Team Arrow and the DEO discover the next phase of Lacroix's plan, and Oliver shares a few moments with Kara...
Kara woke up the next morning to a strong aroma of spices wafting through the air in her apartment. She quickly brushed her teeth before making her way out of her room to the kitchen, surprised to see Oliver Queen at work in the kitchen, cooking something on the stove.
"Good morning" he said, without turning around, continuing to stir the contents of the pan in front of him, "Awake just in time" he said before switching off the stove, and walking with the pan towards the her, placing it on the kitchen island in front of her. She looked down to see the golden scrambled eggs littered with green and red specks as fried pieces of chilli and tomato were spread amongst the eggs in the pan. Kara could only smile at Oliver in disbelief, as the mere smell of the eggs was enough to make her hungry.
"You can cook?" said Kara in surprise, before grabbing a fork to taste.
"Of course. How do you think I survived on the island?" replied Oliver playfully.
"I assumed that Slade was the one doing all the cooking" replied Kara jokingly, before placing a piece in her mouth. Her brow furrowed out of approval as she chewed, "Wow, this is really good."
"Glad you like it" said Oliver, walking to the coffee maker and handing Kara her coffee, "How are you feeling?"
"Good. The food is making me feel a lot better" replied Kara cheerfully. Oliver smiled, and contemplated while she ate for several seconds, wondering if it was okay for him to ask the question he was about to ask.
"Any improvement on your powers?" asked Oliver, drawing out a solemn shake of the head from Kara. She still didn't have them, but hopefully it was just a matter of time before they came back.
"Hey, umm, where's Alex?" asked Kara, changing the topic.
"She got called in to the DEO. Alien homicide" answered Oliver, "What do you want to do today? More binging?"
"Sure" replied Kara. She was going to be confined to her apartment for several days, if not weeks. Even though he wanted to be here for her, Oliver knew that he was facing a tough task in trying to help her recover. For now, binging was good to get her mind off things, but soon, she was going to have to confront what happened to her.
A few hours into the afternoon, the National City sun was slowly about to set as the blue sky was turning to darken with a hue of orange. Binging sit-coms with Kara would normally be the ideal way to take his mind off things, but him just being here with her meant that he could only think about her wellbeing and the situation with Lacroix. There was a knock on the apartment door, and without Kara's x-ray vision, Oliver cautiously walked towards the door. Placing his eye against the peephole to look out, he immediately relaxed and opened the door when he saw who it was, Maggie.
"Hey" said Maggie with a smile.
"Hi. What's going on?" replied Oliver.
"They want you at the DEO. I'm here to stay with Kara while you go" replied Maggie, holding up a packet of Big Belly Burger as she finished her sentence.
"Oh, alright." Oliver stepped aside allowing Maggie to enter, walking with her back to the couch to collect his black jacket.
"What's happening?" asked Kara as they walked towards her.
"I need to go to the DEO for a bit, Maggie is going to stay here with you" said Oliver as he flipped his jacket around his arms.
"Oh, ok" replied Kara. Oliver noticed her disappointment. Perhaps she was starting to enjoy his company.
"I won't be gone for long" reassured Oliver, as he headed for the door while Maggie hugged Kara and sat next to her.
Stepping out of the elevator to the DEO and walking to the control hub, Oliver immediately saw the coding prompts on the big screens of the DEO. Numbers and programming codes being typed in furiously, before an 'Access Denied' prompt jolted up on the screen, accompanied by an error sound.
"Dammit!"
Winn's yell coincided with his fist slamming into his desk out of frustration.
"It's ok Winn. You'll crack it" said Roy, who was standing next to him.
"I've been working at this the whole day! I don't know why I can't get in!" screamed Winn once again.
"What's going on?" asked Oliver as he approached them.
"I've been trying to hack into the Stellmoor International mainframe, but I freakin' can't!" replied Winn.
"We've been working harder at it ever since the homicides" replied Roy.
"Homicides?" asked Oliver. There were more than one…
"Yes." Oliver turned to his left to see Alex and J'onn walking towards them, with Alex holding a pistol in her hand, "There were two more alien homicides today in National City. We picked this up off an apprehended suspect. Cadmus agent" said Alex, handing it to Oliver.
Oliver inspected the weapon in his hand, recognising the unique design which was familiar to him. It was similar to a Beretta 92FS, with only slight differences to the design of the back-strap and muzzle. He looked to the slide of the gun, and the small logo next to the company manufacturer didn't surprise him. Stellmoor International.
"Lacroix is supplying Cadmus with weapons" said Oliver as he came to the realisation.
"It's probably more than that. Safehouses, funds, you name it" replied J'onn.
"This is his plan. He's giving Cadmus everything they need to eliminate aliens in National City" continued Oliver.
"Not just National City" added Roy, "There were two murders in Arizona and Central City, too. They may be random, but they're more than likely connected."
"Any way we can trace this back to Lacroix? There has to be a trail" asked Oliver.
"Unfortunately, there isn't" replied J'onn.
"Which is why we've been trying harder to break into the Stellmoor mainframe. There ought to be something there tying him to Cadmus" added Winn, "We know he's probably smart enough to send any information discreetly and wire any transfers to Cadmus through off-shore accounts, but if we can find the transfers to those accounts and who authorised them…"
"Then we'll be able to back-trace it to Lacroix" said Oliver, finishing Winn's sentence for him. A separate prompt popped up on the screen, and they all sighed when they saw what the notification was.
"Another body dropped. San Francisco" said Winn.
"Winn, have you made any kind of progress on getting into the mainframe?" asked Oliver.
"Yeah, a little but it's basically useless" replied Winn, annoyed, "Every time I think I crack a firewall, another one pops up and I just can't seem to get through. I hope whoever is working digital security for Lacroix is getting paid more than what I am getting here" joked Winn.
"Keep working at it" encouraged Oliver, "If you're not in by tomorrow morning, we're going to need a new plan."
"Got anything in mind?" asked Roy.
"We can do it like how we did the Merlyn job" replied Oliver.
"The Merlyn job?" asked Roy, surprised that Oliver suggested it.
"The Merlyn job?" repeated Alex, confused.
"We get somebody into the Stellmoor International building, get them direct access to the mainframe servers and they download everything from there" explained Oliver.
"Risky, but we might have to do it" replied J'onn, "Agent Schott, I need you to pull up the schematics and blueprints of the Stellmoor International building along with thermal scans. I'll look over them and see how we can do it."
"Right. I'm going to get back to Kara, call me if there's any progress" said Oliver, as he walked away from them.
With Oliver still in possession of the keys to Kara's apartment, he unlocked the door and entered. He saw Maggie give Kara a hug before standing up and walking towards Oliver.
"Thanks for staying" said Oliver.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll be outside in my patrol car for the next couple of hours if you need anything" replied Maggie.
"Sure" replied Oliver before stepping out of her way to let her leave. He looked back to Kara still sitting on the couch, who offered a half-smile before speaking up.
"What did they need you at the DEO for?" asked Kara.
"Oh, they, uhh…" Oliver didn't know how to answer her. He thought if he told her the truth, it would put more stress on her.
"It was because of the homicides, right?" she asked.
"How did you know?" asked Oliver, surprised.
"I saw it on the news" replied Kara. Oliver nodded as he sat back down next to her, "It's related to Lacroix, isn't it?" she asked.
"Cadmus is using his tech and money to operate. We're working on a plan to expose him" replied Oliver succinctly, "Is it bothering you?"
"I can't help but think that if I had my powers, I could have saved their lives" replied Kara, downcast.
"They're going to come back" replied Oliver, "Just give it more time."
Kara nodded, acknowledging Oliver's words before continuing to stare blankly at the TV. Oliver recognised something else was working on her mind, something that was troubling her.
"Something else is on your mind" said Oliver, concernedly.
"It's…" Kara tried to reply, because she was struggling to open up and let the words vocalise. Oliver recognised that it was something that was hard to speak about, probably relating to her torture.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to" said Oliver warmly.
"No, it's okay…" replied Kara quickly, "When Lacroix had me… I was having these dreams… hallucinations. Of Mon-El. I was having these dreams that he was coming back to save me… but he couldn't… because he'd remind me that he was dead, because of my failure to save him."
"Mon-El isn't dead, Kara. The universe is a big, big place. He's alive out there. Somewhere." Oliver was saying these words to comfort and convince Kara, but he too was trying to convince himself. She was right that he was more than likely dead, but he couldn't allow her to think like that right now, "And the fact that he's gone isn't your fault. If I'm not mistaken, a wise somebody once told you that blaming yourself wasn't one of your superpowers" he said with a smile. She immediately recognised his reference to what he told her the last time on Earth-38, and smiled back at him.
"Oh yeah, very wise" replied Kara sarcastically, placing emphasis on the word 'very'.
"Definitely" replied Oliver humourously, as he and Kara both giggled. He missed seeing and hearing her laugh. He couldn't help but smile even more as he saw her somewhat happy for the first time since she'd been back, "You want me to cook for dinner?"
"Oh, you don't have to" replied Kara.
"I don't mind" replied Oliver, looking at Kara with a face of question, "What do you want?"
"How about… something light… A chicken salad" replied Kara.
"Really?" asked Oliver, surprised by her choice.
"Yeah, can you make it?"
"Of course I can. I make excellent chicken salad" boasted Oliver.
"I'll be the judge of that" said Kara humorously. Oliver nodded, accepting the challenge as he stood up and headed towards the kitchen.
