House of Cards
CONTENT:
Rating: Teen
Flavor: Drama
Language: none
Violence: none
Nudity: none
Sex: none
Other: none
Author's Note:
Not much to say that isn't a spoiler of some type. This is a real short one.
House of Cards
===#===
Felicity's Apartment
The walls reverberated with the earthquake grind of YouTube's heaviest Dub-step playlist. Felicity hoped that whoever was listening in was getting a severe headache. Especially if he preferred cellos and harpsichords.
Felicity was cleaning her apartment. Or, as she liked to call it, fumigating. She was meticulously picking up and dusting everything on her shelves, looking for surveillance devices. She hadn't found any yet. In hindsight, she should have noticed the cobwebs and dust had been far too thick to have recently been disturbed by someone planting bugs. Oh well, at least the place was getting a good cleaning. That should hold it over for a few more years.
A loud knocking came from the door, too high-pitched to be part of the music. "Finally," she breathed. Time to quit the housework for today and chow on some pizza, her favorite comfort food. She tapped the mouse on her way past the desk, to mute the music. "I'll be right there," she called. She grabbed the pizza money from the candy dish on the entry table.
She opened the door and nearly choked on her friendly smile. "What are you doing here?" she blurted.
Because there, in his 400 dollar suit in the middle class hallway, stood Malcolm Merlyn. "Felicity," he said cordially.
She bristled. "I don't believe such familiarity is appropriate, Mr. Merlyn."
He ducked his head. "My apologies, Ms. Smoak," he said in his usual level sincerity. He reached into his inner pocket. "I've brought you your check."
She took the envelope automatically when he handed it to her. She remembered quoting some outrageous fee for typing services, but hadn't really expected him to take it seriously. And between getting back to work, 'fumigating' her apartment, shopping for new locks, and waking up in the middle of the night in full-blown panic attacks that Diggle had to talk her down from, she just hadn't had time to send him an itemized bill. She glanced up and down the hall, wondering if anyone had noticed the exchange. The hall was empty, but one never knew when old Mrs. Gillis was peeping out at the goings-on.
"Thank you," Felicity managed to grind out, because her parents had been sticklers for good manners. "Don't come here again. I don't want you or any of your goons, or lackeys, or... whatever you have, snooping around here."
He looked affronted. Wounded, even. That only raised her hackles further. Before he could express any platitudes, she asked, "Did you bug my apartment?"
"There's no need for this animosity betw-"
"Your avoidance of the question indicates that the answer is 'yes.'" Hah, she had him there! He put on the expression of one trying to patiently deal with an unreasonable child. It only made her determinedly more stubborn. "Tell your spy-goons to get rid of all the surveillance."
"If I had bugged your apartment, and you hadn't just expressly forbade these 'spy-goons' from entering it, how would you even know if they had removed every last device or not?"
Oh. He had a point. Childishly, Felicity didn't care. "Need I remind you," she hissed, below the threshold of Mrs. Gillis' hearing aid, "I have enough state's evidence to put you away for life? I don't want to see you here again!"
She slammed the door in his face - or tried to. He caught it with alarming speed and leaned in. "Need I remind you, Ms. Smoak, that my IT department has a copy of the Trojan you unleashed on our systems, which traces back to the NIC address of your tablet? Do you know what the penalties are these days for corporate espionage?" His eyes glittered with malice. She gulped. He leaned in further. "All of use have our decks invested in this house of cards that Oliver and I have built - you and Mr. Diggle included. If any one of these cards should be removed, it all comes crashing down."
He eased back and straightened his suit jacket. "I already apologized for everything that's happened." And that was all she was going to get, apparently. "It's time to move on." He turned and left.
Felicity closed the door and leaned her back against it. She blew out a breath and looked down at the envelope containing her check. Her first impulse was to tear it up on the spot... But curiosity got the better of her; she had to see how much it was for. She tore the envelope open and... oh. That was quite a hefty sum. She gulped again.
It's bribe money! You can't take it!
No... It's only bribe money if I take it and then do what he wants. If I just do whatever I want anyway, then... I just suckered him for this money! Hah!
The money wold buy her a lot of new security. And a new computer. One she could use to track down that Markov device. That was putting it to good use. Not taking a bribe.
She jumped with a yelp, dropping the check and the wadded-up cash in her other hand, when the pizza guy knocked.
===X===