Chapter 16- Insane Ideas and a Miracle (Maybe)
Anna stood beside Felicity as Oliver stood on a ladder and welded the ruptured pipe with a drill. "Careful. Don't breathe! Well, breathe, but don't inhale," Felicity corrected herself as Oliver started to cough and came down the ladder.
"Done," Oliver said between coughs.
"Are you okay?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. "I'm a little, uh, a little lightheaded," Oliver said as he walked like a drunk man past Felicity and Anna. Felicity gripped his hand.
"Okay. Oliver. How much duct tape do we have?" Felicity asked as they all looked at the pipe and the area that Oliver had just duct taped before coming off the ladder. The duct tap then popped a hole.
Oliver groaned in frustration. "That was the last of it. Um, we have the epoxy spray that Cisco gave us to fix our suits," Oliver said, putting his hand to his head like he had a headache.
"It's upstairs, and that's definitely flooded by now," Felicity said in a faint voice.
"How much time do we have?" Oliver asked Anna.
"20 minutes max before we asphyxiate. Good times, right?" Anna asked as Oliver went to a blueprint of the bunker.
"Oliver, we've already gone over that. It's just full of dead ends, which is an unfortunate but accurate choice of words," Felicity said.
"Wait a second," Oliver said softly under his breath.
"Yeah, we can wait. We only have 20 minutes, but we can wait," Felicity said with false cheer.
"There's a steam tunnel underneath this part of the bunker," Oliver said, going to a metal cabinet. With a grunt, he moved it to reveal a door. "Do we have anything to pry this open?" Oliver asked, indicating the door.
"I don't know. It doesn't look pryable," Felicity said.
"Felicity, Ann, this is it," Oliver said ominously, indicating the door again.
"Okay. This could be the fumes talking, but I think I have a slightly insane idea," Anna said guardedly.
"How insane is "slightly insane?" Oliver asked.
"Well, that depends on how you feel about setting off an explosive arrow in a room full of flammable gas," Anna said.
Curtis sat at a table, Diggle wrapping his arm as he yelped in pain. Curtis had gotten burned in the elevator and was proving to be an awful patient. "I'm gonna need you to stop making that noise," Diggle said.
I'm sorry my agonizing pain is bothering you," Curtis said sarcastically. Diggle raised an eyebrow. "I mean, thank you very much for helping me with this," Curtis said contritely.
Diggle gave a brief smile as he finished wrapping the arm. "These are just second-degree burns, Curtis. You should be just fine in a couple of weeks," Diggle said as Dinah entered the room.
"Do we know what caused the explosion?" Dinah asked.
"High levels of methane. Am I the only one who thinks this is Prometheus?" Curtis asked.
"No, but we need to find a way of saving our friends without blowing them up," Diggle said.
"What about acid?" Rene asked.
"No. No, I don't think that will work," Curtis was quick to refuse and Diggle couldn't help but agree. Acid was probably the beginning of all really bad ideas.
"Wait, wait. You said the hatch was titanium, right?" Dinah asked.
"Yeah," Curtis said.
"Hydrochloric acid will turn it into swiss cheese. i used to work undercover with a gang of safe crackers," Dinah said, mentioning her former career before joing the team.
"That's good. Let's get cooking," Diggle said and the ones who were sitting got up.
Anna carefully poured powder into the tip of one of Oliver's arrows as he came over. Oliver moved to grab it. "Careful! If the powder is one gram under. the grating won't blow," Anna said, the hissing from the pipe getting louder with each second.
"What if it's one gram over?" Oliver asked.
"Well, it will increase the breaching radius, igniting the gas, filling the entire place with fire, and-" Anna started to say.
"It will kill all three of us was what you were gonna say, right?" Oliver interrupted.
"Yeah," Anna said as she handed a beaker full of the compound to Oliver. "No pressure. Careful," Anna warned.
"Mm-hmm. Yep," Oliver said as he screwed a top on the beaker.
"Wait," Felicity said.
"What?" Oliver asked.
"Mine and Anna's math is probably right, but what if it's wrong?" Felicity asked.
"Are you and Anna still Felicity Smoak and Anna James?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah," Felicity and Anna both said.
"Your math is always right," Oliver said.
"Right," Felicity said.
"Okay, Oliver, um, the arrow needs to go in at an exactly 45-degree angle," Anna said.
"OK. Ahem. By exactly, do you mean exactly?" Oliver asked, picking up his bow and nocking the arrow into it.
"Well, one centimeter off, and the blast will force the grate off, igniting the gas, and- Please don't miss," Anna pleaded, interrupting herself. Oliver took aim and fired, knocking the door off with a loud explosion. Felicity and Anna ducked and looked up.
"You didn't miss," Felicity said. Oliver picked up a glowrod and they heard it clatter.
"Looks like about a two-story drop," Oliver said as he came out of the door.
"Drop?" Felicity asked.
"I'll get the climbing gear," Oliver said, going over to a cabinet.
"What happened? Did the acid work? Diggle asked as he came back into the room and saw Rene and Curtis looking upset.
"Yeah. It's just gonna take a long time before it melts those hinges down," Curtis said.
"OK. How much time do they have left?" Dinah asked.
"Ten minutes, give or take," Lyla said in a thin, dismal voice as she came into the room.
"Yeah. Somebody better order up a miracle," Curtis said.
"I don't know if this counts, but it could help," Lyla said as she handed Diggle a small black case to reveal what looked like a grenade.
"Where did you get this?" Diggle asked in a tight, hushed voice.
"A.R.G.U.S. likes to keep tabs on interesting tech," Lyla said as Diggle held it up and by the look in Curtis's eyes, he recognized it.
"You copied my T-sphere?" Curtis asked with an indignant voice.
"No. We improved them," Lyla said as Diggle handed the object in question to Curtis.
"No. You're both wrong. Lyla, if you stole this, what other surprises can I be expecting from you?" Diggle asked, angry at his wife for a different reason than Curtis. Lyla showed good sense and kept her mouth shut.