Puzzle by Nora Phoenix
4
From the moment Coulson and his team had learned Annabeth Markinson had a second phone, they’d assumed it concerned a cheap, simple burner phone. Asher and Diane Russell had both referred to it as such, and Coulson had had no reason to believe otherwise. Until they’d retrieved it from Diane’s safe at her bank and had discovered it wasn’t a simple one. On the contrary.
The BlackBerry DTEK50 was considered one of the most secure phones in the world and near impossible to hack when it was locked, which it was, of course. And it wasn’t even expensive, especially compared to the latest models iPhones. About a fifth of the price, in fact, and yet that little device had caused major headaches when the FBI experts had tried to hack it.
In the end, they’d succeeded, but Coulson had been beyond frustrated with how long it had taken. They’d counted on Mrs. Markinson using an obvious password, but no matter what they’d tried with words, phrases, or numbers they could think of that might have meaning to her, it hadn’t worked. In the end, they’d had to use a brute force attack—what that entailed Coulson didn’t want to know—and had managed to crack it.
“Let’s hear it.” He gestured at Sophia, the team leader of the agents responsible for hacking the phone, to begin.
Sophia clicked on her laptop, and on the screen, a list of calls popped up. “The phone was first used in April 2019, over a year before the assassination of President Markinson. It received both incoming calls and made outgoing calls to four different numbers, all with DC area codes and none of them in use anymore. None of those numbers were registered. On average, she had contact with these people once every two weeks, but we’ve found a few dates when multiple calls were made in close succession, including in the weeks before her death. We’ve confirmed that the information we picked up from the cell tower near her house was indeed from this phone. On at least two occasions, whoever she was calling was on the same cell tower, meaning they were in close range of the house.”
“How long did the calls last?” Seth asked.
“It differs. Some were under two minutes, others as long as fifteen minutes, and the longest one was almost half an hour. That one was made from the White House, by the way, three months before the assassination.”
She clicked to the next screen, which showed a new list of numbers but now grouped by geographical location. “Based on the assumption these calls were between Mrs. Markinson and either Basil King or Kurt Barrow, we checked cell towers around Kingmakers’ office and both men’s private residences to see if we could identify these calls. The cell tower closest to Kingmakers has processed over twenty of the calls on our list, confirming our suspicion she was in contact with someone who works there.”
“That’s great work,” Coulson said, knowing damn well that cross-referencing cell tower records with a list was a tedious task. “This will help us build our case against Kingmakers.”
“Thank you, but I haven’t even gotten to the best part.”
Coulson held up his hands. “My apologies. Please continue.”
Sophia smiled as if to show she hadn’t been upset by Coulson’s interruption, then took a deep breath. “The phone contains no emails, no text messages, and only one app, which I’ll get to in a second. But we did find a browser history, proving that even on a secure phone, you have to use a private browser to protect your history.”
She put a fresh picture on the screen, which showed the search history on the phone. Coulson scanned it. Is being gay in the Marines safe? How to get honorable discharge from Marines. Hamza Bashir. Pride Bombing. Al Saalihin evidence. Mrs. Markinson had done a whole number of searches, every single one showing that she’d been looking out for her grandson and had tried to find out more about Hamza Bashir and the Pride Bombing. Coulson checked the dates on those last searches. July 2020, right after the assassination. Before that, she’d shown no interest in anything to do with the Pride Bombing.
“The timing suggests she didn’t know Al Saalihin would claim the assassination,” Seth said, coming to the same conclusion Coulson had.
“I agree,” Coulson said. “That must’ve come as quite a shock to her.”
“This is where we get to the good part.” Sophia was practically bouncing in her chair. “We don’t have to guess how she felt…because she recorded it. The only app installed on that phone was a simple one that records phone calls, which, by the way, is legal in DC but not in Maryland, which requires consent from both parties.”
Coulson sat up straighter. “She recorded a call?”
“Yes, sir, she did. This call took place two days after the assassination. Let me play it for you.”
Coulson closed his eyes when Mrs. Markinson’s voice came through the speakers. “What on earth happened? That was not what I agreed to. You promised me no one else would get hurt. And please tell me this is not the same group who carried out the Pride Bombing.”
“What does it matter? You wanted him gone. He’s gone.” The voice was deep, male, and sounded annoyed.
“Of course it matters. How could you associate me with that horrific group that took so many innocent lives?”
“That’s a funny line you draw there, ma’am. You have no qualms about having your husband assassinated, but now that other lives were lost and it’s a terrorist group who carried out the order, you have a problem with it?”
“Three Secret Service agents were killed. Three honorable men who dedicated their lives to serving their country and their president. That’s unacceptable. You guaranteed me there’d be no other casualties. What happened to shooting him?”
She sounded more assertive than Coulson would have thought possible from the warm, kind lady he’d met. Not that her tone was anything even remotely close to how she’d spoken to him and Seth. Her intonation was crisp and precise, her voice frigid.
“We couldn’t figure out a way to get a sniper rifle into any event where we could take him out. Security was still too tight for that.” Impatience simmered in his voice, his words coming out as if he was forcing them between clenched teeth.
“You broke your promise to me. I don’t take that lightly. You knew very well that if I had known agents would get killed or that you would use these terrorists with their hatred against America, I’d never have agreed to this. All I wanted was for Shafer to be president and get my husband out of the picture. I didn’t agree to any of this, and I won’t accept it.”
Silence followed. Was that the end of the recording? But then that male voice came back. “Ma’am, that sounded awfully close to a threat. Please reconsider that course of action. Much more powerful people than you have tried to take me down and have failed. Remember, your life is just as expendable as your husband’s was.”
Click.
Holy shit. One phone call had cleared up so many of their questions.
“She didn’t know.” Seth sounded relieved, almost happy. “She didn’t know it would be the same group who was responsible for the Pride Bombing.”
“Not unless this phone call is fake, which I doubt,” Coulson said.
“We’re still working on a more thorough analysis, but so far, nothing indicates this recording was altered or fabricated,” Sophia said.
“Was that Basil King?” Gary, one of Coulson’s most trusted agents on his team, asked.
Sophia nodded. “We think so, but we’re still running everything through our voice recognition software.”
“Was that the only recording?” Coulson asked.
“No, she made one more… Let me play it for you. This one was recorded the day after you and Special Agent Rodecker visited her.”
They’d gone over to ask her if she’d been the source for Henley Platt’s article. The same day they’d caught someone observing them…or maybe Mrs. Markinson.
The recording started playing.
“What in the name of God are you doing?”
Mrs. Markinson was furious, spitting out every word.
“A pleasant afternoon to you, ma’am. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call, and what have I done now to incur your wrath?”
His mocking tone sent shivers down Coulson’s spine.
“A second bomber, one who was supposed to take out Shafer. That’s what you have done.”
“Who told you that?” All amusement had disappeared from his voice.
“Is it true?”
“I don’t owe you any explanation.”
“You lied to me. You told me you’d use a sharpshooter to take out my husband, and instead, you used a bomber. And now I find out you’ve gone after the vice president as well. Why? I never wanted this.”
“That’s the problem when you make a deal with the devil, ma’am. It’s hard to complain about my dirty hands when you have just as much blood on yours.”
“You’re a despicable man. I wish I had never made a deal with you.”
“Tread carefully, Mrs. Markinson, or you may find you’ve outlived your usefulness to us.” His voice had taken on a sharp edge, the threat crystal clear.
“Do you honestly think I fear death? At my age and after everything I’ve been through?”
“Hmm, maybe not your death, but I’m sure we can find someone you do care about. After all, an accident could easily happen to a young Marine like Noel…”
Her gasp echoed through the room, and then the only sound left was her ragged breathing. “You would go after my grandson?” she finally whispered in a broken voice. “An innocent boy who has nothing to do with this?”
The man laughed. “You still don’t get it, do you? This was never about you or your weak husband. You were just a pawn, someone we could use to get what we wanted. And trust me, we will get it. If that means arranging for a gay Marine to die young, I’m perfectly okay with that.”
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Mrs. Markinson said, barely audible. “You have my word.”
“Good. I’m glad I made myself clear.”
The call ended, and Coulson had goose bumps. The asshole had threatened her with her grandson. Was there nothing these people wouldn’t do, no lows they wouldn’t sink to?
Seth cleared his throat. “That confirms she had no idea of their bigger plans. All she wanted was for the president to die, which in itself is bad enough, I know.”
“I understand what you’re saying,” Coulson said. “This doesn’t exonerate her, but it does answer questions as to what she knew exactly.”
“I wonder why they never considered the possibility of her recording these calls,” Gary said.
“She wasn’t tech-savvy at all,” Seth said. “She must’ve asked one of her grandkids how to put that app on the phone, or maybe she Googled it. She was smart, but not with technical things.”
“They must’ve reckoned they’d ensured her compliance after threatening her grandson. They knew what she would do for him,” Sophia said softly. “As a mother, I understand that part. If someone threatened my child, I’d react the same way.”
“This is fantastic work, Sophia. Please convey my thanks to your team.”
Coulson had never expected to get this much from her phone. Thank fuck Diane had kept it and not thrown it out, which she could’ve easily done. With this, they had a few more pieces of the puzzle…and it was almost complete. Kingmakers was going down, and Coulson wanted to be the one to slap the handcuffs on Basil King, read him his rights, and then throw the fucker in jail. For the rest of his life.
