Chapter 9

A/N-I'm finally back with a new chapter! I'm sorry it's been so long I've just been having some trouble at work and it has really discouraged me. I haven't felt much like writing at all, but I'm glad that I managed to get this chapter out and that it's longer than the previous few chapters. I hope that makes up in part for the long wait. A quick note, I ended up having an idea that I really liked so I implemented it in this chapter. In order to do that however I had to make a slight change to chapter 7. If you've already read that chapter I would suggest going back and re reading the first paragraph of that chapter as it establishes the timeline for this one. I hope it's not too confusing and I'll try not to do that in the future. Thanks so much to everyone for your continued support and I hope you're all still enjoying this piece!

John yawned as he stretched and groaned at the sound of his alarm. He quickly threw his arm to the side and stopped the noise before it woke his wife as she slept next to him. John sat up, threw his legs over the side of the bed and buried his face in his hands. After taking a few moments to force him self out of bed John placed the covers back over Lyla and headed for the bathroom. Once his shower was complete John dried himself, slapped on some deodorant and cologne, and walked back out and into the walk in closet. A few minutes into getting dressed he heard a familiar groan coming from the bed.

"Why does Felicity have to start work so early?" Lyla Diggle asked as she rolled over in bed.

John's lips curved into a satisfied smile, "Well she is a multi millionaire with a brain that runs faster than most computers, I'm betting she starts the day so early because she has a hard time turning her thoughts off," John explained as he exited the closet while fixing his tie. "All those ideas and processes spinning around in her head probably keep her up at night."

Lyla rolled her eyes and forced herself out of bed, she threw her arms in the air and stretched. "Oh the burdens that come with being a super genius, I feel so sorry for her," Lyla joked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Hey come on now,"John walked over and wrapped his arms around Lyla's hips. "Felicity has been very good to us, plus she almost got shot not too long ago, cut her a little slack."

"Oh, I know baby," Lyla replied as she wrapped her arms around John's neck and smiled. "I just wish the SCPD would hurry up and find that piece of crap that tried to shoot her. Maybe then you could take more than one day off every once in a while."

"I want him caught too Lyla, for that reason and many others," John sighed. "But until that happens I'm gonna watch out for her as best I can, it is my job after all."

"And you do it so well," Lyla brought a hand to John's chest and adjusted his tie. "Just make sure she knows that you need time for yourself too, that's what Beck is for after all isn't it?"

"She knows Lyla, I wouldn't have even taken yesterday off if it weren't for her threatening to fire me if I didn't," john chuckled. "I just feel like I need to be there as much as possible ya know? I could never forgive myself if something happened to her that I could have been there to stop."

"I know Johnny, I can't blame you for that, in fact your dedication to her is one of the many, many reasons that I love you." John smiled at that, "I just wish she could find something, or someone to occupy a little more of her time is all," she chuckled. "Hey what was the name of that guy who took the bullet for her again?"

"Oliver, Oliver Queen," John answered.

"Oliver, yeah!" Lyla chirped. "I bet he could give her a reason to spend a couple extra hours in bed each morning!" Lyla winked mischievously.

"You need to stop right now," John laughed and pulled his wife closer to him, he buried his face in her neck and growled playfully.

"Johnny stop!" Lyla squealed and smacked his chest, she grabbed his head and forced it back up to peck his lips. "Ok go protect your other woman then," Lyla joked and waved him off.

John's eyes sprang open, "She-she told you about that huh?"

"Mhmm," Lyla pursed her lips. "We do talk ya know," her lips curved into a teasing smile.

"Noted," John thought to himself as he turned to leave the room.

"Go see Sarah on your way out!" Lyla called after him. "You forgot the other day and she was very upset with you," Lyla chuckled.

John ran a hand over his face, "Damn, this stress must be getting to me more than I thought, how could I forget to say goodbye to my own daughter?"

"Stop that! You've got a lot on your plate right now, it happens. Don't beat yourself up about it," Lyla ordered as she took her turn in the bathroom.

John quirked an eyebrow and smiled, his wife's uncanny ability to anticipate his thoughts never failed her, he sighed and continued down the hall towards his daughter's bedroom. John slowly and quietly nudged the door open and peered around it as he entered, the room was dark and silent save for the eleven month old's rhythmic breathing. John cautiously walked up to the crib and smiled as he looked down at his daughter, he reached down and softly stroked her hand with his own. Responding to her father's touch, little Sarah rolled her head and slowly opened her eyes.

"There's my girl," John spoke softly. Sarah's lips curved in to a big smile and she giggled. John chuckled right along with her, "Good morning to you too!" Sarah stretched out her arms and wiggled her fingers, John sighed. "Alright but only for a minute," he reached down and lifted his daughter up. Sarah squealed and grinned as john held her in his arms, she reached up and grabbed her father's nose and squeezed. John cried in feigned pain and tickled his daughter's stomach with his free hand, the little girl laughed and wriggled in John's grasp. After a few minutes of this John kissed the child's forehead and sighed, "Ok little one, as much as I'd rather stay here with you and your mom I've got to go to work. You be a good girl for mommy ok?" He requested knowing the little girl couldn't answer. He kissed Sarah's forehead once more before lowering her back into the crib. "Go back to sleep baby."

John exited the room and softly shut the door before heading back to his own bedroom to retrieve his pistol from the safe in the closet. As he entered the room he could hear the sounds of his wife still showering in the bathroom, he smiled and found himself wishing he could join her.

"She'd better fall back asleep Johnny or I'm gonna take that pistol out of that safe and shoot you myself!" Lyla called jokingly from the shower.

"Out like a log!" John replied, "Or at least I hope she is," he chuckled internally as he quickly typed in the code and retrieved his sidearm. "Ok I'm gone, I love you."

"I love you Johnny, tell Felicity we say hi."

"Will do." John exited the bedroom, headed down the hall and out into the living room, he retrieved his dress jacket from the coat rack and threw it over his arm. John then headed to the fridge to get his lunch, next he headed for the door but stopped first to pull his keys wallet and radio from the bowl on the table to his right. He clenched the handle of his lunchbox in his teeth so he could use both hands to strap the radio to his belt and set the earpiece in place. John opened his mouth and let his lunch box fall into a waiting hand before using the other hand to retrieve his keys from the pocket he had just placed them in moments ago and opened the door.

John's morning routine was a busy one, there was no disputing that, but he didn't mind it in the slightest. The past several years john's life had been filled with busy days, juggling a war, working for one of the busiest people on the planet, and now a child at home had forced him to get used to having his hands constantly full. But like any good soldier John knew how to adapt and he was very good at it. As the elevator carried John down he began to pat his pockets looking for something but couldn't find it, after a momentary panic he remembered where he had left the desired item. John reached into the pocket of his dress jacket and pulled out his phone, he sighed in relief as he pressed the power button, he had received a new text from Felicity.

"March 9th 5:11 am. Message from Felicity Smoak.

Subject: Ugh!

Morning John, busy day today, really busy. I've got a million meetings to attend and the board is up my butt about everything under the sun. I don't even see how they can get to my butt I mean I'm literally always sitting down but they still manage to do it!... sorry, that was a stupid joke… Anyway, if you insist on coming in today you're going to have to sit through all of that with me so HA! Lucky you! Also you still haven't completed the company wide mandatory computer training yet, if I have to do it then so do you so get on it please."

"Great, a bunch of boring useless out dated videos and quizzes, can't wait." John sighed.

The last part of the message read, "P.S. I'm probably going to be working pretty late tonight, maybe an all nighter, but just because I seem to enjoy depriving myself of sleep doesn't mean you have to suffer with me. I'll let you come in today but your going home on time weather you like it or not, you've got two lovely ladies at home who are way more important than I am and you need to spend some time with them. I'll have Beck and Kevin with me so you know I'll be safe, so when the day is over please go home or I'll have Beck throw you out on your butt. You know he'll do it," followed by the winking face, pointing, running man, and house emojis. "Hug Lyla and Sarah for me, see you at the office."

John chuckled and shook his head, "Felicity Smoak, always a character."

A sudden ding caught John's attention and he looked up as the elevator slowed to a halt. A few moments later the recorded voice rang out.

"Arrived level P1."

John drew in a deep breath and slipped his phone into his pocket as the doors slid open. John then walked out into the apartment complex's parking garage. After taking a moment to remember where he'd parked John picked his vehicle out of the group and headed towards it, when he reached his car he placed his lunch box on the roof and removed his keys from his pocket. John pressed the button on the key remote, that should have unlocked the vehicle but strangely today nothing tried again still no luck, he quirked an eyebrow and placed the key itself into the lock on the door. When he tried to turn it the lock didn't budge, "What the Hell?" He tried again with no results. "What's going on with this thing?"

"Nothing."

Before John could turn around someone struck a hard blow to his head and he fell against the car. The first hit was followed by another to the backs of his legs. John began to slump down but quickly regained some of his senses, he threw an elbow back and made contact with one of his attackers but the man recovered and grabbed hold of John's arm while a second attacker took his other arm and pressed his face against the car. John struggled as he tried to free himself. "Who the hell are you? What do you want?" He cried.

"Quiet!" One of the attackers shouted. "Your outnumbered and overpowered, it's no use," the second assailant chuckled.

"Oh yeah?" Diggle retorted, "You think a master sergeant in the U.S. Army can't take down a couple of low life's like you?" John gathered all his strength, planted a foot on the ground and pushed up as hard as he could. John cried out as he tried to lift the weight of the attackers and get to his feet, sweat was running down his fore head and into his eyes blurring his already hindered vision.

"Damn who is this guy superman?" One assailant asked the other, both men put more weight on John's body. Despite this john actually managed to make some progress and was beginning to rise when a third voice rang out from behind him, this one was different however. This voice was unnatural, very deep and animalistic, the man was obviously using a voice changer.

"Now now Mr. Diggle," the new voice ordered sarcastically. "That's no way for some one in your, let's call it a predicament, to act now is it?" The man chuckled and moments later John felt the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of his head. John's eyes widened, he struggled harder but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't escape the men's hold, he subconsciously shot a glance down at his hip where his weapon was holstered. The ringleader must have noticed because he immediately took the gun and waved it in John's face laughing, "Oh Jonny boy, you won't be needing this where we're going, trust me."

The man tossed John's pistol aside, "Search him, then turn him around," he ordered the other men. They did as they were told, once they were satisfied that all of John's pockets were empty they turned him around. John tried to get a good look at them but before he could they began to beat him again and laugh, all he could make out was that the men were masked and decked out in full body armor. Punch after punch and kick after kick made contact with John's body as he collapsed to the ground, he could feel himself loosing consciousness but before he did a loud bang was heard from across the parking garage , like someone had dropped something. Through his blurred vision John could se the assailants turn to assess the threat, he quickly looked around and noticed that in all the confusion his phone had slipped out of his pocket and fallen to the ground beside him. John managed to wrap a couple fingers around it and slip it back into his pocket before one of the men turned his focus back.

"Don't even think about it."

"Go to hell," John fired back.

After a few moments the other men gave up and turned back to John, the ringleader squatted down to john's level. "I have to admit mr. Diggle I admire your tenacity, most men staring down the barrel of a gun wouldn't be so brave."

"This isn't the first time I've had a gun to my face," John replied with anger in his voice.

"I'm well aware of that," the leader retorted, he sighed and rolled his neck in a stretch. As he did the fabric covering his neck edged upward exposing a small section of skin. John's vision cleared up just in time to catch a glimpse that skin and he could make out two small puncture wounds, they were fresh and still bleeding slightly. John suddenly realized who these men were. "You work for the count!"

"Huh?" The man realized what happened and pushed the fabric back into place, he sighed. "That's correct Mr. Diggle."

"Damnit! He knows who we are now! The counts gonna kill us!" One of the lesser thugs exclaimed.

"Shut up, he was gonna figure that out anyway!" The other replied.

"Quiet both of you!" The leader ordered then turned his attention back to John

"Well you seem to have discovered us so I suppose I'll tell you the reason for our little visit today. As you may recall there was a bit of an incident involving one of the count's men and your employer a while back."

"You mean when that little son of a bitch tried to kill her!" John corrected angrily.

"Yes, that incident," the attacker replied sarcastically. "Well the count has thought long and hard on the matter and decided that he can't have any of you ruining his fun. He's got a plan for you and everyone who was involved, so, I'm not gonna kill you. You're going to come with us, you're gonna help him with something. Call it a favor."

"I'll never do anything for you or that monster! You might as well kill me now!"

"Oh I would if I could Johnny boy trust me, but just like I don't get to choose when to end your life, you don't get a choice in this matter." The leader turned his rifle around and struck john square in the face with it, finally knocking him out cold.

As John slowly regained consciousness he strained to open his eyes, but he was still feeling the effects of the beating he had received earlier. John's head was throbbing and his neck was sensitive to even the slightest movement, he licked his bottom lip and the taste of blood flooded his tastebuds. John's nose was especially painful and he quickly deduced that it was most likely broken, despite all of the pain he was in he cautiously opened his eyes and tried to observe his surroundings. John was being dragged towards a small building, it looked old and rundown and definitely hadn't been used in quite a while.

The windows were all covered in dust and most of them were boarded up, but one was left in touched and john squinted at it. He could barley make out a few desks, chairs and dormant computers through the dirty glass, there was a copier in the corner of the room. This was an office space of some sort but it was apparent that it's tenants had abandoned the building a long time ago. John looked for a sign, anything to identify the building but there was nothing. John closed his eyes and breathed deeply, being careful not to alert his captors that he was aware of anything going on around him. Apparently he had been successful, as he could hear the two henchmen dragging him talking amongst themselves. One was bragging about some hot girl he had met on the internet while the other was complaining about how internet dating had never worked out for him.

"You've gotta be joking," John thought to himself, he cautiously opened one eye as they neared the door to the structure and the head of the trio removed a set of keys from his pocket and began thumbing through them for the correct key. Suddenly he turned his head to John. John quickly shut his eye and remained silent, if he could just fool his captors into thinking he was still unconscious maybe he could gain the upper hand somehow, the element of surprise.

As the group entered the building the henchmen dragged John over to a wall and propped him up against it, they then stepped away. Once again John cautiously opened his eyes just wide enough to see what was going on but where he could quickly shut them if anyone noticed him. John quickly surveyed the buildings interior, he was correct that this was an office space. The main room was littered with office equipment of all kinds, but it appeared as though the place had been ransacked, or looted. Desks were overturned, chairs appeared thrown across the room and a few were broken into pieces. Pencils and pens were scattered over the ground. Everywhere john looked he saw evidence that several people had worked here but what were they doing? And why had the counts men brought him here. John turned his head to the right and noticed the three men in the main office at the back of the building, they were searching for something and arguing amongst themselves.

"Where is that damn switch?" The leader of the group questioned in his modified voice.

One of the henchmen quickly turned around from where he was looking, "You mean he didn't tell you?"

"Of course he didn't tell him," The other lesser thug answered. "You know how the count is, he's gonna toy with us and piss us off for fun, even though we're the ones doing his dirty work."

"Shut the hell up!" The leader ordered, "Do the two of you have a death Wish? You know he's got cameras and bugs all over this place, if he hears you challenging him like that he's gonna kill you idiots."

The other men fell silent and went about there search. As they did John continued to observe his surroundings, his eyes fell to the back wall of the building. It appeared that something had been painted on the wall, a portrait of some kind but it was faded and cracked. A large portion of the painting had been covered by graffiti depicting things that john would have rather not seen at all, but in one corner of the image he could make out the letter B and L in big bold font. John's eyes fell to the opposite lower corner where some text could still be made out. It appeared to be a quote, "Stars above Starling" There was more to the quote but it had been scratched or scrubbed away and couldn't be read. John racked his brain for information, he felt like he had heard that quote before.

"Stars above Starling, stars above Starling." John repeated the phrase to himself several times trying to finish the quote, then after several moments it came to him. "With the right leadership, our city can shine as bright as the stars above Starling."That was it, john knew he had heard that quote before. It had come from a former mayoral candidate, Sebastian Blood when he had run for mayor of Starling city several months back. Blood seemed to have had the race in the bag until he mysteriously disappeared a week before the election. No concrete leads or evidence could be found but the SCPD hadn't stopped searching even to this day. Starling City needed a mayor however, so after two weeks of postponing, the election had gone to his opponent. Blood used the quote as one of the main slogans of his campaign. John began to make the connection the more he looked at the image, "This is Sebastian Blood's campaign office. Why would they bring me here, what are they looking for?

"Aha found it!" One of the thugs called out, John carefully peeked around to see what had happened. The thug Was feeling around the molding on the wall when he suddenly stopped. John heard a brief click and after a moment of silence a boom rang throughout the room followed by a few creeks and cracks. Suddenly a section of the wall began to slide back into itself and revealed a set of dusty glass doors behind it.

"Good work," the leader commended. "I guess you're not as dumb as you look huh?" The leader stepped over and observed the discovery, he took a hand and wiped away some of the dust on the glass doors and peered inside. The darkness behind the doors was suddenly interrupted by a light that flickered and sputtered to life. This caused the ringleader to jump back, the other men chuckled. "Shut up idiots!"

"You're all idiots."John thought to himself.

"Everything appears to be in working order," the ringleader continued in his deep modified voice. "But the doors are stuck on something, get it open now!"

The other two men walked over, each grabbed one of the doors and pulled back with all their might. After a few moments they succeeded and the doors gradually slid open. John peered inside, he guessed it was an elevator of some sort but where would it go? The building only had one floor and one this small shouldn't need a basement. Why would there be any need for an elevator?

The leader stepped inside and did a sweep of the small space, "wonderful, get him up, let's get this over with."

The two lesser thugs turned and started in John's direction. John quickly shut his eyes and tried his best to seem unconscious. He succeeded, the men grabbed him under the arms, hauled him up and dragged him over to the elevator. John kept his breathing steady as the elevator doors closed, the entire space jostled as they began their decent.

Moments later the head thug sighed, "You can stop playing dead now Mr. Diggle. We're going to need you awake anyhow."

"Damnit!" John cursed to himself and reluctantly opened his eyes. "Where are we?"

"You may remember former mayoral candidate, Sebastian Blood?" The ringleader continued without so much as a glance in John's direction.

"I do." John cautiously answered

"This is-was, his campaign office. It belongs to us now."

John quirked an eyebrow, "And how did you come to take ownership?"

"He didn't need it anymore," one of the other thugs interjected and chuckled.

"You might also recall his mysterious disappearance, no evidence, no information, no nothing. That was us."

"Why?" John questioned

"The Count has his reasons."

John brought his hands up and rubbed his neck. "So why did you bring me here, why did you even attack me in the first place? Surely you didn't go to all that trouble just to show me a basement full of dusty office supplies."

"Patients Mr. Diggle, all will be revealed in time."

The next few minutes were spent in silence the lesser thugs stood at ease and began fidgeting with their weapons. The leader continued to stare straight ahead not paying any of them an ounce of attention. Just as the silence became unbearable a ding rang out and the elevator slowed to a halt. One door slid open on its own while one of the thugs had to grab the other one and force it, he and his cohort grabbed John by his arms again and dragged him out of the elevator and into a large dark room. The thugs dragged him over to a column, propped him up against it and began another search, "Where's the damn light switch?" One of them asked as he walked away.

John was still having trouble seeing as it was, but the faint light from the elevator cast just enough of a glow for him to make out a few things. The room was definitely large and open, the space seemed to be round and there were more tables, chairs and desks scattered around the perimeter. In the center of the room there was a large round platform that rose maybe a few feet off of the ground. On that desk sat several computer monitors and other technological devices. It seemed to John it would have been pretty high tech back when it was functioning, that had obviously been a long time ago.

"He really didn't tell you where the light switch is either?" One of the thugs complained. "What an as-"

"Shut up you idiot!" The leader ordered. "I've found it quit being such a baby."

John heard a lever being pulled and suddenly light flooded the room. John squinted and waited for his eyes to adjust, once they did he tried to get a better idea of what this place was.

"You must be wondering what this place is Mr. Diggle. Well you see, Sebastian Blood may have appeared to be the perfect gentleman, truthful and morally just to the core," the head thug began sarcastically. "But underneath all of that he had secrets just like the rest of us, he had enemies. So Blood built himself this little hide out, a bunker if you will, to protect himself, a little paranoid if you ask me but hey I'm not complaining."

"Once we got rid of Blood The Count took it over," one of the thugs explained. "He hasn't had much use for it though, he's got a pretty sweet set up over at the abandon-"

The other henchman quickly smacked him upside the head, "Is your head full of rocks instead of brains? You really dumb enough to give away The Count's base of operations like that?"

The leader barried his face in his hands and shook his head back and forth, "So hard to find good help these days. Anyway, on to you Mr. Diggle."

"What about me?" John asked with anger in his voice.

"Remember I said you're going to help us with something? Take a look up there for me would you?" He pointed up at the platform in the center of the room.

John could see that he'd been right, there were several computers set up on two desks that sat opposite each other. In the center of the plat form sat a chair and across from it was a tripod and camera, "What's that for?" John asked.

"As I said earlier Mr. Diggle, The Count has a plan for you, a plan that it's now time to execute." The leader nodded to his henchmen and the hauled John up onto his feet. They forced him up the stairs to the plat form and over to the chair. When they pushed John into the chair he tried to resist but found himself too weak to do so, he began to feel woozy. "Wha-what did you do to me?"

"Feeling strange Johnny?" The leader chuckled. "I may have given you a little something on the way over."

John's eyes widened as he fell into the chair his head started to throb. An intense pain began to rise throughout his entire body, "What did you do to me?" He demanded.

"Check your neck," One of the goons chuckled.

John painfully raised his hand to his knock and felt around. His fingers rubbed across two small holes near the base of his neck, the wounds were fresh and still bleeding. "You son of a bitch!" John exclaimed, "You gave me vertigo!"

"That's correct Mr. Diggle." The ringleader chuckled. "And now that you're awake it should be taking full effect."

John cried out and gripped the arms of the chair with all his might. The pain flooding his body was increasing exponentially, it was the worst pain he had felt in a long time. After several more moments of this the leader kneeled down to John's level, "Now John, this doesn't have to persist if you'll just cooperate. All this pain can go away if you'll just do as I ask."

John cried out again and lowered his head. The pain was almost unbearable it felt as if John was being burned alive, he could feel every drop of sweat as it ran down his forehead and into his eyes. John's brain was pounding against his skull so hard he thought it might explode, but he gathered up whatever strength he had left and raised his head to look that monster right in the eyes. "What ever it is, th-the answer's Hell no! I'll never do any-anything to help you or that Bastard!"

"Not even for the antidote? There is an antidote you know."

"No…" John protested through strained breaths. "I'd never put my friends in danger by helping you!" John reared his head up and spat at the leaders mask. "I'd rather die right here!"

"I see," the man sighed as he stood and wiped his mask with his sleeve. "Perhaps another form of motivation then." One of the thugs produced a tablet from his pack and handed it to the leader. He spent a few moments typing then shoved the screen into John's face. "Maybe you'll be a little more cooperative now eh?"

John shook his head and looked at the tablet, it took him a few moments to realize what he was looking at but once he did his anger grew tenfold. On the screen was a video of his apartment, it looked like the camera was perched on the roof of the building across the street. Through the window Lyla could be seen holding baby Sarah and rocking her back and forth. "What is this!" He demanded.

"Keep watching."

John's eyes turned back to the tablet and as he watched the barrel of a sniper rifle came from the edge of the screen the clicking of the safety switch could be heard as the rifle was aimed at John's wife and daughter. "No!" John cried. "Please no! If you hurt them I swear I'll-"

"What John? You'll Kill me? I really don't think you're in any position to make such a threat."

John stared at the man in front of him with hatred in his eyes, "I swear when this crap wears off I'm gonna beat you within an inch of your life. I'm gonna punch you so hard, so many times your own mother won't be able to recognize you!"

All three man laughed, one of the henchmen men doubled over and slapped his thigh. Moments later the leader took on a serious tone, "Ok that was fun, but let's get serious here John. Do what I ask, or they die. It's your choice. Are you going to cooperate or not?"

John stared at the tablet and cursed over and over again in his mind, he didn't want to give these men the satisfaction of controlling him. He didn't want to endanger anyone else's lives, especially Oliver Or Felicity's, but he didn't have a choice. The lives of John's wife and daughter were at stake, he couldn't let them get hurt. John looked at the men with all the hatred he could gather and sighed, "What do you want me to do?"

The leader turned the tablet back and typed some more, when he had found what he was looking for he turned the screen back to John. "Read."

John took a few moments to read silently and his eyes widened, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I-I can't read that." He protested.

"Oh I think you can John," the ringleader replied. "Remember what's at stake. Hit record!" He ordered one of his men. He then turned back to John, "Read!"

John's mind wandered to thoughts of Lyla and Sarah. They were the most important things in the world to him. He let out another heavy sigh and looked down at the screen. He began to read.

John's attackers stood around him as he sat unconscious in the chair, "What do you think he saw?" One asked the other.

"I don't know but it must have been pretty bad."

"yeah Vertigo'll do that to ya, hey he looked pretty funny freaking out and begging while you held that blank screen up to his face huh boss?"

"Quiet," the leader ordered as he sat at one of the desks and worked on a laptop. A few minutes later he popped open the disk drive and pulled out a disk. "Here," the leader said placing the disk in an envelope and handing it to one of the henchmen, "You know what to do?"

"Yeah boss, get it to hero boys apartment."

"And who exactly is Hero boy?" The leader asked annoyed.

"That Queen guy boss," the thug replied.

"Good now go, we'll take care of Johnny."

"you got it boss," the thug replied and headed for the elevator.

The leader spun his chair around to face John. "Now, what to do with you..."