Taken

Lost

Oliver wandered out of the elevator fully expecting an angry Felicity waiting to berate him on his tardiness. To his surprise the floor was devoid of life. Felicity's desk was bare; phone, tablet, no coat over the back of her chair. The ever-present coffee mug that Felicity always filled as soon as she entered the building was missing as well. 

Baffled, Oliver stepped into his office and messaged the front desk asking if Felicity had left a message there. Not that he expected one. She was rarely late, and when she was, she usually messaged him directly. He tried calling her, but her phone went straight to voicemail. Not exactly a red flag, though it was rare for Felicity not to pick up. He sat down and tried to make sense of the reports left on his desk, deciding that if she wasn't here by lunch he would stop by her house.

* * *

His morning was predictably useless. Without Felicity there, he barely understood a fifth of what was written in the reports, let alone what he was supposed to do with the information. When Diggle came up with lunch he asked if he had heard from Felicity.

"I assumed she was up here with you." Diggle replied. "Haven't seen or heard from her this morning."

"I got here at 10, and it doesn't look like she was here before that. She didn't answer the phone either." Oliver said, worried about his Girl Wednesday. "Let's swing by her place."

"She's probably just got the flu."

"Probably, but I'm not taking the chance."

Oliver picked up his jacket and headed for the elevator, not waiting to see if Diggle was following him. As he stood in the elevator, he couldn't help the sense of dread that filled him; the feeling that something was very wrong and that Felicity was caught up in it. He barely registered the elevator stopping at the garage level or the journey to Felicity's apartment. Nothing seemed out of place from the outside, but that didn't slow Oliver down as he up the steps and rang the bell. 

No answer.

He tried again. Nothing.

Agitated he headed down the alley to the side of her apartment building and climbed up the fire escape, ignoring Diggle's protestations about being seen. Once he reached the 4th floor, he peered into Felicity's bedroom window. Empty. He hooked the latch on her window that never fully locked (something that had been a constant source of argument between them over her safety) and slipped inside. He wandered through her apartment, pausing to look at the picture frame on the shelf beside her TV. It held a photo of the three of them; Felicity, John and himself. Carly had taken it when they hadn't been looking at Big Belly Burger. It was one of the only pictures of himself since returning from the island that he liked.

Pulling away, he forced himself to check the rest of the apartment. Felicity wasn't here. Didn't look like she had been here recently either. No coffee mugs in the sink, the bathroom showed that the shower was bone dry, unused today. Another quick sweep revealed no phone or car keys. Either she had left early this morning without a shower or coffee; very unlikely if you knew anything about Felicity, or she hadn't been home last night.

Climbing back down the fire escape he met Diggle with a solemn look on his face.

"She's not here and it doesn't look like she came home last night."

"Can't see her car anywhere round here." Diggle added. He was starting to think Oliver was right. Something was wrong. "Foundry?"

"Yeah." Oliver confirmed. "No point going back to QC anyway. Felicity's the one that runs the place really."

"You say that like it's a secret." Dig chuckled.

* * *

They got their first piece of evidence that Felicity was in danger when they spotted her Mini in the car park of Verdant, keys in the ignition.

"Pull up the camera footage from last night." Oliver commanded as he ran down the stairs into the foundry.

"You do realise that I'm not Felicity, so that might take a few minutes."

"Just do it!" Oliver shouted. Taking a breath, "Sorry, John. Just please do it."

"One day you're going to admit how much you love her." Diggle said, before adding quietly "Although, knowing you it will be another three years at least. Maybe it will even be declared a national holiday." The look on Oliver's face showed that he had still been heard. Sighing, John headed over to Felicity's computers and booted them up. She had made their most-used programs easily accessible for Oliver and John in case she was ever unavailable.

The footage showed Felicity leaving the Foundry at 1:47am and heading to her car. A large figure moved out of the darkness, bashing her head against her car door before picking her up and carrying her to van. John ran the plates, but they came back stolen over a year ago. He had no luck on face-recognition as the guy had been wearing a black and orange mask.

"Go back." Oliver instructed and Dig reviewed the footage again, looking for anything useful. He wound the video back and pressed play.

"I know that mask." Oliver said, turning to pace the Foundry mats before punching the training dummy hard several times.

"What do you know?"

"A man I was marooned with on Lian Yu worn a mask like that. I thought he was dead." Oliver's mind was drawn back to Slade and the island. "He was a friend at one point. He was driven mad by the loss of the woman he loved; Shado, and a drug called mirakuru. He blamed me for Shado's death and I ended up driving an arrow through his eye. Clearly he survived."

"What would he want with Felicity?" Diggle asked.

"Nothing good."