Page 68 of Deadly Hope
“Of course, Dr. Warner.” Axel strode out, his dress shoes silent on the carpeted floor. He found three more analysts—all looking as strung out as Amber—just walking in. Easy enough to add them to Olivia’s impromptu “wellness intervention.”
He turned to Voss, or rather, Mrs. Chatham. “Please escort these analysts out of the building.” He addressed the tired workers. “Dr. Warner is officially putting a stop to this abuse of your time. Now.”
Voss nodded, stepping forward with a calm, yet authoritative presence. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll follow me, please,” she said, guiding the startled, exhausted group back toward the elevator.
Relief visibly washed over the analysts’ faces as they followed Voss. Axel maintained his stern oversight, knowing that their cover story had to hold until the very end.
While Voss escorted the exhausted workers out of the building, he and Olivia made a quick study of the outer office, checking each desk for possible intel.
Olivia’s professional mask slipped just slightly. “Well, that was an unexpected complication.”
“Handled perfectly though,” Axel said, meaning it. “Ronan, Zara—status?”
“Basement’s clear. Ready to move when you are.”
“Kenji?”
“Cameras looped, security feeds managed. You’ve got less than twenty minutes until target’s arrival.”
Voss strode back into the suite, nodding sharply. “All good.”
“Good.” Axel hitched a thumb at Driscoll’s inner sanctum. “Time to get to work for real.” He allowed himself a small smile. “Ready to help me plant some evidence that will push all of Driscoll’s psychological buttons?”
“Actually,” Olivia said, already moving toward Driscoll’s office, “I have a few thoughts about optimal placement. Given his paranoid tendencies, he’ll probably check certain locations first ...”
But first, they had to break in.
Do or die time. Either the CIA woman was as good as her word and had the skills—and the desire—to get them inside, or the mission ended here.
He glanced at Voss, who was already reaching into her jacket pocket. The moment of truth—the point where they’d learn if she was really on their side or playing a longer game.
She withdrew a thin case and extracted what looked like a thin plastic film. “Lifted from his whiskey glass at a fundraiser six months ago,” she murmured, carefully applying it to the fingerprint reader.
Axel watched her work, noting the practiced precision of her movements. The door’s LED shifted from red to green with a soft click that seemed thunderous in the quiet hallway. No alarms. No security response.
He caught her eye, nodding once in acknowledgment. First test passed.
Once inside, they moved with practiced efficiency. Voss messed with the photos on the credenza beneath the curtained window.
“His psychological profile suggests he’ll check his deskfirst,” Olivia said softly, laying out items from her own briefcase. “Particularly the left drawer. It’s where he keeps his personal files—the ones he doesn’t trust to digital storage.”
“Getting territorial about his space,” Axel noted as he hid security cameras throughout the office. “Classic paranoid behavior.”
“Exactly. And we’re going to use that.” She placed a USB drive, carefully aged and scuffed, in the drawer’s back corner. “He’ll find this within two minutes of arriving. Just visible enough to spot, just hidden enough to seem suspicious.”
“Safe’s biometric has been bypassed,” Voss reported quietly. “Beginning sequence now.”
She planted a folded note, carefully crafted to look like it had been hastily hidden. “His increasing paranoia, the late-night demands on his staff, the security upgrades—he knows he’s vulnerable. Now we give him a face for his fears.”
“Ronan here,” the comm crackled. “Maintenance crew just pulled into the garage. Earlier than expected.”
“We’re almost done. Work the timeline,” Axel ordered, helping Olivia arrange the final pieces of evidence. A misplaced document here, a shifted photo frame there—tiny details designed to suggest someone had been searching the office. “Olivia?”
She stepped back, surveying their work. “It’s perfect. Not enough for him to call security, but enough to trigger his existing paranoia. By the time he finds the USB ...”
“He’ll be primed to see exactly what we want him to see.” Axel allowed himself a moment of admiration.
“Driscoll’s here.” Izzy’s voice crackled with urgency through the comms. “Black Mercedes just pulled into his reserved spot. He’s early.”
