On Borrowed Time

21. I Hate Country Music

PART TWO: BREAKOUT

CHAPTER TWENTY- ONE:  I HATE COUNTRY MUSIC

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TEAM ARROW, STARLING , USA

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Felicity woke to find everyone asleep and decided it was as good as any time to use her technology skills to her advantage. She dressed hastily and flung the door open, only to see white flakes falling from the sky. Grimacing, she closed the door and immediately made for her boots and a heavier jacket, mitts, hat - full tactical gear to face the winter. This time when she opened the door she recoiled as she found a person standing there, then relaxed to see it was Barry.

"No one's awake yet," she whispered, pulling the door shut and grabbing the arm of his jacket. "Let's go," she insisted, guiding him away from the doorstep.

"Where are we going?" he asked, following her obediently. Felicity produced a set of keys and proceeded to disentangle the metal mass before producing a lone key strung on a gold arrow key chain. Barry smiled and laughed, flicking the golden arrow in amusement before following her towards the red mustang.

Felicity climbed in and started her car and much like the Impala it rumbled to life with a comforting purr that soothed the tension in her muscles. Barry looked around appreciatively, having never been in the car before. "Nice ride," he commended, "if only it would heat up faster!"

Felicity wished the same thing as she started down the driveway. It was only a few minutes though and her fingers finally had warmed up enough to not feel like they were about to fall off. She stopped to pick up coffee, going through the drive thru as to not lose the heat they had so patiently waited for. The coffee steamed furiously as she carefully set the beverages into the cup holders.

As they pulled closer to Verdant Felicity was careful to park a couple blocks back to keep from alerting Thea of their presence. They walked, the occasional foot slipping out as the wet, snow covered sidewalks were freshly coated. To Felicity's relief, the only cars in the lot appeared to be ones that had been left overnight by the other crowd that graced the club on a nightly basis.

She fumbled with the key as they reached the fire exit before Barry finally reached around her and with much steadier hands, unlocked the door. Felicity sighed as they were hit with a blast of warm air and quickly clambered inside and away from the winter wonderland that lay behind her.

It was a strange feeling to be in the empty building, used to it's thumping nightlife after years of doubling as their secret base. But the moment they were in the basement and the computers were booted up, the whir of the fans left her sitting before them as if it was the middle of the night.

"So, what are we doing?" Barry asked, pulling up a chair beside her as she pulled up new screens. She smiled and entered the values into the empty boxes of the system before clicking 'proceed' and sitting back in apprehension.

"If it works right, this might give us some ideas. It's a database that's set to run parallels," she explained.

"So you're looking for parallels between what?"

"Between Greek Mythology and the world wide web - anything and everything. It'll leave us with a lot of information but it might narrow our search down a bit." When she removed her eyes from the flickering screen Barry was looking at her with raised brows and a small smile on his lips.

"You're one hell of a girl Felicity Smoak," he muttered and then shook his head in disbelief and sipped his coffee. Small pings sounded with every confirmed result it brought up and with every number it added to the counter she grimaced. She was beginning to wonder if her system had been programmed wrong.