The Starling Saviour

Chapter 4

'Good luck,' I gave Isaac and Elliot a thumbs up as they left the hotel room to seek out their jobs.

But what was I supposed to do? I was too scared to walk out the door of the hotel, let alone to get a job. It was a bad idea to come to Starling in the first place.

So I decided to do some research. Borrowing Isaac's laptop, I opened up the internet browser and searched for the Starling City web page. Nothing really peaked my interest there, just quotes about it being a 'Star City' and all that nonsense. It had nothing to do with Starling's latest news.

I then remembered the name of the newspaper I used to read at the Merlyns' house.

'Starling City Star,' I said as I typed each word into the search bar.

Many news articles appeared down the screen, mostly about Robert and Oliver's disappearances. After all, they were famous. I knew my name wouldn't be up there, not only because I wasn't famous, but the only people who knew that I had been on the Queen's Gambit were Oliver, Sara and Robert. Everyone else was none the wiser.

And then I saw it. There was an article, all about me.

'One year on: the search for Aria Coleman,' the page was headed.

So everyone knew I was missing. That was great. Just great. Now I could be instantly recognised, complete with the handy picture at the side of the article.

As I read further into the article, I found that Tommy had been the one who had instigated the search. He really did love me, but was I ready to go back and ruin his life? He wouldn't want me to do anything to his father, despite Merlyn's many, many flaws; after all, family was family.

I was honoured that the search had continued, but now I had a problem. How could I detract attention from myself? I could hide in the shadows for the rest of my life, but that wasn't happening any time soon. I wanted to be an active part in my crusade.

I wanted to really make a difference.

---

'How did it go?' I asked Isaac and Elliot as they joined me after applying at their workplaces of interest.

'We both got accepted!' Isaac exclaimed joyously.

'Well done!' I congratulated them. 'Just, how did you both get jobs so quickly?'

'The city's desperate,' Elliot picked up with a concerned expression. 'There's too many casualties. The crime rate, it's off the charts!'

'And Queen Consolidated?' I asked Isaac.

'They need a lot of help,' Isaac told me. 'There's like a... A plea for more people. There's a lot of scientific research going on, but when I'm working there, I'd be at the computers. They need help with programming and stuff.'

'Did you find anything else out?' I asked them both hopefully.

We needed information.

'Queen Consolidated is heavily involved with Merlyn Global Group,' Isaac remembered. 'There's a lot of Merlyn's employees who keep going there - I kept seeing people there wearing these Merlyn Global Group ID badges in Queen Consolidated.'

'Well, the Queens and Merlyns are friends,' I stated the obvious. 'Maybe Moira needed help, so she appealed to Merlyn for support. And then, that would give Merlyn more power. He could be trying to get privileges from Queen Consolidated, or at least something from the company. He wouldn't just do something without some sort of motive. He's definitely up to something.'