Robert Wilson: The Hidden Assassins

Seville-Saturday, 10th June 2006, 10.00 hrs

'We thought we'd lost you back there,' said Pablo.

'I thought you'd lost me,' said Falcon.

'Are you still with us?'

'I'm tired, I'm shocked that my sister's partner is so deeply involved in this; I've been disturbed by what's happened to Yacoub and, because of these two assassinations, I've lost the possibility of a resolution to my investigation,' said Falcon. 'Maybe you're used to this in your world, but in mine it feels lurid.'

'I told Juan when we first came up with the idea of using you that we were expecting too much,' said Pablo. 'Operating in two worlds, the real and the clandestine, is the quickest way to paranoia.'

'Anyway, I'm out the other side now,' said Falcon. 'I think we should go to El Saucejo.'

'I can't,' said Pablo. 'Juan's just recalled me to Madrid. There's a lot of internet "chatter" and now there's been some movement as well. He can't spare me down here to help you…'

'So what are you going to do about Hammad and Saoudi, the other quantity of hexogen, the "hardware" that didn't arrive and the "disruption to a plan which has required a lot of reorganization"?' said Falcon. 'Isn't that what you'd call intelligence? Yacoub has been frightened half to death to get this stuff for you.'

'I don't know what you're expecting to find in El Saucejo,' said Pablo. 'Hammad and Saoudi sitting on some hexogen, helping people pack it into the "hardware" and carrying on with the plan? I don't think so.'

Falcon paced the room, chewing on his thumbnail.

'This hardware…that keeps getting referred to. It doesn't sound as if it's easily available, not something you go down to the shops and buy,' said Falcon. 'For some reason it sounds to me as if it's been custom made for a certain task.'

'It could be. Keep having ideas. Keep feeding them to Yacoub and see if he can come back with something relevant. That's all we can do.'

'You said the only thing that would make you sit up and get interested in our investigation was if we found that the Imam, or Hammad and Saoudi, were not in the mosque when it exploded,' said Falcon. 'And now you don't seem to give a damn.'

'Things have moved on. I've been recalled to Madrid. I'm being asked to look at other scenarios.'

'But don't you think it's significant that the original hexogen was brought to Seville, that there's additional hexogen out there, that Hammad and Saoudi are alive and well, and we know that there's an intention to attack?' said Falcon. 'Doesn't all that add up to…something?'

'Given the level of security around all major buildings, the announcement made last night of the reinstatement of spot checks and the police presence on the streets, I think it unlikely that they'll launch anything in Seville.'

'That sounds like an official communique,' said Falcon.

'It is,' said Pablo. 'The truth is, we have no idea. On Tuesday afternoon they were checking all vehicles going in and out of Seville, by Wednesday evening they were doing spot checks because people were complaining about traffic jams, on Friday they stopped all checks because people were still complaining, now they've reinstated them and you'll see what happens. Life goes on, Javier.'

'That sounds as if you're saying that we shouldn't worry too much if the population are so unconcerned,' said Falcon. 'But they don't know what we know-that there's more hexogen, that there is an intention to attack, and there was a twenty-four-hour break in the spot checks on vehicles.'

'All that information is in Juan's hands, and he's called me back to Madrid because what is going on there is more "significant" than anything that could happen here,' said Pablo. They went to El Saucejo: Gregorio and Falcon in the front and a bomb squad officer and his dog in the back with Felipe the forensic. In Osuna they were met by the Guardia Civil, who led them up to El Saucejo in their Nissan Patrol. They stopped in the village and picked up two men and continued in the direction of Campillos. The rolling hills around El Saucejo were either given over to endless olive trees or had been ploughed up to reveal dun-coloured earth, with chalkwhite patches. The Nissan Patrol stopped outside a ruined house on the right-hand side of the road, which had a view over the shimmering verdigris of the olive trees up to some distant mountains. The entrance and a section of the verge on the opposite side of the road about twenty-five metres down towards El Saucejo had been taped off as a crime scene.

The Guardia Civil introduced the owner of the house and the man who'd spotted Hammad and Saoudi changing the rear tyre early on Monday morning. Felipe started work on the tyre tracks on the side of the road and confirmed that they matched those of the Peugeot Partner in the police compound. He then examined the tyre tracks going into and out of the courtyard to the left of the ruined house.

After half an hour Felipe was able to tell them that the Peugeot Partner had come from the direction of Campillos, which was to the east, entered the courtyard and then exited it sustaining a puncture, which was repaired twenty-five metres down the road.

Inside the courtyard the bomb squad officer released the dog, which ran around for a few minutes before sitting down under some secure roofing near the main house. The officer then made some tests on the dry, beaten earth under the roofing and confirmed that there were traces of hexogen.

The owner of the house said it hadn't been lived in for over thirty years because it was too isolated for most people and there was a problem with water. He'd rented it out to a Spaniard with a Madrileno accent for six months. There was no contract and the man had paid him 600, saying he just wanted to use it occasionally for storage. The man who'd spotted Hammad and Saoudi changing the tyre said he drove past the house every day and had never seen anybody using it. He hadn't even seen the Peugeot Partner coming out of the courtyard. It was already on the side of the road, with one of the guys changing the tyre.

'What's important,' said Falcon, 'is: did anybody see a car going into or out of this courtyard at any time since Tuesday morning?'

They shook their heads. Falcon drove back to El Saucejo. They talked to as many people as they could find in the village, but nobody had seen any vehicle using the ruined house. They left the problem with the Guardia Civil.

On the way back to Seville, Gregorio took a call from the CNI communications department, saying that they had reinstalled the old encryption software and the system was now up and running. They had made the Hammad and Saoudi file available to Yacoub, but he had not, as yet, picked it up.

By 2.30 p.m. they were back in the Jefatura, sitting in front of the computer. They saw immediately that Yacoub had now picked up the file. A prearranged signal email was sent to him and he came online.

'The men you know as Hammad and Saoudi are already back in North Africa,' wrote Yacoub. 'They have been here since Thursday morning. I only know this because there was much cheering and clapping when the satellite news announced that it was now known that the two men had not been in the mosque when it exploded.'

'We've found the place where they stored the remaining hexogen but have no idea when it was picked up or where it has gone.'

'It has not been talked about here.'

'The two men who were assassinated earlier today, Lucrecio Arenas and Cesar Benito, were the answer to your initiation test. Their killings were made to look like the work of Islamic militants.'

'A denial has already been issued to Al-Jazeera.'

'Have you heard anything more about the "hardware" that was supposed to be made available for the original consignment of hexogen?'

'It has not been discussed.'