The Sacred Protocol

by Hylton Smith

  His tone almost became apologetic. “Yeah, I was reprimanding myself for spilling coffee on my trousers. There is a hot, wet patch around my zipper. It’s just as well I’m not scheduled to meet anyone; they would think I’d pissed my pants. You don’t need to meet me do you?”

  “No, just to tell you Manuel has gone for your bait about tagging along to Barcelona. I want you to repeat that you’re happy with this and that if anything goes wrong you’ll cover for me.”

  Duarte joked, “Hey not anything, I can’t be blamed if he is lousy in romance. Everything to do with procedure I’ll cover, don’t worry.”

  “Ha-ha, very funny, don’t you have spare trousers in the car? Wait I have a better idea, buy some new ones – you know, the kind that can’t stand up in the corner on their own. Bye.”

  He was beginning to give up on his theory, it had started to rain and visibility was diminishing with the rolling mist. It all happened in the blink of an eye. A car pulled up, Manuel ran to it through the rain and jumped into the back. As it turned and sped past him he caught a glimpse of the other passenger. It was the same man who had travelled with him from the airport. It finally registered – when Butragueno had first briefed him on the case, she had shown him details and pictures of the SACRED owners. He couldn’t put the names to the photos, but it was definitely one of them. He tracked them to the Salina apartment, where his mother was indeed waiting with the keys.

  He was thinking on his feet and contacted Butragueno. “Yes.”

  He whispered, “It’s me; I need you to come to Konrad’s apartment now.”

  “What are you doing there?” Duarte expected a riposte.

  “Your boyfriend is here with one of those SACRED guys.” She ignored the undertone.

  “You can’t be serious, which one?” His frustration surfaced.

  “That’s why I need you, I don’t know. Come and burst in, asking them what they are doing here.”

  She was totally confused. “Why haven’t you done that if you are there anyway?”

  “Listen I can’t keep talking or they’ll be gone. Just do it – now.” She did as ordered and when she entered they were like two schoolboys who were caught smoking behind the bicycle sheds. She broke the silence.

  “Where is Chief Inspector Duarte? And what are you doing here?” Duarte timed his entrance to perfection and added credibility by gasping for breath.

  “What the hell is happening here?” He looked at Manuel but pointed at Gretz. “Who is he?”

  Gretz jumped in before Manuel could gather his thoughts. “I’m his editor from Uruguay, I wanted see for myself what was going to keep my top reporter off the Independiente for a while. Excuse me, where are my manners? I’m Diego Corlana.” Duarte gave Butragueno a knowing look and there was a response. Manuel’s head was spinning and Duarte was pleased he came out with the truth for his part.

  “I am sorry I should have left it with you Chief Inspector. I got the feeling you were too busy to look for the passport so I took a liberty and borrowed my mother’s keys. I hope I’m not in trouble.”

  Duarte shook his head and shrugged his shoulders in mock exasperation. “Look Manuel you shouldn’t be in a police incident scene unless accompanied by an officer or the status of the incident has been downgraded. I’ll turn a blind eye this once. Let’s look for this passport while we’re all here.” They spent over an hour before it was discovered behind the mounting of a framed photograph of Manuel and Konrad in their early teens. Nostalgia came over Manuel in waves and he excused himself to use the facilities. When he returned the passport was handed to him and Duarte turned to his ‘editor’. “When do you have to return to Uruguay Snr. Er...” He winked at Butragueno and she obliged.

  “Gretz isn’t it?”

  Duarte said quietly, “We can make this as long or as short as you like but we would speculate that Snr. Gretz is your sponsor for this investigation. Stop me at any time. He wants your brother’s passport. Snr. Gretz has an interest in common with you, us and your father, not to mention Pierze. There could well be differing desired outcomes, but so far I only detect that Central Security is acting in a manner of suppression, the rest are trying to expose the truth. Does your silence tell me something? Perhaps we could send out for beer and pizza?”

  Gretz didn’t like what he heard and responded first. “You may appreciate why I don’t want any publicity in this investigation; that is the only reason for my attempt to convince you I was Manuel’s editor. What you say makes sense; but what guarantee do I have that you have any control over where it goes? Or even worse, where it is prevented from going? Your chances of seeing this through are non-existent. Whatever revelations are produced by my investigation, they must be seen to be independent and devoid of any whiff of corruption. There is only one chance to conduct this inquiry and I can’t afford to be dragged into some half-baked consortium, it’s not how I do business. Manuel, I think we should leave.”

  The awkward atmosphere reached full potency when Manuel put the passport in his pocket and switched his stare from Gretz to Duarte.

  “I’d rather have pasta with beer if you don’t mind Chief Inspector.” Gretz tried to hide his disgust and walked to the door. He was stopped by another riposte but didn’t turn to face Manuel. “You wanted to hire me on the basis that I would have the freedom to conduct the project the way I wanted, as long as it fulfilled your objectives. If this is an example of the autonomy I would enjoy, I quit before I start. You haven’t even given these people a chance to explain what they are proposing; you may be surprised.”

  Gretz was not a man used to flagrant objection to his wishes. On the other hand his success had partly been achieved by ‘not suffering fools gladly’. He was also mindful of the weakness of surrounding oneself with sycophants.

  He turned slowly and announced, “You have five minutes Chief Inspector after which I will decide whether to ask Manuel if he wishes to rescind his withdrawal from my investigation.”

  Duarte gave no ground. “You may bring financial clout to your objective of getting to the truth, and I dare say a certain amount of influence. That however may not be enough to succeed. You are perfectly correct when you suggest I will be told to let go, or even be fired when the time suits the other players. It would be much simpler for me to just pack off the case files to the coroner, and watch my son play football until I retire. Before you ask, I have sufficient experience after all these years to know that getting to the truth is but one facet of our flexible morality. If I am to stay in this game, and you are entitled to ask why I would want to, it will be by the connections I have or don’t have. Manuel’s father, as I’m sure he has told you is facing a dilemma. He is trying to resist, via his lawyers, the request for a second post-mortem – not by the coroner, but by Snr. Pierze’s people. I’m pretty sure he will successfully delay this to buy time, but I have also observed Pierze’s confidence that this will trigger an enforcement order which will effectively block Antonio Salina from further involvement in the case. I’m led to believe that this means his department will lose leverage until the findings are known. So, Manuel’s father is an example of a connection I don’t want to have right now. Turning to Pierze and his fancy organisation – since first meeting him, his entourage has been re-directed or recalled. I asked him to put surveillance on Manuel – sorry that I needed to do that. He agreed but didn’t carry out the request. I tailed Manuel to the airport and back to some apartment where you seemed to have had fruitful discussions. Snr. Gretz, I think we both need Pierze right now to reduce the players by one. He also needs me for a while at least. He knows about Manuel but not you. He would have done if he had followed Manuel as I asked. He won’t know about you in future if Manuel re-joins your investigation, but I may have to disclose something if you decide to recruit someone else. I’ll offer you one more piece of information, not as an inducement, but to illustrate how we may help one another. Pierze is looking for one of his top scientists who just ‘disap
peared’ a while back. I believe Central Security are looking for the same man, and although they are both pretending not to be overly concerned about him, I think this is why Pierze is so keen to block Antonio Salina from being first to obtain data which would lead to the scientist. I also believe that Central Security personnel are currently closer to discovering this data or already have it, and are preventing anyone else finding it. Manuel has a meeting with Pierze, which has been brokered by me, because I feel that blocking his father may be the trigger for Pierze to dump me from the case. Having Manuel apparently in his confidence, with the attendant animosity between him and his father will be very useful to him. When he believes I reluctantly accept my redundancy we enter phase two. He was very helpful in getting local precincts to allow Butragueno access to files, relatives and witnesses, involved with many of the previous deaths. This will remain in force. I’m not sure who needs who more Snr. Gretz, but I’m sure you have had decisions of greater magnitude than this to make.”

  Butragueno was processing the bits of this that were new to her and forced a wry smile. Gretz was obviously impressed and yet economised with his response. “I guess it is pizza then.”

  Chapter 12

  By the time Duarte introduced Manuel Salina to Pierze another corpse had been discovered by the latter’s organisation. It had been found in Roman Iberia, and Pierze admitted his personal team had stayed close enough this time to apprehend the post-suicide intruder, but didn’t prevent the young woman taking her own life. Duarte had received the information from one of Butragueno’s contacts in the local precinct. She had briefed as many of these precincts as she could, to let them know she was beginning to reinvestigate some of the deaths on the list, and would appreciate any information on future fatalities amongst known protestors. It hadn’t taken long to reap this result. Duarte was unsure whether Pierze would have volunteered this himself, but he hadn’t tried to hide his involvement, once confronted with the insinuation.

  “That is why my people were in that location. The young lady was one of three possibilities, by our reckoning, to be next.” The Chief Inspector gambled.

  “Is that why you didn’t tail our friend here?” Duarte probed again. He wanted to be absolutely sure Gretz’ cover was not blown.

  “Yes, I am sorry about that but this other business took priority. My only regret is that as we did not expect the death to be by drug overdose, we failed to save her. Still we have the post-mortem covered this time, and the individual whose purpose was decapitation, should provide an interesting interrogation.”

  Duarte was mentally assessing the fallout of this new case on the Londonis project. It had happened a little too soon, if it had to happen at all, but he clung to the belief that marginalisation of Antonio Salina was just as important to Pierze as his new opportunity to examine the young lady’s head.

  “This is fascinating and hopefully will allow you to tie in some aspects with the preceding deaths, especially Manuel’s brother. Tell me, when you say drug overdose, does that imply she was expected to die by some other means?”

  Pierze shuffled his feet and for once did not meet Duarte’s eyes head on. “Well yes, and I think that is supported by the intruder timing his entry when he did. That much we have got out of him, he said he was expecting to pick her up for dinner. This is bullshit of course, but if he had known she was to change the method of her death, he would surely have tried to be with her earlier. The variables involved with type of drug, quantity, whether it was taken with an anaesthetic, and of course when it was administered, lead to imprecise termination. He would have been babysitting her to get the job done and get out at the earliest opportunity. We will get this out of him.”

  Duarte nodded. “Do we have a name?”

  “I think we should progress the meeting at hand with Snr. Salina before we get into that sort of detail Duarte.”

  When Manuel filled in some of the background to his lack of concern at his father being exposed, Pierze opened up a little.

  “I have received notice from his hireling – Olmeda, that he has applied for a temporary injunction, and warned me of the consequences of ignoring pending restrictions. You were correct in your prediction Duarte. So, if Manuel will express his endorsement of the request and the reasons for this, I will serve Antonio Salina with this edict.”

  Duarte joked, “Well then, you’ve got what you wanted, may we know what your document contains?”

  “Of course. As Olmeda’s rap over my knuckles was addressed to the ‘appellant’ I would like you to take it to him. This way we retain professional courtesy and ensure the local jurisdiction is respected – something which they have failed to do.” The meeting was concluded with some accord and Pierze welcomed being kept in the loop with Manuel’s efforts. He did try to ascertain who the sponsor was, but Manuel said that was not possible at present. When they got to Duarte’s office they opened the letter. Having read both parts they looked at one another in astonishment. The first part was from the Foreign Office. This title was a little grandiose in the perception of the citizens of Iberia, as they claimed the only foreign entity was Orient. In the eyes of the government any territory outside of true Iberian rule was considered foreign, including aligned states, protectorates and the like. This of course was a covert policy. The letter was addressed to Antonio Salina and expressly stated that they were temporarily taking over this case from Central Security. It enumerated the reasons, amongst which were, the failure of his department to interpret the possible threat coming from Orient, especially with the recent Moon launch, and various charges of not only ignoring leads provided for Central Security, but evidence of a policy of discounting them without discussion. As the Foreign Office and Central Security were on roughly the same level of command it was not within the remit of one to instruct the other. The second part was a letter from President Sanchez authorizing the first part, with specific instruction to proceed with the second post-mortem, and furthermore it was to be carried out by Pierze’s department. This was emphasised as being crucial, to eliminate falsification of the result.

  “Jesus,” exclaimed Duarte, “I knew he was confident, now I know why.” The smile on Manuel’s face illustrated his delight at the blow this would deal to his father.

  Despite efforts by Duarte to winkle more out of him he merely replied, “In time Chief Inspector, in time.” Duarte admitted to himself that he had mixed feelings as he delivered the letter to Olmeda. As much as he suspected Antonio Salina had this coming in his professional capacity, he was sorry his wife was going to bear the emotional burden of Konrad’s body being mutilated. Though he was not her real son, Manuel insisted she had always treated them as siblings. She would not understand why this was happening but may very soon find out. He was beginning to think that Pierze knew exactly what he was looking for.

  Olmeda exploded with anger. “This is utterly outrageous; we will have to verify the President’s seal. This is not effective until we have that authenticated.”

  Salina silenced his legal foot soldier. “Olmeda, please keep your voice down. I can tell you myself that the seal is genuine and if you were thinking straight you would realise that it only makes things worse if we contest it. We have to deal with it by employing any remaining dignity we can muster. I have to let my wife know of this, please excuse me Chief Inspector.” As he trailed away, a sad broken old man seemed to emerge from the previously confident heavyweight government officer in a matter of a few strides. Duarte pictured the metamorphosis being completed in the elevator. It indicated to him that this was Salina’s capitulation. His thought process was interrupted by Olmeda insisting that this would not rest here.

  “Perhaps you are preoccupied with your own salvation Senor Olmeda, but I have to proceed to speak to the coroner – he needs to know of the change of plan. If you do manage to produce a further alteration to the current edict from the same authority you will let me know, I’m sure.”

  *

  Butragueno wa
s preparing to leave for Barcelona. The call from Manuel was to explain that he would follow as soon as his passport was ‘renewed’. “It should only be a few days. I hope your inquiries are fruitful and I’m looking forward to joining you. I’ve had a further communication from my sponsor, and it may help us both, but it’s better to discuss it face-to-face.”

  She liked the face-to-face prospect but made do with, “Right, we can’t be too careful. See you soon.” She was immediately contacted by Duarte.

  “Pierze volunteered the information about the body in Roman Iberia, probably because he had set you up with the local precincts and the odds of them letting you know. However, he wouldn’t part with the name at present. It seems strange that you got the same rebuff from the people who told you. I think you might want to extend your trip to take in this death. Where exactly was it reported from?”

  “Firenze. Ok, I’ll go there unless any reason arises from the first two precincts to persuade me otherwise. Bye.”

  *

  None of the protagonists knew that Pierze’s examination was not in fact intrusive. He had allowed them to believe this in order to ferment anger and objection. The technique was only recently developed and not available to general medicine yet. The scan was capable of detecting signatures of various types of recent brain activity in the same way forensics could produce markers for drugs and toxins. He wanted to confirm a particular signature before moving on to the new corpse and the suspect who was being held in custody. If there was a positive result in all three he would allow Butragueno’s research to guide him on whether any relatively recent deaths on the list were worthy of scans after such a period of time. This time factor was important as necrosis could play havoc with the interpretation.

  *

  Manuel had received instruction to meet with a ‘courier’ who would re-jig his passport photo, fingerprints and facial vectors. The man would also take DNA samples and retina scans without knowing they were to be included in the SACRED recognition protocols, which Gretz would take to the Moon. This would tie up with his on-screen appearance on his first log-in. Time was tight because Konrad’s character had already endured several days of fasting and inactivity. It would be a much more complicated task to produce a resurrection of an identical profile if the original character died, and important data would be lost. The courier’s ‘office’ was fortunately mobile, and the man would call on him; this man was only briefed with the false passport part of the deception, and considered this pretty routine. Once the courier had completed his part, he would fly to Swiss Iberia to personally hand both the passport and data to Gretz. The elevator to the orbital shuttle dock would hopefully get him there in time.