Costa 08 - City of Fear by David Hewson Read Free Book Online Page B

it.”
    Falcone scratched his silver goatee and looked decidedly unimpressed.
    “You’re saying a student wanted for murder twenty years ago fled the country and ended up working with Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan?” He sounded incredulous. “Why?”
    “His motives are irrelevant at this point,” Palombo cut in. “Four men and one woman were spirited from Helmand into northern Pakistan in March. We have reason to believe that Petrakis is their leader. In April they reached Turkey. After that we lost them. Until last night.”
    “If you’d shared this information with us earlier,” Commissario Esposito complained, “we might have been alert to the threat. Giovanni Batisti. That poor woman …”
    “Batisti knew he was supposed to be careful,” the ministry official responded without emotion. “There was nothing sufficiently concrete to warrant anything more than a heightened alert. What would you have done, Commissario? What could any of us have achieved in the face of such a generalized and vague threat?”
    “We can’t possibly know, can we?” Falcone demanded.
    “If the combined forces of the Italian and American security agencies were powerless, Inspector,” Palombo replied icily, “I fail to see how the state police might have made a difference. The plain fact is that the Blue Demon is back with us in the shape of Andrea Petrakis. The security arrangements that were communicated to you previously have clearly been compromised. From this moment on we start afresh. In a few hours we begin building a physical ring of steel around the Quirinale Palace. A fence five meters high around the perimeter. No one comes in without accreditation. Fiumicino and Ciampino airports will close until the summit is over. No traffic will move in any of the nearby roads. We have been in touch with the Vatican authorities. As of this evening, all public buildings, including St. Peter’s, will close to visitors, until the emergency is over.”
    The displeasure on Dario Sordi’s face was plain.
    “We’ll have snipers on rooftops,” Palombo continued. “Armed officers in every part of the city from which some kind of attack—by mortar, by rifle, by chemical or any other means—might be launched. The immediate area outside the exclusion zone will be patrolled constantly, with spot checks on anyone in the vicinity.”
    “This is a city of two and a half million people,” Falcone objected. “You can’t shut them out of the place they live.”
    “What choice do we have?” Palombo shot back.
    “We?” the inspector demanded. “Who exactly is ‘we’?”
    “For the most part, the elite services will be in charge. Carabinieri units. Special forces. You are to be the visible presence. Your hands will be full with traffic, crowd control, the rest.…”
    Esposito shook his head. “Don’t you see how the public will interpret this?”
    “Tell me,” Palombo demanded.
    “They will think you’re erecting special protection for the summit. Adegree of security that is not afforded to the ordinary citizens of Rome!”
    “This is a security exercise. We leave the public relations to you. Our job is to defend the Quirinale.” Palombo’s hand pointed toward the long, elegant windows at the edge of the room. “Beyond that wire …”
    The atmosphere in the grand hall went down a few degrees. There was silence until Dario Sordi observed, “I sympathize with our friends in the police, I must say. This is a disgrace. Campagnolo knew the risks when he chose to invite the world here, not some place in the country where all these great men could have talked day and night and heard nothing but the birds outside the window. I didn’t even know until the decision was made.” He frowned. “But …” Those wide arms, thrown open in despair again. “We must live with what we have. This is the reason why I am taking control. I never thought I would see fences erected around this place in order to keep out the ordinary