Page 38 of Deadly Hope (Hope Landing: New Recruits #2)

Olivia felt the shift in the cabin’s energy.

Kenji’s fingers flew across his tablet. “Pulling Georgetown office schematics now. Original blueprints, recent renovations, utility layouts—” His voice held the focused excitement of a kid with a new puzzle.

“Security rotations?” Deke was already sketching patterns in his notebook, the way he always did, mapping time and space into a mathematical grid. “We’ll need their shift changes, response protocols?—”

“I can help with that.” Voss pulled up her own tablet, and Olivia noticed how naturally the CIA operative had shifted into their rhythm.

“Driscoll’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for noon on Thursday.

That means he’ll be at his Georgetown office early the day before—he’s religious about his pre-event routine. ”

“How religious?” Axel asked from the back.

“5:30 a.m. arrival, like clockwork. Spends an hour or two reviewing everything alone before his staff shows up.” Voss’s precision spoke of long observation. “He travels with four personal security contractors, all ex-military. Two teams of two, rotating coverage.”

Kenji whistled softly at something on his screen. “The building’s locked down tight. Biometric access, motion grid, closed-circuit cameras on every approach.”

Perfect. A man that paranoid would be looking for threats everywhere. All they had to do was make him see one.

“Bluffing a man like Driscoll ...” Kenji set his tablet down, shaking his head. “The moment he realizes we’re playing him?—”

“Game over,” Deke finished. “Not just for the mission. For us.”

“We get one shot at this.” Kenji’s usual easy manner had hardened into something more urgent. “If he calls our bluff, he’ll bury the evidence so deep we’ll never find it. And then he’ll bury us.”

Olivia felt the weight of their concerns, but something else was taking shape in her mind. “What if that’s exactly what we want him to do?”

The others turned to her. Even Axel shifted forward in his seat.

“Think about it,” she continued. “Men like Driscoll don’t just keep evidence of their crimes. They obsess over it. Control it.”

Voss nodded slowly. “That’s why he records everything. So he knows exactly what proof exists.”

“And how to destroy it,” Olivia finished. “We don’t need him to confess.” She looked around the cabin, seeing the idea catch like sparks arcing between minds. “We just need him to lead us to his own evidence by trying to eliminate it.”

“The moment he starts deleting files ...” Kenji’s fingers were already moving across his tablet again.

“He confirms they existed in the first place,” Axel said quietly. “Consciousness of guilt. ”

“And his own surveillance system will record every move he makes.” Voss’s smile held a predator’s appreciation. “He built himself the perfect trap. All we have to do is make him spring it.”

The plane banked slightly, and Olivia felt the subtle shift in cabin pressure that meant they were starting their descent. They had less than twelve hours to put this plan in motion. To make a man like Driscoll reveal his own crimes in his desperate attempt to hide them.

It wasn’t a perfect plan. But it felt right in a way none of their other attempts had.

Because this wasn’t about finding what James had left behind.

It was about using what they knew about men like Driscoll.

About power, and fear, and the mistakes people make when they fear they’re about to lose everything.

“Twenty-four hours,” Deke muttered, scribbling calculations. “Counting flight time, prep, positioning ... we’ll need to be wheels-up from Hope Landing by this time tomorrow.”

“Walk me through it.” Axel’s voice carried that familiar mission-focus edge. “Step by step.”

Kenji spun his tablet, displaying a 3D rendering of the Georgetown building. “External security is layered. Motion sensors, infrared, building management systems?—”

“I can kill the feeds,” Deke cut in. “Make it look like routine maintenance. But we’ll have a narrow window before their redundancies kick in.”

“Getting inside isn’t the problem,” Kenji continued. “It’s getting Driscoll to follow.”

“And once he’s inside?” Olivia asked.

“That’s where it gets interesting.” Kenji’s grin held a hint of mischief. “Ol’ Bing’s surveillance archives are like Fort Knox. State-of-the-art encryption, air-gapped servers, dedicated fiber lines ... Actually accessing that feed? That’s movie stuff. Pure fiction. ”

“But making him think we have?” Voss raised an eyebrow.

“Simple psychology.” Kenji winked at Olivia. “Zara and I can spoof some convincing network artifacts, make it look like there’s been a breach. The right digital breadcrumbs, a few carefully crafted error messages ...”

The plan crystallized in Olivia’s mind. “Then we make contact and offer to trade what we ‘found’ in his files.”

“The more impossible the hack seems,” Kenji added, “the more he’ll believe we have had inside help. The kind that would know where his real secrets are buried.”

“And that’s when he’ll panic,” Voss concluded. “Try to purge anything that could validate our bluff.”

“Creating exactly the evidence we need.” Olivia felt the familiar pre-mission tension, equal parts anticipation and fear. “But the timing has to be perfect. He needs to believe the threat is immediate, critical?—”

“And coming from someone who knows exactly what they’re looking for,” Axel finished, his eyes meeting hers across the cabin.

The plane dived as Ronan made the final descent into Hope Landing. Through the window, Olivia could see the outline of the Knight Tactical hangar against the night sky. Home, or what passed for it these days.

While Ronan taxied to the hangar, the team gathered their gear with practiced efficiency. Olivia watched Voss move toward the exit, noting the careful way she favored her left side. Those injuries from the warehouse weren’t just for show.

A touch on her arm made her pause. Axel waited until the others had filed out before speaking.

“About Voss ...” He ran a hand through his hair, a rare tell of uncertainty. “I was wrong. Her intel’s solid. The plan’s solid. ”

“But?” Olivia knew him too well to miss the reservation in his tone.

“But it’s too clean.” His voice dropped lower. “Think about it. A CIA operative with intimate knowledge of Driscoll’s operation. A perfect window of opportunity ...”

Through the cabin window, Olivia watched Margaret talking with Kenji near the hangar entrance, her gestures animated despite her injuries. “You think we’re being played?”

“Not necessarily ...” Axel chose his words carefully. “But I think when something looks too perfect, there’s usually a reason.”

She turned back to him, reading the conflict in his expression. The same doubt that had been gnawing at her mind. “We still have to try.”

“I know.” His eyes held hers.

“Sometimes,” she said quietly, “you have to play the hand you’re dealt.”

“Even when you know the deck is stacked?” There was something almost gentle in Axel’s question.

“Especially then.” Olivia picked up her go-bag. “Because that’s when you know exactly what game you’re really playing.”

They walked together off the plane. Tomorrow they would try to trap a man who had spent his life perfecting the art of deception. The man, she was convinced, that had her brother killed.

Somewhere in the space between truth and lies, justice and vengeance, they would find out exactly what game they were all really playing.

And who was dealing the cards.