Norberto Machimbarrena’s Mission

Norberto’s enduring delusion turns a perceived naval duty into repeated violence, even after decades of treatment and partial recovery.

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The First Three Victims

Orders from Nowhere A paranoid command Norberto believes that a senior naval authority has communicated mentally with him and ordered him to kill sailors he regards as separatists. He follows the imagined command with chilling discipline. Confinement and treatment A military tribunal finds him not responsible and sends him to the hospital. Decades of care reduce his most dangerous behavior, but do not erase the underlying mission in his mind.

A Delusion Encapsulated

Safety Without Full Recovery A calmer life Norberto lives in a community setting and is no longer treated as an immediate danger. He speaks of serving naval intelligence, now with a mission to report rather than kill suspected enemies. A persistent belief The apparent improvement depends on the absence of a trigger. His conviction remains organized and meaningful to him, showing why a stable appearance cannot by itself prove that a delusion has disappeared.

Two New Targets

The Mission Reawakens A familiar category When two ETA prisoners arrive, Norberto interprets them through the old framework of traitors and naval duty. He lures them into the basement under the pretense of showing them an escape route. Violence repeated He kills both men with a knife, acting from the same delusional logic that once led to the deaths of his shipmates. The killings expose the limits of his apparent recovery and become one of the crimes Alice solves.

More than forty years before the main action

Several decades into Norberto’s stay

After two ETA prisoners escape