The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,116

well. But al-Rais takes priority. We need to get as much as we can from him as soon as possible, before al-Qaeda realise he’s missing.’

‘We’ll start the debriefing as soon as we leave,’ said Tony.

‘Good. Oh, and . . . one more thing.’ Morgan sounded uncomfortable. ‘Considering al-Rais’s importance as an intelligence source, approval has been given to imprint Adam with his persona as many times as necessary to extract information from him.’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Tony, as startled as Adam at the news. ‘What about the rule on multiple imprints? It’s too risky.’

Bianca looked up again. ‘What is?’

‘They want to imprint al-Rais on to me more than once,’ said Adam.

‘But – I thought that was too dangerous?’

‘So did I. John? Headset.’ He clicked his fingers and held out a hand. Baxter was affronted, but at a nod from Tony took off his headset and gave it to Adam, who passed it on to Bianca. ‘Martin, Bianca’s on the line.’

‘Correct me if I’m wrong,’ she said, adjusting the microphone, ‘but wasn’t the rule about only imprinting Adam once with a particular persona put in place because of the risk of his suffering the same side effects as Tony?’

‘That’s correct,’ said Morgan, not appreciating her confrontational tone, ‘but in this case, the value of the information we can get from al-Rais has been deemed to outweigh other considerations. We’ve captured al-Qaeda’s leader – we can cripple the entire organisation.’

‘And the price is Adam’s health?’

‘Dr Kiddrick is sure it’ll be possible to do it within the bounds of safety.’

‘I don’t suppose anyone asked Dr Albion’s opinion, did they?’

Morgan’s patience had already run out. ‘Dr Childs, this is not a discussion. The decision has been made. We will use every possible means to attack al-Qaeda. Your job is to make that happen – while monitoring Adam’s condition, of course. If it looks as if there are going to be problems, we’ll decide whether or not to continue. But for now, we need to know what al-Rais knows. So make the transfer, please.’

‘Martin,’ said Tony, ‘I want to state on the record that I don’t approve of this decision.’

‘Noted, and understood. But you have your orders. Out.’

‘For Christ’s sake,’ Bianca snapped, pulling off the headset and returning it to Baxter. ‘Tony, you’re not going to go through with this, are you?’

‘Right now, we don’t have much choice. Besides,’ he added, ‘at this stage all we’re doing is a standard transfer. I’ll take this up again with Martin once we’re back at STS, but until then he’s right: we need that information. Are you both ready?’

‘Yes,’ said Adam. Bianca reluctantly nodded.

‘Okay.’ Tony indicated Qasid and the co-pilot. ‘John, take those two into the other room. No point in them seeing more than they need to.’

‘I still say the only thing they need to see is a bullet,’ Baxter told him.

‘Just move them, okay?’

Scowling, Baxter and a couple of his team hauled the two prisoners through a doorway into another part of the derelict building. Tony turned back to Bianca. ‘All right. Let’s do this.’

Al-Rais was guarded by two of Baxter’s men, Cope and Trenton, their guns trained on him. He had maintained a defiant silence, glaring at his captors. The sight of the PERSONA equipment as Bianca set it up prompted a reaction, however. ‘You will never make me talk,’ he rasped. ‘It does not matter for how long you torture me. I will not tell you anything.’

‘We don’t need you to tell us anything,’ Tony countered. ‘Bianca, wire him up.’

She took out the skullcap and unwound the cable. ‘Aren’t you going to examine him first?’ Adam reminded her.

‘Hmm? Oh, oh yes! That would help, wouldn’t it?’ The stress – she hesitated to call it excitement – had completely thrown her. She quickly went through the motions of Albion’s spurious procedure. Al-Rais snarled at her, making her flinch; one of Baxter’s men kicked him hard in the side. ‘Hey, hey!’ she protested.

‘This piece of shit deserves a lot worse than that,’ Cope replied sourly.

‘Maybe so, but I can’t examine him if your boot’s in the way, can I?’ She completed her checks, the two guards pulling him upright so she could measure him, then used the scales in one of the cases to weigh him. Al-Rais resisted, getting a punch in the stomach for his troubles. ‘Okay, thank you.’

The terrorist leader was dropped back to the floor. Bianca calculated the drug dosage in a notebook, then began to fit the skullcap over his head. Even