Chapter 3

They'd taken Harper back to Felicity's safe-house, because there was no way Oliver was going to risk the integrity of an ARGUS safe-house by bringing 'the best information broker on the East Coast' there. For a women who had a reputation of being the most elusive hacker ARGUS had ever chased, Smoak certainly didn't understand the principles of keeping a low-profile, because her hideout was one of the most luxurious penthouses in Gotham City. It had remarkably high ceilings and was filled with minimalist furniture and paintings, the wall to the left of the entrance was all glass, giving a spectacular view of the city's night life.

The apartment complex was almost directly across from the Wayne Enterprises building, so close in fact that, at least with a decent pair of binoculars, you would be able to see into the building. Oliver deduced that had been how Smoak had been planning her heist. His train of thought was interrupted by Smoak, rather forcefully he might add, pushing Harper past him and into what Oliver assumed was the main living space. The kid collapsed down into the plush sofa, leaning back and seemingly relaxing. His reaction was clearly throwing Smoak off her game, she must have been expecting him to still be afraid.

Oliver was particularly skilled when it came to interrogation, whether he was the interrogator or the victim, he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve to get the other person talking. The key to being interrogated, he had learnt long ago, was to turn the tables on your interrogator; you were the one with the information and so were the one with the power. Harper must have had a pretty similar rulebook, because he had significantly calmed since Smoak's threat against his stockpile of illegal goods. Oliver made a note to try and find where that location was, ARGUS would probably be glad to shut down a black-market stash as a side-effect of his mission.

When Harper did finally answer their questions about the significance of the stolen prototype, Oliver was convinced that either Smoak was seriously mistaken about the kid's skills as an informant, or he was genuinely a better actor than Oliver had given him credit for.

"So that's it?" Oliver spoke. "This is such a big deal because the government want to sell it? That's the answer to this conspiracy?"

"Of course, do you actually know what it is that you're chasing here?" Harper grinned.

That pissed Oliver off, because no he didn't. All he had been briefed on was that some industrial prototype had been stolen and Felicity Smoak's organisation had previously shown some interest in it. The file he had been given had included a few pictures of the device but that had been it, Oliver wasn't big on technology so those images had meant nothing to him.

"Well, I'll spell it out for you." Harper continued. "It's an earthquake generator, the Markov Device they call it. The thing generates earthquakes that can level a few city blocks. Do you have any idea how much that makes it worth?"

"A device like that would bring a lot of heat down on any organisation that used one." Oliver stated.

"There's a buyer for everything, you should know that by now, Smoak." Harper turned his attention to Felicity. "Our dear United States government could never sell it themselves. So they hired a third party to steal it."

It was then Smoak got involved, she took a long stride forward and stopped right in front of Harper, anger bubbling behind her eyes.

"Who? Who did they hire to steal it?"

"Some organisation called Brother Eye, but as far as I know, that group got disbanded years ago." Harper grinned up at her as he spoke, clearly enjoying the anger he was provoking in her.

That name, Oliver knew he had heard it before. He hardly had a chance to think when he saw the way Smoak reacted to that, he noticed first that she was angry and after that came both sadness and confusion. If Oliver hadn't based so much of his life around reading people's faces then he might have missed her sharp changes in hr mood, Smoak was good at hiding her emotions.

Then it clicked, the place he had heard that name before. Brother Eye had been the hacker group that Smoak had been a part of during her collage years, there's been two other members of that group but Oliver hadn't bothered to learn their names. That must have been why Smoak was reacting so badly to the news, and Oliver concluded that there must have been a reasonably distressing end to Brother Eye.

Knowing that he needed to draw Harper's attention again, less he say something to upset Smoak further, Oliver continued in his interrogation.

"And what does the League of Assassins have to do with this?"

Harper went pale at that, he had clearly heard the rumours about the League and, if his credibility with Smoak held up, he likely knew a little more about the organisation than ARGUS did. Though, Oliver had never seen just the name of the League inspire such fear in a person, so Harper must have known more about them than he did.

"You never said they were involved in this!" Harper spoke as he jumped to his feet, the panic evidence in his voice when he carefully avoided actually saying the organisations name. "I'm done, Smoak, I'm not going anywhere near this if they're involved, I'm out."

Oliver watched as Harper ran out of the penthouse, and Smoak made no move to stop him, so neither did Oliver. It probably wasn't a smart move to let Harper just walk away, the kid now knew where Smoak's safe-house was and he knew what they were looking for, that was going to make the whole operation a little more complimented. If Harper was an information broker, then it was likely he would already be offering to sell the location of the safe-house to the highest bidder and, so far as Oliver understood, Smoak had more than a few enemies that would be willing to pay for that information.

The woman in question still seemed to be in shock at Harper's revelation about Brother Eye, she'd floated over to the computer set-up she had and was currently staring blankly at the screen. Oliver knew he shouldn't, but there was something about Smoak that was drawing him in. Quickly closing the distance between them, Oliver paused less than a foot from Smoak, slowly taking in her expression.

"Brother Eye, what don't I know?" Oliver was trying to keep his distance, he knew he couldn't get involved with her but he still felt the need to know…more about the mystery that was Felicity Smoak.

"It wasn't a terrorist group," Her voice was small as she began, but Oliver could hear the way her confidence built as she spoke. "We were hacktivists; me, Cooper and Myron. The only crime Brother Eye ever committed was Coop trying to wipe out some student debts."

So that was a bit of a shock, ARGUS's files had more or less exclusively stated that Brother Eye had been disbanded by the FBI after some attempt to access information from a 'secure government database'. Though those files had never mentioned a third member, Smoak and Myron Forrest had been the only named members of the group, this third name, Cooper, was new to him.

"So I'm just supposed to believe that? There's no mention of a Copper anywhere in the Brother Eye files." Maybe he was being a little harsher to her than he needed to be but Oliver knew it was necessary if he wanted to keep his distance.

"So don't believe me, either way there's work to do." She was clearly fighting the urge to snap at him, Oliver could see the emotion behind her well placed mask.

"I should take you in right now, I know Brother Eye is involved, I've got the lead I needed from you."

"You should, but you won't."

"And why is that?" Oliver was beginning to get pretty short on patience.

"Because you know this is about far more than some earthquake device, and because you need me."

"Oh, really? I need you now, so I?"

She chose that moment to actually challenge him, Smoak closed the rest of the distance between them and looked up at Oliver, her expression devoid of any of its usual flirtatious arrogance.

"You don't know this world, cyber-culture and hacktivists isn't exactly your area of..."

"Criminals are criminals, Smoak. There might be different pieces on the board but we're playing by the same rules." Oliver sharply cut over her.

"So do you know how to trace someone's digital footprint? Do you know which groups are the real deal and which ones just talk a big game? How about which people to go to if you need some tech bringing in through less than legal paths?" Smoak was really squaring up to him now. "You need me"

Oliver leaned in close, doing his best to appear threatening to her. "I don't trust you."

That was the truth, at least. He couldn't trust her, she was a criminal and he was an ARGUS agent, he was trained not to trust people like her. Of course that didn't stop him wanting to trust her, but how could he? He also wanted to trust the ARGUS files on Brother Eye, but he couldn't do that either. Smoak wouldn't have had any reason to invent another member for the group, and yet her recollection didn't match up with what he had been told. Even if Smoak's version of the story was true, why would ARGUS need to hide a member of the group?

"Oh it wouldn't be any fun if you did," Smoak began, the flirtatious smile returning to her lips. "But I'm not asking you to trust me, I'm just asking you to honour our agreement. I've barely used two of those twenty-four hours."

If he had any sense left in him, Oliver would call this off right now. Damn his agreement, he had all he needed from her and for that she should be to be returned to ARGUS. He had too many questions about her, too many little details that didn't add up. Why would she invent a member of Brother Eye? What made her break out of her cell? How did she break out of her cell? The more he thought about it, the more Oliver realised that he knew absolutely nothing about Felicity Smoak. The one thing he could safely say was that she never did anything without a good reason.

Oliver tried to keep his expression level during his musings, though if Smoak was half as good as the stories said she probably saw through his mask. She seemed to remain unfazed by his intimidating stance, usually Oliver found that people were a lot more fearful of him in situations like this, though in these situations he was usually wearing his hood. If Smoak was at all intimidated then she wasn't showing it.

It didn't take Oliver much longer to reach a decision, as much as he didn't trust Smoak, he wanted answers more. Plus he still had a prototype earthquake generator to find.

"Okay then," Oliver tried to hold his level expression. "Twenty–two hours to go."

XXX

They decided to leave not long after, Smoak agreed that it wasn't worth running the risk of remaining at the pent-house given that Harper as well aware of its location. She'd packed surprising light, only grabbing a laptop bag as the two of them left. Oliver took the keys for Smoak's car out of her hand as they entered the building's parking lot, ignoring her disgruntled moan and offhanded comment about Oliver having control issues.

"Well, we've done it at my place, how about yours?" Smoak grinned at him.

Oliver was beginning to wonder if it was actually possible for the two of them to have a conversation that didn't involve Smoak making some sort of sexual innuendo, though he was quickly losing hope of that being at all possible. Electing to ignore her question, knowing that they would have to go to his safe-house, Oliver instead pulled his phone from his tuxedo jacket and called the first number in his speed dial.

After a few rings the call was finally answered, and Oliver as met with a pretty disgruntled Amanda Waller. "Mr. Queen, I trust you have a good reason for calling me at 3AM?"

Oliver glanced at the digital clock that was built into the car's display, after everything that had happened over the last few hours he had completely lost track of time. Not that it made much difference to him, Oliver was pretty accustomed to functioning with little-to-no sleep.

"I need you to authorise a team." Oliver cut straight to the point as he started the engine, taking the car out onto the streets of Gotham.

"So your trip to Gotham hasn't been a success."

It really shouldn't have surprised Oliver to know Waller was tracking him. He hadn't called in his visit to Gotham, in fact he hadn't given Waller a status update since he had left Smoak's former FBI prison. The woman had eyes everywhere, and Oliver wasn't remotely interested in knowing how she had been tracking him, it would only make her feel even more smug about it.

"I wouldn't say it's been a complete failure."

"So you've found Felicity Smoak?" That certainly seemed to have improved Waller's mood.

"Yes." Oliver knew he couldn't lie to her for long, and it would probably be in his interests to keep Waller informed of such an important development.

"And the prototype?"

"Not yet, but I've got a pretty good idea of where to start looking."

"So you're brining Smoak in."

That wasn't a question and Oliver knew it. Find and Capture had been his objective with Smoak, he had achieved that and, by ARGUS standards, any further information she could provide them with could be done while she was in a cell. Oliver glanced over to Smoak, knowing that he had to make a pretty convoluted choice; Waller would be pissed if he didn't turn Smoak over to ARGUS, but at the same time he did still need the blonde for his mission.

"Not yet."

"Mr. Queen, I loathe to think what your reasons for wanting to keep that woman out of a cell are, but your mission was to find her and return her to ARGUS custody."

Yep, he was right; Waller was pissed.

"The mission just changed, things got complicated."

It wasn't strictly a lie, as far as Oliver was concerned, Smoak's revelation about the league and the involvement of Brother Eye made this whole mission a lot more complicated than he had initially thought. The hacker had been right, he didn't know this world anywhere near as well as she did, and ARGUS didn't exactly have any field agents that were well-versed in the underground cyber-culture.

"Complicated how?" She was getting more and more impatient and Oliver could sense it.

"Look, I just need a few more agents to finish this thing up," Oliver briefly paused, considering his options. "You still owe me for Hong Kong, Amanda, consider this me cashing in on that favour."

That had been Oliver's last card to play with Waller, every other she'd run had been clean, she never got involved herself. Hong Kong was one of the very few times Waller herself had gone into the field and it had backfired massively, Shrieve had screwed them both over and, for whatever idiotic reason, Oliver had saved Waller's life. Ever since he had kept that favour looming over both of their heads, waiting for the right day to use it. Oliver really needed Smoak to be worth losing that favour.

"Fine." Waller's tight-lipped response told Oliver she was anything but happy about this, but she seemed to be relenting anyway. "But let's make one thing clear Mr. Queen, if you end up causing any embarrassment for this agency, you're finished."

"Agreed, I'm still waiting on that team."

Oliver had been trying to ignore the way Smoak had been watching him while he spoke with Waller, and he knew she had only been getting half of their conversation, unless her hearing was superhuman of course. His latest comment seemed to have caught her attention though, as she tried to meet his eyes despite Oliver's focus on the road ahead.

"I thought you worked alone?" She pushed, and Oliver elected to ignore her comment.

As much as he tended to run operations alone, Oliver had a team of sorts back at ARGUS. The group had originally formed after Waller's original 'Suicide Squad' had gone rogue, and she had decided to send in some real ARGUS agents to take them down. The group had, much to Oliver's chagrin, taken the name of 'Team Arrow' when he became their unofficial leader during the operation. After that, Waller had decided to occasionally use them in lieu of the Squad, which worked well for them.

"Who do you want?" Waller continued. "Agents Diggle and Michaels are out in the field already, Shado won't work with you after that business with Slade Wilson, which leaves…Merlyn and Lance."

"Good," Oliver kept his answers short. "Send them to my regular hotel in Gotham, have them check in with the usual pseudonyms."

"You'd better have answers for me the next time we speak, Mr. Queen."

Before Oliver could answer, Waller ended the call. Placing the phone back in his jacket, Oliver rounded the final corner and drove Smoak's car into his hotel's underground parking. When he turned off the engine, Oliver realised that Smoak was staring rather intently at him.

"I had no idea that you and 'The Wall' had history."

Deciding to ignore that question as well, he got out of the car, watching Smoak do the same.

"I've got back-up coming in, they shouldn't be much more than a few hours."

"And we can trust them?"

It was impossible to blame Smoak for being concerned about the trustworthiness of his back-up. Though Oliver did find her question a little laughable, all things considered Oliver wasn't sure if he could absolutely trust Smoak, in fact he was almost certain that he couldn't.

"With my life."

XXX

It was approaching 6am by the time they finally made it into his suite, the red light of sunrise bore into the main room though the large glass windows. Oliver stripped off his tuxedo jacket and bow tie as he walked, throwing them over the back of one of the lounge chairs as he did. Taking a brief moment to glance out over the city, Oliver realised how different Gotham looked during the day, also remembering how little he liked the city. It was far from being on the list of his favourite places, but Oliver supposed that he now had no choice but to remain in Gotham for longer than he had planned. Tommy and Laurel still wouldn't be arriving for another few hours, which left him alone with Smoak for much longer than he would like.

Turning on his heel, Oliver observed Smoak intently. The blonde seemed to be taking in the suite in minute detail, and Oliver had no doubts when he considered that she would already have mapped every potential entrance and exit from the room. He couldn't blame her for it of course, Oliver had done exactly the same thing on entering her penthouse. Smoak also seemed to be glancing across at Oliver himself every so often, as if comparing the details of the suite to him, as if they would give her some clue to who he really was.

"Spare bedroom, plus en suite." Oliver commented, pointing at one of the doors that lead off from the main room. "You should find something your size in the wardrobe."

Oliver couldn't deny that he took a certain joy in her reaction to his words, Smoak's flirtatious smile bounced back in full-force at the mention of clothing. Though, Oliver couldn't quite decide if she look more thrilled or disappointed at his comment.

"So you entertain a lot of women here do you?" She grinned, crossing the distance to the door he had pointed out. As her hand gripped the handle, Smoak glanced back at him. "I wonder what it is that makes them leave their clothes behind."

Instead of offering her an answer, Oliver simply gave her an incredulous grin, neither confirming or denying her suspicions. While he would never admit so to Smoak, ARGUS always supplied their safe-houses with every possible necessity, including female clothing. However, Oliver was more than content to allow Smoak to draw whatever conclusions from his words she wanted, a small part of him enjoyed having that small advantage over her.

After a small shake of her head, in what Oliver assumed was disbelief, Smoak disappeared into the spare bedroom. Taking his leave, Oliver did the same, turning on his heel and heading to the relative safety of his own room. As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Oliver immediately began to doubt the wisdom of leaving Smoak unsupervised in his suite, though there wasn't anything of any value anywhere but his room. Oliver always kept any of his ARGUS materials, including his tools, in his own room, as an added precaution.

Oliver's body seemed to be functioning on autopilot as he stripped down the remainder of his outfit and stepped into the en suite's shower. Letting the hot water wash over him, Oliver quickly began to run over everything he knew about Felicity Smoak from her ARGUS files and all the other rumours he had heard. She was infamous throughout the world's intelligence agencies for being the most dangerous hacker and technology thief out there, it was safe to say that her reputation preceded her. Though her life before joining Brother Eye was something of a mystery, her file referenced growing up in Vegas with an abusive father, but nothing much else, Smoak's past was something of an enigma. Oliver had decided that it was more than likely because Smoak herself had wiped those particular records, perhaps in some attempt to protect her family.

Added to that was the small issue of the fact Smoak was supposed to be serving life for murder, a murder that Oliver was still determined to get to the bottom of, one way or another.

Before he had even realised it, Oliver was stood in the mirror straightening the tie of one of his favourite Armani suits. It had briefly crossed his mind to wear something a little more comfortable, between missions he would usually just relax in jeans and a t-shirt, but experience had taught him that the Armani tended to go over better with the opposite sex. Which had lead Oliver to believe that Smoak might actually slip up and trust him if he kept up their routine of shameless flirting.

"Hello, handsome." A feminine voice sounded.

Oliver spun around, almost ready to defend himself, when he saw Felicity Smoak leaning against the open door to his room, a smirk on her lips. Before he even considered replying, Oliver dragged his eyes over her new attire. She had exchanged her flowing gown for a pink blouse, a short grey pencil skirt that did wonders for her legs, and a pair of high heels. Her hair had also been put up into a ponytail, and glasses now rested on her nose. As much as he had thought that Smoak looked stunning in the gown, Oliver had to admit that the whole secretary looked worked a whole lot better for her. Though, looking at her in that moment, Oliver never would have believed she could have been the same seductress and criminal he had met a few hours prior.

"And you've been stood there how long? Because I'm pretty sure I closed that door when I came in." Oliver fired back.

"You did," Smoak crossed the distance between them, reaching up to straighten his tie. It didn't escape Oliver notice that she had chosen not to answer his first question. "So, I've got a friend in the front room I want you to meet."

Oliver's eyes flicked to the open door and his defences immediately went up.

"You brought someone here? Do you not understand the meaning of 'safe-house'?" Oliver kept his voice as a sharp whisper.

"Oh relax," Smoak laughed. "This guy isn't at all like Harper, I trust him. Besides, your back-up is still a few hours away and I'd like to use that time to plan, I am on a clock after all."

"You just can't sit still can you?" Oliver sighed.

"Where would be the fun in that?" Smoak began, before taking Oliver's hand and tugging him towards the main room.

Author's Note: So all things considered I actually don't know where this story is going. I have a vague idea of where I want to end up but I have literally no idea how I'm going to get there, so this is going to be fun.

If you enjoyed or have any general feedback, feel free to drop a comment or PM me.

See you all in the next one.