Because of course they're gonna fucking meet...

/Location: New York

40°38'33.6"N 74°10'56.8"W

2345 EDT

15 August 2016/

"Flags in Washington remain at half-staff today in honor of Virginia Senator Ross Garrison, who passed away following a heart attack Friday evening. Garrison was a 6 term Senator, born and raised in Petersburg. One of the longest serving members on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, his colleagues remember him for repeatedly reaching across the aisle to ensure bipartisan support for national security legislation, for his lifelong advocacy for clean energy initiatives, and - as Senator Paige Childers of Hawaii said in her eulogy- his lovely singing voice."

Shaw leaned forward and smacked the power button on the dash, turning the radio off. Startled, Cole turned to look at her. "What?" she muttered, shifting in her seat. Cole shrugged and raised his coffee cup to his lips. Shaw sighed. "I'm not listening to Garrison sing the same 5 notes of Private Eyes from that filibuster again," she justified, rolling her eyes.

"It put me on a bit of a Hall & Oates kick," Cole admitted.

Shaw glared at him. "Keep that off the coms then," she ordered. Shaw raised her own coffee cup to her lips, as her eyes scanned the mostly empty lot. From between two shipping containers a pair of headlights turned on, flashed twice, and then turned off. "That's us," Shaw muttered as she hopped out of the car and tucked her .45mm into the waistband of her jeans.

Cole watched her nervously and she sighed, an annoyed smile tugging at her lips. "Grice would be offended if I showed up unarmed," she assured him.

Chuckling, Cole shook his head. "The military's weird," he muttered. Shaw rolled her eyes.

They approached the black four door quietly and Shaw nodded to Grice as he exited the car.

"Phones," he ordered, extending his hand. Shaw raised an eyebrow. Grice was a guy who tended to enjoy his small talk. She pulled her phone from her pocket as Cole did the same and handed them over. Grice smashed both of them beneath his foot. He inspected the shattered remains for a moment before bringing his foot down on them again and again. Apparently satisfied he nodded to himself and then walked to the back of the car to open the door.

A large, imposing woman with thin lips and her hair pulled tightly into a perfect bun exited the car. Shaw's eyes widened. She'd never seen the woman before but she had a pretty good idea who this was. Control.

"Ma'am," Shaw nodded, casually slipping her hands behind her back to stand at ease.

"Ma'am?" Cole muttered, looking at her in confusion. Shaw grit her teeth. He caught on quickly, his mouth flapping open. "Oh, Ma'am," he nodded and his posture straightened significantly.

Control's lip curled slightly, holding back what might have been a smile. "Agent Shaw. Agent Cole," she greeted coolly. "You'll be compensated for your phones shortly. However," her eyes darted around the pitch black lot, narrowing as they settled on the nearest building, nearly half a mile off, "What we're about to discuss is…highly…sensitive in nature," her eyes settled back on Shaw and she pursed her lips.

Shaw hesitated, her head cocking to the side slightly. Their entire job was 'highly sensitive in nature'. "Of course Ma'am," she agreed, keeping her eyes on Control even as she could feel Cole's eyes boring into the side of her head.

"Research has been compromised," Control said evenly.

Shaw blinked. "What, you're sure?" Cole asked. Closing her eyes Shaw's jaw tightened. Cole had never quite understood the formality that came with talking to a superior.

Control ignored his question entirely, keeping her eyes on Shaw. "We believe a private security firm, Temporary Resolutions, is receiving intelligence from Research," she nodded and Grice extended a file to Shaw. Shaw pulled a small flashlight from her pocket and skimmed the file.

"They've got government contracts; abroad and domestic," Shaw noted, "Isn't hard to imagine they cozied up to the right people somewhere along the way," she shrugged and handed the file to Cole.

"Perhaps," Control said evenly. "For the last two months Agent Hersh was surveilling the companies CXO, Jeremy Lambert. But Hersh has missed his last three check ins."

"You think they paid him off?" Cole asked.

"She's saying he's dead," Shaw muttered, glaring at Cole, ignoring the sudden pang of hunger deep in her gut. "Hersh was a patriot."

Control nodded in agreement. "The ISA needs you to follow Hersh's leads. Find out if Lambert really has compromised our operation." Shaw and Cole nodded. "This mission is completely off the books," Control hesitated. "You're to leave no digital footprint during this investigation, if you're discovered, the agency will not claim you."

Cole's brow furrowed but to Shaw's relief he had the sense not to comment.

"Of course ma'am," Shaw assured her. With one final curt nod Control got back into the car. Grice offered Shaw a small smile before he followed her. The car revved to life and slowly rolled forward, crushing what was left of their phones as it peeled away.

Cole sighed and squatted down, picking up the flattened remains of his phone.

Shaw rolled her eyes. "What?"

"Nothing," Cole sighed again, his lips pulled together into a pout. "I'm just running out of excuses to tell the guys at the Apple store," he pocketed the remains of his phone and wiped his palms off on his jeans. "How many times can you tell them you ran over your phone with your car before it starts to sound suspicious?"

"Five times."

Cole hung his head. "And now I have to find a new Apple store," he grumbled. He paused. "Without a phone."

"Well life's just full of tough moments isn't it," Shaw muttered as she got back in the car. A grin stretched across Cole's face.

/Location: Chisinau, Moldova

47°00'25.6"N 28°51'31.9"E

1230 EET

26 August 2016/

Root sighed as she skimmed over the code in front of her. While a few lines were well written, clever even, overall it was…clunky. And very disappointing. She sunk her teeth into her apple and chewed thoughtfully. At this rate it would be years before Daniel Darli was even close to achieving his goal. Of course now that Samaritan was involved he was never going to finish coding the ASI he was secretly developing.

"This hardly seems like something you should feel threatened by," Root said casually. There was no response. She sighed. "This code is amateurish," she turned to look over her shoulder, to the man tied up behind her. "No offense," she shrugged as Daniel Darli struggled against his restraints, tears slipping down his cheeks. "I've seen what's under your hood…so to speak. This doesn't compare."

Eliminate-Target-Daniel-Darli. The words buzzed in her earpiece and she smiled fondly. She pushed her feet off the desk and bent down to the computer, cracking the case open. She yanked the solid state drive out and pocketed it. "Obviously," she assured her boss. "I was just saying this code doesn't hold a candle to you," she grinned. She pulled a replacement hard drive from her pack and installed it.

Destroy-All-Files.

Taking another bite of her apple she looked around the apartment thoughtfully. "If I was a backup drive where would I be," her grin widened as her eyes landed on the door to the closet. A wire ran from the computer stand back to the closet. She opened the door and found the backup drive. Pulling a magnet from her bag she ran it along the side of the drive a few times before turning back to Daniel.

She picked up her pistol off the table and leaned over the man. "Not to be too cliché but there's an easy way we can do this and a not so easy way," she tapped the pistol lightly against his chest. "It's your choice," his eyes widened fearfully and she offered him her most sympathetic smile. "You understand?" He nodded frantically. Keeping the barrel of her pistol pressed against his chest she pulled the gag from his mouth. He whimpered and began to splutter. "Shhh, shhh, shhh," Root soothed, fighting against the urge to roll her eyes. "Now, I just need one very simple answer and then this will all be over," she promised. "Are there any additional back up files on Project Eclipse, here or anywhere else?"

"No, no I swear, this is it," Daniel said quickly, his lips trembling as he rushed to get the words out.

She grinned widely and pulled a syringe from her pocket. "Thank you for your cooperation," she said, sliding the needle into his arm.

His face contracted in pain instantly and his eyes widened fearfully. "Please, please, I helped you!" he plead.

Root cocked her head sympathetically, her lower lip jutting out in a pout. "I know you did. And I really do appreciate that. But, well," she scrunched up her nose and shrugged, "This only ever ended one way Daniel." His body shook and his eyes rolled back in his head as his body slumped back in his chair. She waited till his body stopped shaking before rolling the chair into the bathroom and situating his body in the tub.

It-Would-Be-3.2%-More-Time-Efficient-To-Hide-His-Body. Samaritan whispered in her ear.

Root shrugged as she worked. "People aren't entitled to much in this world," she said as she pulled Daniel's shoes off, grimacing at the smell. "But closure? That's important," she sighed.

Samaritan didn't respond and Root finished staging Daniel's death in silence. Once she was done she returned to his computer and pulled the suicide note she'd written for him up on his computer screen.

57-Seconds-Until-Detection. Samaritan warned.

Root nodded and swept her eyes around the room quickly, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything. She frowned when her eyes fell on the fridge and she moved towards it swiftly. Tucked between take out menus and a selfie taken in front of Big Ben was a Temporary Resolutions business card. Root cocked her head. That was certainly…curious.

9-Seconds-Until-Detection.

Pocketing the business card with the hard drive, Root slipped out into the backyard and hopped the fence a second before Daniel's next door neighbor's car pulled to a stop. Root smiled as she wiped the palms of her hands against her jeans; that had gone exactly as planned. As always.

Just...not in this chapter. I wanted to get some of this up before the series finale tomorrow though. The rest shouldn't be far behind.

I wasn't going to hop right back into Person of Interest but then episode 12 aired and well. I had to. This won't be as long as Codename Phoenix but probably 5-7 chapters. We'll see. -6/21/2016