"How was the hot date with Steve?" The adult Alex asked the next morning when she saw her sister.
"It wasn't a date." Kara said.
"Not what I heard."
"What did you hear?"
"You were flirting all evening."
"I don't flirt and Alex wouldn't know flirting if it was staring her in the face." Kara pointed out, guessing her daughter was the source of her sister's intelligence.
"And yet even Alex noticed." The adult Alex countered.
"How was your night with the kids?" Kara asked changing subjects.
"Well, I am pretty sure I embarrassed MJ and Kara less than you embarrassed Alex, so I can't really count it as a win."
"I gave you the chance to come with us last night. When you chose not to you lost teasing rights."
"I'm your big sister, I always have teasing rights. Besides when you invited me you never said it was to chaperone you."
"You are so not funny." Kara grumbled as the doorbell rang. "A bit early for visitors isn't it?" Kara asked as Alex walked to the door.
"James?" Alex asked surprised when she found him on her doorstep.
"Hi Alex. Sorry about the other day, but I need to check on something. Can I come in?"
"Sure." Alex said stepping to one side. "Go through to the lounge."
"Thanks." James said following Alex's instructions. But as he entered the lounge he saw the adult Kara.
"James!" The adult Kara said hugging him.
"Hey Kara." He smiled before asking. "Where are the kids?"
"Gone to school already." Alex said.
"Good. it is probably best if they aren't here." He said.
"What's going on?" Alex asked.
"When they took you they demanded that I voted their way on a Bill." James said.
"Yeah, but the Bill didn't have anything to do with well anything." Alex said.
"We all assumed it was another smoke screen." James said. "But after what you said about Kelly's accident I remembered that after she died I missed several votes because I was here. So I started to go through all the Bills I missed. On the face of it there was nothing sinister about any of the Bills. And nothing that seemed connected to the Bill I was told to vote on."
"I sense a but." Alex said.
"But there were several riders."
"Like in The Simpsons and the Flags for Orphans Bill." Kara recalled before deciding then wasn't the time to demonstrate her knowledge of TV and falling silent again.
"Like the Simpsons." James smiled. "Anyway of the Bills I didn't vote on there were three I had been vocal in my opposition to. Like I said none of them looked particularly sinister."
"But you would have voted against them?" Kara asked.
"One would have been bad for my State. It would have cost jobs. One would have led to large corporations paying less tax, and the final one would have allowed more sales of arms to some countries."
"Some of them seem pretty bad." Kara pointed out.
"They were actually pretty tame. However, they all had various riders attached, including this one." James said taking his table from his briefcase and pulling up a document before saying. "It allowed easier transfer of ownership of critical infrastructure." He then passed Alex the tablet.
"It passed by two votes. Since then there has been a lot less oversight in ownership transfers and that has been used by Sloane Syndicate to purchase several power plants. On the face of it it is tenuous at best. But the thing is one of my colleagues was just as vocal in opposition to the main Bill, but he voted for it."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Unfortunately he died a few months afterwards of a heart attack. But according to his wife he had been very stressed leading up to the vote. She also said he had lots of skeletons in his closest. She thought people had been blackmailing him leading up to his death. And it was that added stress that led to his heart attack. The point is you could be right, Kelly's accident may not have been an accident and if it wasn't I'm to blame." James said.
"Before you both jump on the guilt wagon," Kara jumped in, "many people voted against this and many were vocal in their opposition. Why target you and why not just kidnap you or Kelly. Killing is extreme, especially as it passed by two votes. But I will look into it as well as other close votes and see if there is anything linking them."
"There is." James said. "The Bill I was told to vote for also had some riders attached."
"And?" Alex asked.
"One of them was to allow less accountability of umbrella organisations. If passed and if you were right about Sloane Syndicate there would be even less way to nail them for any of the crimes we think they are involved in."
"You said 'if passed'" Kara said.
"Yes it failed." James said. "My assistant is currently looking through all the riders to look for anything that may help Sloane Syndicate."
"What about links with who attached the riders?" Kara asked.
"I don't know." James said.
"I'll look into that as well." Kara offered.
"There is something else as well." James said looking at Alex. "I ordered a security review of the archives and several personnel records of former Agents have been accessed without permission. Your old DEO file was one of them. The IDs of the people who accessed them have been handed to Aptil."
"This will be a test of whether we can trust him." Alex commented.
"You don't trust him?" James asked.
"We have doubts." Alex said. "But that is based on, well not fact. Who else knows you know the files were accessed?"
"At least twenty of us. I can give you names if that helps." James said before handing Alex a thumb drive. "This contains the information I gave Aptil. It may be nothing, but maybe it is a lead."
"Thanks." Alex replied.
"Anyway. I should go. I have to be in DC this afternoon. I'll let you know if I find anything else."
"James, be careful." Alex warned.
"You too."
-00-
"How are the goats?" Supergirl asked when she and Alex entered the DEO control room.
"Proving difficult to herd?" Vasquez said.
"Can't you leave a tempting trail of hay?" Supergirl asked.
"That might give the game away."
"This is stupid." Alex said. "Maybe we should just send someone in. Next Agent who screws up gets sent in?" Alex suggested walking off, indicating to Vasquez that she should join her.
"She's joking." Supergirl said looking round the control room. "But to be on the safe side no screwing up today."
-00-
"Can you cross reference the names on this list with your investigation?" Alex asked passing Vasquez the thumb drive as they walked to her office.
"Sure, but which investigation are you talking about?"
"How Kai got hold of my personnel file." Alex explained. "That drive has a list of everyone who accessed archived personnel files without permission."
"I'll get right on it." Vasquez said. "Anything else I need to know?"
"Just wild speculation and paranoia." Alex replied. "Just so you know, Aptil has a copy of that disk. Well technically we have the copy, but you know what I mean."
"So I technically don't have this?" Vasquez asked.
"Something like that." Alex said.
-00-
"You okay?" Supergirl asked entering Alex's office.
"Just frustrated that this is taking so long. I mean the portal is only part of the trap. They are probably going to try to take you somewhere else and then take you to the portal."
"Except you are watching the portal." Supergirl said. "Besides it is not that easy to take me."
"Except Lobo showed how easy it was." Alex said. "If Mongul really did do his research, perhaps they'll have some of those stun grenades."
"I hope not. They weren't any fun."
"My point is we are so focused on the portal we may be ignoring something important."
"Right now Mongul's plan can wait. We need to think about tonight."
"Maybe we should scrap tonight." Alex said "After what James told us, I am even more worried about Sloane Syndicate."
"Which is why we have to stop them. And tonight is the first step of doing just that." Kara reminded her.
"What if it is a trap?" Alex asked.
"Brave move with Cat being invited." Kara pointed out. "Besides it is more likely that they are trying to look clean so the investigation stops."
"Just be careful."
"I will." Kara promised. "But I do need to get some CatCo work done first. So meet you at yours in a couple of hours?"
"Okay, I'll bring the kit."