"Things have really fallen apart without Oliver, haven't they?" Curtis said as the team tried to to come to grips with the fact that they'd let Rene get captured.
"It's a good thing I'm back then." Oliver said as he walked in.
"Was he waiting for an entrance line?" Rory asked.
"Nope. He's just that cool." Roy said.
"I got your text. Have we found Rene?" Oliver asked Laurel, who shook her head no.
"You get John?" Laurel asked.
"Yeah. He's fine. He's holed up at HIVE. I couldn't write him off, and we are not gonna write off Rene. We're gonna find him, we're gonna bring him back Wherever he is." Oliver said and the whole team nodded.
"Tobias Church- where is he?" Green Arrow growled at a low life as he pinned him up against a wall.
"Don't know. Even if I did, whatever you're gonna do to me, he's worse." the guy said.
"How sure are you about that?" Green Arrow asked.
Another lowlife was currently running through an alley when he felt something wrap around his ankle and string him up from a rafter.
"Unh! Hey. You're a lot cuter than the green guy." the thug said as he saw Artemis enter his line of sight.
"Aw, you're kind of cute, too, in a "I feel sorry for you" kind of way. Where's Church?" Artemis asked.
"Yeah? Who wants to know?" the thug asked. "The green guy! Where's Church?" Green Arrow said as he and Ragman entered his line of sight.
"Look out!" Artemis said as the man fired at Ragman, who was forced to drop him briefly.
"You ok?" Artemis asked him.
"I'm better than this schmuck." Ragman said.
"Church-address now!" Green Arrow growled.
"I heard he's somewhere northwest of here, maybe by the water." the man said scared.
"Half the city's on the water." Artemis said.
"I swear that's all I know." the man said, causing Green Arrow to look at Ragman, who nodded before throwing the thug back.
"Any luck?" Laurel asked Curtis
"Does the fact that if I didn't know how much this monitor costs and how much it would hurt, I would punch this monitor tell you anything." Curtis said as Oliver and the others entered the bunker.
"Tell me you've had better luck than I've had." Curtis said.
"We might have narrowed it down to the northwest part of the city." Oliver said.
"Yeah, so now we're looking for a needle in a slightly smaller haystack." Evelyn said.
"I will run an algorithm, cross-referencing traffic cams with probable locations." Curtis said as John entered the bunker.
"Wow! This place just got really crowded." John said with a smile.
"Hey." Laurel said as she hugged John.
"Do people just walk into your secret base of operations?" Rory asked.
"Yes." Roy and Curtis responded.
"This is." Oliver began.
" Spartan. I'm guessing." Evelyn interrupted and Oliver just nodded.
"You guys must be the new kids on the block." John said.
"More like the Backstreet Boys. It was funny in my head." Curtis joked before realizing no one else found it funny.
"This is Rory Regan and Evelyn Sharp." Oliver said, making the introductions.
"John Diggle, and you are missing a man- Rene Ramirez. Lyla called in Argus for the search. Unfortunately, she's turned up nothing." John said.
"It's going around." Curtis said.
"We are gonna find Rene, and we're not gonna give up hope while we're doing it. I have an early meeting at city hall. I will check in with everybody soon." Oliver said as he headed out.
Is it just my imagination, or did Oliver just seem" Curtis asked Laurel.
"Optimistic. That's not usually a word I'd associate with his demeanor." Laurel agreed.
Oliver had just entered the conference room where Thea and Quentin were waiting for him.
"Rene?" Thea asked.
"Slow. What about the ACU?" Oliver asked.
"Too many cops on Church's dime keeping him 5 steps ahead, and with Conahan gone and Church's assault on the ACU, I'm thinking we got to bring more men into the fold." Quentin said.
"Well, do we have enough guys that we can trust?" Oliver asked.
"Pike says that a bunch of his men have volunteered since the attack on the ACU, so if you want, I can vet them, and I can, you know, make sure there's no bad apples." Quentin offered.
"Please. Let's get that done." Oliver agreed and Quentin nodded before leaving.
"Look. I know this is one of the last things you want to be dealing with right now, but the rezoning vote is in a few days." Thea said and Oliver looked confused for a few moments.
"Allowing us to expand low-income housing in Orchid Bay." Thea reminded him and Oliver's face lit up as he remembered.
"Yeah, yeah." Oliver said.
"Ok. Well, we need a 4/5 majority vote from city council in order to pass the ordinance, and." Thea said.
"Who are the holdouts?" Oliver asked.
"Only one that really matters- Councilman Kullens." Thea said.
"Ehh, he is decidedly non residential." Oliver said.
"I was gonna say he's the most stubborn man in the city compared to you, but that works." Thea said.
"Let's get into it. Oh and by the way, are you feeling alright? Laurel told me she took you to the doctor a few days ago." Oliver asked her.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just ate something that didn't agree with me." Thea said since she had Laurel sworn to secrecy for right now and Oliver didn't need anymore distractions.
"Ok, but if it turns out to be anything else just let me know." Oliver said and Thea noded.