The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,167

looked Harper up and down, then adjusted the dial. ‘Yeah, that’s probably about right. Sitting at a desk all day adds a bit extra, no matter how hard you try.’

The DNI was caught between fury and fear as she crouched beside him. ‘If you get it wrong and you kill me, it’ll be on your hands. You’ll be a murderer, Childs! I read your file – you went into medicine to save lives. Is that what you want? To be a killer?’

‘Like you?’ Adam said, voice cold.

‘I’ve never killed anyone in my life!’

‘Not yourself. But you gave the orders – to people like me. I want to find out what other orders you gave.’ He nodded to Bianca. ‘Do it.’

‘No!’ Harper roared, trying to scramble to his feet. Adam kicked him back down. Before he could recover, Bianca fired the injector into his neck. His yell was abruptly choked off as his entire body convulsed.

Adam quickly returned to the chair as Bianca tapped the keyboard.

ACTIVE: PERSONA TRANSFER IN PROGRESS.

With more nervousness than usual, she flicked her gaze between the flaring colours on the screen and the two men before her. Guessing the drug dose really was a gamble; there was leeway in Albion’s overly theatrical calculations, but not so much that some degree of accuracy was unnecessary. She had estimated Harper’s height and weight as best she could, but if the dose of Hyperthymexine was too low, it could affect Adam’s ability to access the stolen memories.

If it was too high . . . Harper was right. It could kill him.

But the readings on the screen seemed in line with what she had seen with Zykov, al-Rais, the Russian pilot and Qasid. Reassured, slightly, she removed the vial from the injector and replaced it with one of Mnemexal. Adam did not want Harper to retain any memory of their visit – though it would be impossible for him to dismiss the cut on his head. She eyed the tiled kitchen floor. Maybe they could make it seem as if he had slipped and banged his head, as they’d done in Macau . . .

The screen’s swirl and scroll slowed. The transfer was almost complete. She gave Harper a cursory check, then ran the final diagnostic before turning her full attention to Adam. ‘Did it work?’ she asked as he stirred.

He opened his eyes – and regarded her with the same cold, reptilian intensity as the Admiral himself. A brief chill ran through her. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It did.’

‘I’ll do a memory check anyway—’

‘No!’ He jumped from his seat. ‘We’ve got to get out of here, right now!’

‘Why? What’s wrong?’

He pointed across the kitchen. Beside a door leading outside was an alarm panel, a smaller version of the one by the front entrance. ‘There’s a secondary system. If it’s not deactivated within three minutes after the main alarm, it sends an alert to the Secret Service. They’ll already be on their way!’ He tore off the skullcap, then hurriedly rummaged through Harper’s pockets to find his phone. ‘Come on!’

‘What about the PERSONA?’ Bianca cried as he ran for the hall.

‘Leave it! There’s no time! Bianca, move!’

She looked helplessly at the equipment on the table, then turned to follow him – before impulsively stopping to fire the dose of Mnemexal into Harper’s bloodstream. Then she tossed the injector on to the table and hurried after Adam.

They reached the front door and rushed outside. The drive was not yet filled with SUVs and sharpshooters, which was something, but Adam knew – Harper knew, from a false alarm when the DNI had once forgotten to deactivate the secondary system – that the Secret Service would only take a few minutes to arrive. He pictured the neighbourhood in his mind as the pair ran down the driveway. There were two roads out of the exclusive little enclave; the Secret Service would be coming from the south-west.

The obvious exit route was north-east, then. But the agents knew that too . . .

They ran through the gates to the Mustang. Adam listened for approaching vehicles. Nothing yet – but they would not be coming with sirens wailing. If there was an intruder in the Director’s home, the agents’ orders were to capture or kill, not scare away.

He used the override to start the engine. ‘Wait, wait!’ Bianca gasped as she scrambled into the passenger seat.

Adam revved up, slamming the car into gear and making a rapid getaway – then abruptly jerked the wheel, flinging the Mustang into