The Burial Hour (Lincoln Rhyme 13)

Once she and Ercole were settled and the engine running, she asked, "That line you gave me about continuity? Is that what Spiro really said?"

Ercole was blushing and concentrating on getting the car in first gear. "It was a rough translation."

"Ercole?"

He swallowed. "He said I was to get the woman--that is, you--out of the scene immediately, and if I let her--that is, again, you--talk to any officers again, much less the press, without his permission, he would have my job. Here, and in my own unit of Forestry."

Sachs nodded. Then asked, "Was 'woman' the word he really used?"

After a pause: "No, it was not." He signaled, let up on the clutch, then pulled gingerly into the street surrounding the square, as if his frail grandmother were sitting in the backseat.

Chapter 20

Stunned.

That was Rhyme's impression of Ali Maziq.

In the situation room at police headquarters Rhyme was watching the kidnap victim through open doorways, across the hall, an empty ground-floor office.

The scrawny man sat in a chair, clutching a bottle of Aranciata San Pellegrino soda. He'd already drunk one of the orange beverages, and several small drops dotted his beard. His face was gaunt--though this would be his natural state, Rhyme supposed, since his ordeal had been only a day or so in length. Dark circles under his eyes. Prominent ears and nose...and that impressive mass of wiry black hair that wholly enveloped his scalp and lower face.

Rossi, Ercole and Sachs were with Rhyme. There was little for Thom to do at the moment, so he'd left to check into the hotel and make sure the disabled accessibility was as the place claimed.

For a half hour, Maziq been interviewed by a Police of State officer, who was fluent in Arabic and English.

Sachs had wanted to be present, or to conduct her own interview, but Rossi had declined her request. Dante Spiro would have been behind that.

Finally, the officer concluded the interview and joined the others. He handed Rossi his notes, then returned to the office across the hall. He spoke to Maziq, who still seemed bewildered. He slowly rose and followed the officer down the corridor. He clutched his orange soda as if it were a lucky charm.

Rossi said, "He will stay here in protective custody for the time being. He is remaining in a, how do you say, a state? Confused state. Better that we keep an eye on him. And, with the Composer still out in the world, we do not know for certain that Maziq is safe. There is, of course, no motive that we can see."

"Who is he?" Sachs asked.

"He is an asylum-seeker from Libya. One of so many. He came here on a ship that crashed." He frowned and spoke to Ercole, who said, "Beached."

"Si. Beached in Baia a week ago, a resort area northwest of Naples. He and forty others arrived there and were arrested. They had good fortune. The weather was good. They survived, all of them. That very day a ship sank off Lampedusa and a dozen died."

Sachs said, "If he'd been arrested why was he out in the countryside?"

"A very good question," Rossi said. "Perhaps it is helpful to explain our situation in Italy with regard to refugees. You are aware of the immigrants coming out of Syria, inundating Turkey and Greece and Macedonia?"

Current events held little interest for Rhyme, but the plight of refugees in the Middle East was everywhere in the news. He'd actually just read an article about the subject on the long flight from the United States.

"We have a similar problem here. It's a long, dangerous journey to Italy from Syria but a less long trip from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Libya is an utterly failed state; after the Arab Spring it became a land of civil war, with extremists on the rise. ISIS and other groups. There is terrible poverty too, in addition to the political turmoil. Adding to the problem, the drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa are driving refugees from the south into Libya, which can hardly accommodate them. So human smugglers--who are also rapists and thieves--charge huge sums to ferry people to Lampedusa, which I mentioned. It is Italy's closest island to Africa." He sighed. "I used to vacation with my family in there, when I was a boy. Now I would never take my own children. So, the smugglers bring the poorer asylum-seekers there. Others, if they pay a premium, will be taken to the mainland--like Maziq--in hopes they can avoid a

rrest.

"But, like him, most are caught, though it is an overwhelming challenge for the army, navy and the police." He looked toward Rhyme. "It has not touched your country as much. But here it is a crisis of great proportions."

The article Rhyme had read on the plane was about a conference presently under way in Rome, on the refugee situation. The attendees, from all over the world, were looking for ways to balance the humanitarian need to help the unfortunates, on the one hand, and the concerns about economic hardship and security in the destination countries, on the other. Among the emergency measures under consideration, the story said, the U.S. Congress was considering a bill to allow 150,000 immigrants into the country, and Italy itself was soon to vote on a measure to relax deportation laws, though both proposals were controversial and were being met with strong opposition.

"Ali Maziq is typical of these people. Under the Dublin Regulation on asylum seeking, he was required to apply for asylum in the country of entry--Italy. He was run through Eurodac, and--"

"Dactylosopy?" Rhyme asked. The technical term for fingerprinting.

It was Ercole who answered, "Yes, that is correct. Refugees are fingerprinted and undergo a background check."

Rossi continued, "So, this is Maziq's situation. He passed the initial review--no criminal or terrorist connections. If so, he would have been deported immediately. But he was cleared so he was removed from the intake camp and placed in a secondary site. These are hotels or old military barracks. They can slip out, as many do, but if they don't return they will be deported to their home country when caught.