Prodigal Son

Chapter Three - Part 1

"Hello, Oliver.

I told myself I was recording this message in case I died suddenly, but I wonder if it isn't just easier to say what I have to say to a video camera.

I'm not the man you think I am, Oliver. I didn't save our city, I failed it. I did something terrible, and in my efforts to make it right, I ignored my conscience and made alliances with terrible people.

There's a book. A book with a list of all their names. And with these people, I always told myself that everything I did, I did for my family. That's a lie. Because what good is a family without a soul?

You can right my wrongs. You can be better than I was. You can save this city.

I love you."

—Robert Queen to his son Oliver

Oliver watched the message on a loop for what felt like hours. Confusion, anger, and at first a strange, guilty kind of hope mixed together. He'd fled Starling City trying to escape the unshakable fact that intentional or not, his actions killed his father. He thought he'd made peace with the truth, but for a brief time after watching the video and realizing only imminent danger would have prompted his father to make such a video, he wondered if maybe he wasn't at fault.

God, he was pathetic. Looking for excuses and grasping at straws. He quickly strangled any fledgling hope that the video erased his failures. He wouldn't deceive himself about whose actions ultimately killed his father. He might have feared for his life, but the storm preempted whatever danger he'd faced. Oliver knew he needed to stick to the facts; the video was exactly as it seemed, a man, knowing he was facing death, asking for absolution.

And retribution.

Oliver could give him that. Owed him that.

And the only person that could provide Oliver any answers was now sitting next to him in a small, single story, townhome on the edge of the Glades picking at her salad and sipping her wine. His patience had run out.

"Where did you get them?"

Felicity put down her fork. He didn't have to clarify what he was asking.

"I know you probably have a hundred questions."

He did. He wasn't even sure how to ask half of them.

"A file hidden on the Queen Consolidated server."

"What?"

"Where I got them. I ran authentication. Both are real, no tricks. Both were made around 8 years ago, specifically, the day before the Queen's Gambit sailed."

Real. They were real. He was just as staggered as when he'd first watched them. He hadn't really doubted them but confirmation made everything too real. He inhaled slowly and deliberately through his nose. He zeroed in on what she'd said earlier. "Hidden?"

"Maybe lost is a better word. They were tied to you, to be triggered by your fingerprint scan the next time you signed in on the Queen Consolidated servers. I understand you didn't spend much time at the company but the shares you possessed meant you were usually around at least a couple times a year. When you left Starling City and your shares were revoked, your access to the QC computers was also disabled. For years, it was as if the files didn't exist."

"How did you find them?"

Felicity hesitated. "About four months ago, I was looking for something else when I found the unfulfilled directive. There were security protocols but I am sort of the one that ended up updating and redesigning everything so..."