Robert Wilson - The Hidden Assassins

'There seems to be a break in the logic chain of that scenario,' said Barros. 'It might just be believable that Botin was the unwitting agent of their destruction, but I don't see any terrorist commander allowing that quantity of hexogen, brought into this country at what one imagines was considerable risk and expense, to be destroyed.'

'The electricians and council inspectors would constitute a type of terrorist cell we've never come across before, too,' said Falcon. 'The witness said they were a Spaniard and two Eastern Europeans.'

'And how does Ricardo Gamero's suicide fit into this scenario?' asked Barros.

'A profound sense of failure at his inability to prevent this atrocity,' said Pablo. 'We understand that he took his work very seriously.'

Silence, while everybody wrestled with the CNI's possible scenario. Falcon snapped out of his shocked state and burned with his theory that too much weight was being attached to the copy of the Koran as a codebook. But it was impossible to understand how two identical copies could have ended up in the Peugeot Partner and Botin's apartment.

'Why do you think this cell self-destructed?' asked Barros.

'We can only think that it was a spectacular diversionary tactic, to occupy our domestic investigating teams and all European intelligence services while they plan and carry out an attack elsewhere,' said Pablo. 'If Botin was a double agent, his terrorist masters would have known that the mosque was under suspicion. They fed that suspicion further by bringing in the hexogen and Hammad and Saoudi, two known logistics men. They then blew it up. They don't mind. They're all going to paradise, whether as successful bombers or magnificent decoys.'

'What about the Afghans?' asked Barros. 'They've been identified, but not exactly sacrificed.'

'Perhaps Botin intended the shot of the two Afghans to be interpreted by us as an indication of an attack planned for Italy. Botin supplied those photographs when he was a trusted CGI source.'

'So, another diversionary tactic?'

'The Italians, Danish and Belgians are all on red alert, as they were after the London bombings.'

'So this letter sent to the ABC with the Abdullah Azzam text and all the media references to MILA-was that all part of this grand diversion?' asked Barros, nearly enjoying himself at being able to finally needle the CNI, who had so humiliated him and his department.

'What we're working on now is the real target,' said Pablo. 'The Abdullah Azzam text and the idea of MILA are powerful tools of terror. They inspire fear in a population. We see this as part of the escalation of this particular brand of terrorism. We are fighting the equivalent of a mutating virus. No sooner do we find one cure than it adapts to it with renewed lethal strength. There is no model. Only after we have sustained attacks do we become aware of a modus operandi. The intelligence gathered from the hundreds of people interviewed after the Madrid and London bombings is no help to us now. We are not talking about an integrated organization with a defined structure, but more of a satellite organization with a fluid structure and total flexibility.'

'Are you sure you're not reading too much into the diversionary tactic?' said Elvira. 'After the Madrid bombings-'

'We're pretty sure that ETA provided the diversion which led to the devastating success of the Madrid bombings. We don't think it was a coincidence that, 120 kilometres southeast of Madrid, the Guardia Civil stopped a van driven by two ETA incompetents, and loaded with 536 kilos of titadine for delivery to Madrid; and on the same day, 500 kilometres away in Aviles, three Moroccan terrorists were taking delivery of the 100 kilos of Goma 2 Eco used on the Madrid trains,' said Pablo. 'British security forces and intelligence were focused on an attack on the G8 Summit in Edinburgh when suicide bombers blew themselves up on the London Underground.'

'All right, so there is a history of diversion,' said Elvira.

'And a diversion that is prepared to sacrifice 536 kilos of titadine,' said Pablo, looking pointedly at Barros.

'The reality,' said Elvira, 'is that we have no idea who we are dealing with most of the time. We call them al-Qaeda because it helps us to sleep at night, but we seem to have come up against a very pure form of terrorism whose "goal" is to attack our way of life and "decadent values" at whatever cost. There even seems to be competition between these disparate groups to think up and carry out the most devastating attack possible.'

'This is what we're concerned about here,' said Pablo, enthused by Elvira seeing his point of view. 'Are we experiencing a series of diversionary jabs prior to the main attack-something on the scale of the World Trade Center in New York?'

'What we need to know,' said Ramirez, tiring of all the conjecture, 'is where our investigation here, in Seville, should be heading.'

'There is no Juez de Instruccion until Sergio del Rey arrives from Madrid,' said Elvira. 'The Madrid CGI have been pulling in all contacts of Hammad and Saoudi for interviews, but so far they appear to have been operating alone. The Guardia Civil have successfully plotted the route taken by the Peugeot Partner from Madrid to the safe house near Valmojado, where it is believed they were keeping the hexogen. They are having difficulties plotting the route taken by the vehicle from Valmojado down to Seville. There are concerns that it diverted on its route.'

'Where was the last sighting of the Peugeot Partner?' asked Falcon.

'Heading south on the NIV/E5. It stopped at a service station near Valdepenas. The concern is that ninety kilometres later the road forks. The NIV continues to Cordoba and Seville, while the N323/E902 goes to Jaen and Granada. They are looking at both routes, but it's not easy to track a particular white van amongst the thousands on the roads. Their only chance is if the vehicle stopped and the two men got out so that someone could identify them, as happened at the service station near Valdepenas.'

'Which means there's a distinct possibility that there's more hexogen elsewhere,' said Pablo. 'Our job at the moment is to find out what connections Botin made, and we'll be speaking to his partner, Esperanza, this morning.'

'That's great,' said Ramirez. 'But what are we supposed to do? Keep searching for the non-existent electricians and council inspectors? We're looking like incompetents at the moment. Juez Calderon was doing a good job of protecting us from too much media attention. Now he's in a police cell. A CGI antiterrorist agent has committed suicide and his source could be a double agent. We're at crisis point here. Our squad can't just carry on as we were.'

'Until we receive forensic information from inside the mosque, there's not a lot else we can do,' said Falcon. 'We can go back to the congregation of the mosque and interview them about Miguel Botin, see what that throws up. But I believe we should keep hammering away at the electricians and council inspectors-who do exist. They have been seen. And if I understand the CNI correctly, the council inspectors created a pretext so that the electricians could plant a bomb. They are the perpetrators of this atrocity. We have to find them and the people who sent them. That, as the Grupo de Homicidios, is our goal.'

'But possibly one that you can only achieve through quality intelligence,' said Elvira. 'Are they part of an Islamic terrorist cell or not? Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the history of Miguel Botin, who gave their card to the Imam.'

'And what about the Imam?' said Ramirez, not wanting to be thwarted. 'Where is he in all this? Has the CNI search of his apartment been completed? Can we have their findings? Has access to his history finally been granted to someone who's allowed to tell us?'