Chapter 14 – Strategy

Oliver met Diggle's eyes as he looked away from the peephole, jaw clenched. Digg nodded, understanding that Oliver wanted him to cover their new visitor. He moved to Oliver's other side stepping away from the door. Oliver looked at Roy, who also nodded and stepped slightly in their direction. His fists and jaw were both tensed, and Digg assumed he was working hard to keep his tenuous grip on his rage in check. Then Oliver swung the door wide open. "What do you want, Merlyn?"

Malcolm Merlyn raised his dark eyes and took in the three men before him. His eyes finally settled on John. "Come now, Mr. Diggle, that gun didn't really do you any good the last time we met."

Digg clenched his jaw. He really didn't like this. "I like to be prepared."

"What do you want?" Oliver repeated again, sounding like his patience was gone.

Merlyn stepped forward and Oliver closed the door behind him, careful not to take his eyes of the older man.

"Thea is in trouble." Merlyn said it as a statement, not a question.

"That's not your concern." Oliver was brusque as he leveled a hard gaze at his enemy.

"She's my daughter."

"Not in the ways that matter."

Merlyn, who had been surveying Felicity's apartment, turned and met Oliver's eyes. "Are you telling me you don't need all the help you can get getting her and Laurel back?"

"How do you know these things?"

"I have plenty of people who keep their eyes and ears open for me."

Oliver tensed visibly at that, and Digg could tell what he was thinking before he said it. "Like Isabel Rochev."

"I am sorry about that, but it was a means to an end."

Felicity came out of her bedroom then. "Guys, I think I found out. . ." she trailed off, eyes widening as she took in the sight before her. "You."

Malcom Merlyn had the audacity to smile. "Ms. Smoak, I presume."

She looked at Roy. "It's not usually like this," she said to him, as if in explaination. "I don't usually almost get blown up and then have the guy who had me kidnapped show up at my apartment. And jeez, add that to the list of things I'd never say." Roy chuckled, and his fists loosened slightly. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his eyes back to Merlyn.

They were all watching Oliver now, waiting for him to decide what was next. Oliver looked to Felicity, then Digg, then Roy. Finally, his eyes met Merlyn's again. "Are you saying you are here to help?" Merlyn nodded his head, saying nothing. "And why should we believe you."

"Because she's my daughter, and I want her safe."

Oliver's jaw tightened again. "You didn't care about keeping Tommy safe. He died because of you!"

Surprisingly, Merlyn closed his eyes at the words, a look of pain crossing his features. "My punishment for thinking I could fix a city by killing hundreds is knowing that I also killed Tommy, and that my wife will never forgive me for that."

Digg was surprised—he wasn't sure what sort of response he had been expecting, but that wasn't it.

Oliver looked at him again, and nodded. Diggle didn't like this. "Oliver . . . ."

"We need him, John," Oliver said quietly. Digg sighed, holstering his weapon.

"So, anyway," Felicity said. "I think I know where they are. Can you give us a moment?" She asked, looking at Merlyn.

Oliver looked at Roy again, who nodded at Oliver's unspoken command to keep an eye on Merlyn. Diggle was impressed—the kid was doing well with everything so far.

Diggle and Oliver followed Felicity into her bedroom. She was immediately whirling to face Oliver. "Are you sure about this?"

He nodded. "My mother said he was interested only in Thea. I think he'll help us get her back safely. And we're going to need all the help we can get, especially with Laurel involved too."

It occurred to Diggle that this was the second time Laurel had been mentioned. He hadn't paid much attention to that. "Laurel?" He asked in confusion.

Oliver's phone rang—the Arrow one, and he glanced at it. "It's Lance," he said, stepping away from them.

Felicity looked to Diggle. "Laurel is missing. Oliver thinks Slade has her too."

Diggle searched her face, expecting to see something there. The thought that Laurel was involved made him nervous, because Oliver always seemed to have a singular purpose when she was involved. But Felicity just looked worried and tired. He didn't understand how she couldn't feel something—jealousy or uncertainty, something—knowing that Laurel Lance was now being brought in to this.

Oliver rejoined them. "He was just asking for help. I'm going to meet him at the usual spot in an hour." He looked at Felicity. "What do you have?"

"I'm pretty sure I have a location."

"How sure?" Diggle asked.

"Ninety-nine percent, based on the routes the kidnappers took and the history of the building."

Oliver nodded, glancing at his watch. "That's enough for me. It's almost three am now. If we want to move on them tonight, we need to do it right after I meet Lance, or we lose the cover of darkness."

Diggle nodded. "It's better than leaving them there longer. No telling what is happening." Another thought occurred to him. "What about Sara?" If they needed all the help they could get, it only made sense to call her. Laurel was, after all, her sister.

Oliver nodded. "Lance wanted me to call her, too. I think she's close." He stepped away again, and made the call.

"She should be here within the hour," he said, moving back in.

"Are we including Lance in this?" Digg asked, feeling the need to clarify.

"I don't see how we can keep him out."

Felicity reached out to touch Oliver's wrist. "You realize he may figure out . . ."

He nodded. "A risk I'm willing to take," he said. He turned his eyes back to Diggle. "How is Roy handling all of this?"

"Surprisingly well," Diggle said. "I think he'll be okay in the field. He has to work it, hard, to stay in control, but he's managing. I think having Thea involved will keep him focused."

Oliver nodded. He scrubbed his hand over his face, looking between them. "Okay, let's go make a plan."

They stepped out into the living room, settling around Felicity's small table. She pulled out her tablet and pulled up an aerial of the neighborhood. "The kidnappers entered this neighborhood here and here," she said, pointing. "This building is abandoned, and changed ownership three months ago, which makes it the most probable location for where Slade is holding Thea and Laurel."

Diggle looked at Oliver. "We have to assume he is going to be expecting us. He's been watching us for a long time, Oliver. Felicity found a bug in her apartment, and in all of our phones, including Roy's. She thinks the lair, and maybe even your place, have been bugged for months."

"So he knows we'll find him quickly," Oliver said. "He'll be familiar with Felicity's abilities. He'll be expecting us. We can only hope he won't be expecting all of us."

Felicity placed a handful of comm pieces on the table. "They hacked our transmission earlier. Whoever they have working with them is good. I've put a couple of additional protections in place, but I can't do much from here. It might be different if I had our systems at the lair. Don't rely on these. I think they will be good for five, maybe ten minutes before they block them again."

Diggle didn't like that. "So we maintain radio silence until we breach. We need every one of those five minutes."

Oliver nodded. "We go in at a set time. No one jumps the gun, no one goes off half-cocked." He leveled his gaze at Roy. Roy raised his hands, nodding. "Good," Oliver said.

Felicity pulled up a blueprint of the building on her tablet and placed it in front of them, allowing the men to study it. The discussed strategy in hushed tones. Eventually, Oliver pointed to the front door. "So I'll go in here. Roy, I want you with me. Diggle, you and Lance will keep any incoming hostiles off our back so we can deal with Slade. Merlyn, your main concern is getting Thea out and back to the vehicle. Sara will do the same for Laurel."

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Diggle got up, leaving the others to strategize. He checked the peephole, then opened the door. "Sara," he said in greeting.

She gave him a half smile. "Hello, John."

"We're talking strategy, you are just in time." He opened the door wider, motioning her in.

She looked at Merlyn, and said something to Arabic in him. He responded in kind, and Diggle suspected it was some sort of League of Assassins greeting.

As they finished talking details, Oliver started spending more of his time watching Felicity. She had a laptop on the table, typing furiously. Digg suspected she was working on code to keep their comms secure for as long as possible. There was a chime on her computer, and she looked up to meet Oliver's eyes. "You need to leave in five to meet Lance."

Diggle saw a wild look come into his eyes, and he suddenly understood. The last time Oliver had headed out in the hood and left Felicity alone, she had nearly been blown up. Oliver opened his mouth to speak, but Felicity was already shaking her head. "No, Oliver. It's not happening."

Digg flashed a look to Roy, who stood up, beckoning Merlyn and Sara to follow him. They moved to the other side of the room. Sara watched them unabashedly though.

"I don't like the idea of you being alone," Oliver said softly.

"I don't like any of this," she said back, heatedly. "But you aren't going to make Diggle stay back to protect me—you guys need every single body there to make sure you all make it out safe. Especially with Merlyn involved. There is no way John is doing anything other than watching your back."

Oliver's jaw tightened and he exhaled. "Felicity . . ."

"Slade was planning on me being dead," she said, bringing up the elephant in the room. Digg watched as Oliver closed his eyes at her words. "That had to be part of the motive in blowing up our base of operations. He probably has every resource he has waiting for you to come for Thea," she said. "I don't think he's going to have the time or energy to come after me again. At least not right now."

Oliver reached under the table, where no one but Diggle could see, and found her hand. "Has it been long enough yet?" He ground out.

Felicity squeezed his hand and shook her head. "Three hours hardly counts, Oliver."

"I won't regret it." Oliver said the words with absolute certainty. Diggle was lost now, he had no idea what they were talking about. He was pretty sure his friends had forgotten he was here.

Felicity let go of his hand. "You need to go," she said.

Oliver sighed, and stood. He looked at Diggle. "We'll meet here," he said, pointing to an intersection on the tablet. "At 4:10."

"Shouldn't you guys like, synchronize you watches or something?" Felicity chuckled.

Digg just raised an eyebrow.

Oliver grabbed his bag and threw Felicity one last long, heated glance, and Digg had to look away, because there was an entire lifetime of declarations and words written in his eyes—words that were for Felicity only. "I'll be back," he said softly to her.

"And I'll be waiting," she said with smile.

Oliver said a quick word to Sara and Roy, and was gone.

Xxx

Lance was waiting on the roof when the Arrow arrived. Oliver had spent the ride over on the bike focusing his mind on the task at hand, trying not to think of Felicity alone and unprotected in her apartment. Trying not to think about how close had already come to losing her. Now he had to compartmentalize, because he had told her he would come back. It was a promise he meant to keep.

"Detective," he said, using the voice modulator. Lance spun to face him.

"Did you contact Sara?" He asked.

Oliver nodded. "She will be there."

"You know where she is?"

"We have an idea, yes."

"I want to come." Oliver sighed, he was expecting nothing less, but it still was going to complicate things.

"There will be some things that may surprise you," Oliver said carefully. "You must remember to focus only on the objective—getting Laurel out." Getting both of them out. "That's all the matters."

"What kind of surprises?" Lance asked, looking wary.

"All will reveal itself in time." Actually, he hoped it wouldn't. But things generally had a habit of working against him. "There will someone waiting for you here," he said, handing him a paper with an address. "A friend. You may recognize him."

"Who?"

"You'll see. He is an associate of Ms. Smoak's." Perhaps the detective would buy Felicity being the connection to Diggle, rather than himself. "The two of you will maintain the perimeter. Sara will get Laurel out."

"Do you know who has her?"

Oliver nodded. "An enemy?"

"Your enemy?" Lance asked in confusion.

"Also an enemy of Sara's," Oliver said slowly.

Lance nodded. "Anything else?"

Oliver handed him a comm link. "These may not work for long—they hacked our transmission earlier tonight. Keep radio silence until we breach. Everything begins at 4:10." They had less than a quarter of an hour to get to the warehouse and get in place.

Lance nodded, closing his hand over the ear piece. "Thank you," he said, and there was emotion in his voice.

Oliver couldn't help but feel guilty. All of this was happening because of him.

xxx

Felicity watched as Diggle, Sara, Roy, and Merlyn gathered at the door. "Sara," Digg said, "You drive with Merlyn. Presumably you both need to . . . change." Sara nodded. Felicity was glad someone would be keeping an eye on Merlyn—she still didn't trust him.

She pulled Sara aside, giving her a small tracker. Sara raised her eyebrow. "For Merlyn," Felicity clarified. "I don't trust him."

Sara smiled. "Good call," she said. Felicity tried to return her smile, but couldn't seem to get her face to work. There was too much at stake to smile. "He'll be okay," Sara said.

"It's not just him I'm worried about, you know." Felicity clarified. "We're all in this together, and it would be nice if everyone comes out of it together."

"There's always hope," Sara said.

Felicity nodded, but it didn't make her feel any better.

Diggle looked at his watch. "Time to roll," he said.

Felicity took a deep breath to steady herself. "Be safe," she said, opening the door for them. It was the only thing she could think to say. Digg pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead as he passed by.

Then they were gone, and she was alone. She pressed her hand over her mouth for a moment, willing herself to calm down. They would be okay. Digg and Oliver and Sara and Roy, they would all be okay. And they would save Thea and Laurel. They had to. Because she knew that if any of them were lost, Oliver would never recover. She took one more breath, and then pushed herself off the door. She walked to the desktop in her bedroom. There was work to be done.