"Welcome back." Vasquez said as Alex and Supergirl entered the DEO the next day.
"I thought you might have at least fixed the hole in the ceiling." Alex said looking up and seeing the damage.
"Been a bit busy fixing the city." Vasquez pointed out.
"Sorry I wasn't around." Supergirl said.
"Technically you were. J'onn has been pretending to be you so as far as the city is concerned you have been patching it back together. So seeing you are not actually needed out there, we probably need to do the debrief." She said leading them to the briefing room.
"How many people are coming?" Alex asked noticing the coffee and snacks.
"Not that many, but it will be long." Vasquez explained.
"At least that means you won't be using your leg." Supergirl pointed out to Alex, who grabbed a coffee and sat down.
"I'll start with the good news." Vasquez said. "Lobo left orbit and we figured out what went wrong with our sensors to not detect his entry last time. We are confident that if he comes back we will know." Vasquez said.
"That's good." Supergirl said.
"Yes it is." Vasquez said.
"Yet you don't look happy." Alex pointed out looking at her sister.
"He's left the Earth in order to kill someone." Supergirl reminded her. "But also, don't you think I got off lightly?"
"What?" Alex asked.
"I promised anything and well I didn't do very much. Why didn't he make me wear the ring? He kept offering, but he never made me. Why?"
"Perhaps he can't. Perhaps you have to really want to, that's kinda what Diggle said." Alex said.
"Maybe." Supergirl said unconvinced.
"For now you should focus on the fact he is gone."
"I guess." Kara said as Vasquez sat silently waiting for Alex to give her the go ahead. Once Alex had given her the nod Vasquez said.
"That was the short part of the briefing. Which brings us onto Stagg."
"Is he still in custody?" Kara asked.
"Yes. And Lane and Bell will be here later to explain the legal side. But I can give you a summary of what he told us. But he is probably trying to save his own ass so a lot may not be true."
"Ruby already gave us that warning." Alex confirmed. "But let's hear it, there could be useful details in the lie."
"Stagg and Tycho did have an alliance. Tycho was interested in controlling Kryptonians. He thought that was the way to world domination. Stagg just wanted to make a profit." Vasquez started. "The Kai gang was set up to control the city but also provide Stagg with an army of cage fighters. Originally the plan had been to use the contact lenses on non metas. But when he realised how many metas were on the streets he expanded and took the metas to one of his many facilities. He also used his insurance companies to provide details of metas that he collected. The final and sickest part was he set up secret labs in the basement of several hospitals. Those labs were directly connected to the main hospital network so that they were alerted to any anomalous blood work, then fixed the system so that it looked like the patient was discharged, when in fact they were moved to the underground lab to be experimented on."
"How many hospitals?"
"Five in National City alone. At least twenty in the State. His network is bigger than we thought."
"He confessed to all of this?" Alex asked surprised.
"Not exactly. He confessed it all happened but has tried to distance himself from being responsible. According to Lucy Lane, this will be in the courts for years."
"Where does Mills fit into this?" Kara asked.
"Mills was working at one of the hospitals Stagg was on the board for. There was a disciplinary against Mills and Stagg made contact and gave him a job. He has been working for Stagg for nearly two years. And during that time he killed a lot of people. Stagg claims to have not known the details and tried to pass the blame onto Mills, who is now off planet and maybe dead, so we have no way to verify that."
"What about the missing aliens?" Supergirl asked. "We still haven't found them have we?"
"No. Stagg denies all knowledge of that. So either he is lying, or it was Tycho or someone else involved in the missing aliens. We showed the photo you recognised to the alien who contacted you about the missing aliens. But he didn't recognise him." Vasquez said looking back at Alex and adding.
"He confessed to being behind your kidnapping. But claimed it was Tycho's idea and he didn't believe you'd be hurt."
"What about the first kidnapping?" Kara asked. "And the attacks on Kara."
"Nothing so far but Bell is still pressing. However, seeing Joiner already confessed to a lot we can't see Stagg owning up."
"What about Tycho?" Alex asked.
"Never met in person. He blamed him for the spiders and the release of the metas."
"Why?"
"To let blame fall on Stagg."
"Does he know if there are more spiders?" Supergirl asked.
"No. But based on our calculations there should be another two hundred or so."
"And we have no idea where they are?" Alex asked.
"No." Vasquez said. "And there is more bad news. He said Tycho made and supplied all the Kryptonite that Stagg used. So we have to assume there is a lot of Kryptonite out there."
"But that could be a lead." Alex said. "I mean not that many places can process it and the raw components needed. We need to keep following that trail."
"We will." Vasquez said.
"What about Max's mole?" Alex asked.
"Denied knowing them at first, but eventually Stagg confessed. Tried to bargain with the information the mole collected. When Ruby implied Max had already given it to us he offered something else."
"What?" Alex asked sensing something bad was coming.
"A mole here." Vasquez said. "Said he'd give us a name for a bargain."
"A bluff?" Supergirl asked.
"I trust every agent here." Vasquez said. "But feeling a little paranoid we started thinking outside the box. We have over twenty people here with access to the DEO who aren't Agents. We have cleaners, mechanics, -"
"Cooks?" Kara asked. "Sorry, not the time for that reference."
"You're not far off. Canteen staff aren't Agents either. All of the above are agency staff."
"Who I never thought about checking." Alex said bitterly.
"They have all been vetted. Just not by us." Vasquez reminded her. "The raid that happened here a few days ago. The one that ended up with you being flown to safety. We started reviewing it because that strike team got in way too easily. We figured out someone let them in. Danny Lux's ID card was used to open a side door just before the attack."
"Danny is the cook." Kara pointed out.
"Yeah, but before you go full Under Siege on me, we think that was a decoy." Vasquez said. "Our secret network of cameras detected the intruders on the other side of the building. More importantly the explosions came from within the control room before the strike team got there. Which means the explosives were set in advance. And who has access to the control room and who can come and go carrying things and no one ever questions? Who can plant an explosive and no one will notice."
"Cleaners." Alex said as the penny dropped.
"Precisely. We are trying to figure out which one, or if it is all of them. We could arrest them all, or lock down properly, or we leave them and hope they give us a lead. You're the boss, but I am inclined to go for the third option. I mean they have been here so long we probably don't have much to lose if we are careful."
"I agree." Alex said. "But it only works if a handful of people know."
"Right now it is Harris, Rose and I." Vasquez said. "Our plan is to arrest Lux, otherwise it looks like we are up to something. Then we'll see what happens."
"Do it. I can't believe we didn't vett properly." Alex said leaning back.
"None of us did." Vasquez said. "But like I said it may have given us an opening."
"So what are going to do now?" Supergirl asked.
"I need to talk to Max." Alex said. "He knows more than he has told us."
"Not alone, I still don't trust him." Supergirl said.
"You can come too. That way I can keep an eye on you." Alex said.
"Or I can bring Max here, then you don't need to move your leg, plus you won't complain about my flying."
"I'm not sure Max will take too well to kidnapping. We'll go together." Alex said before looking at Vasquez. "What about that photo Kara recognised?"
"We are still trying to identify them. I'll let you know when we get a hit." Vasquez said as the door opened and Lucy entered with a woman Alex didn't recognise.
"Lucy." Alex smiled.
"Hi Alex." Lucy said. "How are you feeling?"
"I'll be glad when this is over." Alex said before looking at the other woman who said.
"I'm Special Agent Saffron Bell."
"Alex Danvers. Thank you for your involvement."
"I've had suspicions about Kendell for a while, I was just never in a position to do anything. Until now. And that almost makes up for being kidnapped." She said looking at Supergirl.
"Sorry." Supergirl said sheepishly.
"Where is Kendell now, and did Stagg actually hand him over?" Alex asked.
"Yes, which probably means there are bigger fish involved. Which you already knew from the ADA involvement. Kendell has been arrested and moved to a secure location but so far is staying quiet." Bell said. "But we will find everyone involved. Now there are a lot of jurisdiction questions flying round and to be honest I don't care where it falls, but I will take them down. In the mean time you and your family are still in danger. But I am assuming you wish to assign protection to the DEO?"
"Yes." Alex said.
"Fine. But we will be handling the investigation of Stagg." Bell said just as Lucy jumped in.
"You are too close. And he will exploit that."
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"The attacks on you and Kara." Lucy said. "But also Kelly's death."
"What about it?" Alex asked.
"He's going to use it to distract you." Lucy said.
"Has he tried?" Alex asked.
"Not in so many words. But after we didn't show interest in the mole he went on to the accident." Bell said.
"Seeing he was right about the mole, he could be telling the truth about this." Alex said.
"Or he is trying to mess with you." Supergirl said.
"Right now all we can do is concentrate on the facts." Bell said. "But I will investigate everything. But that will involve you not interfering."
"Pretty sure this is a DEO case." Alex pointed out.
"Right now Tycho is your problem." Bell countered. "Not to mention an army of weird spiders."
"And missing aliens." Supergirl jumped in.
"Right." Bell said. "We'll focus on Stagg and together we'll get everyone."
-00-
"You okay?" Supergirl asked when it was just her and Alex in the briefing room.
"After MJ was born our focus was so split between them. MJ would cry so we'd stop watching Kara who would find trouble and get hurt and cry so we stopped watching MJ who then found trouble, and the cycle went on."
"I struggled with one, I don't see how you managed to do two." Kara said.
"Well Kel and I had a lot of help." Alex said. "But my instinct was to throw myself into the problem at hand and solve it. But by doing that a bigger problem cropped up out of sight. It took years to remember that there were probably bigger problems we couldn't see."
"Is this about Stagg and Tycho?" Kara asked not sure where her sister was going.
"Yes, no. Maybe. More MJ."
"Is he okay?"
"No. I mean I knew I was neglecting him a little, but only because I convinced myself that he was okay. But he wasn't and I missed that. What if it isn't just with the kids. It's work too. How much did I not see because I allowed myself to get tunnel vision?"
"Are you quitting the DEO?" Kara asked.
"What? No. I'm trying to apologise."
"Firstly, then you suck at it, secondly, why?"
"If I focused on the big picture more, then maybe this wouldn't have happened."
"I know you like taking responsibility, but that's going a bit far." Kara said. "We all missed it. But we are going to get to the bottom of it. While we do, take a few days to worry about MJ."
"I don't know how to help. I don't even know what he needs." Alex said.
"What about sending MJ to stay with James for a few days? I mean to have some man time. James is going to spend a few days in Metropolis. Maybe spending time with James, Kal and the boys would do him good? And I could keep flying you over there to see him. Or you could invite James over here?"