The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,42
. . .’
Albion sighed. ‘Yes, I wondered how soon you’d bring that up.’ He looked at a wall clock. ‘Fifty-three minutes! Longer than I’d expected.’
Bianca pulled her chair closer to the bed, frowning. ‘Seriously, though. From what Tony and Morgan told me, Persona’s mission seems to be to fly around the world, kidnap people, steal their innermost secrets and then use them so that the CIA can pick targets for its robot death-planes.’
‘The targets are terrorists and other deeply unpleasant people. We’re doing the world a favour.’
‘I don’t want to sound like an absolute pinko hippie—’
‘Too late for that!’
‘—but terrorist suspects have rights, like anyone else – and one of them is “innocent until proven guilty”.’
‘Things change in war.’
‘You’re not a soldier. And I didn’t notice anyone else at STS wearing a uniform either. Not even so-called “Admiral” Harper.’
Albion cocked his head to one side. ‘Be careful when dealing with him, Bianca. Very careful. He’s not someone you want to make an enemy of. As the saying goes, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.’
‘I don’t like him now!’
‘Well, that makes two of us. But really, try to avoid pissing him off. Just grit your teeth and stand in for me, and think about all that money waiting when you get back to England. As for how you stand in for me, we’d better get back to your training.’
‘What training?’ she protested, holding up a notebook. ‘It only took you fifty-three minutes to explain everything!’
‘Not that part of the training – I meant the part where you make it look as complicated as possible. If it seems too easy, they might figure out that they don’t need me any more and kick me out.’
She smiled. ‘Don’t tempt me. Besides, I’m surprised they haven’t considered hooking you up to the machine so Adam can load up your persona and work out the doses himself.’
‘I’m sure they have considered it. But fortunately – for me, at least – it wouldn’t be practical. We have a policy that a persona can only be imprinted on him once.’
‘Why?’
‘We found out the hard way that it causes . . . complications. So we don’t do it any more.’
‘What kind of complications?’
‘Severe headaches, confusion – and worse. When you only have one active agent, it’s not worth the risk of compromising his readiness.’
‘Are there plans to recruit more?’
‘People haven’t been lining up to volunteer.’ He adopted a gung-ho voice. ‘“Gee, I sure do want to undergo experimental brain surgery so I can think like a terrorist!” I’m not sure how it would be worded on the recruitment posters.’
‘So why did Adam volunteer?’
‘I have no idea.’
She was surprised. ‘Really?’
‘I know that he did volunteer, but he came to us – well, was presented to us, more accurately – from outside, about ten months ago. Harper had something to do with it. I think Adam used to be with SOCOM – Special Operations Command. Special Forces, in other words.’
‘You think? You don’t know?’
He shifted in the bed, his discomfort more mental than physical. ‘Adam is rather the elephant in the room at the Persona Project. There’s an unofficial policy of, shall we say, limited fraternisation. The team members are discouraged from getting too close to him on a personal level.’
Bianca made a face. ‘How does anyone have the right to decide who gets to be his friend?’
‘It’s a US government black project. Rights don’t enter into things. They can order you to wear different-coloured underwear depending on the day of the week, if they choose.’
‘You’ve worked with him pretty closely, though. You must be able to tell me something more about him. And by something, I mean anything. Seriously! The man is a literal walking enigma.’
‘Yes, I know. But there’s nothing more I can tell you.’
‘Because you don’t know, or you’re not allowed to?’
A wry smile. ‘Perceptive as ever. Let’s just say I have to wear a particular colour of metaphorical underwear on that subject.’
‘Orders from on high, eh? From Morgan?’ Albion’s eyes briefly flicked upwards. ‘Higher? Harper?’
‘No comment.’ His smile widened. ‘But knowing you as well as I do, that won’t stop you from trying to find out for yourself, will it?’
‘Am I that transparent?’
‘Positively see-through. But then, you are British – very pale-skinned from never getting any sun.’
She laughed. ‘Well, I doubt I’ll be in the States long enough to bring out my bikini, so I won’t be getting a tan. But . . .’ She became more serious. ‘I don’t want to find out more