4. Rescues and Canines ("Bad Code")
"He proves you're wrong. Not all humans are bad code."
"I really didn't intend for you to come and find me, Mr. Reese. There are other people that need your help."
"Well, you saved my life once or twice, Harold. Seemed only fair that I returned the favor."
"Mr. Reese... I owe you a debt."
Finch didn't remember many details between being rescued at the train station and arriving safely in New York. Mostly, he drifted between varying states of mental awareness – no doubt a lingering effect of whatever sedative Root had injected into him – and tried, during periods of relative lucidity, to assimilate the events of the past few days.
More than once, Finch had looked over at Reese, alert and protective and never leaving his side, and felt a rush of something – relief, gratitude, admiration? – that Reese had cared enough to search for him. After all, there were contingencies in place. Having told Reese about The Machine assured that the Numbers would come directly to him, and Finch had made arrangements that money would continue to flow into his bank accounts at regular intervals even in his absence. So there was absolutely no need for Reese to rescue him.
But he had anyway. Not because he couldn't do the job without Finch, but because he didn't want to.
Certainly Dillinger wouldn't have cared enough to travel across the country searching for him. No, if Dillinger had still been in his employment this long, Finch's kidnapping would have been the end of it all. Even if Finch had trusted him with knowledge of The Machine – a really big IF, all things considered – without that strong sense of moral justice persuading him to help the Numbers, Dillinger would likely have taken the never-ending salary and disappeared. Finch knew from firsthand experience just how stubborn The Machine could be when it came to the Irrelevant List and getting its assets to do something about it, but he was willing to bet money that Dillinger could out-stubborn even The Machine.
It would have been the end of saving the Numbers, and undoubtedly the end of Harold Finch himself. No contingencies, no rescue.
And no return to the Library to discover that he and Reese were now dog owners.
Back when Dillinger was around, he'd suggested that Finch needed a dog to keep him company, a suggestion that Finch had regarded with a certain amount of scorn. He was staring now at one of the reasons he didn't want an animal in his sanctuary, a reason brought into reality in the form of a chewed-up first-edition Asimov. The irony of it all was so ludicrous that Finch probably would have laughed out loud if he hadn't been so thoroughly exhausted.
Reese had looked so pleased about Bear that Finch didn't have the heart, much less the energy, to offer anything more than resignation and mild annoyance at the destruction of the book. After Root called, it quickly didn't matter anymore. If Reese wanted Bear to stay in the Library, then so be it.
At least Bear seemed friendly enough, if a little disrespectful of fine literature. If Dillinger had gotten Finch a dog, it probably would have been a Rottweiler.
