The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,164
a past. Now, I mean. You know who you are again.’
‘Only until I fall asleep.’
She gestured towards the PERSONA equipment. ‘I can imprint you with it again tomorrow. Since it’s your own personality rather than somebody else’s, I don’t think it’ll be nearly as risky. Then we can get out of Washington.’
He shook his head. ‘It might make a good TV show, but I don’t think the two of us going on the run in a black Mustang’ll work out in real life.’
‘So what are we going to do?’
He wiped his eyes, then straightened. ‘Harper was determined to wipe my memory. Even after I’d agreed to join the Persona Project, he kept up the pressure – he even once had me come see him at his house to make sure I wasn’t going to back out. But he wasn’t doing it to save me from any emotional pain – that’s not how he works.’
‘He’s more the type who likes to cause it,’ Bianca said.
‘Right. So he had a reason for doing it. But what was it? He wanted me to forget what happened in Pakistan – my mission to give false information to al-Qaeda. So if I didn’t remember it . . .’
She completed his thought. ‘You couldn’t tell anyone else. He’s trying to cover it up!’
‘Looks that way.’
‘But why?’
Adam stood, filled with a new sense of purpose. ‘There’s one way to find out.’
The sun was setting over Washington as the luxurious Cadillac CTS crawled north-west out of central DC along the traffic-clogged Massachusetts Avenue. In its back seat, Harper shouted incredulously into his phone. ‘You’ve still got nothing? How the hell is that possible! You’ve got the entire resources of the US government at your disposal, and you can’t find one man?’
Morgan’s voice at the other end of the line was tired, beaten down after a long and stressful day. ‘With all due respect, Admiral, Adam Gray is a highly trained agent in his own right, even without the help of the PERSONA system. If he’s gone to ground—’
‘Morgan, I’m getting fed up of your excuses,’ the older man snapped. ‘Gray is your man – and your responsibility. And right now, he’s an ongoing threat to national security. Find him!’
He disconnected, then immediately scrolled through his lengthy contacts list to make another call. ‘Baxter,’ came the reply.
‘STS still has nothing, and nor do the cops. What about you?’
‘No joy, sir. I’ve got men watching Gray’s apartment and Childs’ hotel, but they haven’t shown. Nothing on their credit or ATM cards either. Sir,’ he added, ‘are you sure you don’t want to block their cards? They’ll need money sooner or later – if we cut them off, it might force them into the open.’
‘No, leave them active,’ said Harper. ‘Gray won’t just be hiding – he’ll be planning something. If we track any financial transactions they make, it could give us a clue to what that is. We have to assume that Childs gave him back his memories, so now he knows everything up to when the recording was made. He’ll be trying to put the pieces together.’
Baxter sounded uncomfortable. ‘Could he expose us?’
‘No – he doesn’t know anything more than he did before, remember. The risk is if he causes the wrong people to start asking questions.’
‘Morgan?’
‘I can handle him, and anyone else in the intelligence community. It’s people outside the chain of command who are the problem.’
‘Like Sternberg?’
The mention of his rival’s name provoked a scowl. ‘Yeah. I’ve already had demands for updates on the situation from the White House. But even if Gray remembers everything, he still doesn’t know anything that directly links us to what happened.’
‘I’ll make sure he never does, sir. Now that he doesn’t have any more inside help, we’ll find him. What’s happening with Carpenter, by the way?’
‘He’s locked up at STS. Once Gray’s been dealt with, I’ll decide what to do with him. It might be that I’ll need you to handle him.’
‘Understood,’ Baxter replied with malevolent meaning. ‘I’ll call you with any updates, sir.’
‘Good.’ Harper disconnected again, then sank back into the plush leather, thinking.
It took another fifteen minutes before the Cadillac finally pulled into the driveway of his house. The leafy neighbourhood was both expensive and exclusive; amongst its residents were a number of embassies, as well as the Washington homes of several major politicians. ‘Will you be needing the car again tonight, sir?’ the driver asked as he opened the rear door for his passenger.