“He’s gone missing?” said Suleiman, almost hissing into his phone. “How can you let that happen, you were supposed to be monitoring him, stopping him from drawing attention to us.”

The trusted lieutenant mumbled an apology and insisted that Ahmed had not returned his calls and that he’d not met him since he’d arrived in Vigo the previous day.

Suleiman knew that what the man had said was true, so he softened his tone, because he needed some motivated brothers to search for the man causing them so many problems. He encouraged the lieutenant to look for Ahmed and to let him know when contact had been made.

Suleiman then phoned Ali to give him some instructions. Ali told Suleiman that Ahmed had phoned him yesterday when he was heading towards the Islas Cies on the trail of the assassin, but now there was no reply from him. Ali kept saying sorry, because he should have told Suleiman about the conversation sooner.

“Ali, please stop apologising, Ahmed will turn up somewhere. We should concentrate on finding this infidel. Please go to the Guixar station and see if the man has been to that station, ask about people buying tickets, and see where they were going next. My guess is that he will double back to Santiago and try to head eastwards. I will go to Urzaiz and ask Mohamed, Rashid, and Arsalan to meet me there, so we can ask the same questions. Our man is more likely to head there, I think. But go to Guixar, and if necessary come to Urzaiz, and let us know what you find.”

Ali agreed and rang off.

Suleiman believed that Ahmed had met his death on the Islas Cies, but he had heard nothing on the news, although this was probably because the police were telling the media to keep quiet about his demise until they had caught the perpetrator. So much for democracy.

Suleiman made two more quick phone calls and then headed to the Urzaiz station where he hoped to find news of the man they were all looking for.