Disclaimer: Own it, I do not. Yoda, I am not.
Vigilantes' Dawn
By Kylia
Chapter 22: Leverage
It is not true, that old saying that behind every successful superhero or vigilante is a whole unsung team doing half the work. Not universally, anyway.
But it's also true that most of them do have a team.
Fighting crime, or worse, is no easy feat. It requires access to information, managing logistics, expertise in all manner of fields. It often requires people to be in many places at once, on different tasks of varying levels of threat.
Someone might need scientists, for certain kinds of threats, or for forensic assistance. Information specialists - hackers, spies, information brokers, whatever - for intelligence gathering. Medical assistance. Weapon design and maintenance. All manner of things. Any given superhero or vigilante may be able to do some of these things themselves, but they can't do them all, usually, and they can't do them all at the same time.
It is true, though, that the unpowered and unmasked members of these teams don't get a lot of notice. Even when their names are known, details on what they do rarely make the history books. Sometimes, even when memoirs are written, names are kept deliberately hidden.
For instance - in the early years of their time as the Arrow and Black Canary, Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance had the assistance of a computer science specialist - one with a hacker past, albeit with limited real crimes, purportedly, and that had been, at the time of joining the team, been employed by Queen Consolidated.
Laurel Lance's incomplete memoirs do not name this woman, simply referring to her as I.T. She noted, interestingly, that this was at the request of the person in question. But there are a few hints dropped, and people have posited various theories as to the identity of this woman. It's impossible, short of a time machine or a speedster checking the past for us, to know which theory was correct, however.
I do tend to lean, for reasons I shall elaborate on, towards the theory that the woman in question was Felicity Smoak, who would later go on to achieve notable fame in Computer Science history - even if her name is little known outside this field - for several programs that revolutionized data analysis, made her quite a wealthy woman, and made Queen Consolidated a leader in the field for decades.
-Excerpt from "Age of Superheroes: The Dawn of the Vigilante," by Diana Queen, PhD Published by Starling City University Press, 2123.
Starling City Crime Lab
March 10, 2013
"No, you don't, but what are you doing here?!" Laurel demanded in a quiet hiss, looking at her sister. No cop uniform, and wearing dark greys... Her sister knew how little Black was good for when trying to avoid being seen, in most cases.
Of course, the League didn't entirely care - if you were noticed enough to be seen in your League uniform, then you deserved to get shot or have the alarm raised on you. Because while all black wasn't as good at moving in the dark, unless it was truly pitch black or very very nearly so, it was intimidating. Especially when a whole team appeared from seemingly nowhere and pronounced your sentence of death.
"Well, it's obvious too, isn't it?" Sara replied, snark creeping into her voice.
Well, yes, obviously. If Sara had been here on police business she'd have her badge, she'd be wearing less conspicuous clothes, and the lights would be on. So she could only be here for Oliver's blood - unless there was evidence of some other crime she was trying to destroy, but Laurel couldn't imagine Sara doing that.
"Sara, you're a cop! A detective! You can't - you can't-"
"What, go around helping vigilantes by destroying evidence? Not turning vigilantes in when I know their names?" Sara interrupted, sarcastically.
"Not turning Oliver or me in is one thing, Sara. This..." Laurel gestured to the door to the lab. "This is a little different."
"Not really," Sara disagreed. "Look, we're both here for the same reason, so let's get the blood sample dealt with." Laurel watched as her sister pulled a set of lockpicks from her pocket and set to work on the door, picking them as well or better than she might have.
"Where did you learn how to do that?!" Laurel demanded in a quiet hiss. She'd learned from the League, but when would Sara have-
"Laurel, I've known how to pick locks since I was 14, ever since you got a lock for your diary," Sara said quietly.
"Wait - you - you -" Laurel spluttered. She'd put that lock on her diary because she'd known her little sister was reading it, but she'd always figured that had worked - her diary never mysteriously moved, and sara never taunted her about some of the things she'd written in it... or all the hearts she'd drawn around 'Ollie + Laurel' she'd done in the margins of just about every page.
Just thinking about that - and some of the other childish things she'd done in her diary made her flush, and she was grateful she was borrowing Oliver's hood for this.
"Plus," Sara added as she turned the picks in the lock and Laurel heard a slight click as the door unlocked, "you do realize cops sometimes have to pick locks when serving warrants, right?" And that I broke into places as a teenager?
"... right," Laurel admitted, flushing a little more as she realized that much as well. "Sorry. But - really? You kept reading - why didn't you taunt me like you did before?"
"Are you actually upset about this? Laurel, it's been twelve years." Sara shook her head and turned the knob, opening the door slowly. "And I didn't tease or taunt you or whatever because it was too much fun knowing you had no idea I was reading it."
That sounds like Sara back then, Laurel considered as she rolled her eyes and followed Sara into the lab. The room was dark, but many of the devices had screens that were on or displays that provided little bits of light. And at the far room, the sample freezer, with a clear open door, was lit on the inside, that internal bulb casting pale blue light onto the rest of the room.
"No, I'm not upset - I was just surprised. I was so sure that lock worked," Laurel admitted ruefully. She shook her head, "Anyway." She moved towards the sample freezer. Sara stepped in front of her.
"I was here earlier today. I moved the blood sample from the crime scene - it's still in the Freezer, but I wanted it to 'go missing' until tonight." Sara explained. "After I heard from Dad that they had a sample of the Hood's blood." Laurel watched her sister check her gloves, then pull the sample case open. "Speaking of - why did I have to hear it from him? How did I not hear from you about it? Especially the part where you needed evidence dealt with." Sara reached into the back and pulled out a vial.
Laurel watched Sara just... casually steal evidence. She didn't understand how her sister could do it so easily - she was a police detective, and she loved her job, Laurel knew that much. She was dedicated to it. So why was she so willing to just... risk it like this?
"It could handle it myself. I didn't want to bother you with it," Laurel explained.
"The whole point in having a friend on the force is for things like this," Sara pointed out. "Let's get out of here." She frowned, "What did you do about the cameras?"
"Nothing. They'll just see the Hood breaking in and stealing his blood sample. Well. Coming into the lab and the sample going missing. About what you'd expect." Laurel frowned, "What did you do?"
"I avoided them. When I came down here earlier, I checked where they were." Sara explained. They stepped out of the lab and Sara pulled the door closed, locking it behind her with her lockpicks. "Let me guess - you didn't tell me because you thought I'd be torn between the law and my sister?"
Laurel nodded after a moment, "Basically. I - I didn't want to put you in that position. Make you choose between risking Oliver - and me - getting caught, or... crossing that line." Whatever Sara said, destroying evidence and just hiding information were two very different things.
Sara rolled her eyes, "Laurel, that line is miles behind me. I should have gone to someone the moment I started suspecting you. Hell, the moment I realized your 'friend' Nyssa was a wanted assassin, I should have said something." Sara shook her head, "I'm not just going to keep your secret and pretend you and Oliver aren't out there risking your lives and freedom to make this city a better place."
Sara inhaled sharply, "I'm in, Laurel. And that means I'm in. I don't need you to protect me from my own choices."
Laurel heard the conviction in her sisters voice, and realized how... patronizing it sounded, the idea that she was 'protecting' Sara from having to choose. Taking the choice unto herself rather than letting Sara make it.
Laurel nodded, then chuckled, "Alright. Fine. I promise that next time we need evidence destroyed, I'll come to you first."
"Good," Sara nodded, grinning a little. "Now let's get out of here. Come on, I'll take you the way that misses the cameras."
Queen City Park, Starling City
March 11, 2013
Oliver walked through the gate in the iron fence that surrounded the park his grandfather James Charles Queen had paid for. Well, he'd donated the money to the city and told them to use it to make a public park, which was the same thing.
His father had also spent liberally to help maintain and improve the place, Oliver remembered. He saw about a dozen kids playing on some playground equipment Robert Queen had paid for ten years ago, replacing the old set. Oliver hadn't really been paying close attention, but he thought he remembered his dad saying something about the old equipment being dangerous or something.
I haven't been back here in years. He'd used to come here with his dad, or mom, or just his friends - and someone from the manor staff watching, of course - when he was a kid. Every weekend. He'd play on the old equipment, or do hide-and-go-seek in trees off on the south side of the park, disturbing all the people who came to sit in peace and appreciate the various flowers and art in that area.
He couldn't help but smile a little as he remembered the antics of a younger him. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven... back when things seemed so... simple.
Back when Tommy's dad's magic trick with the coin behind the ear had seemed so amazing and impressive.
Looking around, he found the large stone with the plaque set on it detailing how the park had originally been paid for by his grandfather, and the bench next to it. He sat down on it, then checked his phone. He was still five minutes early. With nothing to do until then, he pulled up one of the games Thea had insisted he install on his phone and try playing.
It only took him about three minutes of matching candies and watching them disappear to know this game wasn't for him. Shrugging, he exited the game and slipped the phone in his pocket. Of course, the whole time, he'd had one eye on his surroundings, so he'd seen Felicity enter the park and make her way slowly to the bench. She finally reached it and sat down on the other side of the bench, a small gap between him. More importantly, though, she was sitting stiffly, and obviously so.
"Felicity, don't act so conspicuous," Oliver said quietly. "People don't actually pass paper bags full of money and suitcases full of documents at public parks." Parking garages were a much better place for exchanges like that.
"Right," the blonde said after a moment. "Sorry..." she let out a sigh and tried to relax. "I -uh... thanks for setting up the meeting in a public place."
"Would you have come if I asked you to meet me somewhere in private?" Oliver asked, curious.
"I - maybe? Probably not? I don't know. I mean, if you were going to... you know, you would have already, right?"
"Probably," Oliver nodded, no sense in lying to her. "Look, I asked you to meet with me here, outside of your office, because we need your help."
Felicity blinked, "Then why aren't you dropping by my office unannounced like you usually do?"
"Because it's the kind of help I can't ask for with an obvious lie." Oliver said calmly. "Bit more involved than that."
Felicity blinked, furrowing her brow a little and biting her lip. He could all but see the wheels turning in her brain as she considered his words.
"Why - why did you lie to me so obviously?" She asked after a moment. "I mean - you have to be better than that to..." she trailed off, but she didn't exactly need to finish his question. "You even said you were, at the coffee shop."
"Testing you. I've seen your company proficiency scores, Felicity. You could be running the I.T. department if you wanted, or even have a position in R&D." Oliver debated for a moment not mentioning that he knew about her college boyfriend, but after a moment, he decided to go on. "I know about Cooper Seldon."
Felicity gasped, jumping a little in her seat, then took a deep, shuddering breath. "I -"
"The reason I approached you the first time was because the government suspected you of helping him, but couldn't prove it. My guess - you didn't approve of what he did."
"I - not really, no." Felicity admitted after a moment. "I mean... I get why he did it... student debt and... but no. And I didn't... I didn't exactly help him with what he did. Just... making what he used." She admitted, speaking quickly and haltingly at the same time, something Oliver wouldn't have imagined to be possible before just now. "So like - you were always going to ask for my help? More detailed?" She sped up a bit as she said that.
"I wanted the option. You never know when you might need the help of someone with computers. I didn't expect you to end up coming to me, though." Oliver answered. "And that's why I want your help."
Felicity followed his meaning immediately, though no one else but Laurel would have, since they were speaking so vaguely.
"You want my help with -" Felicity cut herself off for a moment and shook her head, though it seemed to be more to clear her thoughts than a rejection. She took a breath and started again, trying to speak a little slower. "You want me to help you - and your girlfriend - with the thing that - the thing your stepfather was looking into?" She said that last bit quieter, though Oliver hadn't noticed anyone listening in.
"It's a bit bigger than that, but basically, yes," Oliver told her. "It's not really something we can talk about in public." He frowned, "You said you wanted to help my stepfather, if you could."
"If he's alive," Felicity said, then she nodded. "I do. Like I said he - he was nice to me. Most people aren't."
"I hope he's alive," Oliver said. "I don't know one way or the other. But this is what he was looking into." Oliver stood. "It's your choice - you said at the coffee shop that you weren't sure if you wanted to know. Well, if you are going to help us, you will have to know."
"I figured," Felicity admitted. "So, if I say yes to helping you, that means-" He could hear the worry in her voice, and underlying that, fear. She didn't sound terrified, but she wouldn't be sane if she wasn't afraid.
I'd have worried there was a lot more to her, if it turned out she wasn't afraid. That perhaps behind the facade she was something worse. Which was still possible, theoretically, but Oliver didn't think so.
"I won't pretend there won't be any danger," Oliver admitted. "But neither Laurel nor I would bring you into this if we weren't willing to do our best to keep you alive." It would be his responsibility especially if something happened. He'd been the one to propose approaching her at all, let alone bringing her in like this.
"When Mr. Steele asked me to help him on... this, he told me it could be dangerous." Felicity admitted. "I'll tell you what I told him - I don't like mysteries. They bug me. I mean... I don't like the idea of being in danger but..." she laughed a little. "I have questions, and I want to help Mr. Steele so..." She took a deep breath and stood up as well, holding out a hand. "I'm in."
Oliver took her hand and shook it. "Good. You've heard about the club I've been building out of the old Queen Consolidated steel mill?"
Felicity nodded, "I've seen it mentioned in the news, yeah."
"Come there this evening. Laurel and I will be there, we'll explain things." Oliver told her.
"Meet you alone on your turf." Felicity chuckled. "Doesn't sound ominous at all," she shook her head, "sorry. Kidding. I'll be there."
Verdant, Starling City
March 11, 2013
Oliver watched Felicity walk into the club. She didn't seem too afraid for her life, at least, which was good. He crossed his arms over his shoulders.
"So how'd she take the offer?" Laurel murmured, walking up to stand next to him as Felicity crossed what would be the dance floor once the club opened. There were just a few finishing touches left and the inspection. Shouldn't be more than a few more weeks. Tommy had done an excellent job organizing the finishing up of the club. But of course, he wasn't here now.
"She was a bit concerned, but she said mysteries bug her. I think she had to talk herself into a bit though," Oliver said. She'd seemed a little more hesitant at the start of the conversation than by the end of it, anyway.
"Well, this mystery is bugging me, so I guess she and I have that in common," Laurel muused.
"Felicity," Oliver said as she came closer. "Thanks for coming."
"I'm here, so what do you need?" Felicity asked. She had brought a laptop bag with her, and looked like she'd just come from work, dressed in office clothes.
Oliver shook his head, "Not up here. Downstairs," he gestured for her to follow him, and he headed for the door downstairs, entering in the code on the keypad and unlocking the door. "Ladies first," He said, letting Laurel go down and then Felicity before taking up the rear.
Felicity said nothing until the stairs turned and she could see the basement itself. Laurel's outfit on a dummy, the bow, the arrows, the training equipment, and the computer set up, among other things.
"What is this, your... Vigilante Cave?" she asked.
"Basically," Diggle commented, getting up from behind the computers. "John Diggle," he walked over to Felicity and held out a hand, which she accepted and shook.
"Felicity Smoak - but you probably know that already because Oliver and Laurel have been using me as their personal I.T. girl." Felicity said, babbling a bit. "And - I - sorry if I'm babbling, I do that." she added, letting go of Diggle's hand.
"I've seen worse," Sara said, coming up to introduce herself as well. "You're still not as bad as my college roommate after she drank two monsters and a five hour energy. In less than five minutes."
Felicity chuckled, "Okay, wow. I like my caffeine, but that sounds insane. Though - I have babbled worse than this and - stopping now." She took a breath. She looked from Sara to Laurel, "Sisters?"
"Sara Lance," Sara nodded. She stepped aside to let Felicity sit down in front of the computers, since that's where she'd have to be doing her work.
"Nice to meet you both," Felicity said, though she didn't sit down yet. "How many laws am I going to be breaking tonight? Just for reference?"
"No idea, but probably a few more than I will for not reporting you for breaking them," Sara suggested. She looked Felicity over a moment, and Oliver wasn't sure if she was assessing her or checking her out. Probably both. Felicity looked at her, confused, and Sara held up her detective badge, before slipping it into her pocket.
"You're helping them - I mean, okay, the Black Canary is your sister, but -" Felicity cleared her throat and cut herself off. "Right, sorry. Okay, on topic. Explanations."
"Right," Oliver nodded, He pulled the List out of his pocket and held it out to her.
"This is-" Felicity frowned as she looked at it, "This isn't the one I gave you... unless you put it through a lot of hell the last week."
"No, it's not. That was my father's copy," Oliver explained. "A list of all the people poisoning this city, he told me." He frowned for a moment, then, "The official story is that Laurel and I were the only ones to make it a lifeboat, that my father drowned before he could. The truth is, he made it to a boat... and shot himself, so there'd be enough food and water."
"Oh my god..." Felicity said, then swallowed. "I - I'm sorry... I-" She swallowed, clearly unsure what to say.
"I didn't realize what it was until I started using pages from it as kindling and then the heat from the fire made the letters appear." Oliver explained.
"That... that would do it, yeah. The version Mr. Steele gave me... it was blank, but when he told me to start running tests on it, eventually I used special glasses from applied sciences to read it. Some kind of ultraviolet ink." Felicity nodded. "So your father had one... and your mom had a copy. What it is? Apart from being your hit-list for who gets turned into pincushions. I mean, I ran those names when I had a copy... some pretty shady people on it."
"Very," Oliver nodded. He shook his head as he answered her question next, "I have no idea what it is anymore. I used to think it was my father's - some sort of way of atoning for his own sins against the city, or... something. I don't know. But then I found out he didn't write it."
"And now you want to figure out who did." Felicity finished, the implication obvious.
"Yes. I don't know who it is - but I do know he hired the Dark Archer."
Felicity furrowed her brow, "Who?"
"The guy that held those people hostage over Christmas," Oliver explained, and then Felicity nodded, obviously remembering that. "He did that specifically to call me out - call the Hood out. Whoever hired him realized I had to have a copy of the List,"
"Based on who you were targeting." Felicity followed. She looked to them, "Why do I get the feeling that this has been more about finding this 'Dark Archer' than it is about finding out who's behind the list?"
"Because it is, somewhat," Laurel admitted. "But at first, we had no idea that Walter was investigating the List, so our primary concern was finding the other archer... short version, he's a former member of an organization called the League of Assassins. They want him dead, and if we don't take care of him for them in the next few months, I'm dead." Laurel held up a hand. "Long story."
"I'm going to just go ahead and guess that every story you guys have is long."
"Pretty much, yeah," Diggle commented. He looked to Oliver, "You both say that a lot."
"You really do," Sara agreed.
"Noted," Oliver shook his head. Before they told her about what Diggle had recorded his mother saying, he wanted to know why his stepfather had asked Felicity to look into his mother. What had set his suspicions off? "You said Walter found the copy of the List you gave me because he thought my mother was up to something."
Felicity inhaled for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I did." She cleared her throat, "I should probably go to the start. I don't know what started this for him, but the first time I had anything to do with this was when Mr. Steele called me up to his office last year. I actually - I actually thought he was going to fire me. I was halfway through a rant about how I was the most capable person in I.T. before he interrupted me and told me I wasn't being fired." She bit her lip and flushed a little. "He wanted me to look into something for him." She pulled her laptop out of her bag and opened it up, pulling up a record of a financial transfer. Oliver looked at the screen.
"Queen Consolidated's Vancouver subsidiary invested $2.6 Million in a startup venture three years ago... and then the venture declared bankruptcy?" That was a lot of money, but not that much when set against the revenues of Queen Consolidated, from what Oliver knew - which wasn't much, in all honesty. "What's so weird about that? I mean... not every investment succeeds."
"No, and on the surface, it seems perfectly reasonable. Your mother authorized it, but there's nothing hinky about that either, in of itself. But I guess he thought there was something strange about it, so he asked me to see what I could find out." Felicity explained. "Which is when things got... weird."
"Weird?"
"Weird. The investment seemed perfectly legitimate, but the more I dug into it," she typed up at the laptop, then pulled up more financial records and legal documents, filling her screen. After a moment, she pulled out a cord and connected her laptop to the computers arrayed on the table, moving several of the documents to another screen.
Oliver watched Felicity type away at the computers for a moment, then she frowned, "Just for the record, your system setup is from the eighties. And not the good part of the eighties either - you know, Madonna, and leg warmers." Felicity pulled up more files, transferring them from screen to screen to display them all. "Honestly, this hurts my soul." She shook her head, "sorry." She turned halfway back towards them. "Back on topic."
"The company didn't exist - but I did manage to trace that $2.6 Million. It ended up being used to create a company called Tempest LLC." Felicity held up a hand. "Which also doesn't really seem to exist. But they did spend that money on a warehouse."
Though he kept his expression unchanged, Oliver lighted on that word, warehouse. The other voice, the person his mother had been talking to - the person behind this whole thing, whatever it was, likely. The warehouse where you've been storing the remains of the Queen's Gambit.
His mother had disposed of it, supposedly, at that man's order, but this must be when she first put it in the warehouse.
"You wouldn't happen to have the address of this warehouse?"
"Yup." Felicity pulled it up, "I gave that to Mr. Steele. I don't know what he did with it, or what's there."
"I can guess," Oliver said softly, trying to keep himself from tensing up. "The remains of the Queen's Gambit."
Felicity frowned for a moment, obviously not placing the name immediately, but then he saw the lightbulb go off in her eyes after that moment. "That's - that's your dad's yacht. The one that went down... with you two on it. And your mom had it in that warehouse?"
"She did. Until recently." Oliver frowned, then gestured for her to move her chair aside a bit, inhaling. They were going to have to play this for her anyway, sooner or later, and now it was directly relevant. He brought up the audio file, cleared up as much as they could get it done.
Felicity listened, then she closed her eyes, letting out a breath. "Oh my god... that explains it."
"Explains what?"
"Before Mr. Steele gave me that other copy of the List, I came to him with something else - that money transfer that I'd traced to the warehouse? I wasn't the first person to trace it." She pulled up something else on her laptop. A symbol, an interlocking set of lines inside of a circle. The same symbol on the inside of the List's booklet. Both copies.
"That's all I could find on whoever did the trace. They were good. NSA good. But if they're the person on the other end of that conversation..." Felicity trailed off, uncharacteristically.
Then maybe my mother didn't...
"Well, then it's obvious," Sara interrupted his thoughts. "Whoever it is that your mom is working with... she salvaged the remains of the Queen's Gambit as leverage. Proof that it was sabotaged, not a natural wreck. But since whoever it was found it... he made her get rid of it."
Felicity gasped a moment, then pulled up something on her computer. A police report, on an accident...
Josiah Hudson's accident. He'd heard about that - he knew the man, in passing, since Hudson had been in charge of Queen Consolidated security even when Oliver had left Starling City over five years ago.
"When Mr. Steele gave me the book, he told me that he'd asked Josiah Hudson to look into this same matter. And he was dead under mysterious circumstances. I told him what I told you - mysteries bug me." Felicity was speaking nearly a mile a minute, "but I looked up the death. The car accident. Mysterious as hell, I agree, but more importantly, I noticed the date. Just days after I told Mr. Steele about the warehouse. At the time I thought - well, I thought your mother had him killed to keep something about the warehouse secret." She looked back to Oliver hesitantly, biting her lip.
"Only logical assumption you could draw, from what you knew," Sara told Felicity. She looked to Oliver. "I know she's your mom, but it would have been a logical assumption."
Oliver felt Laurel put a hand on his shoulder lightly, and Oliver nodded. "No, it makes sense. But if this... other person knew about the warehouse..."
"Then they would have ordered Hudson killed to protect the secret." Sara nodded. She furrowed her brow, "but why didn't they kill your stepfather at the same time? If they knew Hudson knew, they had to know he knew."
Oliver swallowed, a thought occurred to him. "Leverage." He thought back to the Island, Slade, and "Scylla".
"What do you mean? The Gambit was Leverage..." Felicity started, but then she got it - though she was the last to. Diggle, Laurel and Sara had already at least followed the first part of what was racing through his mind.
His own theory was still forming, but it made sense.
His mother wasn't a killer. She loved Walter. She wouldn't have done anything to him, and even if his father had been unfaithful, he couldn't see his mother killing him. Especially not when he was on the yacht. And she wouldn't be involved in whatever scheme the man behind the Dark Archer was involved in.
Not willingly.
But unwillingly? The kind of unwillingly that would make his mother find and dredge up the wreck of the Queen's Gambit, and then steal money from the company to hide the purchase of a warehouse to store it?
Mom would do anything to keep Thea safe, especially after thinking I was dead.
"Whoever that is she was talking to - the odds are that they're the one behind the List, and they're the one who..." Oliver paused a moment, then, "the one who sabotaged the Queen's Gambit. Whoever they are, my mother didn't trust them. That had to be why she salvaged the yacht, hid it."
"She would have been planning to double-cross them," Diggle warned, still suspicious of his mother.
"No, no, that doesn't make any sense," Sara interjected. "The wreck of the Gambit might be enough to bring whoever that was, the List's author, down, sure. If it could be linked to them. But it would take time. More than enough time for this person to do something to your mother. Release evidence of their own or... worse." She said that last word softly.
"Mutually assured destruction." Laurel nodded. "But if that's the case, then why would she be willing to get rid of it so easily, if it's her leverage?"
"Walter. He went missing. If this person was behind Hudson's accident, then they could have done the same thing for Walter. And if they really wanted to contain what he knew, they'd have killed him as soon as they knew he knew. But if they were trying to make sure my mother cooperated..."
"Then they wouldn't kill him." Felicity finished his thought. "Crap. And here I've been thinking the worst of your mother."
"It's just a theory..." Diggle cautioned, but then he let out a sigh. "But it's a theory that does make sense."
"But where does that leave us, then?" Felicity asked. "What's next? What did you want me for?"
"Well, I wanted to know what else you knew about Walter's investigation - and we do know more now." Oliver pointed out. "But maybe... maybe you can help us find out the rest. We're running out of time to find the Dark Archer, and if Walter really is alive and being used as leverage against my mother, I want to find out where he is and bring him home. As soon as possible. As for how you can help with that..." Oliver shrugged. "I don't have an idea, to be honest."
"There's something that's been bugging me about this List since you told me about it." Sara said after a moment. She took her detective's badge out of her pocket and looked at it for a moment, before going on, holding it loosely by her side.
"That list is mostly one percenters, right?" Sara asked.
"More or less, yeah. And a handful of others." Leo Muller, Ted Gaynor, the head of Applied Sciences at Queen Consolidated - Oliver hadn't been able to find anything on him, so he'd put that off for the time being. Others.
"Would now be the right time to say I copied down every name on the List and saved it?" Felicity asked.
"Yes, actually, perfect time." Sara said, before Oliver could respond to Felicity's comment. "Bring it up, can you?" Well, I suppose it makes sense that she would. Felicity seemed like she preferred computers to books or paper, so of course she'd digitize the list for trying to make sense of it.
Felicity nodded, and brought it up as requested. Sara looked over the long document in a text file.
"Everyone on that list is bad, right?"
"So far, yeah," Oliver said. "Up to one thing other another - usually stealing from the people of this city, or... letting people die or suffer for their own gain."
"Right. You thought maybe this was your father, atoning for his sins against the city. Like when he shut down this plant. Which makes sense but... it wasn't him. Okay - but here's a better question. Why in the hell would someone have a list like this, if not to turn it against the police? Whoever is behind this hasn't done anything to stop these people, so it's not a hit list."
"Obviously not, no," Oliver agreed with Sara.
"I'm not some trained assassin or master archer, like you and Laurel, or a soldier or a hacker like you two," she gestured to Diggle and Felicity. "I'm a cop. Which means I approach a mystery like this from that perspective. At the end of the day, there's really only a few reasons to kill someone - like your father. Money, jealousy and covering up a crime make the top of the list."
"So you think someone on the List killed my father?" Oliver was not following her logic at all.
"No, god no. You're not listening, Oliver." She pinched the bridge of her nose and started to pace. "Okay, look at it like this - if you have evidence that someone's committing a crime, what do you do with it, if you aren't going to take the law into your hands?"
"Go to the police?" Felicity suggested.
"Right. But they're not doing that. I mean, could be any number of reasons - Adam Hunt and Martin Somers had judges and prosecutors in their back pockets and god knows the one percent can get away with a lot in this city. So maybe you don't think the police will be able to do anything. But if you cared about punishing these people - you could release the evidence you have to the media. I mean, even if it wasn't enough for a court of law, something hard - more than just rumor - on some of the things that Hunt, or Broduer, or Ravich, say, were up to, could ruin some of these people."
"Stock prices would fall, investors would flee... people wouldn't want to risk doing business with them," Laurel nodded. "It wouldn't be total, but it would be something."
"But again, they're not doing that. So what else would you use that information for? If you were just sitting on it, why would you have a List like this? And more importantly, why would you hire a no doubt very expensive assassin - I mean, someone trained by the League could command a high fee, right?" Laurel nodded, and Sara went on. "So you're spending a lot of money to kill two vigilantes on the mere supposition - good supposition, but still, just a supposition - that they know about the List. What would you be trying to hide."
"You said it yourself, Oliver." Sara noted as she look to him.
"Leverage." Oliver said softly as he realized it.
"Exactly. Blackmail. Which is a crime. And blackmail on this scale? God, I shudder to think what someone might be doing with that much money." Sara finally stopped moving and waved a finger in front of her. "Your dad had a copy of this list. And you said you thought it was about him atoning for his sins but... I mean, sure, he shut down the Steel Mill, and did other things to help leave people in this city destitute, but he didn't actually break any laws. Bad things, things that hurt this city." She took a breath.
"What if the real sin that was bothering him was that he had this List - or at least, had a copy of it, I should say - and did nothing with it. If he had a copy, then - then he had to be involved, somehow."
Oliver opened his mouth to protest the idea, knee-jerk, but the words died before they could even really form in his head. He closed his mouth, and nodded, after a moment. It made sense.
"But whoever was behind it killed him. Which means... he had second thoughts." Oliver said softly. It was a thought he grabbed onto, in memory of his father - imperfect though he was, as a husband and as a CEO, he was still his father. He'd always been a good father. And he wanted to believe that at his core, his father was a good man.
"It would make sense," Sara nodded. She turned to Felicity, "How long would it take you to find out which people in the one percent of this city aren't on the List?"
"A couple hours, maybe a day." Felicity said. "Depending on how hard it is to track down net worths and how far you want me to dig."
"As much as you can," Sara told her. She turned back to the rest of them. "Think about - whoever it is had to be someone your dad associated with. Has to have the resources to find all this out about these people, and blackmail them, and hide it, and sabotage the Queen's Gambit, and kill Hudson and- The list is long, but it would require resources. Even to start. It has to be a one percenter. So if we start with the list of one percenters not on the List..."
"We can narrow it down." Laurel nodded. "But just because a one percenter isn't on the list - I mean, not every rich person in the city breaks the law."
"That's true. God knows I wanted to find something on Walter when we first got back to Starling," Oliver noted. "But he's clean. Completely. And we can't assume every person not on the List is in on... it. Whatever this is. But it gives us a place to start."
"I can run deep backgrounds on everyone we turn up," Felicity suggested. "It'll take time, and I'd really like to upgrade your system, if I'm going to be doing that work here." She turned back to look at Oliver. "Since I assume you're prefer I don't use the servers at Queen Consolidated."
"Preferably, yeah," Oliver nodded.
"Then yeah, I'm going to have to upgrade these systems. But I can do it." Felicity nodded.
"I can use police resources. And - though we should probably keep it as a last resort, we can always have the Hood start paying visits. But that should be a last resort."
"We don't want to top our hands too early," Laurel agreed.
Diggle held up a hand halfway, clearing his throat. Oliver - and everyone else - turned to him.
"This all sounds good, and seems like a good place to start, but I've got a question we haven't touched on yet: What's the Undertaking?"
Shit.
"Has to be what all this blackmail is for. The... the thing all this money is being saved for," Sara said slowly. "But... I..." she exhaled, shaking her head. "I... I have no idea."
"Whatever it is..." Laurel started softly.
"It can't be good." Oliver finished, just as quietly. "Which means, one way or another-"
"We have to stop it." Laurel finished this time in turn.