The Fortune Teller by Graham Stull

Author:Graham Stull
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2021-04-30T17:22:12+00:00

“Good morning, sir!”

“What did I tell you about the ‘sir’ bullshit?”

“Sorry. It’s a reflex.”

Rhodes rubbed his face and nodded. “So, you read the file on the detainee with Internment Security Number 51?”

“Yes, s— Yes, I did.”

“Gimme a summary.”

“The subject’s full name is Fergus Patrick Maloney. He was invited for questioning by the FBI on September 27, following an anonymous tip-off that he was warning people about the 9/11 attacks the morning before they happened. When questioned, the suspect claimed—”

“Wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

“You just made your first mistake. You said ‘suspect’. At this point he wasn’t a suspect. In fact, he has never been a suspect, and if we have our way, he never will be. Care to tell me why?”

“Because he ... I don’t know, sir.”

“Because to be a suspect, sir, you need to be accused of a crime.”

Brandon was puzzled. “But ... isn’t harboring information about a future terrorist attack a crime?”

“Not here it isn’t. Here it’s an enemy action. We don’t take criminals who were arrested on US soil and stick them in detention camps in Cuba. The detainee with ISN 51 is an ‘enemy combatant’, otherwise a ‘detainee’. If we call him a ‘suspected criminal’, we have to contend with the US Constitution. Call him a ‘prisoner-of-war’ and we have to contend with the Geneva fuckin’ Convention, which is almost worse. The detainee with ISN 51 was invited for questioning, in the course of which he became what the US Code calls a ‘material witness’. Never more. Continue the briefing.”

“The ... witness ... claimed he used clairvoyance to predict the attacks on the World Trade Center, claiming he has always been empowered with a psychic gift. His attitude to the investigating agents was one of flippancy, belligerence and, at one point, during questioning he became physically violent and had to be restrained. On September 30 he was transferred into the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, at which point he signed a document allowing for his voluntary transport to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. From there, he was apprehended by Air Force Intelligence in collaboration with the CIA and taken to a detention facility with a classified location.”

“It was Poland,” Rhodes muttered, with his eyes closed and his head buried in his hands. Before he spoke, Brandon had begun to wonder whether Rhodes had fallen asleep. But apparently this was the Colonel’s way of listening intently.

Brandon continued. “No information was included in the file in relation to his detainment at the CIA facility, except we know that under pressure from a foreign government—which I now presume was Poland—the facility was closed on January 9 and the 36 detainees were transferred back into Military custody. Detainee ISN 51, together with detainees ISN 52 and 53, was sent here on January 10.”

“Good. What about his priors?”

“He has no prior convictions. Police records provided to the Bureau, under condition of strict confidentiality due to diplomatic sensitivities, reveal that in Ireland he had one suspended arrest for drunk and disorderly behavior. He

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