27

Looking up from his notes, Inspector Şen felt his unease gradually mutate into fear. Now, it emerged that Cha0 himself had sent a message to the news channel Haber 7 in response to Ortaç’s interview. It was an extraordinary outburst, seasoned with strong pinches of megalomania and iron conviction. ‘I am the ultimate Law Enforcer on Dark-Market,’ he thundered. ‘I prevent the work of cops and rippers. I create the rules and everyone will obey.’

The Inspector’s contacts soon indicated that Cha0 might well be beyond the law. Şen spoke to his oldest friend in the Istanbul police. It was frightening stuff: both men were worried that Cha0 might have a mole inside the police, who would obviously be informing his boss of the investigation’s progress. If they were unable to trust their team, their backup and, most importantly, their superiors, then how could they possibly take the case any further?

In the first interview Mert Ortaç had spoken a great deal about the secret police and other forces at work in the DarkMarket case. In some countries, this might smack of conspiracy paranoia, but in Turkey it would be unwise to discount it. Mert had implied that the entire Dark-Market operation could touch people at the very peak of economic, military or political power.

The country’s complicated political structure had assumed a new shape since the AK Party became the dominant force there in the elections of 2002. Given that more than 90 per cent of Turks were Muslim, the fact that an avowedly Islamic party had won a landslide victory was not in itself surprising. The AK Party insisted that its religious faith was subordinate to its commitment to democracy, much as