Incentives

Chapter Seven – Try to Stay With Me

He'd faced a lot of miserable difficulties in the last few years, but dealing with an unknown weapon that could be invisible had to among the worst. The only thing that was keeping him calm were the voices in his ear – Digg who was only five minutes away and Felicity, who though quieter than usual, was obviously doing her best to be calm and reassuring.

"I've managed to tap into the cell phones of Lance and five others who are at the scene of the abandoned truck," she said. "The hazmat team is there, I should have more for you soon."

He allowed himself the tiniest smile. "Nice work, keep me posted."

As his bike approached the Starling Telecom building he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Through the glass front doors he could see two board looking security guards sitting at a front desk. It wasn't until he circled the building that he spotted an open loading bay door at the back of the building. It was almost unnoticeable given that the security light above it had been shattered.

He opened his mouth to report back but froze when Felicity said, "No, no, no, no, no."

"Felicity?" he said. There was an unnerving moment of silence. "Talk to me."

"Oliver, two cell towers on the west side of the city just went down. The police think they've been sabotaged and…"

"They aren't just trying to shut down the Telecom Building," Digg interrupted. "They're trying to shut down communications for the whole city."

"And in other horrific news," Felicity said, an edge in her voice. "The hazmat team says the problem with the truck is radiation. There's a strong chance we're dealing with some kind of dirty bomb."

Oliver closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. "I've found where they entered the building. I'm going in."

"Watch your back, man," Digg said, his tone grave.

"Be careful," Felicity added, her tone pleading.

Oliver forced as much confidence into his voice as he could find. "I promise."

He vaulted the distance from the ground to the empty loading dock. It was dark inside, but he could see lights somewhere ahead that looked like flashlight beams.

There was an odd click in his earpiece. "Felicity?" he whispered. Nothing. "Digg," he tried – still nothing. Swearing quietly he forced himself to move forward.

He was across the large loading area when there was another click, and a very welcome sound filled his ear. "Sorry about that," Felicity said. "Another cell tower went down, I had to reroute."

"Try to stay with me," Oliver said, not caring the tone he used was less than professional.

"Of course," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

He moved quietly down a hallway until he could see four armed men. Two of them were carrying an odd barrel like metal container between them, while the other two were obviously there to serve as guards.

Oliver notched an arrow, and had the two guards down, an arrow in each leg, in a matter of seconds. The other two quickly put down the device they were carrying and reached for their weapons. Oliver had to dive into a doorway to avoid a spray of automatic weapon fire.

Ducking around the corner he threw a flechette and felt gratified as it impaled the trigger hand of one of the men causing him to drop his weapon. Oliver dived out and rolled low, coming up to catch the fourth man across the face with one end of his bow. The man's gun went flying, but not before he got his finger on the trigger again. Oliver winced as a bullet ricocheted off a nearby metal door and cut across the flesh just above his right knee.

Angry, he landed another hit across the man's jaw, knocking him out cold. Drawing another arrow he turned to face the man who was still cradling his impaled hand. "Is the device activated?" he snarled.

The man looked at him with wide eyes and shook his head. "It's remotely triggered, we've got about ten minutes before it blows."

Ten minutes would hardly have been enough time for this guy to be clear of the bomb, and Oliver suspected he hadn't known what he was really carrying. "Run," Oliver ordered, packing that word with every bit of malice he could muster.

The man took off with satisfying speed, and ignoring the two men who still lay conscious, bleeding and cursing on the ground, he spoke to Felicity. "You get that?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "It would have to be relatively short range, and with the way they're taking out the towers a direct radio link like a walkie-talkie."

"How do I stop it?" he asked.

He heard that odd click again and felt a burst of panic. "Felicity?"

All that met him was silence, and he knew they must have lost their connection again. He moved toward the barrel shaped container and saw clamps holding down the lid. Moving slowly he undid the clamps and lifted the top free of the container. Inside was a smaller canister which had another component strapped to it. He grabbed one of the nearby discarded flashlights and could see that the second component was a black display panel with what he was assuming was some kind of plastic explosives strapped to it.

He had no idea what to do. If there was ever a time in his life that he had fully appreciated his tech-savvy partner on a practical level, it was in that moment.

Just as worry was starting to crowd his brain he heard another click. "Oliver!" she said, sounding as panicked as he felt.

"I'm here," he said. He quickly described the bomb to her. "What do I do?"

"We're down to one cell tower now," she said, her words crowded together. "Luckily it sounds like a simple device. If you can get the two pieces disconnected and get the canister away from the rest of the device before the signal is sent, it should be a fairly – "

Another click, she was gone.

Oliver swore again. If that was the last conversation he was going to have with Felicity Smoak in this life then there was absolutely no justice in the universe. He swallowed hard and pulled a knife from one his pockets. He took the briefest second to focus on the look on her face when she'd first seen the necklace, the feeling of her hand in his, and what it had felt like to finally hold her. Then he reached for the device, and began to cut.