The Sentinel: 1 (Vengeance of Memory) (43 page)

The kid continued to crawl. There would be no escape, he realised, even in the shelter of the trees. Without ammunition and with little likelihood of climbing down off the mountain without encountering more Fascist troops, they were trapped. As he finally struggled into the bushes that littered the treeline, the kid knew it was finished. He turned to look back down the hillside. A busy tangle of African troops moved around the corpses of their slaughtered enemies. It had been said they took body parts as trophies. The kid saw now that it was true. There were some twenty Moors and a large number of bodies around the entrance to the plateau. And there were more bodies below, he knew that. The death toll among their pursuers was high, although he took little satisfaction from that: there were still plenty left. Glancing through the trees he saw the corporal and four other men. These were not good odds and they had few options left. There was little they could do but wait for their enemies to come up after them and to reveal to them the manner of their death
.

13

MADRID 2009, CALLE DE LOS CUCHILLEROS

The stone walls of the small bar softly echoed with the murmur of early morning conversation, punctuated by the aroma of mushrooms and garlic from the grill. Tali sat at a table in the corner, waiting as Galindez brought over the stone jug of wine and two small plates teeming with mushrooms and roundels of bread. Tali heaped a piece of bread with mushrooms and took a bite. She gasped, fanning her mouth with her hand before gulping down a mouthful of the cold red wine.

‘
Cuidada
, they’re really hot,’ Galindez said.

‘Now you tell me. But they’re so good it’s hard to wait.’

Galindez sipped her Coke and watched people passing by the open door. Eight thirty, and the city was bustling with crowds on their way to work. The dazzling glare promised another tortuous day.

‘I wonder how Mendez and the tech team are getting on at your place?’ Galindez said. ‘There’s two of them with a load of devices straight out of
Star Wars
. Whatever type of equipment Sancho planted, they’ll find it. They checked my flat in a couple of hours when I was at the archive.’

‘Well, I hope they find that bug or whatever it is. I’m not used to having an uninvited audience in my shower, especially not a creep like Sancho.’ Tali wolfed down a last mouthful of mushrooms and finished her wine.

‘About what I said last night…’ Galindez said, quietly.

‘I told you it would sound better outside Guzmán’s HQ.’

‘You were right.’ 

‘Even if you hadn’t told me how you felt about me, I would have known. Know why?’

Galindez shook her head.

‘You never once suggested opening the files from the archive.’ Tali laughed. ‘I knew it must be the real thing if I was more important than Guzmán.’

‘Well, I was distracted.’ Galindez smiled.

‘So you think Mendez will be done by tonight?’

‘Yes. And Mendez always does a thorough job.’ Galindez poured the last of the wine into Tali’s glass. ‘
Bueno.
We’ve got a whole day to work through those files. Drink up and let’s go and get started.’

Tali emptied her glass and walked to the door, Galindez started to follow her.

‘Oyes tú,’
the barman called. ‘
Adónde vas?
Going without paying? You’ll ruin me,
señorita.’

Flustered, Galindez returned to the bar, rummaging for change. As ever, her purse had too much crammed in it to find what she was looking for. Her ID card fell onto the counter. ‘Sorry, I’m all fingers and thumbs, today.’ She realised she hadn’t enough money on her.

‘Leave it,
señorita
,’ the man said. ‘I can see you’re in a hurry.’

‘I live in the flat upstairs,’ Galindez said, embarrassed. ‘Can I pay you next time?’

‘On the house,
señorita.
A couple of pretty girls brighten the place up anyway.’

She thanked him and hurried out into the cobbled street.

The other barman looked at his colleague, puzzled. ‘Who’re you giving freebies to?’

‘That little brunette who lives in one of the apartments
arriba.
I saw her ID card: she’s
guardia civil.
Would never have guessed that. Good customer relations, no? Never hurts to have them on your side.’

*

Galindez read the text from Mendez:

Finished at Natalia’s. Micro camera in bathroom – removed. Radio microphone in landline phone – removed. Radio microphone under bed – removed. Let’s do lunch sometime Ana María?- Mendez.

‘Sounds like Sancho wired up every room.’ Tali said.

‘Well, you’re free of eavesdroppers now.’ Galindez placed the plastic bag containing the files on the desk by the window and waited while Tali made coffee.

‘What will you say in your contribution to Luisa’s report on Guzmán?’ Tali asked.

‘I’ll start by examining those bodies from the mine. In fact, I might go back to Las Peñas for another look around. And there could be material in his diary I can use to develop a profile of him.’

Tali sipped her coffee. ‘What do you make of the diary so far?’

‘It’s puzzling. He seems a very conventional child to begin with, church-goer, choir, music lessons. You’d think he would have been popular. It’s clear his parents were abusive, he’d be taken into care today without doubt. And it’s not just his parents. By the time he hits puberty, all the villagers seem to have turned against him. In a couple of cases they physically attack him.’

‘I noticed that. And without obvious reason.’

‘Precisamente.
Then the war comes and that’s when his career takes off. There’s one thing that strikes me. The handwriting: have you noticed how it changes when the war starts? It gets much stronger and angrier.’

‘It’s not my field, Ana.’

‘Nor mine, but the difference is definitely there. It makes me think he underwent a profound change – although I suppose that’s not surprising – he must have seen a lot of action. And prolonged exposure to wartime violence would have had an impact on him and his men.’

‘You mean they would have remained violent?’

‘I mean they didn’t need to alter their behaviour very much. Men used to intense combat in a civil war would take a while to settle down into normal society again at the best of times. But they didn’t have to: Guzmán and those like him were used to terrorise the population and to eliminate enemies of the regime. For them, the war didn’t end.’

‘So you don’t buy Luisa’s theory about him being a mere cog in the machinery of Franco’s dictatorship?’

‘You know what Luisa and I are like. It would be unusual if we agreed on anything – I certainly don’t think Guzmán was just another narrative to be deconstructed. People are far more complex than Luisa depicts them. I wonder what her motivation is sometimes – it feels like she’s making excuses for the people who carried out Franco’s orders.’

‘You could be right. She likes to be seen as radical and controversial.’

‘Well, enough of her.
Vamos.
Let’s see what’s in these files I borrowed.’

‘There’s a euphemism if ever I heard one,’ Tali said pointedly.

‘They’re not stolen,’ Galindez muttered. ‘It’s just more convenient for us to go through them here. I’ll put them back where I found them in a couple of days and no one will be any the wiser.’

She took the files from the plastic bag. First the old man’s files, roughly tied with string. Below them, the file bearing Guzmán’s name marked
Cuartel del Capitán General de Madrid
. She opened it, taking out a yellowing letter with the crest of the military governor’s office. This was more like it, back on Guzmán’s trail.

‘Shall I open this one?’ Tali lifted the old man’s file by its string.

‘Go ahead.’

Tali cut the string and opened a folder. She began skimming through the papers. She frowned. ‘Sorry, Ana. These all seem to be from the seventies.’

‘Well, at least there’s a reference to Guzmán in this one. Look.’

Tali pulled her chair closer as Galindez read excerpts from the letter:
rank insubordination… discourtesy… conduct not becoming a senior officer…

‘He was a killer,’ Tali said incredulously, ‘and someone’s complaining he’s rude?’

Galindez turned to the next letter. She gave a heavy sigh. ‘Guzmán’s paperwork isn’t up to date and his men appear slovenly.’

‘Who wrote that?’

‘The Military Governor of the Madrid Region, General Antonio Valverde.’

‘Bit of a
llorón
then, our Antonio?’

‘A complete whinger from the look of it. Guzmán did this, Guzmán did that, failed to acknowledge my authority, made arrests without consultation and so on and so forth.
Mierda,
Guzmán even had the water pipes repaired without authorisation.’

‘Wait till we catch him,’ Tali smiled, ‘the first charge will be paying unauthorised plumbers’ fees. They’ll extradite him to the Hague for that.’

‘Mierda,
Tali. I hoped this would give us more insight into Guzmán and his activities. All it tells us is that he was rude, a bad communicator and couldn’t even enforce a proper dress code among his staff.’

‘Try another,’ Tali suggested.

‘OK, let’s see.’ Galindez began to read the next letter.

‘Ana? What is it?’ Tali asked, noticing the intensity of her expression.

‘General Valverde suspects Guzmán of keeping a record of his activities.’

‘Does it give details?’

‘There’s a fair bit of toadying: “my unpleasant duty to report… reluctantly I have to bring to your Excellency’s attention…” Christ, Valverde was really trying to drop Guzmán in the shit. There’s more. “It is my belief that Comandante Guzmán has been keeping unauthorised records of operations and activities officially designated as secret.”’

Tali peered over her shoulder. ‘What’s that handwritten note in the margin?’

‘Someone called Gutierrez. I don’t know who he was. It says “no further action required”. Interesting. This suggests that Guzmán wasn’t quite the blue-eyed boy in Franco’s set-up. In fact, it looks like Valverde was out to blacken Guzmán’s name.’

‘It seems very petty.’

‘Tell you what,’ Galindez said, warming to her theme, ‘if Valverde did undermine Guzmán’s position with Franco, it might explain why Guzmán disappeared in 1953.’

‘What about these other papers? Want to read them while I put Valverde’s complaints into chronological order?’

‘OK. That sounds like a plan,
Señorita
Castillo.’

Galindez idly began to skim the papers from the seventies. They weren’t quite as anodyne as she’d thought. Five minutes later, she was avidly reading them. After twenty minutes she looked up. ‘Tali, you need to see these.’

‘Qué pasa
?’ Tali asked, surprised by the concern in Galindez’s voice.

‘I think we’re in trouble,’ Galindez said. ‘Big trouble.’

Tali looked over Galindez’s shoulder at the documents on the desk. ‘Is this to do with Guzmán?’

‘No, it’s an invoice for four Ingram M10 machine guns. By a
guardia civil
special operations unit.’

‘So what, Ana? They’re armed. They bought guns – is that such a big deal?’

‘You’ll see in a minute. Look at this memo, from someone calling himself Xerxes.’

‘And addressed to “those who should know”. That’s a bit mysterious, isn’t it?’

‘Read it, Tali.’

‘“January twenty-fifth,1977: the operation at 77 Calle de Atocha was successful. Tactical Leader reports Tiburón proved himself useful and that the involvement of the
guardia
was invaluable in attaining our goals. The Reds in the building were engaged, one was killed immediately, the rest were put against a wall and given our response to their demands for democracy.”’

‘You know what he’s talking about, don’t you?’ Galindez said.

‘It’s the Atocha massacre, isn’t it? Fascist terrorists killed someone in an office?’

‘They killed five people,’ Galindez said. ‘Right-wing gunmen went to an advice centre on Calle Atocha and killed four lawyers and a law student. There was a pregnant woman. They shot her as well.’

‘I remember. My dad’s a lawyer, he told me about it after we did it in history class. Didn’t the killers want to derail the transition to democracy?’

‘That’s right,’ Galindez said, ‘they hoped the funerals would spark left-wing riots so the military would step in and take over governing the country again.’

Tali looked at Galindez in alarm. ‘
Joder
, Ana María, so it wasn’t just terrorists: according to that memo the
guardia civil
were involved.’

‘Seems so,’ Galindez agreed. ‘That will cause some problems when it hits the fan. Now look at this.’ She slid another memo across the table. It was dated 27 January 1977.

We have now decided the action at Atocha will be blamed on the group known as
Alianza Apostólica Anti-Communista.
Their political motivation and background make them ideal suspects. Their arrest will generate considerable sympathy and their trial will detract from our involvement. Coming so soon after the other killings, this is bound to incense the Reds and create further opportunities for action against them.

In recognition of their actions, Tactical Leader and Tiburón are promoted with immediate effect. They remain willing to assist in further actions as necessary. The Ingram M10s used in the operation have been destroyed and all documentation pertaining to this operation is being collected by
Los Centinelas
for disposal.

Viva España! Arriba España!
Xerxes.

‘Los Centinelas,’
Galindez muttered. ‘The ones Agustín Benitez told me about at the archive.’

‘And they slipped up, didn’t they?’ Tali said. ‘The memo says they destroyed all the documentation – but they didn’t.’ She paused. ‘
Mierda
. These might be the only copies in existence.’