‘What did… he want?’
‘To escape — to get out of here before he was caught. Before I was caught.’ He gave her a look of anguish. ‘Bianca, I’ve got to turn myself in. I betrayed my country.’
‘No, I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t fit.’ She leaned back on her haunches, still holding his hand. ‘The Persona Project is so secret, even other parts of STS don’t know about it. So how could you have known? Nobody here had ever met you before you joined.’
‘If I had access to the Secretary’s security details, I would have had access to other classified information.’
‘So, what, you planned all along to give the information to al-Qaeda, and then join Persona to wipe your guilt?’
‘Something like that. It has to be.’
‘But if you knew you were going to feel that guilty, why would you do it in the first place? Was Qasid blackmailing you?’
‘No. I approached them.’
‘Okay, so… what did Qasid make of you? Did he think you were conflicted about handing over the files?’
Adam thought for a moment. Qasid’s memories of the encounters remained in his own mind, but now stripped of feelings. ‘No. I seemed nervous, I guess, the first time I met him, but the other two times I was…’ He paused, the image incongruous. ‘Businesslike.’
‘That doesn’t sound like you were racked with guilt, then.’
‘But it’s the only explanation.’
‘No, it isn’t. Maybe you were doing your job — as a spy.’
‘But I gave Qasid the damn details!’ he cried, pulling his hand from hers. ‘I took fifty thousand dollars of blood money in exchange for the information. And they used it! They planned an attack on the Secretary of State — and it succeeded! They killed her, and over a hundred other people. Qasid watched it happen—’ He stopped, realising with shock that there was something familiar about the scene.
Not from television, or a photograph. He had been there, seen the buildings and people and smoke around him …
‘The dream,’ he said, as the answer came to him. ‘The dream I always have — that’s where it was. The bombing in Islamabad. I was there, I was right there after it happened!’
Bianca was confused. ‘But the dream always ends with you seeing yourself lying in the street. How is that possible?’
‘I don’t know. But I was there, I’m certain of it. It doesn’t change anything, though. I’m still guilty of treason.’
‘No,’ said Bianca, more insistently. ‘There’s got to be another answer.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘Maybe it’s a cover-up. The mission went horribly wrong, so someone wanted to erase the memory of the only person who knew what really happened. They might have—’
A knock on the door. ‘It’s Tony.’
‘Don’t say anything,’ Bianca told Adam quietly, before raising her voice. ‘Come in.’
Tony entered. He half smiled at the sight of Bianca kneeling before Adam. ‘Remember those fraternisation rules, guys,’ he said. The smile disappeared as he took in their tense expressions. ‘What is it?’
‘Adam had a bad reaction,’ said Bianca, before Adam could reply. She stood. ‘Something went wrong with the transfer. I had to give him a shot of Neutharsine to clear Qasid’s persona.’ She picked up the injector.
‘Are you okay?’ Tony asked, concerned. ‘What kind of reaction did you have?’
Again, Bianca spoke first. ‘It was almost like… like a panic attack, I suppose. After what you told me about what happened to you, I was worried, so I gave him the injection. He’s back to normal now, thank God.’
‘That’s a relief. Did you get anything from Qasid’s persona? Did he really know you?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Adam said quietly. ‘Everything was… confused.’
‘What went wrong with the transfer? Is Qasid okay? It’ll be kinda hard to cover all this up if our prisoner dies because of it.’
‘He’s fine,’ said Bianca. ‘I don’t know what went wrong, though. Maybe I miscalculated the drug dose.’
‘You’re damn lucky things didn’t turn out worse, then,’ Tony said sternly. ‘I’ve been into the system and made sure everything looks to be in order, but like I said, it won’t stand up to higher-level scrutiny. This needs to end right here.’
‘I think that’s a very good idea.’
‘What about you, Adam?’
Adam said nothing for a moment, then nodded. ‘Yeah.’
‘Good. Let’s hope this doesn’t come back to bite us all in the ass.’ Tony checked his watch, suppressing a yawn. ‘Okay. It’s been a hell of a long day. Once I’ve wrapped everything up, I’m going to go home and get a few hours’ sleep, and I’d advise you both to do the same before it starts all over.’
‘You’re going to imprint Adam with al-Rais’s persona again?’ Bianca asked. ‘After what just happened to him?’
‘Well, unless you want to go explain to Martin and Harper that your unauthorised transfer went bad, we don’t have much choice. All right, I’ll see you later.’ He turned to leave.
‘Tony?’ said Bianca, stopping him. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘What?’
‘When I got the PERSONA gear from the lab, I saw a disk with your name on it. Did you have your persona recorded?’
‘Yeah, not long after I joined the project.’
‘Before you had the surgical implants?’
‘Yes. They wanted it as a backup, for comparison if there were any after-effects from the procedure, but they never used it. Why did you want to know?’
She shrugged. ‘Just curious. I wondered why you had a disk and Adam didn’t.’
‘No idea. I guess Roger and Kiddrick felt confident enough second time around not to need one.’
‘I guess. Okay, see you later.’
‘What was that about?’ Adam asked after Tony left.
‘I was just thinking… what if there is a disk with your persona on it, from before you had your memory wiped? If we imprinted you with that, then you’d know for sure what happened in Pakistan.’
‘Maybe, but there isn’t a disk like that.’
‘Well, it’s not something they’re going to leave lying around the office, is it? Especially now that you’ve started trying to find out more about your past.’
‘So where would they keep it?’
Bianca glanced towards the Bullpen. ‘I think there’s a way we can find out.’
Chapter 38
Safe Keeping
When Levon arrived at his workstation, he was surprised to find two people waiting.
‘Wow, you guys look terrible,’ he told Adam and Bianca as he sat. ‘You been here all night?’
‘Afraid so,’ said Bianca. ‘But then, we had a lot to cover with interrogating al-Rais.’
‘Yeah, I guess you’re not going to get everything out of the world’s most wanted terrorist in time for Letterman. Still, pulling an overnighter’s hard work. Darleen hates it when I do ’em.’
‘Darleen?’
‘My wife.’ He saw Bianca’s look of surprise, and raised an eyebrow over his thick glasses. ‘Oh, what? Just ’cause I’m a big fat nerd, I can’t find true love? I got my moves.’
‘No, that’s not what I was thinking at all!’ she lied. ‘It’s just that you never mentioned her before.’
‘You never asked. You want to see her picture? I got a whole bunch on my phone.’
‘No, that’s okay, thanks. But there was something we wanted to ask you.’
‘Yeah? What is it?’
Adam leaned closer to him, dropping his voice. ‘Tony said that you know how to bypass the system’s security.’
Levon shrank into his chair, eyes darting furtively. ‘I don’t know why he’d tell you that. What is this, some sort of loyalty check?’