The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,115

not sent, the last digit missing.

Adam kicked the terrorist’s gun away, then recovered his own pistol. ‘Adam!’ said Holly Jo in his ear. ‘What’s happened?’

‘We have al-Rais,’ he announced. ‘I repeat, we have captured Muqaddim al-Rais.’

31

Dominate the Mind

Bianca didn’t dare move. Curled into a tight ball, she flinched with every gunshot and scream. Who was shooting at whom? Had Adam been hit, or even killed? Was she stranded in the Russian wasteland with a group of angry terrorists?

Even after the shooting stopped, she heard activity around the buildings. Petrified, she stayed hunched in the snow. Was she about to be saved – or shot?

‘Bianca!’ Adam’s voice. ‘Bianca, where are you?’

Relief rose in her heart – almost immediately stamped back down by paranoia. Was it a trick? Had he been captured, forced to draw her out of hiding? She peeked fearfully round the trunk. There were men with guns near the jetty, but she couldn’t make out their faces. Oh God, he’d been caught . . .

‘Bianca!’

Another voice. Tony’s. The feeling of relief returned with full force, overcoming her coldness and fear. ‘Here!’ she cried, jumping up. ‘I’m over here!’

Figures hurried through the woods: Adam and Tony. ‘Are you okay?’ the latter called as he approached.

‘I’m fine,’ she replied gratefully. ‘Is everyone all right?’

‘We’re all okay,’ said Adam. ‘We’ve captured al-Rais.’

Tony regarded the cases. ‘Is the PERSONA gear okay?’

‘As far as I know,’ she replied.

‘Good. We’re going to need it.’

‘Soon as we make the recording, we should just kill this asshole,’ muttered Baxter. Al-Rais had been secured with flex-cuffs, as had Qasid and the Beriev’s terrified co-pilot, the three survivors held at gunpoint inside the stone building. ‘These two as well.’ He pointed his G36 at Qasid, who recoiled.

‘No!’ Adam said firmly, interposing himself. ‘He knows something. I want to find out what.’

‘That’s not the mission. We got al-Rais, that’s all that matters. Everyone else . . . well, I know my orders. Eliminate the terrorists and anyone helping them.’

‘What?’ exclaimed Bianca, who was taking the repaired recorder from its case. ‘But they’re prisoners – that’s murder!’

‘It’s war. And the only prisoner we were supposed to take was al-Rais. Everyone else should have been shot, if we’d all been following orders.’

‘Nobody gave me that order,’ Adam replied.

Baxter’s only response was a look of contempt. Tony stood beside Adam. ‘Well, we’ve got prisoners now, so we’ll treat them by the book, okay? Besides, we can use this guy,’ he indicated the co-pilot, ‘to fly the plane back to the airport.’

‘Seriously?’ said Baxter in disbelief.

‘The RTG weighs over half a ton. You want to carry it all the way back? Adam, what was your assessment of it? Browning’s, I mean.’

After finding Bianca, Adam had boarded the Be-200 with the Geiger counter to examine its cargo. ‘It’s not in the best condition,’ he said, his borrowed persona’s clipped speech patterns unconsciously returning. ‘But there was no sign of radiation leakage. The casing is intact.’

‘Good.’ Tony reactivated his headset. ‘Holly Jo? Put us through to Martin.’

Morgan’s distorted voice came on the line. ‘What’s the situation?’ he asked.

‘We’ve secured al-Rais and the RTG,’ said Tony. ‘It seems to be intact and safe – as safe as these things get, anyway.’

‘Good. Will you be able to bring it back to the States?’

‘Yeah. They’d already loaded it into their seaplane.’

‘In that case, transfer it to our jet and bring it back home. Better we have it than it’s left lying around in the Russian countryside until they can be bothered to collect it. What about al-Rais?’

‘Dr Childs is prepping the PERSONA right now.’ Bianca glanced up at the mention of her name. ‘We’re going to make the transfer as soon as she’s ready.’

‘And a recording.’ It was a reminder rather than a question.

‘Yes, the recorder’s ready.’ Tony’s gaze moved to Qasid and the co-pilot. ‘There’s, ah . . . something else. We have two additional prisoners.’

Morgan was not pleased. ‘What?’

‘A pilot, and one of al-Rais’s men. Adam captured him.’

‘I see. Adam?’

‘Yes?’ said Adam.

‘Care to explain?’

‘I think Qasid’s got valuable information. Once we’ve got what we need from al-Rais, we should interrogate him too.’

‘What kind of information?’

Adam hesitated before answering. ‘He recognised me. But I’ve never met him before. At least . . . I don’t remember doing.’

That brought surprised reactions from Tony, Bianca and Baxter. Although Morgan was out of sight half a world away, the silence from the other end of the line suggested that he shared the feeling. ‘Okay,’ he finally said. ‘Bring him back as