Arrow: Fracture Part 3

Night Befalls

A steady series of heavy keystrokes sung out from the overworked keyboard. Whorrsmen paused for a moment as he pealed his hands away from his troublesome work and ran them through his thick black and grey hair. A short sigh followed as he stopped to collect his thoughts, a mistake due to the rising severity of the operation and the events surrounding it. He noticed a subtle tremor in his fingers as he pulled them back to examine them. His eyes traced the tiny muscle spasms resulting from the lack of control over certain matters that were weighing heavily on him. A window opened on the terminal behind his hands, immediately catching his attention. There was only one person with the ability to directly bypass any firewalls or waiting system, and Jakob had been dreading her call. A video of a women appeared on the screen, her gaze fully upon Whorrsmen.

"Madam Chancellor." Whorrsmen began, his throat dry and rough.

"I've just reviewed the latest reports." She spoke, her eyes lowering to the printed handouts she held. Whorrsmen cleared his throat, preparing for several follow up questions in regards to the latest actions.

"I see we had to proceed with the transformation sooner than expected...your intelligence on Mr. Stone was correct in assuming he was a perfect candidate for the procedure. With any luck, his expertise in the subject matter will aid in his abilities to adapt with his newfound status. His transition is complete yes?"

"Physically yes. And besides a few unintentional side effects, he's perfectly stable. However mentally we're not sure. We still have him under to aid in his transition. The safety protocols we have in place are working but we still need time to assure the transition won't be interrupted by any human elements." Whorrsmen explained, combing through the data in his head and trying to only relay the important parts. The chancellor smiled, almost as if she hadn't been paying attention to any of the news.

"Jakob." She softly said, her lips curling into a smile. The simple use of his name was enough to drive fear directly into his gut, nearly causing Whorrsmen to flinch in pain.

"You assured me that your personal matters wouldn't interfere with this operation...and after reviewing this latest incident I have to disagree." Her lips released the news with a sense of pleasure, as if she was longing for a rebuttal. Whorrsmen swallowed hard. Death was a certainty that he had accepted long ago the moment he joined with HIVE, he had made peace with the idea and almost longed for it. The chill passing over him and freezing him however wasn't in fear of his own death but that of his daughter, Felicity. No words escaped Whorrsmen's mouth as he exhaled and waited, his direct dealings with the chancellor had allowed him to anticipate the women's habits to an extent.

"Which is why I'm handing control of the operation to Ra's Al Ghul. I expect you to assist him in this transition to the best of your ability Jakob." Her voice was dry and free of any consequence or remorse, just as her actions.

"Yes, madam Chancellor." Whorrsmen barely replied, his heart trying desperately to twist the words and hold them from passing his lips in fear of the consequences. Her smile was all the remained as the video feed  ended and the window disappeared, leaving Whorrsmen with a distorted reflection of his own face in the screen, half hidden in darkness.

The discussion had yet to yield any results as the team sat within the Keep, searching for any answer on how to stop HIVE. The pieces to the twisted plan were lying before them, but they couldn't find the end result through the darkness.

"Felicity. What exactly does the Garden Project even do?" Roy asked, still unsure of the precise nature of the program. Felicity internally sighed at the thought of needing to explain her program as if she was pitching it to a group of disapproving board members.

"It's a self sustaining security program, operating on an internally closed network and making it free from tampering or misuse. Or originally that's what I thought...never expected HIVE to turn the board against me and use QT to get what they want." She spoke, beginning to drift into despair yet again.