The deep, hollow voice made the businessman tremble all over.
"W-w-why are you doing this?" He demanded of the Hood. "Where is my daughter?"
"I have found your daughter in the custody of the gang who took her, a gang you know well!" the Hood answered. "I am prepared to return her to you—if you renounce your ties with them and end your secret dealings."

"What are you talking about?" Gordon was so frantic he was almost screaming. "I don't know anything about any gang! By Heaven, if they hurt her—"

"What about the money, then?" Oliver interjected. "Don't think I don't know about the cut corners, the shabby work conditions, the extra funds to grease your own palms!" He punctuated his words with an arrow between Gordon's feet.

"PLEASE!" Gordon shrieked. "I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! I JUST WANT TO SEE MY DAUGHTER AGAIN! I'LL PAY YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT!"
The Hood produced a small laptop from the messenger bag at his side. "Very well; I took the liberty of placing her under surveillance before coming to you." He pulled up the live footage from the camera. Geraldine still remained as she had been, ever so still, not struggling at all. "You can see that she has not been harmed—yet." He turned the laptop so Gordon could see it.

The man gasped. "Wh-where is she? What have they done with her? Why is she gone?"
The Hood took back the laptop. "That is the price for failure," he said quickly. "You must solve the issue of your factory, or I will visit again."

Just then a voice Gordon never expected to hear again floated up the stairs.
"Daddy?"
He heard the familiar clatter of footsteps and the lights flickered back on, revealing him to be alone in the room till Geraldine ran in and threw her arms around him.
"Oh Daddy, I was so scared I'd never see you again!"
"But Gerry," Gordon spluttered, "How did you escape? The Hood said you'd been captured by a gang."

Gerry nodded, "They grabbed me in an alley after school. I was tied up all day long. But I couldn't see who rescued me. He wore a dark hood and didn't say much, just helped me get past the guard and out of there!"
Gordon held his daughter close. "I don't care what happens to the business; I never want to lose you again."

Meanwhile, a flip-phone in his pocket vibrated. He opened it and read the code, signaling that the constant tail he paid to shadow his daughter had been the one to secure her release. The Ghost was certainly worth every penny.

Back at the hideout, Oliver stormed down the stairs to find all four members exactly as he left them. He nailed Izzy with a glare. She kept a neutral expression.
Oliver confronted Diggle first. "I thought you were guarding Geraldine."

"I was!" Diggle protested. "Till I blacked out for no apparent reason and by the time I woke up, she was gone!"

"You!" He barked at Izzy, "I thought we agreed that Geraldine would be held until Gordon cooperated."

"I thought we agreed you were just going to talk to him, not threaten him!" Izzy snapped back, her face twisting into a scowl.

Oliver clenched his fists. "All of the last couple days has been for nothing, thanks to you!"

"Yeah, well, I've said from the beginning that you've got the wrong guy! You heard him, he doesn't know anything! Lay off!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Don't you dare touch the DuPries family again!"

"Is that a threat?"

"You bet it is!"

Oliver glared at the defiant young woman. "Get out," he growled.

Izzy's face fell and she blinked. "What?" she gasped.

Oliver pointed to the stairs. "Out; now! I can't have you interfering with my plans every time you don't agree, so I'm giving you the chance to leave before I throw you out!"

Izzy looked at the others, but nobody seemed interested in getting involved with the fight. She tossed the earbud away and calmly strode to the stairs.

"And Izzy?" Oliver continued, "If I find that you have breathed a word about me or any of the others or this place, I will personally track you down and kill you."

She stomped up the stairs without looking back.
Oliver turned to see Roy watching him.
"Wasn't that a little harsh?" the young man wanted to know.
Oliver rolled his eyes, "Don't you start," he muttered.
Roy ran up the stairs.

"I'll go put things back upstairs," Diggle volunteered.
Felicity turned back to the computers screens, and Oliver could tell she was re-combing the information they had on DuPries, trying to determine who was right, him or Izzy.

Up in the residential area of Starling City, Izzy sat in the place she lived most of the time, her favorite place to be: a tree that grew taller than the wall surrounding the DuPries estate, from which she could see into both Gordon's office and Geraldine's bedroom. She sat and sobbed.

"Hey."
A voice made her flinch and almost lose her balance. Izzy looked down through the tears. Roy stood at the foot of the tree. How had he found her?

"Go away," she snarled.

"Not till you talk to me."

"I said get outta here!"

"Dammit, Izzy," Roy burst out, "I've spent my whole life thinking I was completely alone! You have no idea—"

"I have no idea?" She finally dropped out of the tree and got in his face. "You're the one who got all the attention! I was left on my own long before you were even toilet trained!"

"Yeah, well, I don't even remember Mom," Roy retorted. "She left me like she left you, and I think she died. Dad showed up for a bit, but as soon as I was old enough he split and that was the end!" He clenched his jaw to keep the tears at bay. "We have both been alone for so long; let's not keep doing this."

"Yeah? Well maybe I like it!" Izzy snapped.

"What, sitting in a tree watching some silver-spoon diva lead a privileged life?"
"She's not a diva!" Izzy retreated up the tree.

Roy followed her. From the vantage point, he watched DuPries reading from a book to his daughter. He closed the book, kissed Gerry's cheek, and turned out the light. He looked at his sister to see that his sister's cheeks were wet.

"I've been watching her every day since Mr. Dupries hired me five years ago," Izzy murmured. "At first it was just a job I'd spent most of my life training for."
"Training to be a bodyguard?" Roy asked.

Izzy shrugged, "Bodyguard, mercenary, assassin, spy, shadow, contact, courier—my employers offered a wide range of services to their clients. Five years ago, DuPries contacted them because he was receiving death threats from a gang in the same area as his factory in the Glades, and he didn't want anything to happen to his daughter. He wanted someone to be able to be with her at every moment, even in school. That's why my employers selected me, because I was about the same age as Gerry, and thus could go where no conventional bodyguard would ordinarily be allowed: the Starling City Girls' Academy." Izzy sighed.
"For five years I followed her around when she left home every day, came back every night to watch the two of them together—and imagine what it would be like to be her sister." She smirked wistfully at her brother, "I guess a part of me still really wanted a family, even if the only one I could call 'my family' was a bunch of disappointments and abandonment." She set her jaw as the tears returned-remorse now, though, not anger-and continued firmly, "The Hood is wrong, Roy. DuPries is not the man he says he is. I have watched that man smile at her and hold her hand and hug and kiss his daughter and basically-" she rubbed her nose to still the rising sobs, "basically do everything I wish our dad had done. She is precious to him, not an idol, but a treasure."

Roy sat and listened to the sister he'd never known talk about family in a way that was completely foreign to his life-and yet he cherished those same dreams. Doubt began to form in his mind; was it possible that Oliver might be mistaken? Roy wanted to push that thought away-but found that he couldn't.

Izzy picked at a nearby burl, not sure how to handle the thick silence that crowded around them after her outburst.

"Well," she sighed, "you should go. I'm staying here."

Roy glanced up the tree, "Do you actually live up here?"

Izzy swung her legs easily from the branch. "Not this one in particular; see that bigger one over there?" She pointed to a larger, older tree down the block. Roy could see a squarish shape spanning its branches. "That's where I sleep, anyway." She studied her brother for a moment. "You can come see it if you want...I guess."

Roy glanced up at the sudden invitation, but Izzy was already crawling across the branches. He clung to the branch he'd been balancing on and now attempted to haul himself over to the branch she had just vacated. Crawling across the flat, sturdy branches, he crossed lightly over to the platform where Izzy waited. There was a sleeping bag there, and a duffel beside it.

They waited in silence. "Comfy," Roy noted, unsure of what else to say.

Izzy shrugged, "It's definitely more than I had on the streets. I get paid for this gig, too, so when it gets cold, I have a tent I bring up here to keep the wind out."

Roy couldn't help himself. He snorted, "If you get paid, why do you sleep in a tree? Why not rent an apartment or something?"

Izzy scowled at him. "Fine! You can just go back to your Hood gang! Sleep well, knowing that your crusade on an innocent man is airtight!"

Roy flinched, "Izzy, that's not what-"

She shoved her legs into the sleeping bag and pulled it over her head to shut out the light of the street lamp-and the words of her brother.

Roy huffed and curled up on the platform next to her. It wasn't like the bed in the small Glades modular he squatted in, but it was better than some of the benches and curbs he'd slept on in his years on the street.

It seemed only minutes later that he heard someone calling his name.

"Roy? Are you there, Roy? Oliver? Roy? Can either of you hear me?"

He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as his earbud clicked.

"Roy," Felicity's tone was short and urgent. "You and Oliver need to get back here. There's something you have to see."