“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.’”

“Sì.”

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?”

She hesitated. “After our operation was over, yes.”

Rossi said, “But I don’t see the implication that seems significant to you, Captain Rhyme.”

Spiro was nodding. “Ah, but I do, Massimo.” He looked toward Rhyme and added, “The conference that’s going on in Rome now. About the immigrants.”

“Exactly.”

Rossi was nodding. “Yes. A number of countries are attending.”

Rhyme said, “I read about it on the flight over. The New York Times. Can we find the article?”

Ercole sat down at a computer and called up the online version of the paper. He found the story. Those in the room clustered around the screen.

CONFERENCE SEEKS TO ADDRESS REFUGEE CRISIS

ROME—An emergency conference on the flood of refugees from the Middle East and northern Africa is under way here, with representatives of more than 20 countries present.

Humanitarian issues top the agenda, with sessions detailing the plight of the asylum-seekers, who risk death on the high seas and mistreatment at the hands of human smugglers who abandon, rob and rape those desperate to escape from war zones, poverty, drought, religious extremism and political oppression.

The crisis has reached such proportions that countries that up until now have resisted taking any significant number of asylum-seekers are considering doing so. Japan and Canada, for instance, are entertaining measures to increase the quota for refugees considerably, and the United States—traditionally resistant to the idea—has a controversial bill before Congress that will authorize the immediate intake of 100 times the number of refugees now allowed into the country. Italy’s parliament too is considering measures relaxing deportation laws and making it easier for refugees to attain asylum. Right-wing movements in Italy, and elsewhere, have vocally—and sometimes violently—opposed such measures.