I really want this fic done and over with, so I may have gotten a little bit too carried away. Be warned: this is a looooong chapter. But hopefully it pays off. Oh, and the tech here is mostly in the horizon. I may have mashed them up together but they are being developed separately in the real world. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has regularly given me feedback. You know how much I appreciate it! And to the guests who have left reviews, thank you, too. Please reconsider signing up so that I could PM you some token of my appreciation the next time you leave a review. Anyway, this work is unbeta'd, no copyright infringement is intended and yada, yada, yada. Now, on to the real meat of the matter! XOXO
Chapter 12
Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 10:20 pm
Oliver stared at their evidence board, now that they've cross-referenced all of the case files Barry had. There was a clear pattern that evolved right in front of his eyes. The killer was systematic, methodical and almost single-minded in her hatred of men, he thought. In the span of 6 months, 12 men have been killed in 5 cities – all of them dropping within days of each other. And they were trying to prevent the thirteenth murder from happening.
"Oliver, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Laurel asked over the comms. She had plotted the dates and the clustering of the victims. Their timeline was looking pretty grisly, she thought.
"That Barry seems to be an anomaly in a sea of efficient killings? Yes," he sighed. "The longest interval between deaths is 7 days. Between Barry and the last victim – it's almost 3 weeks."
"If you factor in the dates of file retrieval and Barry's evidence logs, it almost looks as if she circled back, you know," Laurel commented. "This could be why she came after Barry. He was getting too close."
"Could be," Oliver answered. "And if so, I guess, it's her first mistake." If she hadn't come after Barry, then she would never have had them gunning for her and she would have probably gotten away scot free.
"She probably panicked. I'd imagine having a CSI on her tail kept her up at night," she said.
"Uh-huh – and a persistent CSI at that. But now, I'm more interested in what tipped her off. How could she have known about Barry's investigation?" he posited. He had a feeling he was missing something.
"Isn't that what the hack was for?"
"It seems unlikely. Felicity hasn't found any evidence of a hack prior to today."
"Any luck with those other leads, then?"
"Aside from deconstructing the hack, Felicity's working on getting footage for both gait and facial recognition and on locating Barry's phone. She's also looking into the strip club owner and cross-referencing the financial records of all 12 victims," Oliver said, suddenly overwhelmed with just how much Felicity had been juggling. He looked beside him but she wasn't there. His eyes immediately scanned the room for her, only to see her in front of the holographic display, almost frantically sorting through the footage that Laurel had sent.
"Whoa! Don't you think she's stretched a little too thin? Seriously, Oliver! You're running her to the ground," Laurel admonished.
"I–" Oliver wanted to say that she took it on by herself with no prodding or interference from him whatsoever but Laurel had spoken over him.
"I'm going to go get Tommy. You really need to learn how to ask for more help you know," she chided.
And Oliver just shut up because he knew he couldn't win when Laurel got into this mode. And she was right, in a way, because he should be taking better care of Felicity. He knew just how good Felicity was at what she did and sometimes everybody forgets just how much is on her plate. The other tricky part was getting her to take a break without telling her to – that was a different monster all together.
"Okay," he exhaled. With Cisco focusing on saving Barry, they were short a computer whiz. He'd gladly settle for a non-luddite at this point. Oh, the words he's learning from his girl! "And while you do that, I'll get everybody here together to see if we can make some sense of all of these," he said as Laurel clicked off their conversation.
Starling City, Arrow Cave, 10:25 pm
Laurel had just finished talking with Oliver when she heard footsteps. She whirled on her chair to face the threat, her baton at the ready.
"It's me," Tommy said, with both of his hands in the air signaling his unconditional surrender.
She heaved a sigh of relief. "I was just about to get you."
"No need to hurry then. I'm here. What's up?" he asked as he felt her unease course through his own body. Perks of being an empath, his brain sarcastically quipped. Tommy 2.0 had his wiring screwed up when his lunatic father brought him back to the land of the breathing. Now, he served as a relay antenna for everyone else's feelings. He shook his head to stop himself from obsessing about the litany of faults his second life had bestowed upon him. What's important was that he was alive enough to be sharing space with the woman in front of him – and that pout she was wearing meant that she wasn't in the least bit happy. So, despite the haphephobia that's practically a requirement for empaths, he reached out to touch her shoulder. Over the last few months, he had learned that his touch grounded her and that calming her would create a positive feedback loop that mitigated the effects of her feelings on him.
Laurel took his hand in hers and used it to guide him towards the seat beside her. It was only then, as he sat down in front of one of the many computer terminals in their not-so-secret hideout that he remembered that he was supposed to be transmitting the data the women have procured from their trip to the Botanical Gardens to Felicity in Central City. He was about to ask about it but Laurel had beaten him to it. "The easy part's done," she said. "I've already sent them the data we got. Good thing, you're here for the hard part."
He was almost afraid to ask but he did anyway. "And that is?"
"You're going to have to get Felicity to let you help her. They're being inundated by disjointed information in Barry's case and she's handling the bulk of it."
So, this was what Oliver had texted him about while saying that Felicity had gone on an expletive laden rant just a few seconds ago because her gait recognition software didn't seem to want to cooperate with her.
He exhaled and gestured to Laurel to give him an earpiece.
She smiled as she gave him one, with approval shining in her face.
"Calling, Empress Felicity! Your Padawan awaits," Tommy said as he called into the comms and turned toward a terminal. Laurel snorted. She secretly liked it when he could get his inner dork out for a while.
Felicity chuckled at Tommy's greeting despite her sour mood. She had been getting frustrated with the almost interminable amount of data she had to process. This case was trying her patience. It seemed that the more questions they answer, the more questions they get. It felt nice to not think about any of that for a second. "Hello there, Mr. Sleepyhead! How'd tonight with the cute little thing go?"
Their cute little thing was little Ms. Sara Diggle. Tommy smiled as he remembered Lyla showing him the picture she had snapped of him and Sara while they napped. "The cute little thing drooled all over me – can't say I was disappointed." Then he sobered and continued, "But enough about me. What's this I hear about you getting yourself all tangled up in the shits?"
"Tommy…" she warned, always a bit territorial with her business. So much for not thinking about this mess.
"Come on, Smoak. Spill," he commanded.
After heaving an exasperated sigh, Felicity updated him on which exact pies her fingers were exactly in – from the hack to Barry's phone to getting an ID on their perp to figuring out if the finances of any of the twelve dead guys intersected in any way.
"So what can I do to help?" Tommy asked.
"Uhm…"
"Give me the financials," he said at her hesitation.
"Are you sure? It's a big data dump."
"Of course, I am. I'm more than just a pretty face, you know," he wisecracked.
"Uh-huh," she said dismissively.
"You wound me, Smoakey!" he said in mock affront. "But seriously, what did you think I did in MG? Or in Verdant, for that matter?"
Felicity paused to think but remained unconvinced of his prowess with the spreadsheets, so she issued a challenge. "Well, if you're so sure, tell me what you see here," she dared as she mirrored her screen unto his.
After taking a few moments to skim over the information on his screen, Tommy remarked, "Uh-oh! Someone's been doing some creative accounting. Looks like you're tracing an endless array of shell companies sheltered in several offshore tax havens."
"Ugh," he heard Felicity mutter and imagined her head hitting the desk when she said that.
"So, how'd I do?" he eagerly teased.
"Alright! I'm convinced," Felicity conceded.
"Yes!" came his triumphant reply.
"You did a victory fist pump, didn't you?" Felicity smirked.
Laurel chortled before tattling on him, "Yes, he did!"
"I'm a good student like that," Tommy replied as Felicity giggled.
And then Tommy saw the alert go up on his screen before he was flooded with the financial records Felicity had collected from the twelve men. "You weren't kidding. It's really big."
"Well, you said you were sure. No backing out now," she muttered.
"I got you, Smoak. No need to worry about that."
"Just look for any ties between them... Please, Tommy."
"You got it. I'll call you back in an hour," he said as he clicked off the call.
"Looks like you've got it from here," Laurel said as she began to take her leave. There was a reason she stuck to practicing criminal law and not corporate law.
But Tommy snaked an arm around her waist to stop her. God, it felt so good to have her in his arms again. Well, they weren't exactly back together, and ever since he came back, they haven't even kissed. Well, they have but in his book, chaste kisses didn't count. "Nuh-uh. Not so fast. You roped me into this – you get to stay, too," he said as he brought her closer to him.
He got a hard swat on the chest for that, but he'll take it.
S.T.A.R. Labs, Treatment Room, 10:30 pm
Caitlin crossed her proverbial fingers before she checked the fluid they got from the third flushing they've done in the last half hour. They were able to get a lot of the toxin out with the first two and the decrease in toxin load between the two consecutive flushes was an order of magnitude. Hopefully, they'll see a corresponding decrease here. If they do, the next flush would be the last they'd have to do.
She gingerly awaited the read-out on the spectrophotometer. Once she got it, she plotted it out on her calibration curve and did a quick recalculation. "Cisco!" she called out.
"Yo!" he said as he hurried over to her.
"Please tell me that that number's right," she said as she showed him her calculations.
"Yup! It's right," Cisco said as he checked the calculations and the number a third time.
Caitlin couldn't contain her relief, "Oh my God! We're close, Cisco! One more and we'll have a real shot at getting him back." It was a minute victory but she was taking it – guarded expectations be damned!
"Finally! Some good news," he answered as he gave her a relieved hug. "Think we can leave this for a little bit and go to the cortex with the others? We have a lot of other things to sort through," he said, once the moment was over.
She nodded her head. "I'll just take a quick look at Barry then I'll be right over," she said.
Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, 10:32 pm
"What have we got?" Caitlin asked as she reached the cortex. Everybody was gathered around the embankment.
Oliver spoke, "We cross-checked all the possible cases Barry had found. We have 13 victims so far, 12 dead spread out in 5 cities over 6 months. If you look at the clustering of victims, it's safe to say that the perp more likely finishes up in one city before moving onto the next. All of those twelve men have been, at some point in their lives, connected to shady businesses or downright criminal enterprises. Some of them have autopsies but Barry was able to get access to medical records for those without. All victims were in relatively good health but died suddenly – most of them by anaphylactic shock, some by apparent cardiac arrest, and all of them have suspicious skin findings."
"We're clueless about victim selection, though. I mean, Barry sticks out like a sore thumb – he's the only one whose record is relatively pristine. And even if these men were shady at best, they pretty much varied in the scope of the bad stuff they participated in," Felicity said as she picked up on Oliver's pause. "I've obtained their financial records. Tommy's combing through them now for any connections or intersections."
Everybody nodded.
"All those cities," Joe pointed at the map, "also seem to be having unusual drug problems. According to CCPD Vice, there have been multiple reports of scopolamine being used in drug-facilitated crimes lately. Addicts are not getting high on this. Criminals are using it to perpetrate crimes. A journalist in Metropolis even called it the 'Silent Scourge' because it seemed that the surging intensity of this drug problem was correlated with a decrease in the homeless people who are out on the streets or in shelters despite a relatively unchanged economic landscape. She posited that they're being herded like sheep by human trafficking rings with this drug. Eddie also said that National City, Coast City and Keystone City have also experienced a spike in drug-facilitated crimes over the last year."
"And all this from a drug that's used to treat motion sickness?" Caitlin said in disbelief.
"It's relatively new as contraband. Biggest raw source is South America. In here, it used to be sold in powdered form and tightly controlled by the Darbinyan Crime Family. But now that they're gone, the stuff is all over the place. Word on the street is that someone needs only to blow this into your face and you'd be susceptible," Joe supplied.
"So aside from Barry not being a bad guy and this drug being new to the scene, are there any other irregularities?" Digg asked.
Oliver answered, "Longest interval between deaths is 7 days. Barry's attack comes 3 weeks after the last victim died. It's safe to say that Barry is an anomaly in that aspect, too. Laurel suggested that with the timeline of Barry's evidence logs, it looks like the perp came after him because of his investigation. The question is how she got wind if it…
"…Oh, shit!" Oliver face-palmed as he realized what exactly he missed during his conversation with Laurel. "Felicity, could you bring up the footage we got from The Gardens?"
Felicity hurried over to the display and played all the tape they got.
"There. Right there," Oliver said as he pointed at one of the feeds prompting Felicity to immediately pause the footage. "That's her."
"The woman in the sketch," Joe remarked as Felicity zoomed in on the woman in question. She was within hearing distance when Barry was questioning the expert they'd consulted about the toxin.
Oliver nodded. "That's how she got wind of Barry's investigation. She was already in the next city. She damned well circled back all right," he huffed.
"We have a name?" Joe asked.
"I'm running her through facial recognition. No hits so far," Felicity said. "I used the auto-capture sequence for gait recognition. For some reason, the program wouldn't let me capture her on manual input. But both of her facial and gait profiles are already live. I'm running them through all the traffic cam feeds I've tapped from the city transportation office. The second she shows her face or walks around in view of a camera, we'll have her."
"I've isolated DNA profiles from the barbs we took out from Barry's neck. Turns out those barbs were some sort of modified epithelial cells from a human female. I'm running the DNA we have through CODIS," Caitlin said after she accessed her results from her workstation remotely.
"So we're good with her as the perp?" Digg asked as he pointed to the sketch that was prominently displayed on their virtual evidence board.
"If we're not really sure before, we could be fairly certain now," Caitlin said as she finally looked up from her tablet and called up her latest lab results to the screen. "I just matched the toxin's protein sequence to a gene in her DNA profile with a high degree of accuracy." She deflated at the knowledge. It all feels so empty without the assurance that Barry will make it.
"So we're dealing with a metahuman femme fatale who stalks her prey and kills with a poisonous kiss?" Cisco asked.
"Not exactly. I found no trace of the META-1 gene – the genetic marker we use to look for metahumans – in her. She either doesn't have the gene or it isn't activated. I'm guessing she came by her abilities in a whole different manner. With the way it looks, I'd say we're dealing with a transgenic because the gene encoding the toxin shares more similarities with plants than animals. I don't know how that happened because the last time I heard, they were doing this on mice, not humans."
"So, single white transgenic female with meta abilities, counter-surveillance training and field experience," Cisco retorted while shaking his head.
"Not to mention a passing literacy with cybersecurity measures and how to bypass them," Felicity said.
At Cisco's scrunched up eyebrows, she explained, "Let's just say that if you could write code as sophisticated and as elegant as the ones on the payloads I found, you wouldn't be using a poor Metasploit wannabe to deliver it. I'm searching for similar script signatures. Maybe she stole it or copied it from somewhere and that gives us a more complete picture of who this killer is."
"All this is good, but do we have any actionable intelligence for now?" Digg asked.
"The docks," Joe answered. "Two of the vics are connected to the Freeport zone."
"Three. The strip club guy is connected to a shell company for another shell company that holds a lease for one of the smaller warehouses in the docks," Felicity added. That much at least, she was able to glean from a quick look at the records she had turned over to Tommy.
"That makes it 3 for 3," Joe said. "You up for recon?" he asked Oliver.
Finally. "Give me the lay of the land," he answered.
"Why don't you suit up, first?" Joe said.
Oliver nodded but before he could move to do just that, Felicity was already on his case. "Not so fast. You don't have the right gear."
He was about to object – he might not have his Arrow gear thanks to the whole SCPD fiasco but he had his Al-Sahim get-up ready to go – but she was already tugging him towards Cisco's workspace. "Cisco!" she called out.
xxxxXXXXxxxx
"Go on," Cisco said as he took his leave from Caitlin after hearing Felicity call him. "I'll be right there in time for the flushing."
Caitlin nodded as she made her way back to the Treatment Room. "You might want to join them," she said to Digg as he started to move in-step with her, "I've got him."
"You sure?"
"Yes. Besides, you'll like what Cisco and Felicity have for you," she smiled. To Joe she said, "Detective, you want to join me for a minute?"
xxxxXXXXxxxx
"Felicity…" Oliver trailed off as he suppressed his irritation. He was itching to go into the field.
"I can't let you out into the world with that," she testily whispered as she pointed to the duffel she knew contained the black mercenary garb of the League. She knew that he had been hiding it and where but it wasn't her place to get rid of it, however much she really wanted it gone. "It would make you look conspicuous" – not to mention that him in his Al-Sahim suit gave her the heebie-jeebies – "and it wouldn't give you any kind of advantage against biological and chemical weapons. I won't have it, Oliver. Your safety is right up there in my priority list with breathing," she scolded, albeit in a hushed but barely restrained voice, as her hands did the talking for her.
Whatever objections he had was silenced after that. She was just looking out for him.
"Now, if you'll come with me…" she trailed off as she motioned for him to follow her into Cisco's workshop.
They came upon Digg helping Cisco put two crates on the work table.
"This is a prototype," Cisco said to Oliver as he patted one of the crates, "but it's custom-made for you. It works well enough even without activating the special features. Now, you might not like…
"Just open it, Cisco," Oliver said, failing to curb his anticipation.
Cisco shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Here goes nothing" before opening the crate. "As I was saying, you might not like the addition of the inner suit but we – Felicity and I – figured that having extra protection is always best," he said as Oliver looked into the crate and lifted what was basically a shapeless, black, full-sleeved onesie.
Oliver's brows furrowed in bewildered confusion but Cisco continued, "This is your new inner suit. It has two layers: the compressive nickel-titanium shape-memory alloy layer with contour tension lines and the protective outer skin made up of smart textiles, absorbent nanocellulose and responsive polymer gels."
At Oliver's continued perplexity, Felicity jumped in. "This is your all-weather inner wear. It might not look like it now but it's like second skin that's designed, when activated, to shrink-wrap around you while protecting you from the elements. The inner compressive layer molds to your body, allows you unhindered mobility and acts like a compartmentalized tourniquet system in the event of severe injury. The outer layer is a mix of responsive polymers, smart textiles and flexible membranes that respond to your environment. If it's hot, it creates pores to let your skin breathe. If it's cold, it insulates you. It's self-healing too, meaning that small nicks and knife cuts won't need extensive repairs. Bullet holes though, are another matter, so don't even think of getting shot. But if you do get injured, heaven forbid, the suit is also super absorbent so we don't have to worry about blood being left on the scene."
"And, don't forget that it can protect you from nerve agents, blistering agents and biological weapons like anthrax," Cisco added. "It can basically sense these threats and chemically deactivate them." That was the point he was trying to make with the polymer gels and the chemical catalysts they contain. "It can be a bitch to get into though, but we'll get to that later," he said as he opened the next crate.
Oliver was relieved when he peered into the second crate as it contained his more familiar uniform, albeit with full sleeves.
"Looks like your standard uniform but it has a little more pizzaz built into it," Cisco explained. "Polymer Kevlar weave like before but less dense and enhanced with shear-thickening fluid inserts –"
"Liquid body armor," Felicity translated.
"And graphene nanoplatelets. It's even lighter than the hood you let the SCPD so carelessly destroy" – Cisco really just couldn't resist the dig – "is sufficiently stab-resistant and could stop a bullet while minimizing the impact on you, so much so that a bullet travelling at 1,400 feet per second only makes a centimeter of indentation. If you don't like the sleeves, you can always zip it off."
Oliver whistled. So, did Digg. Now they understood. And they were impressed.
"But wait, there's more!" Felicity teased, her mood lightening instantly when she saw the appreciation in Oliver's face. "Your tactical pants also got an upgrade."
"Felicity told me about your knee and said that it was a must-have, so here," Cisco said as he passed the garment to Oliver. "Same polymer Kevlar weave but impregnated instead with nanocellulose, so it still gives you enough protection even if it's way lighter than your jacket. There are battery-powered actuators in there that are designed to augment your anatomy to increase your stamina and mobility while minimizing the load on your joints. It's designed to work in tandem with your inner suit. Both together won't give you super strength but the combination will reduce the amount of energy you use while carrying a heavy load by about 7-10%. And it anticipates how you move so that it could give you that extra boost whenever you need it."
"And it's water resistant. So, your pants are basically part of a dry-clean-only-smart-flexible-lightweight-exosuit-of-armor now," Felicity remarked.
Oliver smirked. Leave it to his girlfriend to think of just about everything.
"But we rigged it differently for Digg," she continued as she retrieved two similar crates for their friend. "Yours was optimized for speed and agility. His is modified for strength and concealment," she said as she motioned for Digg to have at it.
Where Oliver's was green, Digg's was black.
"Want to see how it all comes together?" Cisco asked them.
They both nodded.
Oliver made to follow Digg and Cisco but Felicity held on to his arm. "Just a sec," she said as she gave Oliver two smaller boxes and prompted him to open them.
The first box was his retractable bow. And the second was his mask, although even it didn't survive in its usual form.
"The lens gives you night vision in low light and glare protection during the day. Not to mention that it can relay video in real-time when it's turned on, can give you sat nav in overlay mode and also comes with a built-in range-finder in target acquisition mode. But you don't have to turn it on. It'll act just like clear anti-fog lenses. I just don't want anything to get into your eyes, especially when this stuff can be blown into your face in powder form," she explained as she remembered Joe's intel.
Oliver was just speechless. So he set aside the two boxes on Cisco's workbench and turned to hold her face in both of his hands. And then he laid a quick kiss on her lips, then another – and because he just couldn't help it – just one more. He gathered her close to him then and whispered into her hair, "Thank you for having my back."
Felicity melted into his embrace and replied, "Always."
S.T.A.R. Labs, Treatment Room, 10:40 pm
"So we're just waiting on him to wake up?" Joe asked Caitlin after she quickly explained everything to him.
"That's the hope. We've managed to get most of the toxin out. Hopefully this time, we get everything," she said as prepared the materials they'd need for the flushing. "Once that's done, then I can start bringing him out of the coma I placed him in," she expounded as she handed him a couple of large flasks.
But before they could even finish getting the equipment ready, the monitors had gone off again, prompting them to dash back to Barry's bedside.
"Barry!" Caitlin screamed as she saw him thrashing against all the lines that were connected to him. He had even taken out his breathing tube. She struggled to calm him. "It's okay. You're safe," she said repeatedly while trying to hold him down. She didn't know whether to be happy that he was finally awake or to be worried because this was, once again, out of the ordinary – even for him.
"No!" he protested as he finally overpowered her then jolted upright, sending a lot of the equipment crashing down around him.
"Barry!" she said again, more forcefully this time. She used her body to block him and held his face between her hands, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "You're safe." When that didn't seem to register, she shook him. "I'm here. It's Caitlin."
"Caitlin?" he asked when some sense had finally dawned upon him.
But before she could even speak, she found herself engulfed in his arms and squished into his chest. His whole body was trembling – she could feel it – but she didn't know if it was because of the adrenaline that was clearly pumping into his veins or something else. And then her shock had finally worn off a bit so that she could finally make out what he was murmuring repeatedly into her hair.
"Thank God, Caitie! You're safe! You're safe!"
What did you think? Don't be afraid to let me know by leaving a review. :)
Oh, and to those who want to know a little bit more about Tommy in my universe, you might wanna head on over to the first chapter of my other fic, Extra! Extra! It contains outtakes and vignettes in this particular universe of mine.
Until next time! Kisses!