They left another Arrow to stand guard to make sure Matt didn't do anything stupid while contemplating his choices. After breakfast, Matt was so riled up he told Zaira and James everything. Names, places, dates, anything he could remember. His information combined with the use of a J-Psy for the other terrorists gave them the full scale of the operation.
It turned out the cardinal telepath, Shea, had only been able to use mind control on the tall male. The bald man, his younger companion and the red-haired woman seemed to have the same psychopathic impulses Shea had, while the others were hired muscle, hit men. Apparently, working in communications as a cardinal telepath paid well.
Somehow the group managed to meet up in the PsyNet and plan the entire event inside a highly secure mental vault, courtesy of Shea's shielding abilities. Their goal had been to create the ultimate hunt: to chase down and kill an Arrow, and to get away with it in the fray the explosions had caused.
Though, the thing Matt didn't know was that some of the hit men had received anonymous requests to obtain as much information about the Squad as possible for a substantial amount of money. It made Aden believe there was a link between the events that had passed and the Consortium, especially since the hit men were the ones who'd provided Matt with the bracelet to shut down Hailey's abilities. The Arrows were currently still investigating the technology with a consultant from the Human Alliance and had so far concluded the technology was akin to a chip the Human Alliance had developed.
Matt had even discovered how the group had known James was an Arrow; James had been spotted at several incidents when responding to EmNet calls and he'd been filmed a couple of times by news crew and bystanders. Since Arrows like Vasic and Aden were too high profile, the group had decided to select one of the Arrows that would be more 'easily' at their disposal. They had made a selection of fifteen known Arrows. Because James had been spotted in New York together with Hailey, their choice had fallen on him.
The fact that Matt was an acquaintance of Hailey had been a fluke. It also explained the timing of James' vision; after the incident at the hospital, Matt had contacted Shea. She'd set out her hit men to spy, who'd spotted James and Hailey on their date while they were walking tot the Italian restaurant. The vision had come the exact moment when the decision had been made to target James.
The precognition that had hit James a day later also made sense now, since the group hadn't seen James in New York while Hailey was still there. Initially, they had decided to wait, but James' departure hadn't changed Matt's intentions of kidnapping Hailey. As soon as Matt knew she'd been left alone, his desire had only been amplified.
The remaining three terrorists had been tracked down within two hours after the meeting with Aden and Vasic. They'd packed a residence in one of the highly Psy populated neighborhoods with enough explosives to kill thousands. That final explosion had been their ticket out. Luckily, the detonator had malfunctioned while the Arrows had been on their tail. They'd been stuck in a coffin of their own making, not able to leave because their faces were plastered all over the news and not able to ignite the explosives manually without dying for a cause that wasn't worth dying for. The question remained if a life in prison would prove better for them.
In hindsight, James first vision had been the most accurate after all. The group had intended to hold Hailey hostage in one of the buildings near the dock and torture her in order to lure James. The explosions were used as a decoy to distract the Arrows and take James down right under the Squad's nose. The only thing James hadn't managed to foresee was that the group didn't care about Hailey. They only wanted James for their sick pleasures and would have killed her and Matt after Matt had served his purpose. Needless to say, Matt hadn't known that bit.
The group had even tried doing as much of a background check as was possible for a man who was a shadow. Shea had used the psychometric abilities of the tall male, Jonas, through her mind control–which clarified his odd behavior. Jonas had gone through the apartment's general thrash recycler after James and she had left for the restaurant and used his abilities over and over, until he finally had some information on James.
According to the J-Psy, it hadn't been a lot of knowledge, but enough to know James was extremely protective of Hailey, verifying Matt's observations. In the end it had caused Jonas to become a broken shell, half insane by all the information he'd absorbed in such a short amount of time. Another innocent casualty.
The only mistake they had made, was that they hadn't considered James' ability to teleport. Since that part of his skillset came into play after James had issued the security team for Hailey, they hadn't been able to let Jonas use his abilities again. If they had known, James probably wouldn't have been selected as their target, since he'd be too difficult to capture.
After the interrogation regarding the explosives in the city, the Arrows had forced Matt to reveal the location of Brandi's body in order to give her family closure. They had passed down the information to Enforcement, which had given Brandi's parents the opportunity to bury their daughter. Brandi's murder had been the only one where Matt had been involved, but the J-Psy who'd read the rest of the terrorists discovered over forty other men and women had been murdered by Shea, most dating from the time before Silence had been broken.
In the end it appeared no Arrow had spilled the secret–which wasn't actually a secret but probably should be–of Hailey's abilities. In the PsyNet, James had strengthened his shields around Hailey shortly after the attack. Together with Aden and the other senior Arrows it was decided to keep the information about Hailey's abilities on a need-to-know basis, the senior staff the only ones with clearance. With the current threat of the Consortium, Hailey was aware it would be most unwise to reveal her true power; if the wrong people would find out about it, she'd be hunted for the rest of her life.
Luckily, Hailey had a very protective Arrow to keep her out of harm's way. The bad news was that Hailey wouldn't be able to use her abilities to help other Forgotten members for the time being. She first needed to gain more control over both her Tk and her draining abilities–as well as her shielding–in order to protect herself. Therefore, entering the ShadowNet was also out of the question. Being shielded on the PsyNet wouldn't help her if she wasn't able to protect herself from prying eyes on the ShadowNet.
Looking back, Hailey was disappointed about the way she'd handled Matt's attack. After training for months, she still hadn't been able to defend herself against an asshole with a knife. It stung a little that all her hard work seemed to be for naught, but she reminded herself she wouldn't have been able to save James without her training.
A day after the final assailants had been taken into Arrow custody, Hailey went home with a little relief in her heart. Construction workers had started to repair the broken buildings in Manhattan and most of the people with minor to moderate injuries had been nursed back to health. Matt, Shea and the others wouldn't be able to hurt anyone anymore, and for now, there were no more threats to New York or other cities.
She took a quick shower and decided to take a nap while James was still at Central Command, assessing the information together with another group of Arrows.
A smile covered her lips when she thought of her handsome Arrow while she sent him a telepathic kiss. Warmth pulsed through their bond as Hailey relaxed and dreamed of her mate.