Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
R
andy Child spun in his chair, dropping a foot to kill his momentum after the first circuit was complete. “Well, I’ve been going over the Guggenheim cameras, and I can’t find any evidence that they tapped the security system. Every video I’ve pulled shows they came through the fire door, and we know they kept setting off the alarm. I can’t see any way they’d have been able to see the professors leaving with the Bible. The only breach to the system was external, like the Guggenheim reported, and it happened just after the explosion, and a couple of minutes before that security footage was posted.”
Leroux turned in his chair to face Tong. “What about social media?”
“The girl’s video shows seven of them, with Hugo Peeters in a tuxedo, so we assume he was already inside somehow and opened the fire door letting the other six in. They brought the weapons and explosives with them in the van. They go into the atrium and immediately there’s gunfire. Then there’s other videos that we’ve found where people happened to be already live streaming when the attack began. They all show the same seven gunmen entering the room from the same point. We have Marchand’s testimony that Hugo Peeters and one, maybe two others went into the secure room where the Bible was stored during the course of events. We have no evidence that anybody went anywhere else in the museum, including the security center where they would be able to monitor the feeds. And all reports are that the security teams fell back as they were trained to do, and tried to get anyone not in immediate danger out of the building. Remember, the gala was in the atrium. All other areas of the museum were still open to the public. All evidence suggests this was just a brute force attack. The only thing out of the ordinary was the fact Hugo Peeters somehow got himself inside to let them in through the fire door. The alarm went off, he let his people in, then the rest is history. No evidence they had access to the security system.”
Leroux chewed his cheek. “I think I agree. If they had access, they would have overridden the door security. So, if they didn’t have any access to the security system, then what video are they reacting to? They couldn’t have seen the video of the professors leaving with the Bible, because it wasn’t posted until they were all either dead or loaded with shrapnel. Start going over everything. There has to be another video out there.”
“I had a thought.”
Leroux turned to Child. “What?”
“The girl said one of the guys made her log into her social media accounts on her tablet so they could delete what she posted.”
“So?”
“Well, we don’t have access to that. We’ve only seen what she posted. What if there’s something else in her account that they saw but we didn’t?”
“But she was already captured, so what could it possibly be?”
Tong’s eyes widened. “She was captured, but her brother wasn’t. What if he sent her something?”
Leroux’s head bobbed at the possibility. “You’re right. See if we can get into her accounts and her brother’s. Maybe there’s something there.”
“Does her brother even have an account?”
Child turned to face his station. “At that age, he shouldn’t.” He attacked his keyboard then frowned. “I can’t find anything under his name. Nothing that’s linked to his sister’s or parents’ accounts, anyway.”
“They might have good privacy settings created for him, or they might actually be good parents who know an eight-year-old shouldn’t have social media accounts.”
Leroux clapped his hands together. “Okay, let’s get into her accounts and see what we find.”
