CHAPTER - 21
Lyla walked down the silent and sterile corridor. The crump of her boots echoed around her. Brightly lit fluorescent lights shone down on the sparkling white marble floor. She was on the top floor of the ARGUS headquarter, and everything about the place screamed 'state-of-the-art'. All around her there was glass and steel and chrome. Nothing was redundant; everything was functional.
As soon as she had stepped out of the elevator, her nose had been assaulted by a sweet, sickly smell which hung in the air. It made her feel nauseated. And it was the same every time she stepped in here.
The walls were painted a pristine white, which compounded the glare of the fluorescent lights. Surprisingly enough, the walls had not discoloured. She had worked here for the past six years and in that time period she had come up here a grand total of nine times. She could hardly notice any change from when she had stepped foot here the first time.
The top floor of the building housed Amanda Waller's office and the 'War room'. The 'War room' was a state-of-the-art operations room filled with intercoms, telephones, modems and huge monitors on the walls, and agents feverishly tapping away on their keyboards. All high profile operations were coordinated and controlled from their. She too had been a part of such operations once or twice.
Outside Starling was drowning in a sea of monsters but this place remained untouched. It was like the Ark of Noah - a haven during the apocalypse. All the chaos and malevolence could not seep in here.
She was walking down the corridor which connected the elevator to the 'War room'. Just in front of her was the 'war room'. A twelve feet switchable electric glass door separated the corridor and the war room. It was usually opaque when the room was in use. And it was opaque now.
She pushed the door open and stepped in. A cool draft hit her and a racket of noise assaulted her ears. There were twenty people in the room and they were functioning on all four cylinders, like the robots on a manufacturing line. Few of them were looking at a video footage on the 30 inch screen on the wall. Five of them were seated in their computers, tapping away with a grim look on their face. Phones were ringing off the hook. A couple of them were moving around with stacks of files in their hands. All of them were talking at the same time; pointing out things to one another, connecting calls and scrubbing through live footages and coming up with well perceived and analysed plan.
And at the centre of everything, pulling the strings was the captain of this disarrayed ship - Amanda Waller. She was standing, calm and composed, like a statue, in the corner of the room. Her eyes were skittering across the room taking everything in. She had once told her that silence helped her process. She used to spend hours in her office brainstorming a particular situation before coming up with an answer by the end of the day. She was efficient that way.
She was dressed in a dark pant-suit, with a pitch coloured shirt peeking from underneath the suit. Her jaw was clenched and her forehead was scrunched up with a perpetual a frown. Her dark hair was pulled up in a tight bun. She always wore her hair that way. She was the epitome of authority and power, like a catholic mother with a cane, who would whip you if you looked at her wrong.
Amanda looked at her as she strode towards her.
The frown on her face morphed into confusion, "Agent Michaels? What are you doing here?", she asked.
"The City is going berserk. Armed thugs are running around killing everyone. Someone bombed the Mayor's office and the precincts."
Waller raised an eyebrow. "I am well aware of that. Look around. What do you think I am doing here?"
Lyla turned her attention towards the screens. Sure enough, there were footages of the city. CCTV footages, traffic cams and any other cameras which were accessible, all were lined up in small squares on the screen.
"You are only monitoring. Where are the strike teams? We have to contain this."
"We can't intervene. The State Police and the National Guards have been alerted."
"What do you mean we can't intervene?" she asked indignantly.
Waller sighed in exasperation, "Do I have to make you go through the rule book again? ARGUS doesn't have domestic mandate. We can't lend a hand until and unless we liaise with a local law enforcement agency, and seeing as there is none left in this city, I can't really do anything."
"That's just bullshit technicality. It has never stopped you before."
Waller ignored her.
"Amanda, let me have twelve guys. I will take point myself from the control room. We can take them on. We can liaise with the vigilantes."
"Like I said, Agent Michaels, I am not gonna compromise protocols. Calls have been placed through the proper channels. The White House has been notified. This is a coordinated terrorist attack and we do not have any precedent for it so the President himself will call me within the hour and give me a line of direction. Till then, we have to hold on."
Lyla growled in frustration. She felt like a child whose parents wouldn't give her a toy she saw on a shelf. Waller was the most obstinate person she had met. No one could influence her decision. She was dogged that way.
"Amanda, the National Guards are about 200 miles away. And these thugs are armed with military grade weapons. They are gonna wreck havoc to the city."
Waller ignored her because just then an agent beckoned her.
"Ma'am! The West Avenue is under attack."
Waller's nostrils flared. "Bring it up on the centre screen."
The agents punched a few button on the keyboard and a video feed popped up on the centre screen.
It was a traffic cam footage. It was bleary and coarse grained. The time was running at the bottom left corner of the frame in white grainy figures and the top right corner read 'CAM 223'. There was no audio. On the screen, scores of people were thumping across the street as if they were rallying in protestation. They were all dressed in prison outfits and were armed. Since it was a fixed axis camera she couldn't make out their number, but she guesstimated it to be around thirty or forty, which was not good.
"Do we have any other cameras in the area?" she asked the agent.
"I am afraid not, Agent Michaels. The only other camera is at the mouth of the underpass connecting the West Avenue and Downtown."
She huffed in frustration, "Isn't West Avenue one of the most upscale parts of the city, apart from Central Avenue and Downtown? How come there is only one traffic cam in the entire region?"
"Ma'am, West Avenue is a residential area. There are a lot of cameras but we need to access them physically."
"What about ATM cams? We can access them from here."
"There are no ATMs in this three blocks radius, ma'am. This is all we have."
She turned her attention back to the footage. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a car zoomed into the frame, swerved, mounted the curb and crashed into a wall. The driver, a young kid in a shirt, leapt out of the driver seat and was about to run in the opposite direction but mists of blood puffed out of his chest and he dropped to the ground. All the convicts milled around the car and started shooting at the car and the dead body. The car lit up like a Christmas tree. The windshield shattered and flew everywhere. Then one of the convicts ran forward and tossed something inside the car and a couple out second later the car blew up.
It was a grenade. Fire swallowed up the car and raged upwards, hungry for more.
Lyla glanced at Waller. Her face, as usual, was stoic and emotionless. Neither did it reflect the graveness of the situation nor did it express any interest to tackle it. It seemed like she was watching a particular distasteful video.
Waller's obsidian eyes flickered towards the agent, "What is the situation with the rest of the city?"
The agent quickly tapped on his keyboard and smoothly pulled up the map of Starling.
"Bring it on the main screen."
The map slid into the main screen.
"Ma'am, this attack was quite intricately planned. They have a very specific sets of goals and they are not resorting to stupidity to attain them. Their plans are well coordinated, so there is little room for error on their part. It was quite clever actually, how they managed to take out the mayor's office and the police precincts, leaving absolutely no man power to protect the city. Then they broke the convicts out, which was another ace up their sleeve. Now they have an army at their command."
Everyone remained silent and the agent continued, "Iron Heights is twenty minutes outside the city limits. So after entering the city, the bulk of them headed straight towards West Avenue, their immediate target being Downtown. I mean, Downtown in the heart of the city. It is always crowded. Palmer Tech, Amertek, Mercury Labs; Downtown is loaded with money. So they are going to hit Starling where it hurts - the wallet. They can cause a lot of destruction in Downtown, not only physically but economically as well."
"So you think they are going to stop there? You think Downtown is their end game?" asked Lyla.
"It would seem so. I mean, at least, that is what I would do. But there is something else, which is quite disconcerting."
"What?"
"The bulk is heading for the downtown but smaller factions are splintering off of them. These smaller factions are moving throughout the city and causing havoc. It will be very difficult to contain this threat, what with the cops out of commission and all."
Lyla turned her gaze around to Waller, who appeared to be in deep thought. A small frown sat on her face.
"Amanda, we have to contain this."
She didn't reply. She seemed to have frozen up. Her gaze was fixed on the screen but her face, as usual, didn't betray any thoughts. One thing she had learnt about Waller over the years was that she was unpredictable. She had a way of mixing things up. And she had one of the best tactical minds in the business. It seemed likely that right now her mind was running at a thousand miles per second trying to concoct a countermeasure.
Then the iciness broke, "All right, Agent Michaels. 12 men. A team of four. Downstairs control room in 20 minutes. Prep time of 15. Our priority is to contain as much damage as possible. Liaise with those vigilantes if you have to."
"Yes, ma'am."
And without further ado, she scurried out of the room.
Amanda Waller, just like she thought - unpredictable.
She came to a halt. In front of her was the long corridor with the elevator at the end which would take her downstairs, and to her right was another corridor which led to Waller's office.
She had already been planning to come here to dig through the archives to find intel on Oliver. That had been plan A back then. But circumstances had prompted plan A to take the back seat. And now a window of opportunity had popped open.
A twenty minutes window.
It was the perfect opportunity for her to snoop around. A vague plan took shape in her mind.
Five minutes later, after further debating, she stood in front of Waller's office, staring at the ornate lettering on he door, which read - AMANDA WALLER - and just below that - DIRECTOR, A.R.G.U.S. If that wasn't intimidating enough, she didn't know what was. The glaring font alone could send someone running back into the rabbit hole.
She glanced towards the right. She could make out the faint light seeing out into the corridor from the control room. Waller was in there and she had a problem the size of USA on her shoulders. So, she would be pre-occupied with that to even pay attention to her little adventure. She could feel her heartbeat raise and pulse quicken. She knew a thing or two about espionage. She had successfully carried out missions during her field days. But this had her at the edge. She didn't know what the consequences would be and she didn't have time to consider it.
She turned her attention to the door. It was about nine feet high and four feet wide. It was a darker shade of brown with a mica finish. It looked flat and elegant and heavy. If someone were to slam it against her face then it would surely break her nose. It was strong and secure; something you would expect blocking the entrance to the boss's office. The ornate knob and the lock was at her waist height.
The lock wasn't sophisticated. It didn't have a keypad or any of the biometric sensors which was installed on the elevator. So what ARGUS was trying to convey was that if you are already up on this floor then you can be trusted. Only a handful of people were allowed up here.
The lock opened with a simple key. Scrutinising the lock further she surmised that it was a laser cut key, with a thick shank and smooth grooves. It also maybe had a transponder on it, like that of a car key, which meant that there were maybe two keys that could open this. So, no amount of poking and prodding with a bobby pin was going to open it. It was virtually uncrackable without the key.
So she did the next obvious thing. She pulled out her standard issue Sig Sauer P220 from her holster and a Osprey suppressor, which she screwed into the barrel of the gun. She figured that two taps into the lock would break it and open the door. But what she was certain of was that the lock was rigged with alarms. In case of a break-in, Waller's phone would be bombarded with alerts but she hoped that she would be too preoccupied to notice them, at least for a while.
There was no end game to this. No exit strategy. She had not come prepared. Opportunity presented itself so she had to play it by the ear. She glanced at her watch. She had about fifteen minutes to get down to the control room. Once she was inside she would have about five minutes before Waller or someone else came barging in. So she had to do it quickly and efficiently. Just like one of her missions.
She aimed her .45 at the lock and tapped twice. The gun coughed and spit out the bullets which formed a nice grouping on the lock. One a millimetre above the other. She twisted the knob and with a satisfying click the door swung open.
She didn't have time to survey the room but from what she saw she surmised that the room captured Waller's personality perfectly. Dark, cold and obsessively clean. It was empty except for a table with a rolling chair which was directly opposite to her, a steel cabinet which stood silently beside the table, a couch and a lamp which was dimly lit. The walls were white and looked as though they were painted a few days ago. There was a window behind the table with the blinders pulled.
She looked around for any cameras; there were none, at least not to the naked eye. She glanced at her watch. Thirty seconds gone. She moved towards the table. The table, like the room, was obsessively clean too. On it was a laptop, a penholder, couple of files, a letter opener which looked threateningly like a combat knife, and a tangled up laptop charger.
She lifted the lid of the laptop and screen blinked into life. It showed an ugly blue background with a rectangular box in the middle with the word PASSWORD written on top of it. She pulled out the stick drive that Felicity had given her and plugged it in. The laptop purred and whirred, a black window popped up on the screen. Then some gibberish texts started appearing on the screen, which she presumed would make more sense to Felicity than to her.
She glanced at her watch. One minute gone. Approximately four minutes left. She glanced at the door; any moment someone would come in and most probably arrest her, and she wasn't even sure if the drive was doing it's job.
So, she pulled out her phone and called Felicity, who answered almost immediately.
"Lyla…OK…this is….this is not a great time…"
She frowned, "What's the matter? Why are you panting?"
"The cave has been infiltrated by those lunatics…They are crawling all over the Glades…I barely made it out myself…"
"What? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I am fine now. I am in the van driving out of here…..They burnt the whole club down, Lyla…Wanton destruction everywhere. They are armed with guns and grenades….They are tossing Molotov cocktails into buildings…It's crazy out here…"
She listened to her patiently in spite of her own troubles. It looked like Star City wouldn't give anyone a break tonight. They were already stretching thin.
Suddenly, she heard a screeching noise on the line and Felicity screaming, "Out of the way, you dumbass mother-"
She pulled the phone away from her ear to spare them and her feminine sensibility her shrill and colourful mouth.
"These assholes! I swear Lyla, the next person I see in front of the van with a van, I am gonna ran him over. I don't give a shit right now!"
"Felicity, I myself am in a bit of a fix here…"
"Yeah, sorry…what is it? And where are you?"
"I am in Waller's office. I plugged your stick drive into her laptop. It seems to be downloading the contents."
"Woh! You broke into frosty's den! And might I ask where she is?"
Lyla gritted her teeth, "Felicity, I don't have time. I bet my life that Waller knows I am here…I need your help.."
"Ok, Ok, sorry. This thing has me on the edge. Okay, hit me."
"I have your stick drive plugged into the computer. I think she might be on her way to see who broke into her office, so I can't get the intel to you physically…"
"So, you want me to hack in?"
"Yes, the malware is already in. You have to get the intel now…"
"Ok…Ok…hang on, let me park."
She heard the screech of the brakes and engine shutting down.
"Lyla, tell me you're going to be alright"
"Don't worry about me Felicity. Amanda won't harm me. But on a second thought whatever intel you get, send it to a media outlet if I don't call within the hour."
"Ok, ok, got it…Now, I have the IP address and I am in the system. So, I do this and that. Yes! It's downloading. Check it out."
Indeed, on the bottom of the screen a window popped up which read 'DOWNLOADING' and the percentage running beside it.
"How long is it gonna take?'
"Not long. I have tailored my search to encompass those DNA markers, and subject 049 and 050. So any information or files related to that will fall right into my basket."
"Okay, okay," she breathed into the receiver.
The computer already read '30% completed'.
She pulled out the clip of her gun. Eight rounds left plus another spare clip. Eighteen rounds in total. She hoped she didn't need to use it. Maybe she could bargain her way out of the situation. but she needed something special to outfox someone like Amanda Waller.
Her watch showed a minute and a half approximately. The room was quite except for the humming of the laptop and Felicity's heavy breathing in the receiver. Every object in the room cast a despondent shadow which exacerbated the gloom and doom of Waller's impending arrival. She could feel her pulse racing In anticipation and her forehead glistening with sweat.
The screen showed about 60% completion. She couldn't decide if she should have her eyes peeled on the screen or the door.
"Felicity, how much longer? It isn't showing the ETA."
"Almost done. It's going pretty fast actually."
"Well, do it faster, because - "
Just then someone burst in through the door with a bang, and that someone started shooting at her. She didn't even get time to lift her head up and identify the person. All she saw was a gun pointed at her in one instant and in the next instant - loud bangs and muzzle flashes.
She dived out of the way and onto the floor but the other person continued shooting - once, twice, thrice and continued on until all she heard was the sound of an empty clip. She quickly pushed herself off the floor and pointed her gun at the person.
It was Amanda Waller, with a gun in her hand.
"Drop the gun, Amanda. Your gun is empty."
She glared at her for a few seconds and then dropped the gun.
Lyla looked around and then saw where she had unloaded all her bullets. The laptop. It was riddled with bullet holes and the screen was shattered. She cursed, worried if Felicity got everything. Her phone had rolled off somewhere when she had dived. And right now, she had bigger problems.
"Agent Michaels, imagine my surprise when I saw you breaking into my office. I thought you were one of those shape-shifting metas."
She kept her gun trained on her, "What makes you think I am not?"
"The files you hacked into confirmed it for me," she said with a smirk.
"Where is Oliver, Amanda?" she asked, point blank.
"Oliver Queen? How should I know where he is? I am not his mother."
"Don't play coy, Amanda. The Arrow disappeared yesterday evening somewhere outside of Central City. We have evidence of ARGUS's involvement."
" ARGUS's? Need I remind you that you are an ARGUS agent too. So, I recommend that you think before hurling accusations?"
Lyla huffed angrily, "Stop playing games, Amanda! The city is in ruins. The Glades is almost gone. What did you do to him?"
Waller only smirked, "I am surprised by this loyalty of yours to the obscure. You are part of this institution. Your job is to protect the interest of the nation, not protect criminal vigilantes. And what does it matter anyway. The Arrow is dead. Didn't you watch the news?"
Lyla was getting tired of this charade. She was tired of the mind games that Waller was playing; trying to twist her thoughts and emotions by deflecting her problem. Classic Waller.
So, she squeezed the trigger. The bullet whizzed passed Waller by an inch and buried itself into the wall behind her. Waller flinched and lifted her arms up to protect her face.
"No more games, Director. Tell me what I need to know or the files go public."
Waller remained silent. Fury was dancing in those glowering eyes of her. "We can add attempted murder along with breaking and entering and stealing sensitive and classified information to the list. You have a kid, Lyla. It will be a travesty if you let her grow up without a mother for this lost cause."
Lyla just gritted her teeth, "I know about subject 049 an 050. I know that they ambushed Oliver in that warehouse. He was set up. You killed him."
"It's not like he was innocent," Waller justified. "Over the years he has accrued a lot of enemies. It was only a matter of time before one of them did him in. You can't put the blame on me. And if you ask me he deserved it."
This just made Lyla's blood boil but before she could further threaten her the door banged open again and the male agent from before barged in. He hadn't realised what he had walked into but as soon as he did, his eyes went wide and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He immediately raised his hands up looking at the gun in her hand.
"Ok…ma'am," the agent addressed. "I don't want any trouble and I didn't see anything here but Director," he turned towards Waller, "you are needed in the war room. Ma'am, like, immediately. It's a matter of life and death. Someone is trying to hack into the system."
Waller looked at her, "You know I could have you arrested and put in maximum security prison without a trial. There will be no trace of you."
"You could? But then you will see ARGUS's name plastered all over the front page of every newspaper in America. I don't think you would appreciate that much hassle. You don't want the people to panic, do you? After all you already have enough on your plate."
Waller glared at her. They were at an impasse. Even though she had a wide range of Machiavellian maneuvers in her arsenal this was a hole she couldn't climb out of.
"Well played, Agent Michaels. I almost feel proud. But let us not resort to primordial emotions right now. The city is under attack and it needs us. Are you ready to table this talk for the greater good of this city? I can have you arrested but I won't. You are an asset and I need you. Because it won't be long before Star City is wiped off the face of America."
She thought about what she said. Waller was right and she hated it. In her quest to find Oliver she had forgotten about the city. Her primary task was to protect the city. John was out there and her daughter was out there. So she nodded and filed this discussion under the 'to be continued' section of her mind.
She lowered her gun, "Only if you promise that you will not harm my family or me."
Waller nodded, "And you won't release the files?"
"You have my word."
"Then let's go and get this done."
Five minutes later, they were standing in front of the big screen in the war room. The agents were frantically punching their keyboards trying to stop whoever it was from hacking into the system. They worked efficiently, like cogs in a machine; each and everyone was needed to keep it running. Amanda had trained them well.
"I need a status report, Agents!" bellowed Waller towards the overworked crowd of agents.
"Ma'am, as of ten minutes ago someone has been trying to hack into our system and succeeding. At first I thought that it was some college kid doing it on a dare. I mean, it happens all the time but they can only get past our preliminary firewalls, you know, just graze the surface. But then this person kept knocking down our firewalls like bowling pins. The attack isn't over yet. We are doing everything to keep them out."
The room was filled with the noise of tapping keyboards and the humming of the computers and the cadence of their murmurings. The tension emanating from everyone was palpable. Everyone was on the edge. It felt as if at the drop of a pin the floodgates would open and all emotions would come bursting out.
And it did.
The screens crackled and quivered, and all of a sudden a face filled the big screen.
She heard Waller gasp at the sight of the face.
The face was that of a man. A man who belonged to the ancient part of the world. A man who could evoke fear in the heart of his enemies just by reputation. A man who was an urban legend in this part of the world, his astonishing tales only a myth. A demon straight from hell. Staring back at them was the infamous Ra's Al Ghul, in the flesh.
"Good evening. I am Ra's Al Ghul, head of the League of Shadows. I wish to speak to Amanda Waller," he intoned.
His voice was lucid and clear. She knew he was from the middle east but she couldn't detect any accent. His voice rang across the room like the sound of a whip
Waller stepped forward and asked gravely, "I am very well aware of who you are. What do you want?"
A ghost of a smile touch his razor sharp lips. He ran his hand through his mane of jet black hair. His tempestuous eyes twinkled with amusement at her answer.
"Unceremonious as always, you Americans. Well, no matter. You must be Amanda Waller?"
"I am. What do you want?" she reiterated.
The man sighed, "Have you looked outside your window, recently? Your star of a city is on fire."
"Is that why you are gracing us with this video call? To claim responsibility for this so called fire? If so, then you are wasting your time by calling us. Call BBC or Reuters or Al Jazeera. "
"I am not responsible for the fire per se. You could say that I am merely fanning the flames. This has been coming for a long time. Your city will be razed."
"Listen, I don't have time for your bullshits. You are a criminal. You are wanted by nations all over the world. So, I don't care if your are the one responsible for this attack or just providing the resources. You are an enemy of the State and someday I am going to put you in the pen myself."
Ra's chuckled and scratched his salt and pepper beard, "You Americans! Always proud and conceited and so ornery. Like you can do no wrong. The world has to play to your whims, doesn't it? You always have to have the power, don't you? Well, let's see how you feel after being neutered."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that you are going to feel the power of the demon. I may be halfway across the world from you but I am capable of bringing pain to you as if I am standing next to you! Never under estimate me, child! I have seen enough arrogance to last me a ten lifetimes."
And just like that, the screen went blank and an unnatural silence enveloped the room. Everyone was holding their breath. She could here the blood rushing in her ears.
She looked at Waller. Her jaw was set tight as though she was grinding her teeth. Her eyebrows were furrowed, as always.
"Amanda, what do you think he meant by that?"
And before she could answer the screen crackled and the sprang to life again. It was a video clipping, just like the traffic cam footage, only clearer and less coarse grained.
This footage showed a table and a couple of people facing them. Both of them were sitting on the opposite end of the table and having an intense conversation. The camera was placed in such a way that it was level with their face. She recognised the two people. On the right was the President of the United State and on the left was Amanda Waller herself. The camera turned to the left once and then to the right, giving a view of the room. It wasn't the White House; she would have recognised it if it were. She had been there several times. This room had opaque glasses instead of walls, just like the door of their war room.
Then she saw a hand jump out of nowhere and swipe at something above the frame, or that was what she thought. She could also hear something akin to someone breathing through a respirator. Loud and throaty. Then suddenly she realised, it wasn't someone breathing through a respirator. It was the screwed up recorder of the camera and the acoustics. This wasn't just a. normal camera. This was a camera which was embedded on a person or his clothes. This was the kind with which sting operation were carried out or used to spy on someone.
But who would want to carry out a sting operation on the President and how would that person be granted an audience with the most guarded person on the planet.
These questions bugged her to no end so she turned her attention to the conversation the President was having with Waller on the video.
"Are you sure that this is the way to go about it?" asked the President.
"Absolutely. This is the only way."
"But, Amanda, kidnapping the Mayor's daughter, risking the little girl's life, sicking a group of criminals on the Arrow. Isn't it a bit over the top and brazen? I mean, isn't there any other way to do it?"
"Mr President, you brought ARGUS in for precisely this reason. We do the job which no one can, and we deliver. The cops tried to apprehend him but couldn't. All the crime in his city couldn't do him in. The general consensus saw him as a hero. But the time is ripe now. This mass killing in Starling has put him in a bad spot. The public is running scared of him. It's the right time to strike. The people won't miss him. Operation Broken Arrow is the way to go about it."
"Isn't there any other contingency plan in place for him?"
"No, sir, there isn't. Every contingency plan that ARGUS has for all the known metas and vigilantes are specifically designed to expose their physical limitations and their fatal flaws. The Arrow, for example has shown us in recent years he has developed a bit of a moral compass, which can be exploited. He jumps to save women and children, hence the Mayor's daughter. The chips are down for him so he will go to any length to save her and it will make it easier for us to put him in a box."
"Ok…very well. I will approve it but is there any chance of this file leaking online? Because Amanda, god forbid if that were to happen, revolutions could be fuelled by it. It will create mass panic. We are still reeling from the Snowden disaster. On top of that it will be embarrassing."
"It won't, sir. We take classified and top secret information very seriously. You know very well how tight our defenses are."
"Very well then. Broken Arrow is a go. I expect a detailed report on completion."
The President rose from his seat and shook Waller's hand. Then he turned towards the camera and said, "Gerry, get the paperworks to my office."
She tore her attention from the screen and looked at a rattled Waller.
"Gerry…Amanda is that the-"
"Secretary of State, I am afraid," she replied in a grave tone.
She didn't know which was more shocking - the President hatching illegal plans with Amanda Waller to kill a vigilante or the Secretary of State being an inside man for the League of Shadows.
Before she could process the thought, Ra's Al Ghul's face sprung on the screen again.
"Now you see what I was speaking of child. I can cripple your government just by the click of a button. All I have to do is send it to any one of those newspapers that you so kindly suggested to me. But, I won't."
"Why not?"
"Because I like to play with my food before I eat it and because I am willing to negotiate."
"Negotiate?"
"Yes, I want something from you in exchange for my silence."
"And what might that be?"
"I want you to not interfere with what is about to happen to Starling city. Call your authorities, call your President. Spread the word. If anyone affiliated with the government steps foot inside the city I will release this footage. Don't test me. Change is coming and this transformation must be allowed to happen undeterred. This is peace in our time."
And then the screen turned blank but his words reverberated around the room and in her mind. She could feel the hair stand in the nape of her neck. Nobody moved. Everybody was holding their breath. It seemed that time itself had stopped and they had been frozen for eternity.
Until Waller broke the silence, "What are you waiting for people? Carry on with your jobs! And someone call the President for me!"
Then she turned towards her, "Meet me in the control room downstairs in ten minutes. And call your vigilante team. We need their help."
Saying that a perturbed Amanda Waller walked out of the room and all she could pray for was that everything would be all right in the end.
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