Page 32 of Deadly Hope (Hope Landing: New Recruits #2)
“And in conclusion—” Olivia forced herself to maintain eye contact with the front row, not the woman in the center row who hadn’t stopped watching her. The woman who’d been at the coffee shop more than once the past month. And the bookstore last week. And possibly?—
Axel’s voice crackled in her earpiece. “Movement at your three o’clock.”
Her carefully prepared closing stuck in her throat as she noticed Zara’s deliberate patrol past the woman’s row. Kenji had abandoned his doctor pose, shoulders tense. Even Deke’s good ol’ boy smile had hardened into something else entirely.
Where was Axel? She couldn’t spot him in the back anymore.
“Thank you all for?—”
Acrid smoke began pouring from the vents. Before Olivia could process it, the fire alarm split the air with a piercing wail.
The crowd erupted—chairs scraping, voices rising in panic, bodies rushing toward exits .
“Status report!” Axel’s voice in her ear, tight with urgency.
“Lost visual on target,” Zara’s response.
“Negative contact rear exit,” from Ronan.
“Kenji, get to the stage, now!” Axel’s command cut through the chaos.
Olivia tried to move, but the smoke was thickening, creating ghostly shapes in the auditorium. She could hear Axel and the team coordinating, their voices a lifeline in her ear, but she couldn’t see any of them through the haze and moving bodies.
“I can’t—” she tried to respond, but started coughing.
“Multiple hostiles at main entrance,” Deke’s voice crackled.
“Package compromised,” Kenji reported. “Repeat, package compromised.”
The package was her, Olivia realized with a jolt of fear. She was the package. And she was alone on the stage, the smoke now so thick she could barely see the first row of seats.
“Axel?” she whispered into her comm.
Static answered.
A shape materialized from the smoke directly in front of the stage. The woman.
And she was holding a gun.
Olivia backed up a step, her heel hitting the podium. The smoke was making her eyes water, burning her throat. “Who are?—”
“Little Cricket sent me.”
Olivia froze. Through the haze, that night on the back porch flooded back—James nursing a root beer, shadows under his eyes she pretended not to see. His voice too casual when he’d said, “Remember what Mom used to call you? Little Cricket? ”
She’d laughed. “For sure. Drove me crazy.”
“If you’re ever in trouble,” he’d said, not looking at her, “and you can’t tell me out loud? Use that name. I’ll come running.”
The conversation had frightened her then. Made her aware of the deep, unspoken dangers her brother must be living with to even think of such a thing. It wasn’t until years later, working with former operatives, hearing their dark stories, that the full weight of that moment hit her.
And now to hear it from a stranger holding a gun, while smoke filled her lungs and panic filled the air. Not what her big bro would have had in mind.
“Tell your team to meet at the secondary location,” the woman instructed, her silhouette wavering in the thickening smoke. “The one Reinhardt showed you this morning. Hurry.”
Olivia’s mind raced, her eyes stinging. The nickname could be a coincidence. Or intelligence gathered by the wrong people. She’d seen how thorough Driscoll’s operation could be—they’d proven that with what happened to James.
“Why should I trust you?” Olivia’s voice was barely audible over the chaos, broken by a fit of coughing.
“Because Driscoll’s men are coming, if they’re not already here.
” The woman jerked her head toward where the kitchen should be, now invisible in the roiling smoke.
“Because your brother trusted me. Because—” She reached into her collar with two fingers, withdrew a thin chain.
A small brass cricket emerged from the grey haze, identical to the one James had given Olivia on her sixteenth birthday.
Through her earpiece, Kenji’s voice crackled, “Contact! Kitchen entrance?—”
“Choose now,” the woman commanded, her form starting to blur in Olivia’s watering eyes. “Trust me or trust them.”
Olivia keyed the transceiver in her ear with trembling fingers, suppressing another cough. “Fall back to morning’s secondary. Repeat, fall back to secondary.” She paused, then added quickly, “I have company. Armed woman, claims to be friendly. Says James sent her. Don’t—don’t shoot her.”
The woman moved closer, gun now aimed at the shadows behind Olivia. Her face appeared briefly through the smoke, eyes sharp and focused.
Through her earpiece, Olivia heard Kenji. “Multiple tangos entering through kitchen?—”
“Run,” the woman commanded.
She seized Olivia’s arm, guiding her through curtains of grey smoke with professional calm. They moved fast through the service corridor, the woman constantly checking angles, keeping Olivia’s head low where the air was clearer.
“Breathe through your sleeve,” she ordered, her own voice muffled by what sounded like a filter mask.
They reached a metal door marked “Emergency Exit.” The woman paused, listening, then pushed it open with her shoulder, gun ready.
They burst through the emergency exit. The bitter cold air hit Olivia’s face like a slap. She gulped it gratefully, smoke burning its way out of her lungs. Fat snowflakes drifted through the yellow security lights of the parking lot, already coating the asphalt in white.
Through streaming eyes, Olivia saw the parking lot had become a scene of controlled chaos.
Conference attendees huddled in groups, many doubled over coughing, others helping the elderly to sit on curbs, shivering in the falling snow while paramedics, both on and off-duty, distributed blankets and oxygen masks.
Red and blue lights swept across the scene as more emergency vehicles screamed into the lot, sirens wailing.
Security guards were trying to direct the flow of people away from the smoke pouring out the doors. A fire truck’s horn blasted as it tried to clear a path through the dispersing crowd.
“Olivia!”
Axel’s voice cut through the chaos. As Olivia blinked smoke from her eyes, she saw her security team emerging from their positions among the evacuees.
They moved with practiced efficiency, weapons held low but ready.
Zara near a cluster of students. Kenji by the ambulance.
Ronan blending in with the center security—all of them smoothly repositioning to cover her.
Axel stepped forward from beside a police cruiser, his breath clouding in the frigid air as his eyes locked onto the woman still holding Olivia’s arm.
The woman didn’t flinch at the subtle convergence of armed protection around them. She kept her position shielding Olivia, her posture alert but non-threatening as snowflakes gathered in her dark hair.
She didn’t raise her weapon, but Olivia felt her tense, ready to move. Snow gathered in her dark hair as she kept herself between Olivia and any potential threat—including Olivia’s own team.
“Easy,” the woman said, her voice calm despite the multiple weapons pointed at her. “If I wanted her dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“Step away from Dr. Kane,” Axel commanded. His breath formed white clouds in the freezing air.
“Can’t do that.” Snow continued to fall, muffling the sounds around them. “Not until I’m sure she’s safe. And right now, we’re all exposed out here.”
“Down!” the woman shouted suddenly, her eyes fixed on something beyond the chaos of evacuees.
Through the swirling snow, Olivia saw what had triggered the warning—dark figures moving with purpose through the crowd of coughing conference attendees. Not panicked civilians. Not first responders. Hunters .
“Your car?” the woman demanded, keeping her weapon low but ready as emergency vehicles’ lights painted the snow in rotating red and blue.
“Black SUV, north end?—”
“Reinhardt!” the woman called, just loud enough to carry. “Your team to the vehicle. Now. We’ve got at least six hostiles using the crowd for cover.”
Police were trying to establish a perimeter, directing confused academics away from the building. EMTs were checking people for smoke inhalation. And through it all, Olivia could see the practiced movement of Driscoll’s men, slowly closing in.
“Stay close,” the woman murmured. “We’re going to walk, not run, through these people. Running draws attention.”
They moved steadily through the crowd, the woman’s hand firm on Olivia’s elbow. Ahead, she saw her security team doing the same—Kenji helping a coughing professor, making it look natural as he maintained his position. Zara chatting with a police officer while her eyes scanned constantly.
The woman surrendered her weapon to Axel the moment they reached the SUV, her focus purely on getting Olivia inside. Griff was already behind the wheel, engine running. Zara cleared a path through the panicking crowd, her federal credentials making people move.
“In, in, in!” Axel commanded, practically lifting Olivia into the back seat. The woman slid in after her, hands raised slightly as Ronan kept her covered. Axel took the front passenger seat while Zara brought up the rear, slamming the door as Griff shoved the vehicle in Reverse.
Griff accelerated smoothly through the chaos, avoiding the clusters of emergency vehicles and evacuees. In the rearview mirror, Olivia glimpsed dark figures pushing through the crowd, weapons now clearly visible—but they were too late.
Snow swirled in their headlights as they merged into traffic, leaving the chaos behind. The woman sat motionless between Ronan and Zara, their weapons still trained on her, but her eyes were locked on Olivia’s face with an expression of grim satisfaction.