The Traitor (The Carnivia Trilogy) (42 page)
Read The Traitor (The Carnivia Trilogy) Online
Authors: Jonathan Holt
All we have is the law.
And so she spoke the formal words of the arrest as carefully as a prayer through her tears: a prayer for the safety, and the soul, of Holly Boland.
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The Traitor
, like the rest of the Carnivia trilogy, is fiction. But it draws on a number of historical events.
Many of the facts about Operation Gladio, for example, are now well established. Prime minister Giulio Andreotti did indeed reveal to the Italian parliament in 1990 that NATO, for the previous forty years, had been training, resourcing and running a secret paramilitary network of civilians, drawn from the far right of the political spectrum, which was intended to form an armed resistance in case of a communist invasion. It wasn’t long before evidence began to surface that some gladiators had, in addition, used their training and their NATO-supplied explosives to commit atrocities and assassinations, part of a coordinated “strategy of tension” that, they believed, would make the public demand tougher security measures from the government. A small number of gladiators were subsequently convicted of these crimes by the Italian courts.
Many commentators believed that these attacks had been carried out with the tacit approval of, if not at the actual behest of, the CIA. To take just one example: General Gianadelio Maletti, former head of Italian Military Counter-Intelligence, testified under oath that “the Americans had gone beyond the infiltration and monitoring of extremist groups to instigating acts of violence” – a claim that was dismissed by the CIA as “ludicrous”.
It is also well established that NATO, and in particular the British and American security services, did all they could to prevent Christian Democrat party leader Aldo Moro from brokering a “historic compromise” with the Communist Party, even going so far as to contemplate orchestrating a “bloodless coup” should the coalition take place. Moro himself, his widow recalls, was warned by Henry Kissinger when on a visit to Washington that there would be dire consequences for him personally if he did not abandon the plan.
The deal with the communists was eventually scuppered when the ultra-left wing Red Brigades first kidnapped Moro, then murdered him. When a subsequent Italian parliamentary enquiry asked the US about possible CIA infiltration of the Red Brigades, the request came back with the comment that the CIA could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of documentation relating to your enquiry”. Readers wishing to learn more about the murky politics of the time should see
NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe
by Daniele Ganser.
More recently, the story of the CIA operation to kidnap a Muslim cleric, Abu Omar, from the streets of Milan, and the efforts of a determined Italian prosecutor to bring the agents responsible to justice, has been told in
A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial
by Steve Hendricks.
Propaganda Due, as Kat Tapo mentions in
The Traitor
, was a “black” or unaffiliated Masonic lodge that existed in Rome from about 1950 to 1980. It has been called “the government within the government” of Italy. The Grand Master, Licio Gelli, fled abroad to escape arrest and was later convicted
in absentia
of conspiracy against the state. Another member was Roberto Calvi, known as “God’s Banker”, who was found hanged underneath Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. Since then there have been several other instances of Masonic lodges in Italy being used as cover for criminal and political conspiracies.
References to US government cyber-surveillance programs such as BULLRUN, PRISM, MUSCULAR, TURBINE and so on are as accurate as I can make them. However, VIGILANCE is fictional – my attempt to bundle all these separate capabilities into one package. My accounts of the vulnerabilities inherent in the Internet of Things are also, I believe, correct at the time of writing, although I have no evidence that such vulnerabilities could extend to the systems on cruise ships.
Ian Gilroy is a composite figure, inspired by – amongst others – Hung Fendwich, ostensibly an engineer at the Selenia Aerospace and Defence Company during the seventies and eighties, but actually one of America’s most senior Italian analysts; and Captain David Carrett of the US Navy, subsequently indicted by a Milan court on terrorism charges.
The independence movement in the Veneto has the support of the majority of the local population: in a 2014 poll in which two million people voted, almost ninety per cent were in favour of breaking away from the rest of Italy. The Regional Council of the Veneto has since voted to instigate a binding referendum. There has been no official response from the national government in Rome.
There have been many proposals to ban large cruise ships from Venice, some of which have been voted into law only to be overturned on appeal. At the time of writing, the issue remains unsettled, and the biggest cruise ships continue to pass within a few hundred feet of Piazza San Marco.
For links to further reading, and information about the other books in the Carnivia trilogy, go to
www.carnivia.com
.
Special thanks to Philip Baillieu for explaining the intricacies of credit default swaps, to Matt Styles for advice on strokes and to Anna Coscia for correcting my Italian. Any errors that remain are of course my own.
My thanks too to Laura Palmer, my editor and publisher, for maintaining her enthusiasm from the very first page of book one to the very last page of book three, and to Lucy Ridout for a mammoth feat of fact-checking and copy-editing.
I’m especially grateful to all those in Venice, Vicenza and Verona, from a full colonel of the Carabinieri to numerous peace campaigners, who made me welcome and helped with my research, and whose generosity of spirit right across the political spectrum reminded me why I love Italy so much.
And finally to my family, who for the last four years have lived with all these crazy conspiracy theories.
The Traitor
He died in the darkness, surrounded by friends. They found him at sunrise, on Venice’s most popular beach. His throat had been cut, his tongue removed.
Captain Kat Tapo suspects a ritual murder with Masonic roots. The brotherhood won’t give up its secrets to a policewoman – but Kat won’t give up the hunt. She’ll use all the allies she has: friends, lovers, hackers, spies.
But shocking truths about the case are about to come to light. And when they do, it will be a race against time to unlock the secrets of Italy’s past – before Venice itself starts to burn…
Discover Italy’s secret history at
www.carnivia.com
T
HE
B
OATMAN
(
previously published as The Abomination)
‘It’s rare to find a genuinely thrilling thriller that is also an illuminating portrait of a particular world, with characters as believable as any real-life acquaintance.
The Abomination
is a terrific book.’
Literary Review
‘
Breathtaking. A truly haunting glimpse into a mysterious shadow world.’
New York Times
‘
This cracking upmarket thriller is the first in a trilogy about a stonking conspiracy. This writer doesn’t take his readers for fools; a rare entertainment for the thinking deckchair reader.’
Saga magazine
‘
Jonathan Holt blasts onto the thriller scene with a high-voltage, all-bets-are-off cracker. An intoxicating mix of thrills, horrors, fascinating characters, stunning locations and disturbing secrets – all held together by the clean and confident prose of a born storyteller.’
Crimesquad
‘
Holt is impressive... Venice is a magnificent backdrop to this story of secrets and lies.’
Daily Mail
‘
A successor to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy.’
Il Piccolo di Venezia
‘
This remarkable debut is no ordinary mystery. Think Dan Brown without the clunky prose and the pompous PhD hero but with the fascinating mix of history, paranoia and real-life terror.’
Booklist
‘
Excellent. The Abomination leaves you hungry for more.’
Chicago Tribune
‘
Brilliant.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘
A brilliant blend of fascinating storylines, serious issues, impeccable research, gripping intrigue and engaging characters. Eminently satisfying from start to finish.’
Library Journal
‘
A superb thriller.’
Il Giornale
‘
AWESOME. Two officers meet on a crime that initially seems quite traightforward until it unravels and escalates into an international network involving prostitution, war crimes and drug lords. This book is brilliant; to say it’s a page-turner is an understatement!’
Lovereading
When Jonathan Holt first travelled to Venice, he found it shrouded in thick fog and flooded with high water. This experience inspired him to write the Carnivia Trilogy: a series of thrillers based on Italy’s hidden history which capture Venice’s unique combination of glamour and decay.
The books in the Carnivia Trilogy have now become international bestsellers, published in 16 countries. The second novel in the trilogy was longlisted for a CWA Steel Dagger Award.