The Crowded Grave

fell, and after a moment Isabelle broke it to say that the next item on her agenda was a report from Carlos on the Spanish side of the inquiry. He had little to say, and rightly judged that the brigadier only wanted the essentials. Madrid could not yet confirm the identity of the long-dead corpse asTodor Garcia but they were working on it. He had nothing further on the Basques, or anything on Teddy.
    As he paused there was a knock on the door and a member of the forensics team came into the room and handed a file to Isabelle. She read it and looked up, eyes shining.
    “We can now confirm from the DNA evidence on a hairbrush Bruno found that Teddy is Todor’s son. This means he must have known where the grave was located. I don’t know how he knew, but that’s now a further reason we need to find him,” she said. Bruno raised his eyebrows a little at her decision not to mention the map, but remained silent.
    “Anything else on the agenda?” the brigadier asked. Isabelle shook her head.
    “Our priority is clearly the Basque active service unit,” the brigadier said. “They’re the ones who constitute the threat to our ministers. The students are secondary, and I suggest the gendarmes shift their deployments accordingly. Since we don’t know the identity of the Basques, we’d better focus on the two Germans who are with them, willingly or otherwise. Have photos and descriptions of these two Germans been distributed?”
    “Photos are being printed now, sir,” said Isabelle. Every gendarmerie in this and all neighboring
départements
, all municipal police and all train stations would have them later that evening. The British police were interviewing Teddy’s mother and had promised a verbal briefing later that day.
    “Finally, you may want to bring in a media specialist,” she said. “There’s been a leak. The German police have already had one inquiry about the finding of a Baader-Meinhof militant who was supposed to be dead. They stalled it, but we could have a flood of media arriving just as the summit is supposed to start. If the news about the kidnapped archaeologist brother gets out, it’ll be even worse.”
    “Very well. The minister’s press spokeswoman is travelinghere with him, but I’ll arrange for someone to fly down tomorrow. Any questions?”
    “Yes, sir,” said Bruno. “What are the rules of engagement? If these Basques are spotted, I mean.”
    “Shoot them on sight,” said Carlos. Bruno glanced at him. The Spaniard’s face was grim; he wasn’t joking.
    “This has already been agreed to at the ministerial level. We use the standard procedure on terrorist cases,” said Isabelle. “Do not shoot first unless your own or civilian lives are in danger. Use firearms in self-defense. They get one invitation to surrender. All security personnel will be briefed accordingly. Live ammunition is being issued.”
    “Any other business?” asked the brigadier. “No? Then we shall meet again tomorrow morning, when we had better think about canceling or postponing or moving this summit. I don’t like any of those options, but if we fail to make progress, we may have no choice. Thank you, everybody. Bruno, stay behind, please.”
    Bruno recognized that the brigadier was on parade. There was none of the affable informality of their sharing foie gras or fine scotch as at the conclusion of previous cases. And in official mode, even in civilian clothes, Brigadier Lannes could be as demanding as he was imposing. He sat impassively, hands relaxed on the table before him, waiting until all the others had left the room. Even the general of gendarmes, who nominally was the senior officer in the room, went quietly with the rest of the security committee. They were, Bruno thought, like so many chastened schoolboys, departing in silence and with sidelong glances of sympathy at Bruno as the remaining victim for the master’s wrath.
    “It’s your turf,” the brigadier said when they were alone. “So you’ll have a better sense of where these bastards might be holed up than anyone else on this team.”
    “There are over fifteen thousand holiday homes in this
département
,” said Bruno. “We’d need at least a thousand teams of armed men to have any hope of checking them all in time. The key to this will be access. Either they have their bombs planted somewhere already, or they have to get here at the right time. I’ve drawn up a patrol and checkpoint plan for the surrounding area, as you