Chapter Five: A Warrior Queen

"You say you were assaulted by the Hood?" Quentin asked Peter Fleming. They were in the billionaire's hotel suite.

Lance tried to ignore the weight of a second phone in his pockets as he listened to the man's report. He noted that Fleming was, inadvertently, confirming the Hood had an alibi for Adam Hunt's murder.

Peter was just preoccupied with ranting against this "green menace" who had threatened to shoot him. He said nothing, however, about the emerald archer's secret identity. He didn't expect the police to bring him satisfaction. The legal system would simply pit his word against Queen's. No, this was just a formality; he was making a show of playing the aggrieved tourist.

He would settle things with Queen privately.

"And you didn't give into his demands?" Quentin interrupted the British expatriate.

"He didn't get around to making any," Fleming recalled.

"Is that so? How'd you escape?" Lance asked.

"My guardian angel swooped in," Peter drawled. The detective waited for him to elaborate. He did not.

"Mr. Fleming, you might not be in the habit of giving reports to police officers, but let me remind you how this works. You dragged me from a murder investigation because you said you wanted to report an incident concerning the vigilante. Now are you going to quit wasting my time and start answering my questions?"

"The Cape interceded on my behalf," Fleming said, frowning in disapproval at the sergeant's disrespectful manner. None of his subordinates at ARK would dare talk to him that way. But he wasn't at ARK now and Lance didn't work for him—pity.

"The 'Cape,'" Quentin repeated. That must be the guy the Hood had been talking about. "Tell me more about him."

"You're not familiar with him? But then, he normally prowls around Palm City. Come to think of it, perhaps he followed me here. It would be so typical of him," Fleming smiled.

"Can you give me a description?" Quentin asked.

"Rather hard to miss someone that goes around in a mask, tights, and a spider-silk cape, though I suppose the getup is so dark that it does blend into the shadows. I'd say he's about my height; more or less my build; his eyes are a darker blue. He has this curly hair—wait. Do you mean to say you want to track down the man that rescued me?" Fleming chuckled and shook his head. "Do yourself a favor; don't waste your time. I've had men more motivated," and more skilled, "than you try. He excels at escaping…

"And he's not the one that bloody threatened to kill me with a bow and arrow, so could you focus?"

~FS~

Felicity Smoak had rolled up her sleeves hours ago, after the assault against Queen Consolidated's system began. The blonde*, hunched in front of her computer in the I.T. Department, had been busy fending off the attack since she'd discovered it.

It irked her that the hacker had gotten inside their network in the first place. No, 'irked' might not be strong enough for this feeling; what was the word she was looking for?

…Anyway, her pride was on the line. No one should be hacking Queen's computers when Felicity was on the clock! She had promptly locked the marauder out of the system and had kept him out.

Not that it had been easy. Whoever was behind this was good, very good. And also very determined; this wasn't some idle kid with too much time on his hands and nothing better to do than cause mischief. This was professional work. Which begged the question: Who could want to get into Queen Consolidated's computers this badly? And what did they hope to find?

She should probably let Mr. Steele know about the digital attack, seeing as it was his company and his computers. He would want this investigated. And speaking of investigations, he might have found out more about that mysterious book he had brought her that had turned out to be written in invisible ink.

Her adversary had apparently run out of steam, at least for the time being. Felicity wouldn't be remotely surprised if the attacker was simply regrouping, preparing to come back again with renewed strength to hit harder than before. But there was a lull for now. The safeguards that Felicity had put up should hold long enough for her to pay a visit to the C.E.O.'s office.

Like her, Walter kept long hours. She was pretty sure she'd find him at his desk and that he'd make time to speak with her.

She was completely floored when she discovered that Walter wasn't simply not at his office; he was missing.

~JF~

"Vince, how could you let me fall asleep?!" Jamie all but shrieked.

"You were exhausted," Faraday replied. "You've been at it for hours. You need your rest."

"No, what I need is coffee," Orwell retorted. Like hell she was going to rest before finding out why Queen was after her father! He wasn't going to become another casualty.

"I'm back in!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

"Your adversary probably nodded off, too," Vince suggested.

"Their loss; my gain. Damn it!" she cursed.

"What?" Vince asked.

"I still can't find anything to do with Dad." Her fingers whirled over the keys, and then banged down in frustration. "Whatever Queen's hiding isn't in those computers."

"What did you expect, a computer file listing all of his targets?"

"Hey, there could've been one! Dad keeps computer files on his targets. You know that; you've seen some of them."

"Maybe Oliver Queen isn't as arrogant as your father," Vince suggested, earning himself a glare.

~TM~

"Oliver, is everything okay?" Tommy Merlyn, Oliver's long-time best friend and the manager of his nightclub-to-be asked the following morning. Oliver had entered the former Glades warehouse with a stormy expression on his face.

"It's Walter," Queen replied. "We think he's been kidnapped."

"Oh my god! Are you sure?"

"No one's seen him since the party last night. None of his clothes were packed. Mom's called the police, but they're really strict about not opening a missing person's case until twenty-four hours have passed. Anything could happen to him in that time."

"Has there been a ransom demand?" Tommy asked.

"No," Oliver shook his head, "nothing so far." They had no clues to go on, no way of contacting the kidnappers to arrange an exchange. "Maybe it's not even about money," the blond mused as he started pacing.

"Then what would it be?" the brunette asked.

"I really wish I knew," the billionaire sighed.

"He means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

"Walter's a good man." Oliver stopped pacing. "He was a good friend to my dad, to all of us. And he's family now. I can't lose any more family, Tommy. I have to find him."

Oliver looked so serious. There was something about the way he spoke and held himself that kept Tommy from asking him how he intended to do that or suggesting he leave things to the police.

Oliver had a way of convincing people that he could and would move mountains.

"I'll do anything I can to help," his friend promised.

"Thank you, Tommy. You're a good friend."

"Even though I stole your girlfriend?" Tommy raised an eyebrow.

"Well, for that, it's pistols at dawn," Oliver joked.

Tommy and Laurel's relationship had started getting serious after Oliver returned from the island. But Tommy feared that Oliver and Laurel still had chemistry together.

"All kidding aside," Oliver continued, "Laurel and I just weren't meant to be. Some part of me knew that when I boarded the Queen's Gambit," rather than go apartment-hunting with Laurel, he finished silently. "You know I'm happy for you."

~MQ~

It's going to be alright, Moira Queen kept repeating to herself. Malcolm had promised to bring Walter back safe and sound once the Undertaking was over.

Dear god, the Undertaking. After over five years, it was almost complete. Malcolm was going to level the Glades, the Starling City neighborhood where his wife had been murdered. It was horrifying to think about, all of the people that would be killed, but what could she do? Malcolm had already murdered Robert; he wouldn't hesitate to systematically kill the rest of her family if she didn't play along. If that meant sacrificing the Glades…

She clenched her fist and tried not to think about it. It was out of her control.

~QL~

"Would you excuse me, Tommy? I have to take this," Oliver said, as his phone buzzed.

"Sure," Tommy nodded. Oliver headed downstairs, as he answered Lance's call.

"Are you ready to help me, Detective?"

"There was another murder last night," Quentin replied. "Same M.O. as Hunt's; taken out with black arrows. You know how Hunt was the first guy you tangoed with? Guess who this victim was.

"Someone is systematically going after the people you haven't killed."

"At least you don't think it's me," Oliver replied.

"Your story checked out. Although you left out a few details—like the fact that you were too busy shaking down Peter Fleming to have killed Hunt. Fleming's filed a complaint against you, by the way. We'll have to add it to the charges."

"Fleming's—" Oliver swallowed. Fleming knew who he was. And he was talking to the police; crap. "What exactly did Fleming tell you about me?"

"Nothing I didn't already know. Why, is he holding out on me? I'll be honest; I'm not very fond of this guy. I wouldn't mind seeing him up for obstruction of justice.

"You know what I would mind? Seeing him wind up dead because of you. Because it's not enough that you've left a trail of bodies in your wake—"

"Detective, don't exaggerate. I only kill when the situation calls for it."

"Oh, yeah? Do you know how many people you've killed? Because I do—"

No, Oliver thought, Lance didn't know. He didn't know that Oliver had killed on the island, too.

"Eleven so far in the less than three months since you came to Starling City. Don't tell me the situation calls for it each time. You know when a situation calls for deadly force? When you're faced with deadly force; when it's the only way to save—"

"If you only called to lecture me, I'm hanging up."

"Damn it! I called because I want this copycat caught before he kills again. There's a chute that faces the alley along…"

~OQ~

An hour and a quarter later, Oliver strolled into Felicity Smoak's office in I.T. with a black arrow in tow. He started rattling off some ridiculous story about wanting to surprise a friend with custom made arrows before he took in her appearance.

"Felicity, what's wrong?" Oliver demanded.

"'What's wrong?'" she repeated, blinking. "Walter's missing!" Surely as Walter's stepson, Oliver should've known that already. "That's pretty majorly wrong. Not to mention that our network was compromised yesterday; I held off the hacker for as long as I could, but then when I went to Walter's office to let him know about the attack—I was only away from I.T. for ten minutes or so, which shouldn't have been nearly enough time to breach our security, but apparently it was—"

"Felicity, take a breath," Oliver instructed the bespectacled young woman. "Now slow down and try again."

"We were hacked yesterday. I don't know if it has anything to do with Walter's disappearance or if the timing was a coincidence."

"Were you able to trace the attack?" Oliver asked.

Felicity nodded.

"It took me awhile, the signal was routed through so many…and you don't care about the details, right. The attack originated from ARK Corporation."

"ARK, that's the Flemings' company, isn't it?"

"That's right," Felicity confirmed.

Oliver's mind raced. Fleming was clearly pissed about the Hood's visit. Was he pissed enough to kidnap Walter in retaliation?

"Should I tell the police about this?" she inquired.

"No, I mean not yet, anyway. Even if the events are connected, Missing Persons still won't listen to us before tonight," he replied.

"Of course; oh, what was it you wanted to see me about? Was there another computer accident at your favorite café**?"

Oliver recalled the arrow he was carrying.

"No, I'm here because I was hoping you could track down where this was made," he said, holding the evidence out to her. "A friend's birthday is coming up and he's very particular about what arrows he uses."

Footnotes:

*Bottle blonde, really; but we've already stretched the term blonde, so who cares?

**To those who aren't fans of Arrow, Felicity is referring to the time Oliver presented her with a laptop sporting a few bullet holes, yet claimed it was malfunctioning because he'd spilled coffee on it. When prompted, he explained the bullet holes were there because the café he frequents "is in a bad neighborhood."

Author's Note: Chapter title from Lady Gaga's "Marry the Night."

Thanks to those who have added the story to your list of alerts and/or favorites! And thanks to Orwell, IronAmerica, and zomgonozdinosaurs for reviewing!

Because some readers may share concerns with zomgonozdinosaurs, I'm going to try to briefly address them here: By all means, let's say Moira acted under duress. This does not change the fact that she was in on the kidnapping conspiracy as well as the Undertaking.

As for whether the Cape could take the Hood in a fight, well, would anyone who knows Vince as Father Jackal say that he's not badass? (The Jackals are property of IronAmerica; please see IA's work for clarification.) But more importantly, what is truly implausible is the gravity-defying!hood that is supposed to have protected Oliver's secret for as long as it did.

By show of reviews, did anyone see that coming in the season finale?