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event. It’s as if this guy, our Conquistador, wants to reclaim the title, turn it back from something vainglorious to something meaningful again.”
    “All on his own? One man against the entire world – against billions?”
    “In his head, those are acceptable odds,” Mal said. “He believes all he has to do is keep hitting the Empire where it hurts, time after time, and eventually it’ll fold up and crawl away.”
    Aaronson grimaced. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you admired him.”
    “Someone that blindly, nakedly stubborn – what’s not to admire? Doesn’t mean I’m not going to do everything in my power to nail the bugger. And not just because he’s an enemy of the state and a mass murderer. Because it’s my neck or his.”
    “So,” said Aaronson as they set off down the steps, “any ideas? Are we going to wait until the Conquistador makes his next move and try to nab him then?”
    “That was Nyman’s tactic, and look how far it got him. No, I think it would be more sensible to force his hand. Lure him out. Let’s us make the running for once.”
    “You have a plan.”
    She did. A sketch of one. It would require Kellaway’s full backing, some string-pulling, and the mobilisation of considerable manpower and resources, but she doubted she would have trouble securing any of those things. The chief super was no less keen than she was to see the Conquistador dead or in custody. A commanding officer could shift the blame onto subordinates only for so long. Mal sensed she was his last throw of the dice. If she didn’t come up with the goods, Kellaway would most likely be kneeling beside her in the quadrangle at HQ, waiting for the shimmering whir of obsidian and the farewell to earthly existence.
    The galling thing was – and Mal could never share this with anyone, not even Aaronson – she had been on the point of turning in her resignation this very morning. For the past few weeks she had been trying to pluck up the courage to write her letter of notice and hand it in. Today, she’d been convinced, was going to be the day. In fact, back in the quadrangle earlier, with Kellaway, she had been close to blurting out the words “I quit”several times.
    Events had taken on their own momentum, however, and almost before she realised it she’d been assigned the Conquistador investigation. It was too late to change that now. In spite of her disenchantment with her job, the Jaguar motto still had some resonance for her: Never back down, never pull out .
    Besides, just as this case that could break a career, it could also make one.
    All the more crucial, then, that her plan got given the green light, and worked.

 

    THREE
     
     
    6 Vulture 1 Monkey 1 House
    (Tuesday 27th November 2012)
     
    T HE B RITISH A IRWAYS aerodisc touched down at Palermo at 11am local time. It was a commercial long-haul flight out of Heathrow, and the yellow quadrant on the disc’s compass totem was highlighted to indicate its southerly bearing. For the onward journey east to Beijing, with recharge stopovers at Istanbul and Karachi on the way, the red totem quadrant would be highlighted, in accordance with divine precept.
    Stuart Reston disembarked with all the other business class passengers. A flight attendant enquired if he’d had a pleasant trip, and he nodded, although in truth the flying time was so brief – a little over an hour – that he felt like he’d scarcely fastened his seatbelt before it was time to unfasten it again.
    He was met in the terminal building by a uniformed chauffeur holding up a sign with his name on it.
    “ Niltze ,” the chauffeur said.
    Reston responded to the Nahuatl greeting with the equivalent in Italian: “ Buòn giorno .”
    The chauffeur took one item of his luggage, a sturdy leather briefcase, and shortly Reston was in the back of a limousine, cruising along the A20 on the northern coast of Sicily. Beside him sat Ettore Addario, CEO of the Compagnia Coltivazione delle