The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,169

hurt look. ‘Why not?’

‘Because they’re highly classified, and even though I’m on the run, I’m still an American intelligence officer. I took an oath, and I intend to honour it.’ He considered that. ‘The spirit of it, at least. The letter, I’ve kinda broken.’

‘Just slightly. So what can you tell me? Why did Harper push you so hard to join the Persona Project?’

‘Because he knew Kiddrick and Roger could wipe my memory.’

‘And why was that so important to him?’

‘Because . . .’ Adam fell silent as the answers came to him, one thought calling up a memory, which in turn opened up another, and another, a domino effect of conspiracy. He slumped back in the seat. ‘My God.’

‘What is it?’

‘Harper . . .’ Adam began, barely able to believe what he was discovering. ‘Harper was behind it all.’

‘All of what?’

Harper’s persona resisted, desperate to keep the secret, but he pushed the words out. ‘The bombing in Islamabad – the Secretary of State’s assassination. He was behind it!’

Bianca’s eyes widened in shock. ‘You mean – he’s working with al-Qaeda?’

‘No, not at all,’ Adam replied, shaking his head. ‘They’re a threat to American interests – he wants them all exterminated. But he’s willing to use them to help achieve his own goals. Giving Qasid the Secretary’s itinerary was supposed to be a set-up so we could take out a major al-Qaeda cell. But Harper was setting me up.’

‘How?’

‘He changed the fake itinerary for the real one. He wanted them to kill Sandra Easton.’

Bianca was confused. ‘Why would he do that? What would he gain from it?’

‘Two things. Firstly, she was a political opponent. The Pentagon and the State Department have always been rivals, and Easton had been doing a good job of pushing her agenda with the President. Harper detested her. And secondly, al-Qaeda killing such a high-profile target meant that the War on Terror would be reignited.’

‘How could anyone possibly want that?’

‘They would if it meant expanding their power base. Billions of dollars more for the US intelligence community and the Pentagon – more special-ops units, more drones, more satellites, more surveillance systems. As the Director of National Intelligence, Harper is effectively in charge of all of it. The Secretary’s assassination showed that there’s still a major threat against America – and he’s been given the extra money and manpower to deal with it.’

‘You mean . . . Harper did all that just to get more power for himself?’ said Bianca, incredulous.

‘It’s not like that at all,’ Adam snapped. ‘It’s about protecting America – by reminding everyone that there are forces out there who will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life! I did what needed to be done to make that threat clear—’ He stopped abruptly, realising what he had said. ‘Harper did what had – what he thought had to be done.’

‘He actually believes that paranoid crap?’

‘It’s not crap,’ he said sharply. ‘And that’s not Harper talking, that’s me. I’ve been in the heads of these people – like al-Rais. He doesn’t just want to destroy America, he wants to tear down the whole of Western civilisation and replace it with an Islamic theocracy. His ultimate goal is basically the Taliban as a model for global government. Is that something you want?’

‘Of course it’s not,’ she replied. ‘But al-Qaeda wouldn’t have been able to kill the Secretary if Harper hadn’t given them the information in the first place. He was using you as an agent provocateur!’

He shook his head again, more sadly. ‘And I didn’t even know it.’

‘If you didn’t know, why did he still want to wipe your memory? You couldn’t have been a threat to him.’

‘Risk minimisation,’ he said, following another rippling chain of memories. ‘I’d read the documents I gave to Qasid. Harper thought there was a chance I might put two and two together and realise they were real, not fakes. He couldn’t allow that.’

‘Not to be morbid, but if he was willing to go that far to get what he wanted, why didn’t he just have you killed?’

A cold shiver ran down Adam’s spine. ‘He considered it. That’s why John Baxter was in Pakistan. If I realised the truth, he’d been ordered to kill me.’

‘Baxter?’ gasped Bianca. ‘You mean – all the time he was working with you at STS, he was really keeping watch on you?’

‘Yes. And he was still under the same orders, even after my memory was erased. If I remembered what had happened, he’d take me out. Quietly,