The Shadow Protocol (13 page)

The list of answers Bianca wanted—factual as well as
ethical—kept growing. “You said that’s one of Roger’s drugs. What do the others do?”

“The primary one, Hyperthymexine, is used on the subject. It’s a recall
enhancer
, putting the protein synthesis process into overdrive. A brainstorm, we call it; the subject remembers everything they’ve ever experienced, all at once. The electrical signals this produces are picked up by the PERSONA device and transmitted via the electrode net to our agent.”

“That sounds incredibly dangerous. Wouldn’t triggering that much synaptic activity at once carry risks? Overheating and tissue damage, or blood pressure issues, potential hemorrhage—”

“Nothing so far that we’ve seen,” Kiddrick interrupted.

“And what about mental side effects? It sounds like you’ve got the perfect recipe for a psychotic break.”

The scientist was growing increasingly irritated at being challenged. “Obviously we’ve thought of that,” he snapped. “We use another drug called Mnemexal, a variant of the protein inhibitor we use to prepare the agent for the process, to completely erase the subject’s short-term memory. It’s no different from dentists using midazolam to repress a patient’s memory of a procedure,” he added, seeing that Bianca was about to raise another objection. “If they can’t remember the pain, then effectively it never happened.”

“That’s one interpretation,” she said, voice cutting.

“It’s an interpretation that fits the facts. The point is, PERSONA
works
. We can put one person’s memories—more than that, their entire
personality
—into the mind of another. Our agent can literally become anyone, know everything they know, use every skill they possess.”

“Reveal all of their secrets,” Tony added. “That’s what the Persona Project is ultimately about. It’s an intelligence-gathering tool that we can use to protect the lives of American citizens—that we
are
using. The mission Roger was on when he was shot gave us inside information on al-Qaeda that would have been impossible to obtain by any other means.”

The truth was dawning for Bianca, and she didn’t like it. “When you say ‘subjects,’ I take it they’re not exactly volunteers.”

“You heard what the admiral said,” Morgan replied. “We will use whatever means necessary to protect this country and its allies.”

“And it’s not as if we’re
torturing
them,” said Kiddrick, his tone almost mocking. “Would you prefer that? Once we’ve transferred their persona into our agent, we wipe their short-term memory and put them back where we found them. They don’t even know anything’s happened to them.”

Bianca matched his derision. “Until you send a drone to blow up their house.”

“But this way, we know for certain that we’ve got the
right
house,” countered Morgan. “There’s no guesswork, no interpretation of scraps of information from multiple sources. What we have is direct from the source, and one hundred percent accurate.”

“As accurate as human memory gets, you mean. And you’d be surprised just how shaky that can be.” She remembered another question of her own. “This agent you keep talking about—I take it he’s the one with the implanted electrodes.”

“He is.” Morgan stood. “And now you’re going to meet him.”

Despite still being livid about her treatment by Harper, and appalled by Kiddrick’s ethics, Bianca couldn’t help but be impressed by the large room to which Morgan took her. Now,
this
was worthy of Bond or Bauer! The moodily lit chamber brought to mind NASA’s mission control, banks of workstations facing a wall of large screens.

However, there were currently no missions to control. Most of the displays were either blank or displaying the STS logo on a screensaver background. There were enough workstations to accommodate thirty or forty people, with space for more toward the rear of the room, but only about half were currently active. Whatever work was going on appeared to be bureaucratic or system maintenance rather than high-pressure espionage.

“This is the Bullpen,” Morgan announced. “Its official name is the Project Operational Command and Control Center, but nobody much likes the acronym.”

“It’s not as good as PERSONA, no,” said Bianca.

“That was more of a backronym, really. You can thank Dr. Albion for it. But this is where we oversee missions when our people are out in the field.”

“It’s impressive,” she had to admit. “Looks expensive too.”

“It wasn’t built just for the Persona Project, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s an existing facility that Persona has been assigned. We don’t like to throw money away
on black projects, whatever the public perception may be.” He led Bianca, Tony, and Kiddrick through the room. “Here, I’ll introduce you to the team.”

Of the twenty or so people present, most were clustered around one particular workstation. An enthusiastic male voice was the focus of their attention. “Levon must have a new puzzle,” Morgan said.

Kiddrick was not impressed. “Don’t your people have anything better to do?”

Tony gave him a half smile. “You’re only saying that because you can’t solve them.” They stopped at the edge of the group to listen.

Bianca peered through the crowd. The speaker was an overweight young black man with a shaved head, eyes darting behind Coke-bottle glasses as he swiveled his chair to make sure everyone was taking in his words. “So, that’s the assignment. The diamond will be taken out of the vault by its owner in exactly twenty-four hours. You have to get that diamond. Question is …” A broad smile. “… how are you going to do it?”

“Bribe the guards,” Tony suggested.

The question master—Bianca assumed this to be Levon—shook his head. “The guards are very loyal to their employer. It would cost more to bribe them than the diamond is worth.”

Another man, older and rougher looking, had an alternative approach. “Tactical assault. Eliminate the guards and blow the safe, then withdraw before local law enforcement arrives. Five minutes after the alarm’s set off, you said. That should easily be enough time.”

“Wow, bloodthirsty,” said a slender woman with long blond hair, shaking her head.

“Uh-uh,” said Levon to the man. “You’ve got selective hearing, Mr. Baxter! Like I said, it’ll take at least an hour to force your way into the safe by any means you have available.”

Baxter wasn’t giving up on his idea. “A shaped charge would do it.”

“My puzzle, my rules. You’ve got to work inside the limitations of the scenario. That’s kinda the whole point. Doesn’t matter what you use—explosives, drills, lasers, whatever—it’ll take sixty minutes to break that safe. I set the hard limits; now you gotta figure out ways around them.”

A dismissive grunt. “Sounds like some sort of unrealistic
Mission: Impossible
crap. Count me out of this one.”

“I’ll take your place if you like, John,” said Morgan. “Make sure you copy me in on the rules, Levon. What was the solution to the last one, by the way?”

“The power lines,” said a tanned twenty-something man with a heavily gelled haircut. “Take out the substation in the town to cut off the juice, then climb along the lines to get over the perimeter defenses. Simple.”

“Yeah, Kyle, so simple you didn’t think of it until two days after Tony,” said Levon. “And a day after Holly Jo. And—”

Kyle waved his hands dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. The point is, that was the right answer. And I got it. Just like I’m going to get this one.”

“Not before me,” said the blonde. “And I’m going to beat Tony this time as well. A huge diamond? That is
so
mine.”

“Just don’t spend too much time thinking about it while you’re on duty,” said Morgan. The undertone of
Fun’s over, now get back to work
was faint, but firm. It had the desired effect; the group began to disperse. “Not all of you—there’s someone I want the chief specialists to meet.” He waited until only six people remained. “This is Dr. Bianca Childs. She’s agreed to stand in for Roger until he’s fit to return to work.”

“ ‘Agreed’ is rather a simplistic way of putting it,” said Bianca.

Baxter was instantly suspicious on hearing her voice. “She’s not an American? Isn’t that going to be a security issue, sir?”

“For the moment, Dr. Childs has been granted limited
security clearance on the authority of the Director of National Intelligence,” Morgan replied. “In due course, she’ll receive whatever she needs to carry out her role.” Baxter didn’t seem entirely mollified, but nodded. “Dr. Childs, these are the senior members of the Persona Project.”

He made the introductions. The slender blonde in expensive stilettos was Holly Jo Voss, communications specialist. John Baxter, tactical commander; Bianca assumed from his general demeanor that he was a soldier. The puzzle-setting Levon James—his desk cluttered with Transformer toys—was the information and systems specialist, or as he jokingly put it, “chief hacker.” Smug hair-model Kyle had the improbable surname Falconetti and the title of surveillance controller; his job—as far as Bianca could tell from his boastful but vague description—was some sort of pilot.

There was another man, standing behind the others. Until Morgan gestured him forward she had barely registered his presence. Brown hair, dark gray eyes, far from unattractive but …

Normally she thought she was good at reading people, but this man was giving nothing away. His expression was neutral, body language unrevealing. But it didn’t seem a deliberate attempt to shield his true self.

It was almost as if he had nothing to shield.

“This is our lead agent,” said Morgan. “At the moment, also our
only
agent, but … well, we’ll see. Dr. Childs, this is Adam Gray.”

The agent needed only a moment to perform his own assessment, she saw. No wasted time, just a clinical, almost machine-like sweep of his gaze over her. “Hello,” he said.

“Hi.” They shook hands. Again, she could draw no conclusions about him. This grip was neither clammy like Kiddrick’s, nor as domineering as Harper’s. Firm, cool … blank. It told her nothing.

He released her hand. She expected him to say something else, but he stayed silent.

“Okay,” said Morgan. “Adam, Tony, I’d like Dr. Childs to see a demonstration of PERSONA. Dr. Kiddrick?”

Kiddrick led the way out of the Bullpen. The group headed through several security doors to a lab, what resembled an operating table in the center with a pair of curved benches near its head. Computer workstations occupied the room’s far end, a large metal cabinet between them.

“I’ll set everything up,” said Kiddrick.

Adam lay on the table as the scientist opened the cabinet. The upper shelves were filled with row after row of what Bianca at first thought were DVD cases before realizing they were somewhat larger, while below them were racks containing glass bottles and vials of various sizes. The drugs Roger had developed?

“Need a hand?” Tony asked as Kiddrick fumbled with the two weighty metal cases he had taken from the bottom shelf.

“No, I’ve got it,” Kiddrick muttered. He clomped back to the benches, putting one case on each side of the operating table. The first one he opened contained the piece of equipment from Kiddrick’s slide show—though Bianca noticed it was somewhat bulkier and less sleek than its illustration, with an almost jury-rigged appearance; a prototype rather than a production model. The other contained a similar device, but thicker still and with a prominent slot set into its front. “Who do you want to use for the demonstration?”

“Who aren’t we likely to need?” asked Morgan. “We don’t want to waste someone who might be useful in the future.”

Kiddrick took the second device from its case. “What about, ah … Wilmar, he’ll do. Conrad Wilmar.”

“Do we have any video of him?” said Morgan. “It would help to show Dr. Childs how effective PERSONA is.”

“There should be a recording on the server,” said Tony, going to one of the computers.

“Now, Dr. Childs,” Kiddrick said, “I’ll explain the procedure in more detail when the time comes to train you on it. For now, this”—he indicated the first machine, which he had just connected to its companion with a fat length of cable—“is the PERSONA device itself, which handles the reading, transfer, and imprinting of the subject’s synaptic patterns into the agent. Adam, I mean.” Bianca glanced at the man in question, who was staring silently up at the overhead light cluster. “The other device is the recorder.” His tone became critical. “It’s a separate unit because it was only intended to be used in lab conditions, but that plan went by the wayside.”

“It gives us more flexibility,” insisted Morgan.

“Well, if it breaks, don’t blame me; I advised against it. Still, at least I don’t have to haul the whole system around. It’s rather heavy.” The mocking look he gave Bianca suggested he expected that to be her responsibility.

“I found the video of Wilmar,” said Tony from the workstation.

“Good,” Morgan said. “Dr. Childs, take a look at this, please.”

She went with him to the computer while Kiddrick continued to fuss with his equipment. “What am I looking for?”

“Just get a handle on his personality,” Tony told her. He clicked the mouse, and a video began playing.