A/N: Some of the characters in this chap are from the show Person of Interest. If you haven't watched that show, you just need to know that they are top hackers, the woman is also good with guns and they are here to help :)
Chapter 43 - Take Care: Part I
10:55pm - Somewhere in the City
A man got out of a building with a dog in a hurry. The moment he laid his foot on the sidewalk, a phone from the nearest phone booth rang.
He went to pick it up without any greetings, and waited.
A young female's voice said "Bravo" to him, and then it immediately changed into a child's voice which told him "Oscar".
He paused there with the receiver in his hand for a second or two, before he hung up. Accompanied by the quiet dog, he headed back to his building.
11:40am - Somewhere in the Building
The man sat in front of his computer, his palms pressing together and his chin resting on the back of his fingers. He flinched a little when "Search completed" appeared on the screen. Then the printer started to work.
He briefly scanned the displayed content on screen. Then he reached to get the printout, but before he did, the door to his room was opened and a woman walked in.
With her left shoulder pressing softly against the wall, she took her cellphone out from her pocket and glanced at the turned off screen. "She informed me about the critical paths and the common node," she said to the man.
"Yes, the common node," the man replied. "It is a name, Bravo-Oscar. Bo. When I looked this name up I-"
"That was what she told you?" The woman interrupted him, a look of surprise on her face.
The man observed that, and said, "I assume that you've been told different things then, Ms. Groves."
The woman smiled at him and handed him her cellphone.
"Three. Eight. Two. Five," the numbers popped out nonchalantly, each read by a different person's voice. It paused for a second, before it read, "Two. Zero. Four. Zero." After that, the voice died.
The man pondered for a little while, before he raised to look at the woman. "I believe that those numbers are a pair of coordinates. Longitude and Latitude, to be exact."
"I know, Harold," the woman replied. "It's a Greek island, Ithaca."
"Ithaca?" The man, Harold, murmured. "In Homer's Odyssey, that was the place where Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, finally reunited."
"A name, and a piece of Greek mythology," the woman said. "These are the common node of the critical paths. Paths to get Sameen back, and possibly take down the Samaritan."
Harold gave her a nod, before he took a photo printout from his printer. He pinned it on the whiteboard beside his desk and stepped back.
"There are in total 3541 people whose name is Bo, however only one of them is without a social security number," he explained to the woman as he pointed at the photo. "Her."
"Had she had one, you would have been notified of that instead of her name," the woman murmured, slightly nodding. "Why is she so special?"
"No birth certificate associated. No documents, records or driver's license. No bank accounts, issued credit cards or loans," the man said. "Not under the name Bo anyway."
"However you found out something under her other identities," the woman said, her tone with a subtle tease.
"I did," Harold told her. "While searching the library contents, I came across a newspaper of a small town, reporting a girl name Beth winning the Miss Cherry in the local cherry festival." He showed the photocopy of the newspaper to the woman, and continued, "here is a photo of her. This Beth apparently is our Bo."
The woman shrugged, and tapped her phone for a few times, before she read the files that were displayed. "She was adopted. Her biological parents' whereabouts unknown. Oh, a murder case that has mentioned her. She disappeared right after her high school boyfriend died from some mysterious serial killer...hmmm interesting, looks like she was looking for her father a while back, and also recently-"
"Ithaca," Harold interrupted her. "That's it. The father-child reunion happened in Ithaca. Bo and Ithaca. Bo's looking for her father, therefore she shall meet him in-"
"-Ithaca Corp building," the woman said as she showed him the map on her phone. "The common node is an event. An event of a father-daughter reunion."
"We must ensure that reunion happens, Ms. Groves," Harold said. "Or we could never get Ms. Shaw back."
6:40pm - In the Restaurant
A waitress brought Bo a glass of water. Bo nodded at her, giving her a warm smile and a "thank you".
Taking a sip from her glass, Bo checked her phone. A new text was there, from Tamsin; the Valkyrie told her that she would be late for their date because of a case and that she'd make up to her in bed tonight.
Bo chuckled and texted her back. After she hit the "send" button, she raised her head, only to find that the waitress was still standing next to her.
"Oh, I'm afraid that it'll take a few minutes for my fiancé to show up," Bo told her. "I'd like to take a look at the menu, if that's okay?"
The waitress didn't answer her. She just smiled at Bo. It was a smile too weird for Bo to dismiss.
Bo thought that the woman was about to tell her that either she had to order now or to give up the table, but the waitress just tilted her head to one side and stared at Bo. Her eyes became hollow dark sockets, and her red hair was suddenly coated in a sheen of silver.
Bo clenched her jaw and reached for her weapon immediately, but then the woman spoke to her.
"Your life ends in 60, 59, 58..." the woman counted, her voice like metal objects grinding each other.
"Huh?" Bo asked as she leaned in.
The woman just kept counting down like a robot. When the number "33" came out from her mouth, she paused and turned to the door.
Bo frowned and glanced at the door too. A woman had just walked in. She was stunning, but other than that, Bo saw nothing abnormal about her. Turning back to her waitress, she asked, "is this some sort of joke? If it is I sure as hell don't find it funny."
The waitress' face had changed back to normal. She huffed out a light laugh, before she told Bo, "excuse me." Then, she vanished.
Bo froze. Before she could do anything, someone walked by her and knocked her glass off the table.
Bo bent down to pick it up, and she touched someone's finger that was already on the glass. She raised and realized that it was the woman who had just entered the restaurant.
The woman gave her a smile. Bo thought she'd apologize, but instead the woman told her, "stay down."
"Wha-" Bo murmured, but was cut off by a deafening sound. The chatter among the customers immediately stopped. A dead silence filled the air, but only for a split second, before screams burst out from the panicking crowd.
The restaurant had turned into a chaos all of a sudden. Everyone was running, hiding, looking for a shelter.
Bo tried to straighten herself to take a look, but the woman beside her forced her down. "Stay down," she repeated.
Right after that, the sound came again. This time, Bo had realized that it was a gunshot.
It fired again, and somehow shattered a whole piece of glass. The shards fell on Bo, and she covered her head with her forearms. She reached for her cellphone, wanting to warn Tamsin, but the woman knocked it off her hand and grabbed her arm firmly.
"This way," she told Bo, pulling her behind the bar counter, then to the kitchen.
"What happened? And who are you?" Bo yelled as she ran.
"Someone who'd make sure you stay alive tonight," the woman answered loudly and ducked behind the dishwashing machine in the kitchen. "Stay down," she commanded Bo for the third time, before she pulled out two guns. She stood up and fired at the exit of the kitchen.
Bo didn't realize that someone was ambushing r them at the exit of the kitchen until she heard the sound of someone over there firing back. She peeked out from the side and saw two people shooting at them, one male and one female.
"What the hell is going on? Who are they?" Bo asked the woman beside her.
"You've been targeted, by the Samaritan," the woman answered her.
Who the hell is Samaritan?! Bo thought in great frustration. She had too many questions right now, and she knew sitting here and waiting wouldn't give her the answers.
She took another peek at the two, and realized that they were changing magazines. "Cover me," she whispered to the woman, before she leaped over the dishwashing machine and dashed to the two.
The woman did what she had been told to do and forced their enemies back by shooting at them. Bo took the chance and rushed to them, until she was close enough to grab their collars.
Both struggled, one shoving the gun at her stomach, the other pointing the gun at her head. Before they could pull the triggers though, Bo started to drain their Chi. Soon they both dropped on the ground unconscious.
"Wow," the woman appeared behind Bo as she tucked her guns behind the back of her waist. "I didn't know you are that good."
"I got skills," Bo said with a smile.
"Good," the woman said as she dragged Bo to the closest car. "We need to go," she shoved Bo into it, and then got into the driver seat.
"Who are you?!" Bo asked. It was the only question that she was able to ask. Too much had happened to her in the past 20 minutes, and she didn't even know where to start other than asking about the identity of the woman who appeared to have saved her life..
"You can call me Root," the woman told her as she started the car.
6:55pm - On the Road
The moment they arrived at the intersection of the back alley and the main road, several cars came at them.
"Make sure we don't crash," Root commanded as she pulled out her guns again.
If Bo hadn't understood the meaning of it, she immediately got it when Root rolled down the driver side window and started to shoot the people in the cars around them with both guns. Bo reached to hold the steering wheel and tried to maneuver them away from the cars.
"Who are those people? What do they want? Are they trying to kill me?" Questions fired through Bo's lips as she jerked their car away from an SUV. However, her voice got drowned by the sound of guns firing, glass breaking and car crashing.
She raised to take a glance at outside, and saw that a car had crashed into a lamp post. The driver on it had a bullet hole between his eyebrows, and he lolled to the side, his blood sprayed on the window.
"Let's go," Root said as she grabbed the steering wheel. She made a sharp turn, forcing their car to squeeze through two of the cars that were after them. When they were between two cars, she shot the tires of the car on their left, and then shot the other car's driver, before she drove away.
7:10pm - Ithaca Corp Building
Root took Bo into a 4-floor business building. Two security guards were at the front desk. One of them were dozing, while the other one greeted them absentmindedly.
He paused when he saw the butt of Root's gun sticking out from under her jacket. A look of horror on his face, and he grabbed the phone. Bo immediately held his hand and convinced him not to make any calls.
Seconds later, he fell back into his chairs with a stupid smile on his face. The other guard woke up shocked. Before he could do anything, Root knocked him out with the butt of her gun.
Bo gaped at the two guards, before she mumbled, "what-why did you take me here again?"
"Because, she told me so," Root answered her, before she shoved Bo into the elevator.
"Shouldn't we call the police or something? Like...I mean, people were shooting at us!" Bo said. The word "police" suddenly reminded her that Tamsin was supposed to meet her at that restaurant. She searched for her phone, but soon realized that she had dropped it.
"Do you have a phone that I can borrow?" She asked Root. "I really need to call my fiancé."
"Don't worry," Root said as she pressed the button to the roof. "I promise that you'll see her later."
- Meanwhile at the Restaurant -
Tamsin barely took in the shattered glasses, panicking crowds, the police and the reporter, before she jumped off her truck and rushed to Dyson who was questioning one of the waiters at the restaurant entrance.
"What happened?" She asked the Wolf.
"There has been a sniper who shot at someone in the restaurant apparently, and gunfights around the back door," Dyson said as he pointed at the building across the street, then the restaurant, "Three customers and five employees of the restaurant were injured, Two in critical condition."
"Where is Bo? Have you seen her?" Tamsin asked, searching for the brunette vigilantly in the crowd.
"I don't know...wait, why are you asking about Bo? Was she here?" Dyson stopped writing on his notepad.
"We were supposed to meet here and have dinner," Tamsin said, her heart dropping when she saw Bo's yellow car parking on the side of the restaurant. "She texted me that she arrived here at 6:50."
"I haven't seen her. She wasn't among those who were sent to hospital," Dyson said.
Tamsin looked around before she entered the restaurant. She called Bo, and heard the brunette's ringtone nearby.
She found Bo's phone on the floor among some broken glasses. Blood spatters were not too far away from it. She bit her bottom lip and took a few deep breaths.
Dyson came in and smelled the blood. "Not hers," he told the blonde, before he sniffed in the air and held on to Bo's subtle scent among the smell of blood, food, sweat and lingering adrenaline. He followed it and entered the kitchen.
Bullet shells scattered everywhere in there, but he didn't see any blood.
"I guess she made out fine," Tamsin said as she tilted her head towards two drained people outside the exit.
"Yeah..." Dyson murmured, sniffing. He noticed a second scent that was accompanying Bo's. He followed the smell all the way to the back alley behind the restaurant before he said, "someone was with her."
"Well, obviously, otherwise where did she pull a gun out and shoot at those two?" Tamsin grunted as she pointed at the bullet holes on the frame of the back door.
They walked out, and saw a car that had crashed into the lamp post at the intersection not too far away from them. They rushed over, and saw tire tracks, more bullet shells and blood.
Dyson ran to the car and checked. Other than a dead driver, he didn't see anyone else. "She wasn't here," he told Tamsin after he sniffed the inside.
"Tell me something that I don't know already, Dyson."
"Okay," the Wolf replied. "Do you know that they went that way?" He tilted his head to the street to his left.
7:20pm - In the building
Bo and Root exited the elevator, and were greeted by a gate locked by a codelock. The red led light on the top of the lock blinked every once in a while.
"It's locked. Let's go back," Bo said.
"No, we need to go up to the roof," Root told her, stopping her from leaving.
"We can't. It's locked," Bo said as she pointed at the lock.
Root tilted her head and grinned. "You do know that codelocks can be hacked, don't you?"
"Yeah, of course I do, but wouldn't that take a lot of time like...hours or something?" Bo asked. "You need to try every 6 digit combination until you find the correct one, right?"
"Yes," Root said as she took out her phone and put it beside the lock.
"Aren't there a lot of combinations, like...millions of them?"
"One million, to be exact. Do you know how long it would take to crack that if you apply MapReduce scheme through a temporarily formed cloud of 1 million computers?"
Bo opened her mouth, unable to come up with an answer. Then, the beeping from the lock answered for her. The red light turned green, and the door was unlocked.
Root gave Bo a smirk, before she grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.
Bo followed her out to the roof, confused by the purpose of Root bringing her here since there was no way for them to go other than going back through the door they had just entered. She was about to ask that question, but two approaching helicopters interrupted her.
The helicopters came close, before a dozen people descended from them with ropes.
Root dragged Bo behind the A/C unit block, just in time to dodge the firing bullets.
"We need to go back!" Bo told her. "There's no way out here!"
"Yes, there is," Root said. "Just have a little faith."
Bo heard the people approaching and the guns had stopped firing for a short while. Then, the door behind them was slammed open and Tamsin ran in.
The members of the mysterious team that was after Bo immediately held their guns up, only to meet Tamsin's darkened eyes and shadowed Valkyrie face.
"You have failed me miserably," Tamsin said to them, stepping forward while looking through every member that was in front of her. "You should be ashamed."
Bo heard confused murmurs, and guns dropping. She cautiously peeked out from behind the block and saw everyone in front of Tamsin shaking under her Valkyrie power. She took a glance at Root, wondering how she would explain that to a human, but soon realized that Root was talking to someone on her phone.
Bo peeked out again. This time the members were staring blankly at the Valkyrie.
"Turn around," Tamsin commanded them. "Walk."
Everyone started to walk towards the edge of the roof. Right before they were too close to fall, Tamsin commanded, "Stop."
And so they stopped at the very edge of the roof, looking into the night sky with no expressions on their faces.
"Good," Tamsin commented. "Now stay."
She made sure that those people obeyed her orders, before she ran to Bo. Taking the brunette into her arms, she asked, "what are you doing here? Who are those people? What happened?"
"I have no idea," Bo told her. Then she turned to find Root, only to see the woman standing at the edge of the roof.
"Whoa!" Bo yelled, about to go to her side and to pull her back. Before she had moved, the door opened again, and two people walked out.
It took Bo a few seconds to finally be able to talk again. "Dad…?" She murmured, beyond shocked that one of them was her father.
"Isabeau?" The man had an equally shocking look on his face. He eyed Tamsin, then Root, and then all the others standing at the edge. The man who was with him, now tilted his head at the door to Root.
Root walked to him, and they both smiled at Bo before they left without saying a word.
"Hey, wait!" Bo yelled, but those soon had already disappeared.
Bo sighed and rolled her eyes, before she turned to her father. She swallowed hard as she carefully examined him, in order to figure out whether he was really her father or the man she had seen in Lisa's memory.
"So this is why that man has dragged me here," the man commented. He walked towards Bo but stopped in the middle. He reached his hand out as if he wanted to hold her, but he paused when he saw the cautious look on Bo's face.
"How are you…?" He asked Bo, his voice a little shaking.
"I'm...ummm...confused, I guess," Bo answered after she made sure that he wasn't the man in Lisa's memory since there was no scar on his face. "I...ummm...do you have a twin brother, dad?"
"A twin brother? Why would you ask that?" The man seemed beyond shocked.
"Do you have one, or not?"
"I do. I mean, I did," the man answered after a long, heavy sigh. "I had a twin brother, but he died when he was 5."
TO BE CONTINUED...
