Smoaked Out: The Secret Diary of Felicity Smoak-Chapter 4

Smoaked Out-Ch.4

December. 5. 2012

Good evening/ morning Diary,

            You know how I said before that work's been pretty boring lately?  Well, I take that back.  The last two days were actually quite interesting.  What happened you ask?  Well let me tell you.  For the past few days I've been doing some extracurricular work, particularly on the subject of Ms. Queen's accidental money mishap.  As luck would have it, or skill in this case, I found something.  With Mr. Steele coming back from his trip the same day, I decided not to waste any time in telling him...and hey I may even get a possible promotion because I'm so good at what I do (Not only was that not the case, but I almost got fired in the process!).

            Walking into Mr. Steele's office later that evening I quickly grabbed his attention with my world famous humor...and by world famous I mean I'm the only one who seems to get it.

            "How was your trip to Australia?" I asked.  "I've always wanted to go 'down unda', it’s just...I have this thing about kangaroos...more of a phobia...they wig me out.  They look evil, and I'm sure there are pictures up of that thing everywhere in that country..."

            "You had something important to tell me Miss Smoak?" Walter cut in with a look that clearly said 'stop wasting my time and get on with it.'

            "Yes, I did," I replied taking the hint.  "It's about Tempest."

            The look on Mr. Steele's face said that he had no recollection of the subject.  Is the Queen/Steele family really that dense?

            "Your wife's mysterious L.L.C," I reminded him.  "The one that she diverted company funds to..."

            Finally catching on Walter replied, "I appreciate your diligence on this, but uh, it was as simple misunderstanding between my wife and I.  Everything's been resolved."

            No, not really.  Plus I don't like being dismissed without even having a chance to explain so I decided to be a bit more insistent.  In retrospect though, almost shouting at my boss wasn't a very great way to make him understand.

            "No! See, it hasn’t," I said rather firmly.  "There's something about the money transfer that felt hinky to me.  The money you wife withdrew from the company...I wasn't the only one who tracked it (Totally got his attention with that one!).  It was being shadowed by another entity, and whoever it is, they're good, like N.S.A. good.  But, as you know, I'm good too.  So, even though they left almost no trace of their presence in our system, I did manage to find one thing...well, one image."

            Handing over a copy of the image (which just looks like a bunch of squiggly lines inside a circle) to Walter (who looked really annoyed at this point) I asked, "Does that symbol mean something to you sir?"

            It turns out that interrogating you boss is one of the quickest paths to career suicide.  Who knew?

            "No." Mr. Steele said sternly as he got up from his chair and walked around his desk to tower over me menacingly.  "What means something to me is one of my employees prying into my wife's private business without authorization (Insert the fear of God and practically chocking on my own saliva from nerves here).  If it happens again, I'll have you...'suspended.'  Is that clear?"

            "Crystal," I managed to choke out as I practically ran out of the office for my life...or my job's life to be more specific.

            So much for being a hard worker; and if almost losing my job on that night wasn't enough, I was summoned up to Mr. Steele's office the next night for a 'quick' meeting.  I thought my heart was going to explode from fear.  I was being summoned to my execution, or so I thought.

            Waving me in with a small gesture Walter Steele didn't say a word.  At this point my nervousness got the better of me so I did the babbly thing I always do when I'm scared out of my pants.

            "Did I mention that it's almost Christmas?" I asked with a slight tremor in my voice.  "Many of the suicides this time of year are due to sudden and unexpected joblessness."

            No, I wouldn't commit suicide diary!  But, I would want to 'die' in bed for a few days with some coffee and my dog as my only company.  I really do love my job.  And of course Mr. Steele just sat there in his burgundy sweater, staring at me like I was a piece of meat in the desert and he was a hungry vulture...until he pushed a small brown notebook across the desk towards me.

            "I want you to find out all you can about that notebook," he said slowly and all British like, "where it was made, how it was purchased, and what it could mean."

            That was totally not what I was expecting! All I could say was, "Yes sir," in gratitude.

            "Felicity," Mr. Steele cautioned, "I...asked Josiah Hudson, our head of security, to look into the same subject matter (aka Tempest and Mrs. Queen's spending habits)...he died the next day...under...'questionable' circumstances.  What I may be asking of you...this mystery...are you sure you want to do this?"

            Oh how I loathe mysteries! He came to the right girl for this job.

            "I hate mysteries," I replied honestly.  "They bug me...they need to be solved."

            With a nod of understanding Mr. Steele ushered me out.  Even though I've barley had the chance to work directly for him I get the sense that he is a good man...and not just because he didn't fire me!  Under the business-like surface he seems to genuinely care for other people's well being.  In fact, he reminds me a lot of Oliver...

            Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  After the impromptu meeting with Mr. Steele I ran downstairs to my desk and decided to immediately get to work...after an emergency coffee break of course.  What?  After all that you expect me to calm down by just breathing?  No way!  This girl needs her coffee.  Well it turns out that the coffee break was just another brilliant idea in disguise from my subconscious.  As I was standing in the I.T. department's staff kitchen, while waiting for the water to come to a boil in one of those old school whistling kettles (You'd think they could at least get us a real coffee machine in here with how much money this place brings in), flipping through the blank pages of the notebook, when a burst of steam from the kettle caught the corner of one of the pages.  From the corner of my eyes I just managed to catch the fading lines of a name as the page returned to it's normal room temperature.  The pages weren't blank!  They just seemed that way as everything was written in invisible ink!  Once I stumbled onto that simple little fact I forgot all about my coffee.  There were only two ways that I knew how to reveal invisible ink.  One way is to have a heat source, like the kettle, raise the temperature of the ink causing it to shift from a clear color to a darker color.  The other way, the way that won't destroy the words written on the page from excessive moisture exposure, was to blast it with U.V. light.  Lucky for me I got to play with a nifty new pair of U.V. glasses in the Applied Sciences department last week.  Mr. Steele was going to love me for this.

            Running out of the room, after taking the kettle off of the stove, I dashed to the Applied Sciences division and quickly managed to locate and sign out said glasses.  Wasting no time I ran upstairs and burst into Mr. Steele's office, dimming the lights as I went.

            "What are you doing?" Mr. Steele asked perplexedly as the change in the ambiance of the room marked my swift return.

            "It needs to be dark in here if we're going to do this," I said (Not the best choice of words after making the lights go all sexy...).  "If I had more time to think of that sentence it wouldn't have sounded so dirty.  Look."

            Taking the notebook from my outstretched hand Mr. Steele quickly rifled through the blank pages.  A clear sign of confusion etched its way onto his face as he said, "I don't see anything."

            Turning on the U.V. light I handed Mr. Steele the glasses.  As he slipped them on I explained, "I got these from Applied Sciences.  They're able to pick up the sub-visible variations in the U.V. spectrum.  Now look at the book again."

            I hate to say that the look of startled recognition on Mr. Steele's face as he gazed at the list of names was somewhat satisfying, but it really was.  And to think, he almost had me 'suspended.'  I got skills Mr. Steele, and now you know it too.  After that revelation Mr. Steele quickly ushered me out of his office again saying that he would call me if he needed me again.  This time I made no distasteful remarks and left in a hurry.

            Talk about exciting right?  And this time it's not because of Oliver Queen.  It looks like the work gods have finally answered my prayers...now if they'd only get me a day off tomorrow that would be great.

            Anyway, I bid you goodnight my dearest diary.  Thanks for listening.

XOXO,

Felicity.