Clarke didn’t like doubt. It was a feeling he wasn’t used to. Clarke was always certain. He planned and plotted. Took his time. He didn’t like changing his plans, because his plans were always right. And he certainly didn’t like changing the best and most thought-out plan he had ever produced. His masterpiece. Yet he’d now been forced to change the plan that would make or break him three times. Sure, the first change was his own fault. He’d been wrong and it had to be done. But the other changes had been forced upon him because of politics and pressure. Because of terrorism. Suddenly nothing else mattered.

Clarke wished they had left him and his plan alone. He would have given them Jax as soon as he was ready. He would have created and delivered the perfect spy, as per his original schedule and as per the plan. But now he didn’t know if he could, because he had been forced to activate his asset – his asset – before he was ready. Initially he’d been excited about activating Jax, at least when it was just a surveillance side-project. But the current assignment was no side-project. It was the project. And stopping the bombs was more important than his project.

Yet he resented that they were putting all his hard work at risk for this – for anything. Even if they succeeded in stopping the bombs, he would not be able to use their meddling as an excuse if Project Mnemonist failed. It would still be all on him.

No. Project Mnemonist would not fail. He would catch the terrorists and get back to his plan. But first he had to deal with the CIA.

He turned off the music.

‘Call Ronin,’ he told his phone.

The man picked up after the first ring. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Where are they?’ Clarke asked.

‘Holed up in the hotel. We have both eyes and ears on them. The surveillance equipment was deployed in their rooms as requested.’

‘What about their phones?’ Clarke asked.

‘Negative, sir. They are CIA encrypted, as you predicted.’

‘Any visitors?’ Clarke asked.

‘Just Agent Roberts,’ came the reply.

‘Okay, get a team ready,’ Clarke said. ‘I’m scheduled to meet them in the hotel lobby in forty minutes. I want their rooms turned inside out. Take note of every item and make duplicates of all physical files, but, whatever you do, don’t touch their laptops. Aside from the encryptions, I would also suspect some sort of silent alarm.’

‘Orders received loud and clear,’ the man said.

‘And get the tech team to compress whatever audio has been recorded and send it to me now,’ Clarke said.

‘Yes, sir,’ the man said.

Clarke hung up.

SAMI was in the hotel lobby alone.

‘Where’s Agent Smith?’ Clarke asked.