That was the first impulse she forced herself to ignore.
The second was to look directly at the security cameras.
She ignored that as well.
Instead, she collected her water bottle, stepped away from the mat, and behaved exactly like a woman who had just won an awkward training round and wanted nothing more than to leave.
Inside, every sense had sharpened.
Ryan Brooks disappeared toward the locker area without another glance in her direction.
Conversation cautiously resumed behind him.
“Where the hell did she learn that?”
“Brooks looked like somebody shut him off.”
“Who is she?”
Olivia kept moving.
The last question was the dangerous one.
She had arrived at the Special Operations Training Center three days earlier under orders that were deliberately vague. Her personnel file was authentic but incomplete. Her rank had been left off the local training roster at the request of Colonel Evelyn Shaw, deputy director of advanced readiness.
Officially, Olivia had been assigned to observe training standards.
Unofficially, she was there to investigate why seven highly rated soldiers had been removed from elite programs within eleven months under circumstances that looked suspiciously similar.
Three had been classified as psychologically unsuitable.
Two had sustained training injuries.
One had resigned without offering a reason.
The seventh, Staff Sergeant Daniel Reyes, had simply vanished from the system.
No reassignment.
No discharge record Olivia could locate.
No medical retirement.
His personnel history simply stopped.
Colonel Shaw had explained the situation during their first private meeting.
“Someone is shaping the candidate pool.”
Olivia had studied the folder.
“How?”
“That’s what I need you to find out.”
“Why not bring in inspector general?”
“Because if this is what I suspect, the people changing the records will know about an official investigation before it gets through the front gate.”
Olivia had looked at her carefully.
“And you think they won’t know I’m here?”
Shaw had given her a humorless smile.
“They’ll know you’re here. I’m depending on them assuming you’re ordinary.”
Now, standing in a gym where half the room had just watched her dismantle a decorated lieutenant in forty-two seconds, Olivia considered how effectively that plan had fallen apart.
She showered, changed, and returned to the small temporary office that had been assigned to her.
The door was closed.
She remembered locking it.
It was still locked.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Her laptop remained exactly where she had placed it.
The folders were aligned.
The blinds had not moved.
Then she noticed her coffee mug.
She had left its handle facing left.
Now the handle pointed to the right.
Olivia stopped in the doorway.
She entered carefully.
Checked the desk.
The drawer.
The laptop security seal.
Nothing appeared altered.
Then she opened the narrow locker behind the door.
A white index card lay on top of her folded jacket.
Only four words had been written across it.
FORTY-TWO WASN’T AN ACCIDENT.
Olivia stared.
No signature.
No obvious fingerprints.
No explanation.
She photographed the card and slid it into a plastic evidence sleeve.
Her phone vibrated.
A message from Colonel Shaw.
COME TO MY OFFICE. NOW.
Shaw’s office was on the second floor of the administrative building, overlooking the training grounds.
When Olivia entered, the colonel stood by the window.
“You were told to observe.”
“I was placed on the live-round board.”
“You could have refused.”
“That would have drawn attention.”
Shaw turned around.
“And throwing Brooks across the mat didn’t?”
Olivia shut the door.
“Apparently it attracted someone.”
She placed the card on Shaw’s desk.
The colonel’s annoyance disappeared instantly.
She read it twice.
“Where did you find this?”
“My office.”
“Door locked?”
“Yes.”
Shaw sat.
For the first time since Olivia had met her, the colonel looked uncertain.
“Did Brooks give you anything?”
“Not exactly.”
“What did he tell you?”
Olivia hesitated.
Then answered.
“He said I shouldn’t have beaten him.”
“That sounds like Brooks.”
“He also said, ‘Now they know it’s you.’”
Shaw became perfectly still.
Olivia saw it.
“You know what that means.”
“No.”
“That pause says you do.”
Shaw looked at the card again.
After a moment, she asked, “Exactly how long was the round?”
“Forty-two seconds.”
The colonel slowly exhaled.
Olivia leaned forward.
“What is forty-two?”
Shaw’s expression tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m telling you I don’t know enough to answer you safely.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Olivia waited.
Shaw stood.
“Do nothing tonight. Don’t confront Brooks. Don’t search restricted systems. We reassess in the morning.”
“You brought me here to investigate.”
“I brought you here to observe discreetly.”
“Someone entered my office.”
“And that is precisely why I’m telling you to slow down.”
Olivia picked up the card.
When she reached the door, Shaw called her name.
“Grant.”
Olivia looked back.
The colonel’s tone had changed.
“Whatever Brooks tells you, remember one thing.”
“What?”
“Ryan Brooks is very good at making people believe his worst traits are the only traits he has.”
Olivia frowned.
Shaw added quietly:
“That has kept him alive longer than you might think.”
Chapter 3: THE LIST
At 11:17 that night, someone knocked three times on Olivia’s door.
Not twice.
Not four times.
Three evenly spaced knocks.
Olivia rose from her desk without making a sound.
She approached the door and looked through the peephole.
Ryan Brooks stood in the hallway in jeans, boots, and a dark jacket.
There was no grin on his face.
Olivia opened the door but kept the security chain fastened.
“You lost?”
“No.”
“You are specifically the person I was told not to talk to.”
Ryan nodded.
“Then Shaw knows more than she admits.”
Olivia’s gaze sharpened.
“How do you know what she told me?”
“I don’t. I guessed.”
“You’re not very convincing when you try to look harmless.”
“I’ve never tried to look harmless.”