Arrow: Fracture Part 3

Trust/Verify

A constant shiver in Felicity's spine kept her sitting extremely straight as she and Oliver waited for their guest to arrive. The restaurant wasn't exactly what she would've expected from her old friend to suggest for dinner plans, but Felicity had to remember that she might not be meeting with her old friend. The threat of HIVE using Victor was extremely all too real and something that Felicity couldn't shake so easily.

"Tell me this is a good idea." Felicity muttered as she looked to Oliver for support.

"You can do this." Oliver calmly replied as he took ahold of Felicity's trembling hand. Victor's arrival snapped her back to reality and out of Oliver's comforting gaze.

"For a second I wasn't sure you'd really be here." Victor began as he sat down at the table.

"What? Why...is that?" Felicity nervously asked, truthfully unsure of her friend's meaning. Victor smiled as he waited for Felicity to catch onto his meaning, his half grin leaning towards a playful answer. Felicity froze in place as she searched for a proper response, fighting the urge to glance to Oliver for assurance.

"You really didn't notice?" Victor asked, smiling as he laughed slightly. Felicity shook her head in confusion, hoping her true intentions hadn't been exposed and jeopardized her and Oliver's lives. Oliver slowly guided his hand over the steak knife on the table beside him in case the situation took a turn for the worse. Victor laughed as he leaned forward and explained.

"The crest on the window...doesn't that look just like the one belonging to that restaurant we snuck into back in college?"

"You mean the one that had no security for an easily hackable guest list which I added us onto?" Felicity replied as she caught onto Victor's playful memory. Oliver smiled as he moved his hand away from the knife and glanced back to Felicity.

"Easily hackable yes, but that still didn't stop the bodyguards from kicking us out of a private function." Victor laughed as he sipped from his drink.

"To be fair they only kicked us out because you hit on the Senator's daughter." Felicity stated, feeling the memory curl her lips into a smile. Victor choked on his drink and held back from laughing as he paused before replying.

"Yeah but it was totally worth it, I got her number as I recall."

"Yeah and I had to hack into a government database and remove you from a potential threat watch list as I recall." Felicity joked, feeling the mood lighten as the three joked back and forth over dinner. The once unwanted dinner had quickly turned into a much needed distraction for Felicity, lifting her from the darkness that surrounded the entire situation if only for a moment. The empty plates scattered the table as Victor ended another tale of his and Felicity's college years.

"Needless to say, the professor was a little confused when we got back from spring break." Victor ended as he and Felicity laughed over their past exploits of their younger years. Oliver smiled as he glanced to Felicity and admired the genuine smile on her face while she played back the memory in her mind.

"So from the sound of it you really appreciated Felicity's expertise in matters. Is that part of the reason for Telasaur's proposed collaboration?" Oliver asked, hoping he could segway the conversation cleanly to gain some information.

"Well the work that Queen Tech has done over the past few years is what really caught our eye, which I'm sure is due greatly in part to Felicity's oversight and input." Victor replied, trying not to insult his friend or her company in any way.

"In truth, our government contracts somewhat restrict us from being publicly announced as members of Telasaur. Otherwise I would've reached out to Felicity a long time ago about this collaboration." Victor explained.

"Hence my shock when I saw you were the Telasaur ambassador." Felicity quickly announced, hoping that would explain her initial response.

"But it also brings up the issue of not being able to truly meet with your potential partners. As you said your government contracts restrict much in the way of proper introductions with several key figures of your company." Felicity added, deciding to prod her friend with a bit of her hesitance toward the collaboration.

"That's something we completely understand, and I'm happy to say that's not the case with this joint venture. In fact our President himself is making a trip to Starling City to personally express Telasaur's dedication to this collaboration." Victor proudly stated, confident in his business maneuvers to woo hesitant partners.

"You mean Jakob Whoresmen is coming here?" Felicity asked, finding it nearly impossible to believe that HIVE would be so confident in their abilities.

"Oh yes. He wants to show you and the board how serious we are about this project." Victor answered with a smile. Felicity and Oliver both shared a look, both trying to figure out HIVE's plan with this move. Telasaur was clearly under HIVE's control as almost certainly was the companies President, in fact it wouldn't be too hard to believe that the man himself was in control of HIVE. A new series of questions began clouding Oliver and Felicity's minds as the buzzing of a phone caught their attention. Oliver read the caller ID and quickly excused himself from the table. Once far enough away he began.

"Hello."

"Hello my friend." Anatoli began from the other end in his thick Russian accent.

"How are things coming with our matter?" Oliver asked.

"Slow but steady like Russian submarine. We have isolated the location of the data to a server bank in our area, but we will need time to gather our resources before we can move forward." Anatoli explained as he sampled some of the snacks on the table beside him.

"Alright. Well as soon as you get something let me know."

"Of course. Expect to hear from me soon."

"And Anatoli remember, these are very dangerous people we're dealing with here. Be careful." Oliver ended, hoping his warning would be heeded.

"Do not forget my friend, we are Bratva...the very definition of dangerous." Anatoli proudly replied as he ended the call and returned to his snacks and vodka.

Oliver smirked at the comment before returning to the table, where Victor was preparing to leave.

"Off so soon?" Oliver asked.

"Unfortunately. I still have a few things to work out for my presentation for the board." Victor explained as he gathered his jacket from the chair.

"Well it was great catching up." Felicity said, smiling as she stood.

"It really was. Hopefully we can do it again before I leave." Victor replied as he politely disembarked for the evening. Oliver and Felicity patiently waited for their guest to leave before turning to one another.

"Do you trust him?" Oliver asked, hoping the evening had been enough for Felicity to gauge her old friend and tell whether or not he was an enemy to them.

"I don't know...but now I don't need it." Felicity stated as she turned her phone for Oliver to examine.

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