Felicity waited in the car across the street from where Laurel was meeting with Adam. Before she left Laurel's house last night they devised a plan to break into Adam Donner's home safe. All Laurel had to do was get his thumb print and plant a small bug on him, so they could track him throughout the day. Luckily, Oliver was at QC today with Diggle, and Sara wasn't at the foundry. She checked the camera feed before stopping in to collect some supplies.
A part of her didn't like sneaking around and taking equipment without letting Oliver know, it went against everything she stood for. But another part of her knew that he would not be willing to listen to her about Blood. The guilt intensified as she hacked their own feed so no one would know she was there to begin with. However, she was unmoving in her quest to get to the truth. She knew there was something more to all this, something terrible; it was just a feeling at the moment, but she had learned to always trust herself.
After her quick shopping trip at the foundry, she found herself once again at Laurel's. She looked better than she had the night before, there seemed to be a little glint in her eyes. The plan was simple: Laurel would meet Adam at the coffee shop, under the guise of apologizing and seeking advice. Before leaving she'd drop her phone, they both assumed Adam, being a gentleman would pick it up for her, Laurel would then find a reason to touch him, slipping the chip onto his clothing. She was glad Laurel decided to ask him to meet her for coffee instead of lunch as she had suggested. It would make the process much faster for them. The phone Laurel would drop was just a dummy phone. The phone was covered in a thin Liquid silicone, to the touch it didn't feel like more than a screen cover, but once touched the impression left behind couldn't be removed. But it could be cut out and she was hoping it would be good enough to pass the thumb print scanner. They would hit Donner's penthouse once it was confirmed he was back at the District Attorney's office.
Felicity was nervous about what they were attempting, which made no sense to her. She had been in more dangerous situation than this, she's been kidnapped by a mad man, stepped on a landmine, thrown out of one window to just be swung into another, and infiltrated an underground casino; yet, all those times she knew someone was coming for her. If she and Laurel got caught, if she missed anything while hacking all the surveillance, no one would be coming for them. She knew she was being silly, she hacked the feed in Donner's apartment and no one was there. If everything went according to plan they would be in and in out in twenty minutes.
Laurel tried not to grimace as Adam pointed out all of her faults. Even though she invited him for coffee under the guise of wanting advice, she didn't expect him to take it so seriously. From the things he was saying it sounded like he wanted to help her, but she knew that was far from the truth. She just wanted to get this over with so she and Felicity could get on with their plans.
"You okay," Adam asked, with concern.
She gave him a hesitant smile, "yeah, I'm sorry. I was just thinking about everything you said. It's just a little overwhelming… I, uh, I never thought I'd be in this position."
Adam looked down at his watch, before saying, "you're a strong woman. You will figure out a way to get past this. Look, Laurel, I'd love to spend some more time with talking about this with you but I have to get back to the office." He said, standing up and grabbing his jacket off if his chair.
Laurel stood up with him and reached for her handbag, tipping it over. The only item that fell out was the phone Felicity gave her. She watched as it fell underneath the table and silently prayed he'd be a gentleman and pick it up for her.
Almost immediately, Adam ducked down to retrieve it for her. He stood back up and handed it to her, "here you go."
"Thank you," She said, moving a little closer to him. "I don't have many people I can talk to, I appreciate your help," she told him reaching out to give him a small hug. Luckily, he didn't recoil and she was able to slip the bug on his suit jacket.
"Anytime, call me if you need any more advice."
Stepping back from him and putting on her coat, "Thank you, I will."
She watched as he walked away, giving him a moment to get far enough from the coffee shop. She didn't want to risk him seeing her get into the car Felicity was currently waiting in. After a few minutes she walked across the street and got into her car.
"Did it work," Felicity asked.
"It sure did," she said reaching into her handbag to get the phone. "His thumb was right on the screen; I made sure not to touch it there."
"Great," Felicity said, taking the phone from Laurel. She pulled out a pair of tweezers from her bag and took off the film cover the screen. "I'll cut it down when we're at Donner's," she told Laurel as she put the film into a small plastic box.
"Are we ready to go, do we have everything we need?" Laurel asked, wanting to get on with things.
"Hold on," Felicity muttered, looking down at her tablet. Laurel saw a red dot appear on the city map, "Yep, we're good. Let's go break into Donner's penthouse."
"You know, you probably shouldn't say those things aloud," Laurel told her pulling onto the street, slightly amused.
"I already checked your car for bugs," Felicity informed her.
Laurel looked surprised at her statement, "you think Adam would bug me?"
"At this point, anything is possible, but don't worry I scanned your house too before I came to see you."
"How did you do that?" Laurel wondered where Felicity picked up the knowledge to do these things. It was obvious that many of her hobbies were out of the IT scope.
"I scanned to see if there were any unknown frequencies, and when you were showering I ran a quick program that would pick up any live feeds. It all came up clean so we're safe."
"Okay… Thanks," Laurel said, discomforted with the thought of people watching her.
Laurel parked down the street from Donner's building and put on the cap Felicity handed her. They were going to walk into the underground garage and access the private elevators there. Felicity would run the security camera in the garage and elevator for a loop for five minutes, it would be just enough time to get through the garage and up to Adam's floor. She would then repeat the same process to leave.
They walked quickly through the parking garage and to the elevators.
"Shit," Laurel said, "you need an access card." This was not something that came up when they talked about this.
"Sorry, I knew I forgot to mention something," Felicity said, taking a card out of her pocket and swiping it.
Laurel followed her into the elevator, "really? That was kind of a big detail."
"I know," Felicity answered, not looking up from her tablet. She had seconds to run the cameras in the hallway on a loop. "I've had a lot on my mind, next time I won't forget."
Laurel crossed her arms, "fine." She knew it was just an oversight but she couldn't help but feel frustrated about not having all of the information.
"Are you sure you can pick his locks?" Felicity asked.
"As long as they're the locks you told me, it shouldn't be a problem."
Felicity tried not to roll her eyes at her tone; emotions were high for both of them. The elevator opened on Donner's floor, luckily there was only one more apartment besides his on this level. Once they made sure the hallway was clear, Laurel pulled what looked like a pocket knife out of her jacket pocket. Instead of a knife, there were several lock picks. She wondered why someone like Laurel would own a lock pick set, or how she knew how to pick a lock. She wasn't sure that she comfortable enough with her to ask, just like Laurel wasn't comfortable enough with her to ask about her hacking.
It took less than a minute to break in but it felt like forever, Laurel's heart was racing a bit and her hands were not steady. She didn't know if that was because of her nerves or the fact that she hadn't had a drink today.
She opened the door and Felicity followed her into the apartment, "wow, will you teach me how to do that?" She asked, without thinking.
Laurel shut the door behind them making sure to lock it, "sure."
Felicity dug out to set of gloves from her back pack, "here," she handed a set to Laurel. "We need to make sure to wipe down the door knob before leaving.''
Laurel put the gloves on while Felicity fiddled with her tablet. "Cameras in the hallway are back on, so we should be able to see if anyone is coming and… cameras in Donner's office are now looping the same image."
"Great, let's get this over with," Laurel said, not wanting to waste a moment. She briefly looked around Adam's apartment, though he was living large, it was very sterile. She didn't want to even risk touching anything.
Once in the office, Felicity pointed to the wall to the left of the desk, it should be there.
"How original, behind a painting," Laurel muttered, walking over to the artwork and taking it down.
Felicity placed a few things down on Donner's desk gently. She didn't want to disturb anything on the surface, not even a paper. The desk need to be exactly as it was before they entered, so if Donner looked through the surveillance there would be no discrepancy.
Laurel watched as Felicity opened the panel next to the safe and attached what looked like tiny jumper cables, those cables were attached to a small device that looked like a cell phone. After a couple of minutes eight numbers showed up on the screen.
"Okay," Felicity said to herself, "we got the code now we need the thumb."
She took out the case that held the finger print, and used a tiny exacto knife to cut around it.
Felicity's adrenaline was high, a part of her was nervous because they still needed to get out without being seen, but another part of her was pure excitement. She wondered if this how Oliver and Sara felt sometimes, when they were out fighting crime. "The moment of truth," she said, giving Laurel a small smile.
She placed the silicone thumb print over her own and pressed down on the scanner, a second later she was prompted for the security code. She heard the door click after entering the code.
Laurel looked into the safe over Felicity's shoulder, "be careful," she said as felicity took out a cell phone. "We have to remember to put it back where it was."
"I can't turn it on. I don't know of its being monitored or if it has a tracker that is activated when the phone is powered." She handed Laurel the phone and reached into her bag for a small screw driver. She took the phone back and began to open it.
"What are you doing?"
"I can't put a bug on the outside of the phone without him noticing, so I'm putting in inside. Don't worry he'll never notice."
Laurel looked through the safe as Felicity did her thing. So far nothing stood out, the safe held his birth certificate and social security card, a few watches, and a small stack of money – but not a large enough amount to be suspicious. She took care to place everything back in its proper place. She noticed a gray file folder towards the back and reached in trying not to disturb anything.
"Felicity," she called not taking her eyes off the file.
"Just give me a second, I have the phone almost sealed," she said from her spot on the floor, concentrating on closing the smartphone while not leaving a single scratch.
"Felicity, Adam has been watching us." Laurel said, almost in a whisper.
That got Felicity's attention and she stood back up to take a look at the file in Laurel's hand. Sure enough it was filled with photos, not just of Laurel and Felicity but of Moira, Thea, Oliver, Diggle, and Detective Lance.
"Why would Donner be watching all of us?" Laurel asked, feeling scared and uncertain for the first time. Did he have something to do with her kidnapping? She never told anyone, but the man in the mask was a reoccurring character in her nightmares.
"I … I don't know. Some of these are outside of my apartment building." Felicity told her, clearly surprised to see photos of herself, when she was off the clock. "I don't know why they'd be following me or Diggle. This must have something to do with either Oliver or Queen Consolidated."
"Well, Adam wasn't happy that Moira got off scott-free. It would make sense if he were trying to bring her down somehow; I just don't know how Blood factors into the equation."
It would make sense, State vs Queen Case was one of the biggest Starling had ever seen. She could see how Donner would be upset his team lost, but it didn't add up. "No, this isn't about Moira. If it was they'd have no reason to follow me or Diggle, neither of us interacts with her much. All of these people are important to Oliver."
"I get that… but it still doesn't make sense. Oliver is one of Blood's biggest backers – he wouldn't do anything that would affect that relationship. At least not right now, once he's elected that's a different story."
"I have no idea what's going on, but I think we need to learn more about Wintergreen Corp. That is the only thing connecting Donner to Blood right now."
"Donner and Blood might not even be connected; they may just be pawns of something much bigger." Laurel said, "And whoever is pulling their strings has several resources at their disposal."
"I agree," she said placing the phone back in the safe where she found it. "Let me just add this chip to the back of his computer and we're good to go."
"Great, because I'm starting to get real creepy feelings being here. I took a photo of the file content with my phone, just in case." Laurel told her, wishing she could just take the entire file.
"Oh, good idea, I should have thought of that." Felicity took a quick look at her tablet, "Donner is still at work so we should be fine."
Felicity waited for Laurel to put the file back and closed the safe. Once the painting was back up Felicity gathered her tablet and bag and gave his office a once over.
"I think we did well," she told Laurel, "now let's get the hell out of here."
Felicity followed Laurel to the door, and was happy to find her wiping down the knob with her shirt.
"Okay, we're clear but you need to work fast," Felicity said.
For some reason having to lock the door felt more stressful than picking it, but she worked as quickly as she could. When she heard the subtle click of the lock she let out the breath she had been holding in. She took the same care in wiping down the lock as she did with the inside knob.
"Okay, Felicity, let's get out of here, please."
Felicity swiped the access card for the elevator, and changed the hallway cameras back on once they were safely inside. She double checked the garage and everything seemed clear.
When they reached the garage level, both women felt like a weight had been lifted off of their shoulders and both were eager to discuss their findings somewhere safe. Neither of the women noticed the police car parked across the street from the building.
They had decided it was best to just got back to Laurel's since they knew it was free of bugs. Also, Laurel lived further away from QC and Verdant than Felicity did. She was uploading the photos Laurel took onto her computer so she could delete them from Laurel's phone.
"So…" Laurel began, "how do we go about learning who is behind Wintergreen? I thought about using some of the government information I still have access to, but I figured you would be appalled if I tried."
"Appalled is right," Felicity chuckled, "I'm pretty sure I've hacked all of those sites already, but more importantly we don't leave a trail. You signing in would have done that, so it was smart not to."
"Okay, but every company has a trail of some sort, why can't we find this one?" She asked, feeling drained after their little mission.
Felicity wasn't feeling too confident in her abilities, she wondered the same thing. "I don't know, whoever they hired to cover their tracks is good. Really good."
"But not good enough," Laurel said, leaning forward in her seat. "If they were that good you would've never found a trail to them to begin with. That means that you're better, maybe you just need to look at things in a different way." She suggested, "Look, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job because I don't have the first clue about hacking. But there is a reason you're the one that came this far, no one else, not even the Arrow got as far as you did."
Hearing that made Felicity smile, it was nice to hear that she was useful. "Well, I wouldn't have ever looked if you didn't have your suspicions… so I guess this really has been a joint ventured even before we realized it."
If they had wine they'd toast Laurel thought, but she knew alcohol of any kind would be out of the question, at least when Felicity was around.
Both women jumped when they heard a knock on Laurel's door. Felicity quickly closed out the program she was running and closed her laptop. She took her backpack that held her equipment, and shoved it under the coffee table.
Once everything was clear Laurel walked over to see who was at the door.
Felicity was silently hoping that today would not be the day Oliver or Sara decided to make peace with Laurel. There would be no explanation she could give them that they wouldn't see through.
Laurel was surprised to see her father standing on the other side of the door. They weren't on the best of terms lately but she made it a point to talk to him earlier today so he wouldn't interrupt her.
"Dad… what are you doing here?" she asked, still standing at the doorway not sure she wanted to let him inside.
"It's a funny story actually," Lance started saying, "I followed you and Felicity here." He told her making her move aside so he could enter.
"You followed us?" Laurel asked, slamming the door a little when she closed it. "I don't know where you get off following me around like a little girl, but I am entitled to my own privacy."
"Don't you say," he said walking to the living room. "Ms. Smoak, always a pleasure to see you."
"Det- Detective Lance, what are you doing here? I mean, this is your daughter's house, it would make sense you visiting sometimes… regardless it's not my house so I should be asking why you're here." She started counting in her head in an attempt to control her mouth.
"I think we all need to have a little chat about what you've been doing today," he told them seating himself.
Sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoy this chapter, it feels a little choppy but I just can't seem to fix it. Thank you guys for the amazing response to this story, I'm glad so many of you are enjoying Laurel and Felicity working together.