Her eyes snapped open, and she made a sour face. Oliver moved into her line of vision, and she almost jerked off the table. He reached out to reassure her, and she slapped his hand away.
"Easy," Oliver spoke gently to the blonde-haired stranger. "We don't want to hurt you. You're safe now. How do you feel?"
She gagged, "I feel like something crawled in my mouth and died there."
He grinned at her description of Yao Fei's wonder-drug. "That will wear off, I promise."
She squinted at Oliver. "Who are you? Where am I?" Her eye fell on the green hood behind him, and she gasped. "Wait! You're him? No way!" She gazed around at his arsenal, and the truth became undeniable. "Oh my gosh," she mused, "I just got rescued by the Hood!" She chuckled in amazement and moved to try sitting up. Suddenly, she tensed as a look of concern crossed her face. "Gerry! Where's my phone?" she demanded.
Oliver gave her the black flip-phone. "Right here; it doesn't work, though. It might have been damaged in the fight."
The girl grinned and pressed a few buttons. She glanced up at Oliver, "It's specially modified; you just have to know which buttons to push."
"Who's Jerry?" Felicity piped up.
The girl suddenly adopted the manner of a cornered animal, eyes deliberately fixed on her own person and away from everyone else. "No one-a boy...friend...ish... it's no one." Her voice was choppy, and obviously lying. Her eyes did not meet theirs, but she searched for something else to focus on. Oliver was just about to ask her name, when she suddenly glared at something behind him.
"You!" she snarled, confidence replaced by seething hatred. "I should have killed you when I had the chance!"
Oliver turned in confusion as Roy approached them.
The girl seemed to forget her injuries as she suddenly launched herself at him from the table. Roy dodged and twisted, but she lashed out anyway, tripping him. Instantly she was on top of him, threatening to smash his head on the pavement. "You scum!" she screamed. "I swore I'd make you pay! You're nothing—"
"HEY!" Oliver reached in and hauled her off his protege. Still she threw punches toward him, even though he was out of reach. Tears ran down her face.
Diggle glanced at Roy, "Do you two know each other?"
Roy shook his head frantically.
The girl sneered. "Sure I know him, I was there the day he was born! Roy William Harper-Freacking-Junior!" She spat the name in cutting syllables. "Mom probably figured there was a better chance of Dad coming back to us if he found out about Junior!"
"Dad?" Roy spluttered, "Our dad?"
"Yes our dad!" She twisted out of Oliver's grip, but did not attack her brother again. "What mom didn't figure on was having to raise two kids, so when the axe fell, guess who got chopped? Me! She wasn't my mom, she couldn't care less about someone else's flesh-and-blood, oh no! It was always all about Little Baby Roy, Mama's Pride and Joy!" Her mouth twisted in a grimace as she mocked him. "So she puts me in the foster system."
"What did you do then?" Felicity asked, enthralled by the girl's tale.
The girl snorted. "I ran away," she answered derisively, as if stating the obvious. "If my own mother didn't even want me, I sure as heck wasn't gonna let another woman own me!" She resumed glaring at Roy. "I swore as I ran that I would find the kid who screwed me over and kill him."
"Not any more," Oliver warned her. "Roy's with me."
She whirled around and looked him in the eye. "Then I want in, too."
Oliver blinked, "Excuse me?"
"What?" Roy cried.
She extended her hand. "Call me Izzy; if Junior's good enough for the Hood, you'll like me even better." She grinned as Oliver shook her hand. "Besides, if you want to get to Geraldine DuPries, you'll have to get through me, anyway."
Oliver cocked an eyebrow.
"I'm her bodyguard," Izzy explained.
Oliver and Diggle exchanged glances. They had discussed the girl's proficiency in combat—if a bit overconfident—while she'd been unconscious.
"Oh," Felicity gasped, "Then it must have been you who intercepted the bug."
Izzy nodded. "Yeah, and re-routed the signals from your electronic equipment." she frowned, "What does the Hood have against DuPries, anyway?"
Oliver's face grew serious. "The man has been mistreating his workers and embezzling funds to pad his own pockets. It is men like him that have failed this city, and must be rectified."
Izzy frowned, "DuPries? No way, man. You've got him all wrong."
"Have we?" Oliver pulled up the files Felicity had uncovered. "Look at this: work orders, back-door authorizations, pay cuts, budget cuts, tax breaks—"
Izzy watched it all in evident confusion. "There must be some mistake—"
"What mistake?" Roy cut in, unhappy with the way this girl who claimed to be his sister hated him for the very fact of being born. "I thought you said you wanted to run with the Hood. That means that you don't tell him—"
"Roy," Oliver stopped him, "It's fine." He glanced back at their newest member. "Izzy's inclined to object because she's on the payroll."
"That's not true!" Izzy snapped. "I don't see what that has to do with Gerry, anyway."
"We know he spoils her, practically worships her," Oliver answered, "so it follows that the surest way to secure his involvement would be to kidnap Geraldine and hold her till he complied."
Izzy shook her head. "Uh-uh, no way! You've got it way wrong for sure! He loves his daughter, and she loves him right back. It's not worship, it's family."
"What do you know about family?" Roy sneered.
"I may not know or care much about my family," Izzy rejoined, "but I will say this: If anybody knows Gordon and Geraldine DuPries, it's me! I know when and where he takes his breakfast and how he likes it, when he gets down to business, what he does first, what paper he reads, which section he reads first, when Gerry leaves for school, who she sees, what route she takes, her class schedule, the kinds of people she shies from, her crushes, her affinities, how long she waits before heading home, how Gordon greets his daughter, what bedtime stories she asks him to read, and—" She stopped when she realized she'd said the entire thing in one breath. Everyone was staring at her—even Felicity. "If you're going to do this right," she took a deep breath, "you need me," she finished emphatically. "Because you've already tried getting her without me, and it failed."
Oliver sighed, "Fine, but we do this my way."
Izzy met his gaze. "Fine, but if she so much as chips a fingernail, she is gone and I swear you will never get within two blocks of her again."
Oliver slipped his hood on, "Fair enough, wasn't planning on hurting her anyway, just scaring her father."
Izzy nodded and picked up one of the earbuds from the desk.
"I'll contact you when she finishes school tomorrow. That way, you won't be holding her very long before DuPries misses her."
Oliver nodded, and Izzy trudged up the stairs, still nursing her wounds as she went.
The next afternoon, as Izzy promised, the abduction went off without a hitch. Izzy was able to actually get into the school near the end of the day, posing as a student with the right identification and even uniform. She subtly guided the group of girls Gerry hung out with past a suitably dark alley, and then—with a well-placed jostle at just the right moment—jarred Geraldine into an alley without anyone noticing. They went about their normal activities completely unaware that not one but two of their schoolfellows were missing.
Back at the hideout, the five members of what was fast becoming "The Hood Gang" surveyed the day's work on the closed-circuit camera installed in the corner of the empty utility closet behind the Verdant Club. Geraldine sat in a chair, blindfolded, gagged, bound, and petrified.
"That's done." As usual, Oliver was already onto the next phase of his mission. "Now for the call."
Izzy's head snapped around. "Wait a minute," she cried frantically, "What call?"
Oliver shrugged, as if he'd explained the whole plan already. "The ransom demand. He can't know the Hood is involved in her capture; we have to make him desperate enough to beg me to rescue her at any cost."
"Are you insane?" She slipped the phone out of his hand before he could dial. "His daughter is missing, and so is her bodyguard! He's likely terrified already. A ransom demand would probably kill him!"
Oliver snatched at the phone, but Izzy twisted away. He frowned, "That's a risk he should have considered before getting into bed with gangs like the Madre Muerte!"
Izzy would not give the phone back. "The who? DuPries would never do such a thing!"
Oliver kept his voice deadly calm, as if he were negotiating with a volatile target. "Give me the phone, Izzy; you promised to do things my way."
"Yeah well, I didn't figure you for a bully!" She retorted. "Can't you just go tell him in person?"
He moved, and she jumped back. Finally, Oliver sighed. "Fine." He turned heel and grabbed his hood and his bow. He turned back and jabbed a finger at her. "Don't try anything funny while I'm gone." He glanced at the other three. "Make sure she doesn't leave or try anything."
Diggle nodded while Felicity and Roy glanced at each other uneasily.
"I'll guard Gerry myself," Diggle assured Oliver.
Gordon DuPries sat in his customary after-dinner chair before the fire, but no Gerry came to greet him. The house was so empty and chilling without her. He had never noticed before just how big it was.
Suddenly, the lights flickered out. Gordon yelped; he was too scared to get out of his chair to try the switch.
"Gordon DuPries, you have failed this city!"