The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,55

regarding Adam before finally turning away. ‘When you were talking about setting up the car crash, you said you’d done it before, to get a copy of someone’s persona, but Adam didn’t know anything about it.’

‘No, he wouldn’t have.’ He motioned for her to take a seat, waiting politely until she was down before sitting beside her.

‘So Adam isn’t the Persona Project’s first agent?’

‘There was someone else before him.’ A pause. ‘Me.’

She was surprised. ‘You?’

He turned his head and used his thumb and forefinger to part his hair in a particular spot, revealing a small scar. ‘I’ve still got the electrode filaments inside my skull; they decided it was too risky to take them out. So in theory, I could still use the PERSONA device to take on someone else’s personality. In practice, though . . .’

‘What?’

He chewed on his lower lip, reluctant. ‘It’s a long story.’

‘It’s a long flight.’ They were still more than eight hours from Macau.

‘Okay. Just keep it to yourself. Not everybody out there,’ a nod towards the other cabin, ‘knows the whole story, and some of it I’d prefer to keep that way. Not for security reasons, just . . . personal ones.’

‘I won’t say a word,’ she promised.

‘Thanks.’ He smiled briefly. ‘So, before I became the Persona Project’s head of field operations, I was its first field agent. In other words, I was the guinea pig.’

‘How short a straw did you draw to get that assignment?’

‘Actually, I volunteered. I used to be US Army – 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta,’ he said proudly, before clarifying to the uncomprehending Englishwoman, ‘Delta Force. Like the British SAS.’

Again, she was surprised. ‘Really? You don’t look like . . .’

One side of his mouth creased into a sardonic grin. ‘A grunt?’

‘I was going to say “some sort of grim-faced super-soldier”, actually. Aren’t they all supposed to have macho names like Flint or Stone, or Gristle?’

‘What’s wrong with Carpenter?’ he said, in mock offence. ‘There have been some badass carpenters in history. One had a whole book written about him. Two thousand years ago, or thereabouts.’

‘No besmirchment of your good name intended. I meant, you don’t look . . . I don’t know, like a strip of old leather that’s been chewed by the dog. That’s the mental picture I have of those guys. Like John Baxter.’

Tony burst into laughter. ‘Oh, that’s fantastic!’ he said. ‘But you’re right, he kinda does, doesn’t he?’

‘Don’t tell him I said that,’ she added hurriedly.

‘If you can keep a secret, so can I. Anyway, yes, I volunteered.’ He became more sober. ‘The reason was simple enough – I’d seen too many of my friends die in places like Afghanistan. All we were doing was picking off low-level soldiers. I wanted to go after the leaders. Persona gave me that chance.’

Bianca had been fervently opposed to the wars in the Middle East, but she couldn’t help feeling sympathy for him. The deaths that had altered the course of her life had been from long-term, debilitating diseases; they were horrible to witness, but one knew roughly when the end would come. To see people your own age, friends and comrades, violently cut down without warning was something else entirely. ‘So you took the risk?’

‘Yeah. Roger and Kiddrick were there from the start; they made it possible, after all. Martin was brought in from the CIA to oversee things and make sure they didn’t kill each other. The two of them don’t exactly get on. Kiddrick thinks he’s the brains of the operation, and that Roger’s just a glorified pharmacist.’

‘Yes, I got that impression,’ she said, smiling.

‘But the theory was all there, and it was time to see if it worked in practice. So I had the procedure, and . . . it did. All those disks in the lab at STS? Most were recorded as tests for the system; they got volunteers from all kinds of potentially useful backgrounds – like our card player – by telling them it was a psychological research experiment. Measuring their brainwaves in response to certain stimuli, that sort of thing.’

Bianca’s sense of ethics was jabbing at her again. ‘Nobody told them they were having their minds copied for someone else to read? All their secrets, everything?’

‘No. They didn’t even remember the actual process, because Roger blanked their short-term memories after the transfer.’

‘Did he now.’

‘It doesn’t sound like you approve.’

‘I can’t say that I do, particularly,’ she told him. ‘So you had all these personas. Were they useful? Did