Arrow: Fracture Part 3

The Wrong Sort

"She was looking for a funny answer bud." Riley quickly stated, focusing on his task.

"Oh." Roy replied, searching for a whitty comeback.

"Sorry I was focused on the dozens of bad guys with guns instead of working on my routine for a comedy club." Roy added, not enjoying working with Riley or his ability to read Thea better than himself.

"It's called multitasking, something that could help knockoff about twenty minutes of your prep time. Especially if you learned how to do your hair and eye liner at the same time." Riley responded as he finished bypassing the elevator security protocols.

"For the last time I was just checking to see if the grease paint mask was more viable in combat." Roy fired back, not noticing Thea's hidden smile.

"I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that it matched your shoes." Riley ended, prompting Thea to stop herself from laughing. Roy held back his threats and instead focused on the elevator door opening. The team moved quietly into the vacant hall as they cautiously checked for threats.

"The parties above us right?" Thea asked as they moved into position.

"Northeast corner. We'll be directly below them, we should be able to listen in on what's going on with these." Riley explained as he removed a few listening devices from his backpack and handed them to his teammates.

"Any idea where the HIVE representative is?" Roy asked, not expecting a useful answer.

"At the party, other than that...nope." Riley replied as the group neared their destination.

"Great, needle in a haystack." Roy muttered, dreading the idea of listening in on random conversations until they reached the right one.

"And it won't be challenging at all with these technical wonders you've supplied us with." Thea added as she examined the Cold War era spy tech listening devices they each held.

"Trust me, low tech is what we want. HIVE would sniff out any modern listening device in seconds...these should give us a few minutes before we're detected." Riley explained as he jumped onto of a nearby desk and went to work. He aimed the device upward toward the ceiling and allowed the overly enhanced microphone to penetrate the floor and listen in on the party goers above. Thea and Roy shared a quick glance before separating and getting to work. Neither were fond of Riley's on-the-go way of planning operations, but even they knew how desperate the team was for a grasp at what HIVE was up to. The process took several recalculations of the equipment to balance the reception of the sound, allowing for a muffled but intelligible eavesdropping operation. Many of the conversations were in a multitude of different languages, most unknown to Roy's ears. The average topic between guests was about a potential agreement between a criminal overlord and private contactor, several referring to the border skirmishes along the Russian territories. Riley's curiosity would have normally guided him to gather torrents of intel on the party goers for future use, but this operation pushed him to ignore the massive amount of raw intel and focus on the true goal. Thea had managed to isolate a quiet conversation near the outskirts of the room where she discerned a secretive manipulation from the interested party. The tactic itself would've have normally gone unnoticed, especially at such an affair but the extra secretive approach during the conversation had grabbed her attention.

"Maybe you should've brought us paper cups with a string instead, pretty sure the quality would be better." Roy frustratingly stated as he shifted his device around on the ceiling beside Riley.

"I thought about it, but I wasn't sure you'd be able to work it. Hell I'm surprised you figured these things out." Riley sharply replied, focusing on the conversations above them. Roy began to defend himself when Thea cut them both off.