Robert Wilson - The Hidden Assassins

'So what has this bomb in Seville indicated to you?'

'The fact that hexogen was found is a cause for concern and, judging by the level of destruction, it was not a small quantity. Just the use of this material, which the jihadis have never used before, makes us think that the design was not to frighten the population of Seville, but something bigger,' said Pablo. 'The British have also revealed that local sources have heard talk about something "big" about to happen, but their intelligence network has picked up no changes in any of their communities. We have to remember that, since the July 7th London Underground bombings, those communities are more aware, too. This makes MI5 and MI6 think that it will be an attack launched from the outside, and Spain has proven to be a popular country for terrorists to gather and plan their campaigns.'

'So how are you expecting Yacoub Diouri to help you?' asked Falcon. 'He doesn't do much business in England. He goes to London for shopping and the two fashion weeks. He has friends, but they're all in the fashion industry. I'm assuming, by the way, that you want Yacoub to act for you because he's not involved in international terrorism, but that he might have contacts with people whose involvement in these activities he is unaware of.'

'We're not going to ask him to do anything unusual or out of character. He attends the right mosque and he already knows the people we want him to make contact with. He just has to take it a step further.'

'I didn't know he attended a radical mosque.'

'A mosque with radical elements, where it is possible, with a name like Diouri, to become "involved". As you know, Yacoub's "father", Abdullah, was active in the independence movement, Istiqlal, in the fifties; he was one of the prime movers against European decadence in Tangier. His name carries huge weight with the traditional Islamists. The radicals would love to have a Diouri on their side.'

'So you know who these radical elements are?'

'I go to church. I'm a moderate Catholic,' said Pablo. 'I don't have much time to get involved in church-related business or socialize with other members of the congregation. But even I know all the people who hold strong views, because they can't keep them in and they can't disguise their history.'

'But you can have powerful convictions and have enthusiasm for radical ideas without being a terrorist.'

'Exactly, which is why the only way to find out is to be involved and get to the next level,' said Pablo. 'What we're trying to find is a chain of command. Where do the orders come from to activate the dormant cells? Where do the ideas for terrorist attacks originate? Is there a planning division? Are there independent recce and logistical teams who move around, giving expert help to activated cells? Our picture of these terrorist networks is so incomplete that we're not even sure whether a network exists or not.'

'Where are the British in all this?' asked Falcon. 'They're expecting another major assault from the outside. They must know about Yacoub from his trips to London. Why haven't they tried to recruit him themselves?'

'They have. It didn't work,' said Pablo. 'The British are very sensitive to anything that happens in southern Spain and North Africa because they're in the middle, with their naval base in Gibraltar. They are aware of the potential for attacks, like the explosive dinghy launched at the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. They have sources in the ex-pat criminal communities operating between the Costa del Sol and that stretch of Moroccan coast between Melilla and Ceuta. The nature of the drug-smuggling business is that it is cash heavy and requires access to efficient money-laundering operations. Other criminal communities are inevitably involved. Information comes from all angles. When we told the British that hexogen had been used in the Seville bomb yesterday, it resonated with something they already knew, or rather something they'd heard.'

'Did they tell you what that was?'

'It needs to be corroborated,' said Pablo. 'The most important thing, at this stage, is to find out whether Yacoub is prepared to act for us. If he's already turned down the Americans and the British, it could be that he's not interested in that sort of life, because, believe me, it is very demanding. So let's see if he's a player and take it from there.'

The car had arrived at a private entrance to the airport, beyond the terminal buildings. The driver talked to the policeman at the gate and showed a pass. Pablo dropped the window and the policeman looked in with his clipboard. He nodded. The gate opened. The car drove into an X-ray bay and out again. They drove beyond the air cargo area until they arrived at a hangar where six small planes were parked. The car pulled up alongside a Lear jet. Pablo picked up a large plastic bag of that morning's newspapers from the floor of the Mercedes. They boarded the jet and took their seats. Pablo flicked through the newspapers, which were full of the bombings.

'How about that for a headline?' he said, and handed Falcon a British tabloid.

THE SECOND COMING? COUNT THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST: 666 6 JUNE 2006

Casablanca-Wednesday, 7th June 2006, 08.03 hrs

The plane touched down just after 8 a.m. Spanish time, two hours ahead of Moroccan time. They were met by a Mercedes, which contained a member of the Spanish embassy from Rabat, who took their passports. They were driven to a quiet end of the terminal building and after a few minutes they were through to the other side. The Mercedes drove to where the rental cars were parked. The man from the Spanish embassy handed over a set of keys and Falcon transferred to a Peugeot 206.

'We can't have an embassy vehicle turning up at his residence,' said Pablo.

The diplomat handed over some dirhams for the tolls. Falcon left the airport and joined the motorway from Casablanca to Rabat. The sun was well up and the heat haze was draining the colour from the dull, flat landscape. Falcon sat back with the window open and the moist sea air baffling over the glass. He overtook vastly overloaded trucks farting out black smoke, with boys sitting on top of sheet-wrapped bales, their legs hooked around the securing ropes. In the fields a man in a burnous sat on a bony white donkey, which he tapped and poked with a stick. Occasionally a BMW flashed past, leaving a flicker of Arabic lettering on the retina. The smell was of the sea, woodsmoke, manured earth and pollution.

The outskirts of Rabat loomed. He took the ring road and came into the city from the east. He remembered the turning after the Societe Marocaine de Banques. The tarmac gave out immediately and he eased up the troughed and pitted track to the main gate of Yacoub Diouri's walled property. The gate-man recognized him. He swung up the driveway, lined with Washingtonian palms, and stopped outside the front door. Two servants came out in blue livery with red piping, each wearing a fez. The hire car was driven away. Falcon was taken inside to the living room, which overlooked the pool where Yacoub swam his morning lengths. He sat down on one of the cream leather sofas, in front of a low wooden table inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The servant left. Birds fluttered in the garden. A boy dragged a hose out and began spraying the hibiscus.

Yacoub Diouri arrived, wearing a blue jellabah and white barbouches. A servant set down a brass tray with a pot of mint tea and two small glasses on the table and left. Yacoub's hair, which he'd allowed to grow long, was wet and he now had a close-cropped beard. They embraced with an enthusiastic Arabic greeting and held on to each other by the shoulders looking into each other's eyes and smiling; Falcon saw warmth and wariness in Yacoub's. He had no idea what was readable in his own.

'Would you prefer coffee, Javier?' asked Yacoub, releasing him.