The Starling Saviour

Chapter 45

'I know that,' I rolled my eyes, taking a look at the keypad myself. 'Who set the passcode?'

'Mrs Queen,' Leyla explained briefly.

'Isn't it obvious?' I asked her, entering 'Robert' into the keypad.

The door unlocked, quickly swinging out towards us. We both shared a look of delight and entered the building, finding something I could've never imagined.

The remains of the Queen's Gambit, the ship I had been thrown off of and had witnessed sink to the bottom of the ocean, were contained in the warehouse we stood in, most of it intact apart from a huge rip in the middle of the vessel.

'I am so sorry, Aria,' Leyla apologised as she realises what she had brought me to. 'I didn't want to remind you about the awful things you went through because of this boat. I didn't know what would be behind that door, but I could never have suspected this.'

'It's fine, honestly,' I could barely speak, my voice disappearing with my shock. 'It just feels... Surreal, to see the boat like this.'

'I'm sure it does,' Leyla placed her hand on my shoulder.

'Just out of curiosity, why did you enter those names in the keypad?' I asked my sister. 'Queen, Merlyn and Chen?'

'Moira Queen, Malcolm Merlyn and Frank Chen essentially are Tempest,' she explained to me. 'They founded it with Robert Queen when he was alive.'

'Frank Chen seemed so nice at the party,' I sighed. 'I guess I should warn Ollie of him.'

'No, you can't,' Leyla shook her head at once. 'He would find out about his mother and Mr Merlyn's involvement. We are putting ourselves in a tremendous amount of danger by trying to end Merlyn, but Mr Queen doesn't need this exposure.'

'Okay then,' I accepted what Leyla had said. 'Do you know what Tempest are planning?'

'No,' Leyla said. 'I barely managed to find this warehouse. Discovering Mr Merlyn and Mr Chen were also involved in Tempest was even more difficult.'

'How did you find out?' I wondered, confused as to how my sister knew so much.

'I have my sources,' she responded vaguely, not wanting to drag me into anything else.

'Anyway, do you know what Tempest is for, well, apart from salvaging the boat?' I pressed.

No organisation as secretive as this would be set up just for the fun of it.

'They have plans,' Leyla expanded on the subject. 'Big plans. But unfortunately, I have no idea what these plans are.'

'If we found out these plans, wouldn't they help with defeating Merlyn?' I suddenly had a wave of inspiration. 'We would know what he's up to and we could stop him from fulfilling them.'

'And he would be so upset,' Leyla grinned at the idea of Merlyn's misery. 'Good thinking, sister.'

'But what if we can never find out his plans?' I quickly started to worry. 'You have contacts all across the city who seem to keep you updated about the secrets of Starling, but even you don't know them, Leyla.'