards in a village outside of Mosul.”

“Are they under arrest?”

“Their bodies are in custody.”

Luca takes a moment to consider the news. He closes his laptop. “I want to go there.”

“Mosul is dangerous. The Kurds and Sunnis are killing each other.”

“I can ask Shaun for security.”

“No, it’s best we use our own cars.”

They make a plan. Jamal will call Abu. Civilian clothes. Concealed weapons. First light.