Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

down the street.
    Magnus turned and saw a figure sitting on the bench reading a newspaper.
    Tom Bryant.
    Magnus sent Árni back to the station and went down the road to meet him. Bryant lowered his Tribune and smiled at Magnus. ‘Want a lift?’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    B RYANT DROVE MAGNUS up to the Pearl, the globular exhibition building set atop geothermal hot-water tanks on a low hill
overlooking the city. It was still early; there were few cars in the parking lot. They sat in the car, staring out over the scrappy trees that surrounded the hill towards the jumble of brightly
coloured toy houses of Thingholt. In the foreground commuter aeroplanes manoeuvred around the taxiways of Reykjavík City Airport. It was a clear, breezy day – no sign of any ash.
    ‘Do you have some questions for me?’ Bryant asked.
    ‘You’ve studied Freeflow?’ Magnus asked.
    ‘I have.’
    ‘Who do you think hates it enough to kill?’
    ‘The Zimbabwe government. The Italian mafia. Maybe some individuals who have been bruised along the way. And the Israelis. Perhaps.’
    ‘Zimbabwe!’ cried Magnus. ‘Not another goddamned country. At least we don’t have any black suspects.’
    ‘They could pay white guys,’ Bryant said.
    ‘Don’t,’ said Magnus. ‘What about the Gruppo Cavour scandal? Is that real?’
    ‘That one will run and run,’ said Bryant. ‘It will keep the Italian courts busy for years. The key thing there is that powerful people in Italy believe there is more to come
out from Freeflow. Implicating other politicians beyond Tretto.’
    ‘So they might be trying to shut down Freeflow before it publishes?’
    ‘Could be.’
    ‘Did you know that Nico Andreose was a plant? He was working for Tretto all along.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
    ‘You didn’t want me to. You were very specific: no sharing of information.’
    Magnus sighed. ‘OK. Is there anything else you know?’
    Bryant didn’t answer at first. Over Reykjavík a little black cloud was gathering itself, ready to dump water on to the Hallgrímskirkja below.
    ‘That depends,’ the agent said at last.
    ‘On what?’
    ‘On what Freeflow is working on now.’
    ‘I can’t tell you that.’
    ‘But you know?’
    Magnus nodded. ‘I know.’
    ‘OK,’ said Bryant. ‘We have information that there is a videotape floating around. A video of the shooting of some UN workers in Gaza in January 2009.’
    ‘Is there?’
    ‘Yes there is. What we don’t know is whether this video has found its way to Freeflow. And whether Freeflow is planning to publish it in the next few days. That would be very useful
information to have.’
    ‘I imagine it would.’
    ‘Come on, Magnus, help me out here. I’ve helped you.’
    ‘Not very much.’
    Bryant was silent. The little black cloud a mile away opened up, dropping a grey curtain of rain on to the town below.
    ‘OK,’ Bryant said. ‘We believe it’s a fake.’
    ‘What, so Tamara Wilton and the others weren’t really killed?’ Magnus knew that he was more or less admitting that Bryant was on the right track.
    ‘Have you seen it?’
    Magnus nodded. ‘It didn’t look fake to me.’
    ‘It wouldn’t,’ Bryant said. ‘But our information is that it’s not the actual video which is fake. It’s the audio.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Magnus.
    ‘Would that make a difference?’
    ‘Yes,’ Magnus said. ‘Yes, it would.’ He thought about the images. Part of what had made them so disturbing, a big part, was the callousness of the crew. And that had only
come across in the words they had spoken, or the translation Erika had given him of the Hebrew, and the laughter, the smug chuckles. What if the soldiers had actually been discussing how they were
sure they were firing at an anti-tank crew? Or even if they had said nothing?
    The video was still pretty disturbing, but the incident would be easier to dismiss as part of the confusion of war. Possibly a downgrade from ‘war crime’ to ‘war
accident’. That would be an important distinction.
    ‘Who faked it? Not Freeflow?’
    ‘No, definitely not Freeflow,’ Bryant said.
    ‘The Palestinians?’ Magnus said.
    ‘Could be. Obviously they want to make the Israelis look bad. Or it could be the Israelis themselves – or rather right-wing extremists in Israel.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘There are a number of elements within Israel who don’t like the peace process. You remember I told you that the Israeli government and the Palestinians are