The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,52

his guard?’

‘Something like taking him for a quarter-million dollars at poker?’ Everyone looked round as Adam spoke. He was standing unobtrusively at the edge of the group.

Tony grinned. ‘Something like that, yes. If we use the persona of a world-class card sharp . . .’

‘I’m sure we’ve got someone suitable,’ said Morgan. ‘All right! We know the person, we know the place. What we need now is a plan. Get on it. I want first proposals by eleven a.m., and we’ll take things from there.’

The assembly broke up, everyone dispersing with purpose. As Morgan departed with Harper and Sternberg, Tony came over to Bianca. ‘Good call.’

She felt a little embarrassed at the praise. ‘It was fairly obvious – someone else would have said it if I hadn’t.’

‘But you said it first. Looks like Roger was right – you really are the perfect choice to take his place.’

‘I wouldn’t go that far. But thanks for backing me up.’

‘No problem.’ He smiled at her, then addressed his colleagues. ‘Okay, I want everyone to divide up into working groups. We need as much information as we can find on Zykov, Hadrami, known associates, and the Imperial Casino in Macau, plus any local assets we might have. We have less than forty-eight hours to work out how to crack this guy, and seventeen of them will be taken up by flying there. So get those brains started, people!’

For the second time in a few days, Bianca found herself aboard a private jet.

This aircraft was considerably larger than the one that had brought her to Washington; she didn’t know the type, but she had been aboard similarly sized airliners on regular commercial flights. It seemed excessive, since the team going to Macau only comprised thirteen people including herself, but she assumed that STS had simply requisitioned the first available US government jet.

It gave her room to stretch out, though. A general plan had been worked out in Washington, and was now being fine-tuned en route, Levon and others offering contributions from the other end of a satellite link with the Bullpen. Tactics were not her concern, however, so she was taking a break from the discussion in the VIP section at the front of the cabin.

She looked out of a porthole. Nothing was visible beyond except blue, the empty sky and the Pacific mirror images against the pale line of the horizon. A shift of focus, and she caught her own reflection in the window. ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ she whispered.

It was not the first time recently that she had asked herself the question.

Someone opened the dividing curtain. She looked round. ‘Hey,’ said Tony, coming to her seat.

‘Hi. What’s up?’

‘Work, I’m afraid. We have a plan. We’re about to present it to Martin.’

Bianca stood and followed him out. Most of the team were seated at a large table, others overflowing on to the rows of standard aircraft seats behind it. There was a space at the table for her. She took it, then looked up at the screen on the bulkhead.

It was divided into three windows, the faces of Morgan, Levon and Kiddrick occupying them. Morgan finished talking to someone off-camera and tapped a button to unmute his microphone. ‘Okay. Let’s have it.’

Tony took his own seat between Bianca and Adam. ‘Right. We know that Zykov is staying in one of the Imperial’s penthouses, and Levon got the plans from the French firm of architects who designed the place.’

Levon beamed on his screen. ‘Right down to the position of the last faucet. There might be a lot of security in the casino, but there was hardly any on the architects’ servers!’

‘The penthouses have private elevator access and twenty-four-hour concierges, as well as full CCTV coverage of the hallways outside,’ Tony went on. ‘The chances of entering unseen that way are almost zero. We thought about getting into his penthouse from the roof, but it’d be tricky – especially for Dr Childs.’

Bianca blinked in surprise. ‘What?’

‘Wherever we grab Zykov, you need to be there, remember?’ said Tony. ‘You have to administer the drugs. And we figured that you probably wouldn’t want to climb along the edge of a fiftieth-storey rooftop.’

‘While carrying about twenty pounds of PERSONA gear,’ Kiddrick added with sardonic pleasure.

‘So the penthouse was out. But,’ Tony said, nodding at Baxter, ‘John came up with an alternative that we think will work.’

‘It follows on from what Dr Childs suggested,’ Baxter began. ‘We make Zykov mad as hell by having Adam clean him