Episode 5 The Flash Fanfic

Chapter 7

"Any trace of her?" Joe asked Barry, once the detective had joined him in Astrid's office.
"No, not a sign of her. She left her phone on her desk. I charged it up, her last phone call was to Oliver. I haven't called him yet. I don't want to worry him if she is fine." Barry replied.

"I would rather us leave that man out of Central City's business." Joe told him, adamantly.
"I get the impression that you don't like Oliver Queen very much, do you Joe?" Barry asked.
"He is a killer, Barry! I would prefer it if he stayed away from my kid."
"Duly noted!" Barry said, trying to drop the subject. He flicked through the security images on the computer screen. The time was currently 3am and he knew that Joe was feeling tired.

"You can go home if you like. Get some sleep." Barry told him.
"...and leave you here by yourself?" Joe tried to refuse.
"Just go home. I'm fine." Barry told him. "I'll contact Cisco in a few hours and get his help to find her."
Joe nodded and left the office, while Barry replayed the images of the night. He saw the fire starting up, but he couldn't find out who had started it.

Then he saw it. He saw Astrid approach a man who picked her up and left the facility quickly. Unfortunately, he could not see the man's face. And he could not hear their words. As far as he knew, this man could have been a security guard saving his friend.

Whatever the situation was, this man would have the answers of where she had gone next. He went through Astrid's employee folders, on her computer, reading up on every individual profile, looking for some similarities between the unidentified man and the staff. It only took a few seconds, but nothing came up. He felt as if he had seen this man before, but he knew that it was not Leonard Snart. He would need to keep searching.

"Remind me again, what we are doing at Mercury Labs?" Astrid questioned Snart as they approached the Mercury Labs entrance. "You are simply playing your part. And unless you want  any harm to come to your boyfriend, I suggest that you do it quickly. I will play the part as your bodyguard while you will lead us to their artifact research department."

"Why would they just let me in? it's 3am and I run Sutherland Labs... Not Mercury Labs. And for the record, Cisco is not my boyfriend!" she shot back at him.
Leonard, who was wearing leather gloves, rang the doorbell. "It is up to you to figure out a back story. If you fail, he dies. It doesn't matter what he is to you, right now he is the perfect leverage."

The security guard approached the other side of the glass door, so Astrid stood in front of it, so that he could see who it was. He opened the door and looked at them both.

"Hi," Astrid said casually, "I know it's late but I just got off the phone to Dr McGee and she granted me permission to come up and collect some projects that my father collaborated on when... you know... he was alive..." Astrid deliberately let her voice trail off to receive the pitying effect. But the security guard wasn't buying it. She probed into the man's mind and she knew she would need to improvise all the more.

"Oh my god!" she sighed. "This whole carrying on my father's business thing is seriously hard. I never thought I would have to come here in the middle of the night, just to gather the last things he ever worked on..." she allowed her voice to trail off into a whimper and began to cry.

The security guard was clearly uncomfortable by this display. "Look, Miss Sutherland. I know who you are and I know that you would have no reason to break the law here. Just go up there, but your friend needs to stay down here."

"As much as I would prefer him to stay down here, he is actually my... ahem... assistant. I need his help to carry some of the things. They are a little heavy for me." She said, keeping her act up.