Chapter Text
I was the last one Don brought back to the bunker. Dad was already talking to Mom about the guys back at the water treatment facility.
“Did they say anything?” Dad asked.
“Yeah. They asked me what I was doing down there, and when I said I was with the city inspection team, they said they weren’t scheduled for an inspection and started stalking up to me.”
“Where they wearing uniforms?” I asked.
“No. Just t-shirts and jeans. They didn’t match or anything.”
“Sounds like something we’ll want to investigate further.” This could be something. It was at least the most interesting event that had happened so far. I turned to Don. “Gideon?”
Her head popped out of his watch again. “Yes, Anna?” There were cries of surprise from the team.
Don grinned. “Guys, this is Gideon. She’s an AI from my time. We’re going to use her to sort through the data we gathered.”
Mom’s face lit up. “I know her! She’s the AI on the Waverider.”
I grimaced. “Yes and no.” Mom frowned. I didn’t really have time to explain the fourth dimensional difference, so I turned to Gideon. “Gideon, we uploaded all the data from the water treatment plants. Can you go through it and see if you can find any abnormalities?”
“Of course, Anna. I’ll get right on it.” She dematerialized, and I nodded in satisfaction.
“Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?” my dad asked.
“I’d like to take a small team back to the water treatment facility that Felicity was at, and see if those guys are still there or if we can figure anything out about their intentions.”
“Alright. Who do you want on the recon team?” Dad was putting me in charge? It made sense, of course, and I had more or less been in charge since I had been here. But picking my own team was a stark reminder that Dad was truly not leading any aspect this mission.
“Me, you, and Don.” Keep it as small as possible. “Everyone else stay ready, in case we need back-up.” The others nodded.
Dad turned to Don. “You ready?”
“Always.” He grabbed me and Dad, and off we ran.
Before we knew it, we were at the water treatment plant, hidden in the shadows behind some piping. There were three men in our field of vision, and they were playing with the water sensor that Mom had installed. It didn’t look like they had managed to take it off of the pipe it was on. Good . We had made sure those things could survive anything short of a nuclear blast.
“What did the little blonde one put on this pipe?” I turned toward Dad. Russians. Mom hadn’t mentioned anything about Russians. We exchanged a look and then leaned forward to see if we could hear more of what they were saying.
“ Whatever it is, it won’t come off ,” said the second one.
“ Should we tell the boss about this? ” asked the third.
“ No, we did our job. The little blonde one is none of our business ,” replied the second one, who seemed to be the leader. Made sense, considering he was the largest. The others nodded and walked off toward the exit. Once we were sure they were gone, I turned to Dad.
“Bratva. Do you recognize them?”
He shook his head. “No. They were saying that they had been hired to do a job and-”
“I heard what they were saying just fine.”
“You speak Russian?”
I nodded. “Read and write, too.” Dad looked impressed. He shouldn’t be. I had learned most of it from him, and then had taken up the language in my homeschooling. Much easier than Mandarin.
Dad turned to Don. “Are we in Central or Star City?”
“Central.”
“Hmm. I haven’t had any dealings with the Central City Bratva.”
“Meaning they don’t have you blacklisted?” I asked. While Dad’s dealings with the Star City Bratva and the original Russian branch were part of our briefing for this mission, I had no memory of Dad ever dealing with the branch in Central.
“Let’s hope not. My name should carry some influence here. Just in case, though, I’ll go in alone.”
I stepped toward him. “Yeah, that’s not happening. I can negotiate with the Bratva just as easily as you can. We’ll go in together, with Don as a lookout.” Don nodded. He knew that dealing with the Russian mob wasn’t his strength.
“If you think you can handle it, fine. Do you know where they work out of?”
“Yeah. I’ve had some...dealings with them before.” I had more than a few misgivings. I knew Dad and I would do just fine, but I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to use my ace in the hole. Things could get...dicey.