The Persona Protocol

Chapter 35 Double Jeopardy

The atmosphere in the meeting room was caustic, to say the least.

Gordon Harper sat at one end of the table, glaring at the STS personnel around it with utter contempt. ‘So. I bust my ass and call in a lot of political favours to give you the chance to follow up on what you found out in Macau. And in return, I get’ — he jumped to his feet, banging both hands down on the table as his voice rose to a roar — ‘a colossal cluster-fuck!’ Holly Jo flinched.

‘With respect, Admiral,’ said Morgan hesitantly, ‘the operation wasn’t a complete failure.’

‘You want to call it a success?’

‘We stopped al-Qaeda from getting the RTG,’ said Tony, more firmly. ‘And we have a recording of al-Rais’s persona. The information we get from that—’

‘Will be utterly useless!’ Harper bellowed. ‘Because you let him get away! The Russians haven’t caught him, so he’s still out there somewhere — and now he knows we’re on to him, so whatever plans al-Qaeda had in the works, they’ll change.’

‘It’ll still be valuable,’ Tony insisted. ‘Al-Rais knows names, contacts. With that information we can attack al-Qaeda from the top down, go after the captains rather than the foot-soldiers.’

Harper couldn’t deny that he had a point, so switched to another angle of attack. ‘And speaking of the Russians, do you have any idea of the size of the swirling shitstorm you’ve started at State?’

‘Awesome alliteration,’ said Bianca quietly.

Not quietly enough. Harper’s searing gaze turned upon her. ‘I don’t think you appreciate how serious this is, Dr Childs.’ He was somehow more threatening now that his voice had returned to a normal volume. ‘Not only are three members of the Persona Project dead and two more injured,’ he nodded towards Tony, who had a dressing over his head wound, ‘as a result of the failure of this operation, but it’s caused a major diplomatic incident. The Russians have raised their military alert status in response to what they call an aggressive invasion of their sovereign territory, so we’ve been forced to do the same. The United States is now at DEFCON 3 — and the last time it was that high was on September eleventh, 2001. Now do you see how serious this is?’

She nodded, abashed. ‘Yes.’

‘Good. Now, the State Department has brought out its chopping block, and it wants to see heads on it. Specifically, all of yours. Convince me not to hand them over.’

Adam spoke up. ‘We still have the other prisoner, sir — Qasid. I learned from al-Rais’s persona that he knows the identity of a mole who gave away the Secretary of State’s route in the Islamabad bombing.’

That produced surprise around the table. Harper flicked through some papers. ‘Qasid? According to everything we have on him, he’s just some low-level thug.’

‘Al-Rais didn’t think so. He considered him one of his most reliable people.’

The Admiral didn’t appear convinced, but before he could say anything the telephone in front of Morgan rang. He picked it up. ‘Morgan… Okay, thank you.’ He ended the call and turned to Harper. ‘Mr Sternberg is ready at the White House.’

Harper looked less impressed than ever. ‘Put him through.’

Morgan used a remote to activate the big screen. The National Security Adviser appeared on it. The camera shooting him was positioned below his eyeline, increasing the impression that he was looming over everyone seated around the conference table. ‘Good afternoon, Gordon, Martin,’ he said, apparently not considering anyone else worthy of a greeting. ‘I won’t mince words — the President is furious about this situation.’

Harper went straight on the attack. ‘A situation that you recommended to him.’

‘At your insistence,’ Sternberg countered smoothly. ‘But at this stage, I’m not here to apportion blame. I just want to know what you’re doing about it. Have we got any actionable intelligence?’

‘Not immediately actionable,’ Morgan replied. ‘Agent Gray was imprinted with Muqaddim al-Rais’s persona, but circumstances forced the team to erase it before he could be debriefed. However, we still have a recorded copy of that persona. Our plan is to re-imprint it and get as much information as we can.’

‘I thought using the same persona twice was unsafe?’

‘Given the circumstances, it’s the only logical option,’ said Kiddrick. ‘We think the risk is minimal.’

‘You think the risk is minimal,’ Bianca said pointedly.

‘All right, Dr Childs, that’s enough,’ said Morgan. ‘We need that information.’

‘See to it,’ said Sternberg. ‘Hopefully we can salvage something out of this mess.’

‘We did get the RTG, sir,’ Tony reminded him.

‘There is that, I suppose. NEST has secured it at Elmendorf. The question now is what we actually do with the thing. I doubt the Russians will ask for it back, considering how much it’ll cost them to make it safe. Anyway, do you have anything else to say at this stage?’

‘You’ve been told everything I have, Alan,’ said Harper. ‘As soon as STS gets anything more, you’ll be copied in on it.’

‘Good. The President wants to be kept fully informed — after all, he has to smooth things over with our Russian friends. In the meantime, get as much as you can from al-Rais’s persona.’ He leaned forward, face filling the screen like a gargoyle before he disconnected.

‘Well,’ rumbled Harper, ‘looks like you all get a stay of execution — for the moment. Get to it, then. Re-imprint al-Rais’s persona and get everything you can out of him.’

‘I still think that’s potentially dangerous,’ Bianca objected.

‘You’ve made it very clear what you think, and right now I don’t care. A second imprint isn’t going to kill him.’

‘But what about a third? Or a fourth, or fifth?’

‘Just get it done,’ snapped Harper. He gathered his papers and stood up to leave.

‘What about Qasid?’ asked Adam.

‘What about him?’

‘He knows the identity of a mole in Pakistani intelligence, sir. We need to find out who that is.’

‘Al-Rais is top priority. You heard the man.’ He jerked a sarcastic thumb at the screen. ‘Let’s gut the big fish before we bother with the small fry.’ He turned to Morgan. ‘Where is this guy Qasid?’

‘In holding,’ Morgan replied.

‘Get a team over here to do a prelim and process him, then render him to Gitmo on the first available flight. Cuba’s the best place to interrogate these people, not DC. Whatever he knows, we’ll find out there.’

Adam started to protest. ‘Sir, I don’t think—’

‘We need to get as much as we can from al-Rais’s persona while the intel is still actionable, Agent Gray! If we waste time and resources on nobodies like Qasid, al-Rais’s people will find new rocks to hide under, and the men who died in Russia will have done so for nothing. Get your priorities straight. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Adam replied emotionlessly.

‘Good.’ Harper headed for the door. ‘Keep me posted,’ he said without looking back.

Uncomfortable looks passed around the table after the door closed. ‘Well, that was… pleasant,’ said Levon. ‘And I wasn’t even in Russia!’

‘What’s happening about recovering the bodies of our guys?’ Baxter demanded.

Morgan shook his head dolefully. ‘That’s all in State’s hands at the moment.’

‘We can’t just leave them there to rot.’

‘I know, I know. I’ve already pushed for an answer. But until we get one, let’s get on with the job in hand. Dr Kiddrick, Tony, Adam, Dr Childs — use the recording of al-Rais’s persona and start a debriefing. And yes,’ he added, raising a hand to block any objections, ‘I know some of you have problems with that. They’ve been noted.’

‘Are they also going to be ignored?’ said Bianca.

‘Dr Kiddrick thinks it’s safe, and he’s the senior adviser, so we’ll proceed on that basis. Now, are there any further questions?’

‘I had one about hazard pay?’ said Kyle. All eyes turned to him, none approvingly. ‘But… I can put it in an email, I guess.’

‘I look forward to reading it,’ said Morgan scathingly. ‘Okay. Let’s get back to work.’

Everyone filed out. In the corridor, Adam was about to follow Tony and Bianca to the lab when Holly Jo stopped him. ‘Adam?’

‘Yes?’

‘There’s, er… something I want to say.’ She glanced down the corridor to check that Morgan was out of earshot.

‘Yeah, me too,’ added Kyle.

‘What is it?’ Adam asked. Bianca and Tony halted, watching with curiosity.

‘I know the mission didn’t go all that well,’ said Holly Jo. ‘But you… well, you saved us. When you flew in and scared off those Russian planes—’

‘That was absolutely awesome, brah!’ Kyle exclaimed. ‘Seriously, an unarmed seaplane taking on two Flankers? You are…’ He was briefly lost for words, settling for raising his right hand in a fist and making a bumping motion with it towards Adam’s chest. ‘The man!’

‘What he said. Only less Jersey Shore,’ Holly Jo added, peeved at being interrupted. ‘But that really was amazing. And you kept us from a diet of prison borscht and cabbage, so thanks!’

‘Anything you need, brah,’ said Kyle. ‘Any time.’

‘Thanks,’ said Adam. ‘But I was just doing my job.’

‘Speaking of jobs…’ said the amused Tony.

‘Yes, I guess we’d better get back to the Bullpen,’ Holly Jo said. ‘But I just wanted to say—’

‘We just wanted to say,’ Kyle cut in.

‘All right, God! We just wanted to tell you how we felt. Thank you.’ The pair headed down the corridor. ‘You are such a child,’ she snapped at Kyle.

‘What? What’d I do?’ he replied, bemused.

‘Looks like you’ve got a fan club,’ Bianca told Adam with a smile.

‘It’s better than the opposite, I suppose.’ He watched Holly Jo and Kyle go, then turned back towards the lab. ‘Okay. Let’s get this over with.’

‘Bianca.’ The word drifted in through a languid fog. ‘Bianca?’

Bianca jerked awake as something touched her arm. She looked round in startled confusion before awareness fully coalesced, finding herself on a couch in one of STS’s soundproofed debriefing rooms. Tony stood over her, a cardboard cup in each hand. ‘Oh! Tony, hi. What… how long was I asleep?’

‘I’m not sure — I dozed off for a while myself,’ he admitted with a smile. ‘Here.’

He passed her a cup of coffee. Bianca looked at her watch. It was approaching six in the morning. ‘Where’s Adam?’

‘In the Cube. Asleep.’

‘I’m not surprised after all that.’ She waved a hand at the battery of recording equipment. The interrogation had gone on for over fourteen hours before its participants finally succumbed to exhaustion.

‘You sat through most of it with him. You didn’t have to — I said you could have gone back to your hotel as soon as the transfer was complete. Hell, Kiddrick left the second he’d packed up the PERSONA gear.’

‘I wanted to make sure Adam was okay.’ She sipped the coffee.

‘Not good?’ Tony asked, seeing her grimace.

‘It’s vending machine coffee — is it ever?’ They both grinned. ‘Thanks, though. I needed it, whatever it tastes like. God, I can’t believe I actually fell asleep while you were questioning Adam.’

‘You were very tired,’ he pointed out. ‘You’ve been through a lot in the past couple of days, so I can’t blame you for taking a nap. I just hope that when they play back the tapes, they can filter out your snoring.’

‘I don’t snore,’ she protested, before realising that he was teasing.

Another grin. ‘You do drool, though.’

‘I do not!’ she cried, putting a hand to the side of her mouth — and finding it damp. ‘Oh. Apparently I do. Ugh.’

He chuckled, then sipped his coffee. ‘It’s kind of cute, so don’t worry about it. Anyway, I wanted to say thank you.’

‘For what?’

‘For everything you’ve done. However the mission turned out, the fact remains that we did stop al-Qaeda from getting hold of nuclear materials. And we still got a lot of actionable intel from al-Rais’s persona.’

‘You didn’t get the man himself, though.’

‘We will. Next time.’

‘If there is a next time. The way Harper was carrying on, it sounded like he wanted everyone at STS court-martialled, or whatever it is you do.’

‘We’ll see. But you… you’ve got absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. You should be proud, in fact. We asked you to do things that were way beyond what you expected — what we expected — and you came through amazingly.’

She blushed, even as she basked in the compliment. ‘Thanks. Although I really would have preferred not to be shot at.’ Her mood dampened as she remembered that others in the team had also been fired upon — and not all had escaped unharmed. ‘God. We could all have been killed. We nearly were.’

Tony crouched in front of her, putting a hand on her arm. ‘Hey. The main thing is that it’s over. And you… you did great.’

‘Thank you,’ she said quietly.

They were both silent for a long moment, looking into each other’s eyes. Tony was the first to break the spell. ‘So. You should get some proper sleep.’

‘I think that’s a good idea,’ she said, stifling a yawn.

‘You want a ride to your hotel? I’m probably going to head home myself soon.’

‘Thanks, but there’s something I need to do before I go.’

‘Check on Adam?’

‘Good guess.’

‘It wasn’t a guess.’ He stood. ‘And this isn’t a guess either — you want to ask me about the side effects of having a persona imprinted more than once.’

‘You’re good at this. You should be a spy or something.’

Tony laughed. ‘I wanted to design skyscrapers when I was a kid, but things didn’t work out that way.’ He sat on the couch beside her. ‘The second time I took on Najjar’s persona, it felt… smoother, maybe, like it was quicker for me to adjust to it. But it was also…’

His expression became troubled. ‘What is it?’ Bianca asked.

‘It’s hard to describe. It felt like… like a tumour. Something that shouldn’t be there, growing inside me. It was a relief every time the persona was wiped, but… it made coming in for the next interrogation worse because I knew this thing would be back. I started getting sick to my stomach every time I went to the lab.’

‘Did you tell anyone?’

He shook his head. ‘No, because I’m a macho idiot.’ The self-deprecating admission made her smile. ‘And I wanted to bring al-Qaeda down using that son of a bitch Najjar’s own knowledge. Which we did — we took out a whole bunch of his top men. Unfortunately, not all of them. Al-Rais survived. And now we’re back in exactly the same situation.’

‘Not quite the same. This time it’s Adam doing it.’

‘Yeah. And I hope he doesn’t go through what I did, but… well. It’s like that definition of insanity: doing exactly the same thing and expecting a different outcome.’ He straightened. ‘You should talk to him. Persuade him not to be a macho idiot.’

‘That might be tough.’ They both smiled. ‘But yes, I’ll try.’ She stood. ‘And Tony… thanks.’

‘For what?’

‘For telling me all that. I know it must have been hard.’

‘Not as hard as actually doing it. If you can help Adam avoid it, you’ve certainly got my blessing.’

‘I’ll see what I can do.’

She left the debriefing room and headed through the corridors to the Bullpen. Only a few of the workstations were manned at this early hour, a skeleton night-shift crew standing in for the regular team members. She went to the Cube and hesitantly tapped on the door.

Adam replied immediately. ‘Yes?’

‘It’s Bianca. Can I come in?’

‘Sure.’

She entered. Adam had changed his clothes, an open wall panel revealing a small wardrobe. ‘Morning,’ she said.

‘Hi. Are you okay?’

‘That was going to be my opening question. Did you get any sleep?’

‘Some.’

She detected an unsettled air to his answer. ‘Did you have the same dream again?’

‘I always have it. But there was something about it this time…’

‘Was it different? Did you remember something?’

‘Not remember, as such, but… I’m more certain than ever that it was something real — up until the part where I see myself dead, anyway. Qasid’s got something to do with it. I don’t know how I know, but… I know.’ He shook his head. ‘As for how much sleep I actually got, it was enough to erase al-Rais’s persona.’

‘That must be a relief.’

‘It is. But you’re still worried about the effects, right?’

‘Yeah.’ She sat facing him. ‘I just talked to Tony about… about what he went through with Najjar’s persona. I want to make sure you’re okay.’

‘Thank you. I’m fine, though.’

‘You’re not just being a macho idiot when you say that, are you?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Tony’s words, not mine.’

‘Tony called me a macho idiot?’

‘No, that’s what he called himself. For not telling anyone what he was going through.’

‘Right.’ He said nothing for a moment, lost in thought. ‘It did feel different the second time.’

‘How so?’

‘It’s hard to put into words. It felt… like getting into character for a play, I suppose. If you’ve rehearsed it, it’s easier to do.’

‘So I assume you’ve acted in a play before, if that’s the first metaphor you thought of.’

‘Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe I was in the drama club at school.’

‘Well, you are a spy. There’s a lot of acting involved.’

A wry grin. ‘It’d be good to have a complete script once in a while.’

‘Preferably one with a happy ending. But did you feel any ill effects from taking on al-Rais’s persona again? Anything… deep down?’ She didn’t want to use Tony’s words to prompt him, hoping he would come up with his own description.

None was forthcoming, though. ‘No. Unless you count disgust, now that I know some of the things he’s done. John was right. We should have killed him when we had the chance. He deserves it. Only now…’ He sighed. ‘He’s on the loose again. And he knows about the Persona Project.’

‘He can’t know all that much, surely?’ said Bianca. ‘Even though we didn’t give him any Mnemexal, all he’ll remember is that we did something to him — but he won’t know what. Maybe he just thought the PERSONA machine was a fancy lie detector or something.’

‘He knows our faces.’

That thought cast a pall over the room. ‘Hopefully someone’ll catch him before he can find out who we are.’

‘We need more than hope.’ Adam leaned back, thinking. ‘He’s got assets he can use against us. But we’ve got one we can use against him.’

‘His persona?’

‘No. We got the most crucial information in the first interrogation — anything else is just going to be extra detail. But we’ve also got Qasid. He knows one of al-Qaeda’s moles — someone high up in Pakistani intelligence. If we find out who… maybe we can turn them.’

‘And get them to tell us where al-Rais is?’ Adam nodded. ‘Only problem is, Harper doesn’t think Qasid’s worth the effort. What if you can’t get permission to make a transfer before he gets shipped out to Guantanamo Bay?’

‘I already know I won’t get it,’ he said. ‘They’re only interested in al-Rais. But Qasid knows something. And not just about the mole — about me, too. He’s seen me before.’ Another thoughtful pause, then he stood. ‘I’m going to find out where.’

‘You’re going to interrogate him?’

‘No. I’m going to use the PERSONA on him.’

‘What?’ Bianca gasped. ‘Wait a minute — if you don’t have permission, won’t that get you into a lot of trouble with Morgan? And with Harper?’

‘I’ll have permission — they just won’t know about it. I can hack into the system and give myself authorisation.’

‘That sounds like a really bad idea, Adam.’

‘Oh, it gets worse,’ he said, giving her a humourless smile. ‘Because I can’t do it without your help. So… will you help me?’

Visions of orange jumpsuits jumped unbidden to her mind. ‘Are you insane? I don’t want to end up in the cell next door to Qasid!’

‘Nobody’ll ever find out. And this is the best time to do it — there’s hardly anyone on duty. The full day shift won’t come in for another couple of hours. I’ll only need a few minutes to get what I need from Qasid’s persona.’

‘What about the security cameras? And the guard on the cells?’

‘If nobody knows anything happened, they won’t have any reason to look at the security records. And the guard will check his computer, see we’ve got permission and not think anything more about it. Bianca, please!’ he said, suddenly pleading. ‘I’ve got to do this. Qasid knows something about my past. If he’s taken away, I’ll never find out what it is.’

‘I want to help you, really I do,’ she replied. ‘But it’s too dangerous!’

‘You went undercover with a violent arms dealer. That was dangerous. So was hiding in the back of a snowcat full of terrorists. All you have to do here is get the PERSONA gear from the lab and oversee the transfer — it’ll take ten minutes, tops.’

‘But if we get caught…’

‘We won’t be,’ he insisted. ‘I know what I’m doing.’ Seeing that she was still reluctant, he softened his voice. ‘Bianca, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’ve done something for me that nobody else has — you made me start thinking about who I really am. And now, I’ve got a chance to find out… but I’ll never know if you don’t help me. I need to do this, Bianca. Please.’

Several seconds passed before she gave him a reply. ‘Are you absolutely sure you can do it without anyone finding out?’

‘Yes, I am. Do you trust me?’

Another pause, but shorter. ‘Yes,’ she said, before repeating the word with more certainty. ‘Yes.’

‘Will you help me?’

Seconds passed before she replied. She would be risking a lot: her career, the Luminica deal, even her freedom.

But Adam was right. She had started his search for answers about his past, and since he had saved her life — more than once — in Russia, she owed him the chance to find them.

‘I… yes,’ she said. ‘But if anything happens…’

‘I’ll take all the blame,’ he said firmly. ‘But it won’t come to that. Like I said, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’

‘I’d better not get mud on my bum again,’ Bianca told him, her old spark resurfacing. ‘Okay, so what do I have to do?’

‘Go to the lab and bring the PERSONA gear.’

‘Including the recorder?’

‘No, I won’t need it.’

‘Good. The damn thing weighs a ton.’

He smiled. ‘Then meet me outside briefing room C in five minutes.’

‘Briefing room C, that’s, ah…’

‘Out of the back-left exit from the Bullpen, turn left, then right.’

‘Gotcha.’ She rose and went to the door — then hesitated, looking back. ‘Adam…’

‘Trust me,’ he said. She nodded and left the room. Adam followed her out, going to one of the unoccupied workstations. A surreptitious check to make sure none of the night-shift staff were paying him any particular attention, then he started to enter commands.