Ercole Benelli was printing out the lists and taping them to the wall. If there were not too many numbers the Postal Police could trace them. With some luck, one might turn out to be Gianni's new phone.
As he looked over the number, Rhyme was startled to hear a pronounced gasp from beside him.
He looked at Charlotte, actually thinking she was ill, the sound from her throat was so choked.
"No," she said. "My God."
"What is it?" Rossi asked, seeing her alarmed face.
"Look." She was pointing to the chart. "That outgoing call there--from the coffeehouse in Tripoli to Gianni's old phone. A few days ago."
"Yes. We can see." Spiro was staring at McKenzie, clearly as confused as Rhyme.
"The number above it? The call made from the coffeehouse just before he called Gianni?"
Rhyme noted it was to a U.S. line. "What about it?"
"It's my phone," she whispered. "My encrypted mobile. And I remember the call. It was from our asset on the ground in Libya. We were talking about Maziq's abduction."
"Cristo," Spiro whispered.
Sachs said, "So your asset, the one who gave you the intel about the attacks in Austria and Milan, is Ibrahim, the man who recruited the terrorists in the first place."
Chapter 59
Mi dispiace," Dante Spiro snapped. "Forgive me for being blunt. But do you not vet these people?"
"Our asset--" McKenzie began.
Rhyme, his voice as testy as the Italian's, said, "Not your asset. The man who pretended to be your asset, the man who sold you out. Not to put too fine a point on it."
"We know him as Hassan." She muttered this defensively. "And he came highly recommended. He was accredited at the highest levels--the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, the CIA. He was a veteran of the Arab Spring. A vocal supporter of the West and of democracy. Anti-Qaddafi. He was nearly killed in Tripoli."
"You mean, he said he was," Sachs replied laconically.
"His history was that he was a small businessman, not a radicalized fundamentalist." She added to Spiro, "In answer to your question, yes, we vetted him."
Ercole Benelli had returned from the evidence room and Rossi had briefed him on the latest developments. The young officer now said, "Mamma mia! This is true?"
Spiro was speaking. "Allora. A U.S. government asset--Ibrahim/Hassan--in Libya recruits two terrorists, Ali Maziq and Malek Dadi, and sends them to Italy masquerading as asylum-seekers, to orchestrate bombings in Vienna and Milan. He's got an operative on the ground here--this Gianni--who is providing explosives and helping them. The two men are in place and the weapons are ready. But then this Ibrahim/Hassan gives you information about the attacks, so you can put together an operation with your madman kidnapper to foil them. Why? I see no avenue in which this makes sense."
McKenzie could only, it seemed, stare at the floor. Who knew what she was thinking?
Spiro extracted and sniffed his cheroot then replaced it in his pocket, as if the accessory distracted him.
Rhyme said to Spiro, "Something you mentioned. A moment ago."
"What was that?"
"'Masquerading as asylum-seekers.'"
"Si."
Rhyme to McKenzie: "You reported to Washington who the terrorists were, how they'd gotten into Italy--pretending to be refugees."
"Of course."
"And the CIA would contact the Italian security services about it?"