That was why Chloe found herself sitting in a strangers living room in an apartment above a bar in the cold and desolate town of Boston in front of what she could begrudgingly admit was a very nice computer set up listening to the plan.

"Before we start I want everyone to say hi to Chloe. She's on loan to us from Metropolis."

"On loan? I'm not a Kandinsky you had shipped in from the Guggenheim."

"I stole a Chagall from there. It was pretty and blue and had a silly chicken." Chloe stared at the blond unsure if she was being serious. Were they thieves? She didn't think Oliver would ask her to help criminals.

"Parker let's not scare our guest please." Nate turned back towards Chloe. "My team and I are grateful for your help. Did you get any details?"

"Ollie was unclear on what you needed other that my nerdier talents." She tried not to fidget as all eyes fell on her.

"Ollie?" The brunette in the corner with the refined English accent piped up.

"Oliver Queen." Nate smiled at the woman's reaction. Shock and annoyance crossed her lovely features and Chloe wondered what their connection was. How did Ollie know this man?

"I don't trust her." Chloe's eyes turned at the sound of the gruff voice. Sitting in the corner looking menacing was a man, danger rolled off him in waves and she wondered just what the hell Oliver had gotten her into. Then his blue eyes pinned her in place and a shiver of excitement went up her spine.

"Don't worry cowboy I don't trust you either." She smiled brightly at him. "But I trust Oliver and he said you needed help to right a wrong. It's kind of my thing. So for at least the next week we are going to get along like BFF's straight out of your favorite situation comedy complete with snappy one liners and clever comebacks."

"Oh you are going to fit right in." The brunette smiled at her. "I'm Sophie and it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Okay so back on point. Chloe will be filling in for Hardison while he is in nerding it up in LA." Nate walked over to the bar and poured himself a glass of brandy and another for Chloe. "This is my team, Sophie, Parker and Eliot."

Sophie and Parker smiled at her but Elliot continued to glare.

"Okay so now that we've all met let's run it." Chloe watched as everyone turned towards the flat screens and waited. Suddenly they were all looking at Chloe.

"New kid here. Not sure what you expect me to do."

"See Hardison sits in this chair and presses keys and we come up with a plan to get the bad guy." Chloe was starting to think Parker was a little off.

"Um okay." She moved towards the seat indicated and took a look at the laptop in front of her. It took a few key strokes for her to figure out what program he was running and she smiled. She didn't know this Hardison but she had a feeling she would really like him. A few more keys strokes and the program was running up on the screen. She smiled widely as everyone turned back to watch the presentation.

"So this is Peter Fox. He's been running a pretty basic hedge fund scam except that he is only targeting members of the city's police force." The image on the screen changed to an older man, tall and lean with a hard edge. "This is Mark Stedman, he's a 25 year vet of the Boston PD. Fox stole his retirement. Every last penny and when he was confronted about it he laughed in Mark's face. Now Mark is on the verge of loosing his pension as well as his nest egg." Nate finished and faced the team.

"Please tell me we are going to take this jackass down?" Chloe's skin crawled when the next picture on screen was Peter Fox on his yacht aptly titled Brodie and Connors.

Nate just smiled at her. "the name bothers you?"

She looked at him for a moment and chuckled. "The only thing worse than a cheat is a guy who thinks he's smarter than everyone else. He's taunting us."

"What does the name of the boat have to do with anything?" Parker asked innocently enough. But Chloe got the impression she was anything but.

"It's New York Mythology. These two idiots tried to scam each other into jumping from the Brooklyn bridge. They are like folk hero's to scam artists."

"I don't know about that. A dummy? Please. No self respecting criminal would use a dummy." Chloe eyed Sophie narrowly, trying to gauge her true feelings. "They really only hurt each other though, Fox on the other hand is wracking up a nice long list of victims. If Mark is right half the precinct has money invested with him."

"Right so we need to get the money back." Nate smiled widely before walking out of the room.

Chloe watched him go and then looked around the room at the other members of her temporary team. None of them seemed particularly confused that their mastermind had just walked out. "I take it he does that a lot?"

"Oh yeah. Usually we follow too but I think we are more interested in you than the plan right now." Chloe was slightly taken back at Parkers words. Sure she assumed they would want to check her out but she didn't think they would be so forthcoming with her.

"um okay, you want to ask me some questions." Parker jumped up and moved next to her at the table. Chloe smiled nervously at her. Turning to see Sophie also moving over to the table.

"I tried for the Queen fortune once. Nate stopped me. Although now that you are here I'm pretty sure playboy Oliver Queen isn't nearly as naïve as he pretends to be."

Chloe offered her a quiet smile. She would answer what she could about herself but the rest of the team was off limits.

"Yup, that's what I thought." Sophie seemed to take her silence as confirmation.

"his movement are highly trained. He isn't as carefree and he pretends."

Chloe stared at him in shock. She could almost forget he was in the room for all the noise he made and now he was talking about Oliver's secret life? It wasn't good. "I thought you were going to ask questions about me?" She smiled as she tried to hide her nervousness. She had forgotten how much she hated being the new guy.

"no questions." Elliot got up and moved to the other side of the table. Leveling his gaze at her he smiled with all the charm of a shark. "just some advice"

She leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms. A sizzle of heat ran across her skin again as she stared back at him. "yes?"

"Cross us and it will be the last thing you do." He moved to walk away from the table but stopped at the sound of her voice.

"Elliot is it? I might be the nerd of the group but that isn't all I can do. " She gave him a pointed once over and smiled. "right now you have no less than 3 concealed weapons on your person including a Kabar in your right boot. Interesting that not a single one is a gun. I on the other hand have no such aversion. That is why in my purse is a Taurus PT 709 slim line with a custom grip. Now I don't like to toot my own horn but I'm willing to bet it would be real close to see if I could get a shot off before you burry that throwing knife you have tucked into your belt in my throat."

If she hadn't been watching him she might have missed the surprise on his face. She did miss the glimpse of admiration but only because she didn't know him. Sophie on the other hand saw it as clear as day and smiled inwardly.

"If we are done playing who has the scarier weapon I would like to point out that you asked me here to help." Elliot watched as she visibly relaxed. Taking a deep breath she pushed back from the table and got up. "Mark needs our help. I for one don't want to let him down. So for the foreseeable future can we just get along?"

Elliot grumbled while Parker and Sophie smiled. "Fine." Turning away he followed Nate out of the room.

Chloe let a long sigh out. It was going to be a long week. Oliver was going to owe her big time.