Coulson and Seth shared a look, and Calix's stomach dropped. Whatever their news was, it wasn't good. "Yes. You'll understand when we explain. We've already informed the FBI director and Director James."
To call Coulson level-headed was an understatement, and even this message was delivered with a complete lack of drama, but a shiver still ran down Calix's spine. For the FBI agent to inform both directors and insist the president needed to be involved, he had to have serious intelligence.
"Let me see if he's available."
Calix had to pull Del out of a meeting, but ten minutes later, they were all in the Oval Office. "Spill," Del said, his face tight.
Coulson jumped right in. "One of the loose ends we still had was Henley's article on the Secret Service from a year ago and, more specifically, his source. The Secret Service did an internal investigation, but they couldn't find the leak. Seth suggested we try a method called an information matrix where you list the exact details from the source—in this case the article—and then determine who had access to that specific information but not more. We also talked to Henley, and while he wasn't willing to give us his source, he did reveal the leak wasn't someone from within the Secret Service. That narrowed down our list of suspects considerably. Today, we found out who his source was."
Calix's heart skipped a beat. "We're not gonna like this, are we?"
"No. We're almost certain it was Annabeth Markinson."
Calix couldn't hold back his gasp, which mingled with a similar exclamation of surprise from Del. "Why on earth would she do that?" Del asked.
"That, of course, was our big question as well, and this is where Seth comes in." Coulson nodded at his boyfriend to take over.
"I've always taken confidentiality as a crucial requirement for my job. I don't talk to others about what I overhear, not even if it's salacious gossip. That's why I never mentioned anything about the Markinsons's marriage. It wasn't relevant. Until now. But after this discovery, I have to share because what I know can shed some light on her motives."
"I gather their marriage wasn't as perfect as it seemed, then," Calix said.
"No, far from it. Three years ago, President Markinson had an affair with a woman who was younger than his youngest son. The first lady found out, and understandably, she was furious. He begged her not to go public with it, and she agreed on the condition he wouldn't run for a second term but would let his vice president run instead."
"Except his vice president had to resign when he was diagnosed with cancer…" Calix said slowly, trying to put the puzzle pieces together in his mind.
"He renegotiated with her, telling her he couldn't honor his promise, considering the circumstances. She relented but insisted he would choose you as his vice president, Mr. President."
Calix's mouth dropped open in shock. The first lady had picked Del as vice president? Why?
"Shortly after Mrs. Markinson discovered the president's affair, their grandson came out as gay," Seth said softly. "For all his lofty rhetoric in public, the president was livid, and he told his son, the boy's father, to squelch it. The first lady was upset and angry in a way I'd never seen before. She contacted her grandson and told him she loved him and supported him."
"Nominating me was her way of getting back at the president and, at the same time, supporting her grandson," Del said, voicing what had run through Calix’s mind as well.
"I suspect so, though I never heard her say that. The president agreed, probably also because of your popularity, Mr. President. He didn't seem too upset about it…until the reelection two years ago, when he won the elections, but the Democrats lost the House and the Senate."
"He blamed me for it," Del said. "And to be fair, he wasn't wrong. Putting an openly bisexual man on the ticket was an enormous risk on his part, though from what I understand now, he didn't have another choice. If the first lady had gone public with his infidelity, that could've very well cost him his reelection."
"No doubt about it. Democrats are pretty tolerant of certain behaviors—Bill Clinton being the prime example—but the difference was that Hillary stood by him. If Annabeth Markinson had spoken out against her husband, he wouldn't have stood a chance in hell of winning," Calix said. "His margins weren't that comfortable to begin with, and that would've cost him the moral high ground he had."
"That's the kind of analysis I'll leave to you professionals, but it sounds reasonable," Seth said.
Calix frowned. "Which grandson was it, if I may ask?"
Seth's face tightens. "Noel Markinson. The one who joined the Marines last year."
The president let out a sound of distress. "He's openly gay and joined the Marines? That took serious balls. We've made progress in the armed forces, but the Marines are not known for being progressive. That's the most traditional old boys club you can imagine."
Seth shifted in his seat. "We're venturing into gossip territory here, but in this room, I feel like I can safely say this. He only joined because his grandfather and his father put pressure on him. They bullied him into joining so they could get the gay out of him. Which is a literal quote from former president Markinson I overheard him saying on the phone to his son."
"Not quite the gay-friendly icon he pretended to be." Calix was unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Would he ever be in a place where homophobia wouldn't surprise him anymore? Where it wouldn't hurt? After the Pride Bombing, he thought he'd seen it all, but in a way, the former president’s betrayal was ten times worse than the open hate of Al Saalihin.
"I'll say," Del murmured, and his face showed his disappointment.
"Now you understand why we needed to talk to you urgently," Coulson said. "Because what does this mean? Why did Annabeth Markinson talk to Henley about the issues within the Secret Service? What was her end goal? Did she really want to hurt her husband? Henley also hinted that he didn't think she contacted him on her own initiative. He suggested someone had told her to, so who could that have been?"
Silence filled the room. Calix let the implications of this new information sink in. He could barely wrap his head around the idea that the first lady had gone public with information that had threatened her husband's safety. More than that. The safety of her family, including her children. Wait. Her children.
"Seth, did the first lady ever say anything about why the president had requested extended protection for his family?" he asked.
Seth sighed, a myriad of emotions crossing over his face. No wonder. He was in a tough position, being forced to break the confidentiality he took so very seriously.
"As far as I know, she didn't know why her husband had requested that. On several occasions, she argued with him about it. She's an amazing woman, warm and maternal, and she was worried about the toll it was taking on the Secret Service. She respected us for the job we did, never failed to thank us, and she was concerned about the long hours we were working. But the president refused to relent, and I don’t think he ever told her why he had made that request."
"So maybe the only reason she talked to Henley was to indirectly force her husband to scale back the level of his protection," the president said.