María let the smile blossom fully now. It was a rich smile, full of respect and the promise of camaraderie. "Courage without fear is stupidity," María said. "I still believe that you had it, and I admire you even more. We're going to make a very good team."

"Speaking of which," said Aideen, "what's the plan when we reach San Sebastián?" She was anxious to turn the conversation away from herself. Attention had always made her uneasy.

"The first thing we'll do is go to the radio station," María told her.

"As tourists?" Aideen said, perplexed.

"No. We have to find out who brought them the tape. Once we do that, we find those people and watch them as tourists. We know that the dead men were planning some kind of conspiracy. The question is whether they died because of infighting or because someone found out about their plan. Someone who hasn't come forth as yet."

"Meaning we don't know if they're friend or foe."

"Correct," María said. "Like your government, Spain has many factions, which don't necessarily share information with other factions."

As she was speaking, the pilot turned the stick over to the control pilot and leaned back. He removed his headset.

"Agent Corneja?" he shouted. "I just got a message from the chief. He said to tell you that Isidro Serrador was killed tonight at the municipal police station in Madrid."

"How?"

"He was shot to death when he tried to take a gun from an army officer."

"An army officer?" María said. "This case doesn't fall under military jurisdiction."

"I know," he replied. "The chief is looking into who it was and what he was doing there."

María thanked him and he turned back to the controls. She looked at Aideen.

"Something is very wrong here," María said gravely. "I have a feeling that what happened to poor Martha was just the first shot of what is going to be a very long and very deadly enfilade."

FIFTEEN

Tuesday, 2:55 a.m.

San Sebastián, Spain

The familia is an institution that dates back to the late nineteenth century. It is part of the same Mediterranean culture that gave rise to crime families in Sicily, Turkey, and Greece. The variation created by the Spanish was that a member's loyalty was to a legitimate employer, usually the owner of a plant or labor group like bricklayers or icemen. To keep the employer's hands unsullied, a cadre of employees was selected and trained to perform or protect the owner against acts of violence or sabotage and to execute the same against rivals. The targets were almost always business sites; attacks against home and members of one's personal family were considered uncivilized. Occasionally, familia members engaged in smuggling or extortion, though that was rare.