Spiral (45 page)

It was noon by the time everyone had met, settled around the refectory table in the library. While they ate a variety of sandwiches, cold cuts, and sliced fresh vegetables from platters in the center of the table, Haydon explained what Celia Moreno had been doing during the morning and suggested they begin by reading her notes, using them as a starting point for comparing information.

Celia had spent her time well. She had typed out seven double-spaced pages of names whose relationships and duties within the
tecos
she explicated with two or three sentences. There were names of businesses and organizations as well as individuals. But very little of it dealt with the
tecos de choque.
Most of the information pertained to the part of the organization that showed its face to the public as a kind of nationalistic fraternity, housed and sponsored by the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. This was the face Dr. Ferretis had wanted her to see. His own involvement with the "enforcing" arm of the secret society had been off-limits to her.

As they ate with one hand and passed the pages around the table with the other, Celia sat with her back to the terrace doors and watched them. She was subdued; the news of Ferretis's death coming on top of all the rest that had happened had disturbed her considerably. Haydon also suspected she had begun to draw some obvious conclusions about her own vulnerability.

He sat at the end of the old table near his desk and watched her. There had been no time, nor had Haydon thought it safe, for her to return to her apartment for clothes, so she wore one of Nina's cream

silk blouses and a cocoa-brown linen skirt. Celia was a little smaller than Nina, but she wore the slightly oversized clothes as if they were designed to be coolly loose-fitting. Most of the time her eyes were or Renata Islas.

Renata sat directly across from Celia, reading the pages som berly, slowly, her dark Indian eyes floating along the lines. She ex eluded everyone from this process, and Haydon had the impressio that the names of the people and the streets in Guadalajara recreate a world for her that none of them could imagine, and that she mu: have found painful to relive. He remembered what she had said aboi hate, and wondered how that philosophy was affecting what she mu be feeling.

Mitchell Garner sat next to Renata, leaning forward over tl table. He had removed his ballpoint pen from his pocket and w fiddling with it in his right hand, occasionally using it to put a chei mark by something he had read. He read quickly, always finishii before Renata passed him another page. As he waited, he ate 1 sandwich like a man familiar with having to juggle food and papi work, eating, drinking, and wiping his hands and mouth with 1 napkin without ever taking his eyes off the pages.

Nina sat across from him, beside Celia. Haydon occasions could feel her eyes studying him.

Finally everyone finished, and Celia shifted uneasily in chair.

"All right," Haydon said. "We have to come up with leads, even one lead, no matter how remote."

"I have a question," Renata said immediately, looking Haydon.

He nodded. "Go ahead."

"If you are correct," Renata said, looking across at Celia, " have confirmed our group's suspicions regarding the involvemer some of these businessmen. I was glad to see their names here, you tell me exactly how were they involved? This man, for instar she said, turning the page around and pointing to one of the na

Celia nodded. "Well, do you know anything about the
tea
ganizational structure?"

"Only a little," Renata answered. "But assume I know nothing. Explain everything."

Celia looked at her. "Okay. The, uh, Brigade's also known Guadalajara as the Organization or the Movement, and it has a

association with the university there. Most of the professors, administrators, and university officials are members, which is why the Movement is able to exist without restraint within the university system. There are roughly three levels in the Movement—the university staff I've just mentioned; the students, who really amount to little more than spies on other students, other professors, anyone and everyone; and the
tecos de choque,
who are the disciplinary arm of the Brigade. The university affiliation is only a legitimizing cover for them. On the university level, the Brigade operates kind of like an ROTC without uniforms, a secret organization everyone knows exists, but only those within it know anything about it.

"When the Organization targets a student they want to recruit, he's approached. If he shows an interest, he's asked to fill out an 'application' for admission. This thing is incredible, a sixty-question document which warns the applicant at the beginning that he must answer all the questions honestly. If it's determined that he's answered falsely, or with duplicity, he must accept"—she made quotation marks in the air with her fingers—" 'the condemnation of God and the punishment that spies and traitors deserve.' "

She paused and looked around the table. "I'm probably repeating some things you already know."

Islas nodded, with a patient smile. "Yes, but please continue. In small ways, every story is different."

Celia looked at her curiously, glanced at Haydon, and then went on. "The questions are detailed, about the ideological and personal lives of the student's parents, brothers and sisters, friends, girlfriend or wife, teachers, employer, neighbors. Everybody he knows. He's asked to provide these people's full names, addresses, telephone numbers, political orientation, all kinds of information. But above all, he's impressed with the idea that the interests of the Movement, the Brigade, are to become first in his life, even 'before filial respect and the unity of the family.'

"In the weeks after the application is completed, the student undergoes two pretty extensive inquisitions directed by an 'examiner/ investigator.' They involve surprise visits to the student's home to talk to him and his family, who, in most cases, don't even know what's going on. They're checked out until the Brigade has this huge file on them, and that file is always available to the
tecos.
This man," she said, nodding to the name Renata had asked about, "and the ones listed above him and below him are examiner/investigators. "Often these men are themselves alumni of the university, ar were student
tecos.
The
teco
alumni group is strong, and their loyal to each other carries over into the business world as well as into po tics. After nearly five decades, you can imagine how they've managed to permeate every facet of the society there."

"What's the point in all their data gathering?" Garner asked.

"Leverage," Celia said. "See, this is a Gestapo-type mentali In their battle against communism, everyone who is not a
teco
suspect. If they ever want to pressure someone, or use them in a way, they've got the information that could help them to determ the best way to do that. Think of all the interconnections between families and individuals you could come across with this kind of data bank."

"One of these men is in the insurance business," Renata said, "Another is a hospital administrator, another is in the truck business."

"That's right. Most of them are professionals, at this level a way. When you get down to the
tecos de choque,
I get the impress they're not so picky about who they use. That part of the organ tion is made up of gangsters and paramilitary types. The other facets of the Brigade claim to know nothing of its existence. They shrug it off."

Garner turned to Haydon. "Stuart, have you got that list board members of the corporation available?"

Haydon reached around to his desk and got a piece of paper, which he handed to Garner.

"When I saw this the other day, I recognized only two nan he said, looking at the list again. "It occurred to me that both of them were Mexico City residents, and both of them were lawyers."

"May I see that, please?" Islas asked, leaning toward Garner. "These men formed this Teco Corporation?" she asked after a minute.

"Right," Garner said. "Do you know any of them?"

She looked at the list a little longer and then said, "Three."

Garner was surprised. Haydon watched her.

"The two with addresses in Guadalajara: one I know, on heard about. I've also heard about one of the men from Colima. They also are lawyers." She shook her head slowly, staring at one of the names with an expression of disgust. "This one, I cannot believe it, was retained in 1982 by a man and woman who are members of our group. He represented them in an investigation into the disappearance of their son. He was never able to resolve even the most elementary questions in their case. Now I can see why."

Garner looked at Moreno. "While you were down there, did you notice if lawyers were involved in the activities of the Brigade any more than any other profession?"

"No, not particularly. In fact, I can only remember meeting one. At least, he was the only one introduced to me as a lawyer."

"I've got a hunch," Garner said, "that these board members are 'cutouts'—lawyers hired to represent the interests of other men so their clients' names will not have to appear on a public document."

"Mrs. Islas," Haydon said, "can you associate any names with those lawyers whose names you recognize? Have you ever heard of any of their clients, or businesses they represent? Any names connected with them in any way?"

There was silence as Garner and Islas again studied the list of Teco Corporation officers.

"Mitchell," Haydon said after a minute, "will you have information about them in your files? Is there some way you can look into these men's clients?"

"I've never dealt with any of them," Garner said, "so I'd have to make some calls to acquaintances down there. But knowing how this group infiltrates Jaliscan society, I'm not sure I'd get any straight answers inquiring about the
tecos
themselves. If I could—"

"Here!" Renata Islas suddenly put her finger on one of the names. "Here. This man . . . there is a connection here." She looked up at Haydon with an expression of triumph. "There
is
a connection here." She tapped her finger on the name and looked down at it. "This man, Mauricio Luquin Spota, is a lawyer with a firm that is very well known in Guadalajara. Hernan and Ramon Rivas. The Rivas brothers are society friends with a very large and old
tapatio
family headed by an elderly man named Apolinar Medrano Mallen. This Apolinar is an elegant old man with a very interesting history. He has three sons and three daughters. The middle son . . . yes, the middle one ... his name is Bias.

Chapter 46

R
E
NATA
herself seemed surprised to have made this connec They all had their eyes on her, waiting for her to elaborate, explain but she only sat looking at the name, her mouth set firmly.

"Apolinar Medrano Mallen," she said finally, as if introducing him, "can trace his family history to the first settlers in the state of Jalisco in the middle of the sixteenth century. He is
criollo,
wi a single drop of Indian blood in the whole line of his family's Spanish heritage. That gives him a tremendous sense of station. The
tapatio,
which is a nickname for Guadalajarans, comes from Indian expression which means 'three times as worthy.' No believe that of themselves more sincerely than the wealth of Guadalajara, and none of them believe it more ferventl Apolinar Medrano. He is proud with the pride of a man wh to the history of his lineage and sees men of wealth and influence and power; and he is proud with his belief in the strength of his destiny, and that of his heirs. His Catholicism is every bit as the fanaticism we see in the Islamic world today. In every generation a Medrano daughter has denied herself and become a bride of Christ

"Apolinar's father, Bias's grandfather, was one of the founders of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in the late 1930s, as a young man Apolinar himself helped found the Nation? Party, known as PAN, in opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party. As the years went by and PAN adapted itself to the political winds, Apolinar always came down on the extreme was a founder of MURO, a fascist clique within the university of course, he was one of the founders of
los tecos.
He is and financial power who must be reckoned with by anyone' to deal with right-wing politics in Mexico."

Renata stopped and took a drink of her iced tea.

"What do you know about Bias himself?" Haydon asked.

"Very little, but I know a woman who went to the university with him. These Medranos, they are like the Kennedy family used to be in the States. What they do and don't do is always a favorite topic of conversation. For instance, even though I don't know them personally myself, I know that the older brother is a lawyer in Mexico City, and that the younger brother operates one of the family businesses in Guadalajara. His two sisters are married to men who are also employed in the family empire. One in Mexico City, one in Colima. Their comings and goings are always in the papers. But about this Bias, I know nothing. Why is that? It makes me suspicious."

"What's his full name?"

"Bias Medrano Banda. His mother, Solana Banda, is also from a wealthy
tapatio
family. That is very important to them. Power begets power.