OLIVER QUEEN PT2

[A few hours later] [Arrow Cave]

"So, let me get this straight, someone tried to assassinate you in your office?" Diggle asked with a puzzled expression.

"He made it sound like I was supposed to know him."

"That sounds like some sick psychopath... He hasn't given anything else away?"

"He wants me to survive his tests for 48 hours. In exchange, he will help me with Queen's Consolidate..." Oliver answered with a frown. "This doesn't make any sense." He stood from the chair, pondering the strange case that happened. "Why apologize after blasting the laptop and phone and even extend a helping hand?"

"If we are talking about helping hand... This guy of ours has to be a big deal, right?" Diggle commented, glancing back at the remains of Oliver's laptop and phone that he managed to salvage.

"Yeah, and there are only a few capable of achieving the level of resources he seems to have under his thumb," Felicity spoke out, staring at the laptop's casing. She has somewhat done her best to trace back the signal and identify who attacked him, but the result wasn't looking good. She ran it through the best equipment they could afford and used the entire database under her reach to no avail...

She sighed, "He is no ordinary, cyber-hacker, is he?" She mentioned, feeling goosebumps form on her back. "This guy or girl... Whoever they are... They are like a ghost. Not a single digital footprints were left behind that I could identify him or her with, it was just blank. My guess would be the phone he called you with is a burner. They are virtually untraceable and only remain active during the one call, after that, it is done and dusted."

"You look impressed," Oliver mentioned with a questioning stare.

She could only nod, "He almost did everything perfectly in covering his steps. There were traces of his code he left behind, telling me it was no newbie that he was but an experienced professional in their own field of expertise. Not someone you can find easily..."

"Really, and who could that be..." Oliver's eyebrows perked up, making her shake her head and bite her lips nervously... "Is there a way to check those codes? Maybe we will get some clue out of it, even a little info can help us!" He proposed the idea.

Felicity turned her laptop toward Oliver and Diggle, "Thankfully your devices were connected to the main server. I have decrypted these from a part of his code, and well... He left it intentionally and as some kind of sign of sorts." She gestured for them to come and check it out, while the men, slowly walked toward her and leaned forward, glancing down at the two lines of code displayed.

"Can you isolate only the letters?" Diggle asked, asking her to scramble the entire thing to focus only on the letter and make a word out of the jumble of numbers. "Here..., See..." He pointed, moving his hand along the code and putting some attention toward some key letters in the first line.

Felicity scrolled her finger and paused at his pause, highlighting those letters as they are circled and aligned now, forming a small sentence.

"Congrats. You have found my little gift. You better hurry and decrypt the next code." Diggle read with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Felicity quickly opened the next code, "Uuuuh..."

[Something is ticking in Laurel's backyard.]

Upon seeing the next message, they rushed out of the cave and made their way toward Laurel Lance's apartment immediately. Oliver hurried into the driver's seat, "You two take the other car. We don't know what else this lunatic got planned. Don't want to put you two into trouble." Oliver said with an anxious look as he shut the car door behind him and drove out.

"Let's go," Diggle took his car as Felicity climbed into the other side of the seat. "How many codes are there?" He asked as he drove behind Oliver's car.

"Two more left. They are hard to open," She was already on her laptop, trying her best to decrypt those codes before they reached the destination. It would be pretty helpful.

Oliver tried to call Laurel, but couldn't reach her, "Of course, a fucking hacker."

Meanwhile, a delivery car stopped near Laurel's apartment building as its doors slid open and two guys took out a big gift-wrapped box. They took the box to her door and pressed the doorbell, waiting.

A minute later, Laurel, just put away her hair dryer, was looking at the front door and was putting on a bathrobe while approaching, and curiously peeked through the spyglass. Her hand turned the handle, opening the door.

"Package for Laurel Lance," They asked.

"From whom?" She raised her eyebrow, frowning.

"Some Jarvis Edmond?" The burly man replied back. "If you would sign here please?"

"... sure."

She signed the paper. "Uumm... Would you mind putting it in my backyard? It's too big for me to carry into my house..." She asked with a cute smile at the younger guy on the side. "It's big, and my place is cramped enough,"

"Uh, Yeah, sure, no problem!"

The delivery guys headed around her building into the backyard and put down the parcel there. "Here you go Ma'am."

"Thank you for your hard work~" Laurel waved goodbye at them with another sweet smile.

They nodded and went back to their van.

"Humm... Now what?" She looked at the parcel weirdly, she was still curious about the sender's identity but decided to check it later since she was naked underneath her bathrobe. It was too cold outside, so she closed the door and returned inside. After changing into her clothes, she took a knife and carefully cut open the wrapping tape off the box, and as she was about to open the box...

"Stop!" Oliver somehow parked his car and jumped over the wall.

Laurel jumped in surprise, "What the hell Ollie?" She frowned. "Couldn't you knock? What if I am naked?!"

"Slowly move back from the package," Oliver ordered, ignoring her angry gaze at him.

"Huh?!" She glanced back at the box with a confused look, then looked back at him, wondering why he was acting weird...

"Move back Laurel! Now!" He shouted this time with a firm tone.

Seeing how serious he looked, Laurel felt something was wrong as she backed off slowly, "Ollie?"

Suddenly a ticking sound came from the box...

"Run!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her inside the house as the ticking sound suddenly sped up and...

[HAPPY BIRTHDAY] A nice music played out of nowhere as colorful confetti shot out of the box and flew everywhere...

Oliver stared at the scene dumbfounded, not knowing how to react. "Are you kidding me...?" He muttered and sat down on Laurel's couch, feeling tired all of sudden.

"What was that all about Ollie?" She asked with a confused expression.

"Just... Someone playing pranks on me," He answered.

"Someone? What do you mean by someone? What's this all about? You acted as if there's a bomb in there," She pointed outside with a bewildered look.

Oliver scratched his forehead and sighed, "Nothing Laurel..."

"Oh, really?" She crossed her arms, glaring at him angrily. "And how did you know there's something in my backyard? If this's one of your new stunts to get me back, then forget it. The door's that way. Help yourself out. And leave me alone!" She pointed at the door with an annoyed expression on her face.

He rubbed his temples, "I didn't plan any of this Laurel. Just... Trust me, okay?"

"I think we are way past the point of trusting each other, don't you think so? Just... Just go," She sighed, feeling hurt again.

He stood up from the couch and hesitated whether to stay or go, "Laurel..."

She shook her head, "You don't even remember my birthday. You forget our date... Left me hanging alone how many times...? Three? Four? You disappear whenever you want without saying anything... Oliver, just stop lying to me... Please..." She had enough, she couldn't continue this anymore.

His shoulders slumped down, "Okay... I deserved that. Just be careful, yeah? And call me if something happens..." He turned around and walked away.

She slammed the door behind him, leaving him standing outside, feeling lost and helpless.

"Happy Birthday Laurel..." He mumbled silently as his hand went toward his pocket, pulling out a small case with two earrings inside. "I wished you liked them..." His hand clenched tightly, "I haven't forgotten..." He whispered sadly, thinking about how badly he messed things up between them...

Diggle and Felicity arrived soon after. "Everything okay man?" Dig asked as he approached him, noticing his sad expression.

Oliver shoved the earring case back into his pocket, "Yeah... Let's just go. It was just a gift pack delivered for Laurel. Nothing serious."

"Guys, you should see these last messages..." Felicity called them out as they looked back at her.

She showed them her laptop...

[What kind of man leaves his girl hanging on a date?]

Oliver froze upon seeing that message...

"Did you forgot a date recently?" Dig asked him.

He didn't reply as his eyes went toward the final message...

[Don't tell me, you forgot to plant that tracker on your sister... Oh, you did?]

"Tracker...? On Thea?" Felicity exclaimed, shocked.

"She has been sneaking out too much at night lately... I thought I would put a tracker on her phone secretly..." Oliver explained, frowning.

"But you never did it?" Dig guessed.

"No... An important call came up, and I forgot about it..." He gritted his teeth in anger and frustration, realizing he might have missed something big...

"Call Quentin, tell him to track Thea's whereabouts. And check the CCTV footage. Right now!" Oliver ordered Dig, running toward his car, and drove off.

"Where are you going?" He shouted.

"To her college," He replied back, speeding up.

'I will smash this hacker bastard's face,' Dig cursed silently, calling Quentin Lance to track Thea's current location...

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Ch: 87 [A COINCIDENCE]