ROOT POV
The events of the past twenty-four hours flummoxed Root as she weaves herself past the masses of people walking down the street of midtown and yet she's completely enthralled by what happened. Someone with the ability to stop her is a worthy opponent in her books. She has no clue how to say what she's feeling other than exciting confusion. All there is to do is to find out who's on the other side of the board.
She comes to a halt in front of a small coffee shop. This looks like the perfect spot for her to use before ditching disabling the laptop's networking functions. Entering the shop, she went to order a cup of coffee and sat down at a table by the window overlooking the busy street.
With her laptop on the table, she began to look through the data she scrapped from the honeypot she infected her opponent's computer. One of the cute baristas stops by her table to give her coffee and Root gave a polite thanks with an accompanying wink to the woman.
The amount of data she got from that honeypot wasn't much, which she blames on the rather shitty university dorm Wi-Fi speed, but her malware was tuned to gather important files first before everything else. She put aside the files that were corrupted when her opponent shut down his computer. There might be something salvageable data from those files, but that's for a later date.
There's also the data she took from her opponent's phone that has call logs but it's only phone numbers and she doubts any competent person would keep those phone numbers after knowing it's compromised. Also, there's the audio she taped of her opponent talking to his lackey, but that didn't contain any pertinent information that she wanted.
As she gives a cursory glance at each file, she spots a name that comes up multiple times. Harold Finch. Is this her new opponent? Her opponent that just magically knew what she was planning and stopped it?
In one of the files that has Harold's name, there's an IRC onion address. She could feel the smirk forming on her lips by the opportunity this presents. She's sure this Harold wouldn't mind for her dropping by to greet him. It would be terribly rude of her to not do so.
She opens up her IRC client and joins the server anonymously.
/HELLO
/FBI PAID ME A VISIT. GOOD THING I TRAVEL LIGHT…
That's a good icebreaker introduction. Let's hope he's fun.
\WHO ARE YOU?
Not the worst response, but it's just kinda generic and not fun.
She'll let it slide since he doesn't know her, and she hasn't uncovered who he is yet.
/MY NAME? I'VE HAD A FEW. YOU CAN CALL ME ROOT.
\DID YOU KILL MATHESON?
He cares more about the death of that bad code rather than how she found his private IRC server? That tells her his priorities and his motivation for stopping her yesterday. What an interesting person.
/MATHESON WAS WEAK. I MERELY ACCELERATE THE INEVITABLE.
\WHY DID YOU CONTACT ME?
Isn't that obvious? Why else would anyone contact someone who mess with their plans?
/I WANTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE A WORTHY OPPONENT.
She wonders if he would magically stop her again or the more likely scenario is she finding him, causing her to smile wider and types.
/AND SAY I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT TIME.
Root waited a moment for any response, but it doesn't look like he's much of a talker. How about a small kick?
/. . . HAROLD.
Let the game begin.
Root quickly disconnects from the IRC server and disable her laptop networking before closing it. Time to regroup and resupply. She exits the coffee shop after drinking her cup of java and calls for a taxi.
"145 San Remo." Root said to the taxi driver as she entered the back seat, and the driver took off without another word.
She wonders how Su would react if this Harold magically stopped her. A few years ago, she would have said that Su would go into a fit of rage, but now she doesn't seem to do that anymore. Now she smiles when one of her plans that she never tells her about fails. It's like she's doing some kind of friendly competition and enjoying seeing whatever plans she comes up with succeed or fail. Odd, really, but not an unwelcome change.
It only took a few minutes to reach the apartment building. She couldn't help but always smile at the building. For someone who's always on the move, it feels nice to have a nest to always come back to. Even if she doesn't consider it much of a home and Su doesn't even think about it like that at all, despite 'living' there for 15 years. For Root, it just doesn't have the same feel as the home she and mom lived in, even if it was just a rundown trailer home. Hell, even in the short few years they had with the club house felt homelier than this.
Stepping through the automated door into the safe house, and went straight up the two flights of stairs to the library. Upon entering the library floor, she spots Su sitting cross-legged on the armchair near the window, with her headphones on, while typing away on her laptop. The brunette must have returned from wherever she had to go after Root left the safe house.
Not wanting to tear her friend's attention from whatever scheme she's cooking up, Root went to one of the shelves that's filled with spare laptops and grabbed one of them. She takes a moment to inspect the laptop and sees that it's obviously a ThinkPad, then she looks back at the shelf to see it's filled with ThinkPads. She shakes her head in amusement at the display before her. Despite the hundreds of laptop options available to her friend, the other brunette continues to get these bulky laptops rather than getting newer thin & light notebooks.
Can't really call her a big blue fangirl anymore since she doesn't exclusively use their products anymore. The only IBM product she still uses regularly is her model M keyboard that's on every desktop in this safe house and every other safe house Root has been to. Root wasn't even sure where she got all of those keyboards, since all of them looked brand new.
Turning around to take a seat at her usual place in the library, she spots Su curiously looking up from her laptop with a warm smile on her and takes off her headset.
"Something wrong with your current laptop?" Su asked her as she sat down on the couch to the left of Su and put her bag on to the side.
Root shook her head and said playfully. "It might have caught a bug, can't be too careful~."
"Must be serious if you're being cautious." Su said with a raised eyebrow. "I guess you got the bug while you're on the job. So, how did it go?"
Should she tell her what had happened?
Honestly, she doesn't know what happened to herself and is curious to figure it out.
Nah, not until she knows what happened.
"How did you miss the news that 'your' congressman was killed on television?" Root asked back with her head curiously tilted to the side.
"Because I don't watch the news?" Su answered with a shrug. "And I've never voted, so he's not my congressman~." She ended it with a smirk.
Well, that first part was bullshit. The shorter brunette is one of the most informed persons she has ever met, and yet she claims to have not seen the news.
Okay, that assessment might be a bit harsh. Su keeps claiming that she never lies to her and yet she continues to hide her words in doublespeak. She must get her information from somewhere. Either from Pauling or she created some kind of software to curate all the news for her.
"Killed the congressman and got the job done…" Root said without showing her annoyance and laying her leg on the couch. "But the client killed himself the day after, screwing up the plan and freeing the patsy."
"Well, that sucks. Did he at least pay you before kicking the bucket?" Su asked.
Su might not care about money, but she sure as hell care about people paying what is due on time and if they don't, she would kill them. Such an odd quirk of her friend's personality and when she asked about it, Su's answer was its rude to not pay things on time.
Not that money matters to either of them. When she takes money from a job, it's mostly so she gets interesting jobs rather boring ones. If she wanted to, she could have just taken all of her client's money from their banks and liquidated any of their assets.
"Sadly, no. He blew his brains out before paying the other half of the contract." Root said with a pout. "He must have regretted his life choices."
Su shook her head in disappointment and said. "Client these days are so unreliable." She pointed a finger at her. "Let me tell you, back in the 90s, everyone paid on time and not one killed themselves before paying in full."
Root rolled her eyes and snorted at that response. Su really likes to retell some of the enjoyable jobs she did in the 90s. Something about there were more interesting things to do back then and how people were more docile.
It could be that she had more fun time after leaving her in that hellhole and wants to share it with her as some sort of sick atonement.
It's like she's an old cranky granny that reminisce the past and is not just a year older than herself. Wait… does that mean she sounds like an old woman too and she just never notices it?
God, she hopes not. Gotta ask Pauling about it the next time they cross paths.
"Sadly, I missed out on the first half of the 90s." Root said, making a jab at Su while making a pouting face. "But.. when I was old enough, I went to Dallas first."
"Oh, yeah?" Su's eyes light up at that comment. "Had fun, did ya?"
The 19-year-old Root was quite a different person to the Root now, but…
"I did pop my blackmail-coercion cherry," Root said with a smirk as turns on the new laptop. "So, I guess I had some fun in the 90s too."
She didn't have to take that Dallas contract, since it didn't even pay that much -not that she was strapped for cash or anything- but it gave her an excuse to stretch her wings away from that shithole of a town when mom has her brief bouts of stability and clarity.
It wasn't the first time she blackmailed someone, but it was the first time she did it in person, and those two different ways of blackmailing a person have a unique feel to it. One was sterile and the other one felt so raw. To be able to see and feel the reaction of bad codes always lives a good feeling in her.
"That's great." Su said with a wide smile before turning back to her laptop. "I remembered my first in person blackmail. I was fourteen, back when I operated out of Louisiana." Su gave a small snort to her herself. "The guy pissed himself."
When she was 14? She really didn't waste any time after leaving her. Also, Louisiana? She was just a state over from her.
Also, who the fuck takes a threat from a 14-year-old seriously? She must have gotten some nuclear level dirt on the person she's blackmailing.
How long did she work out of Louisiana? Was it two years? If so, then that meant they were in the same state all those years ago…
Every time Su told her about the past, it was never in detail. Mostly the generality of the jobs and what she did. Never on how old she was or where the job took place. So, what's with the change?
Looking at her friend, she can see Su contently humming away while typing on her laptop. Root can't say that she's happy or sad, but Root can clearly see she's having a fun time doing whatever the fuck she's doing.
"So, what'cha doin'?" Root asked innocently as she opens her original laptop.
Balancing two laptops on her body while spread out on the couch isn't the most ergonomic position she's in, but she is too committed in this position to get up and sit on the desk.
"Oh, you know," Su said, as if Root gets what she's saying. "Nothing special. Just the usual planning and organizing."
Root deadpanned at the other brunette's absurdly transparent non-answer before shaking her head in disappointment. She ought to ask Su what she's been doing with all the clock & dagger shit in the past two years, but if Su doesn't want to talk about it, she won't push it. Everyone has their secrets, even if she's curious about what has gotten her friend's attention.
Silence descends on the library as both women make themselves busy with their respective self-imposed task.
So, who are you, Harold Finch? And how did you find out my plans?
Days turn into weeks as she just sat in the safe house alone -Su comes and goes throughout the time- as Root pours over every single file she ripped out from Harold's computer, and most of the things in those files weren't really important to the game she's playing. The most important thing she found was the multiple identities that Finch used throughout the years.
She did background checks on each identity Harold had and most of them were throwaway identities, but she narrowed it down to three identities that he used the most. Which is: Harold Wren is an insurance underwriter; Harold Finch is a recently unemployed low-level software developer and Harold Martin was a freelance developer who is also a docent at the Guggenheim, who's declared dead in 2010.
Curiously, there are a lot of files on Harold's computer referencing or files on IFT and surprise, surprise, Mr. Finch worked at IFT before he became unemployed. Getting access to IFT HR wasn't hard at all, just had to go out and fish some tech illiterate people working in IFT HR department. From there, she finds that Finch has worked there for 17 years and barely got anywhere on the promotional ladder. Which means that man is dumb as bricks or has ambitions of a sloth and both options doesn't sound like the man that foiled her plan. That meant the Finch identity was just another cover for him to work in IFT.
That brings her back to the other identities he frequently used. Wren was best friends with Nathan Ingram, whom he met when they both were studying computer science in MIT and Wren is the godfather to Nathan's son. According to MIT records, Wren was a brilliant & talented student along with Nathan, and someone named Arthur Claypool. The biggest smell of horseshit in Wren's story is that he dropped out to be an insurance agent in the same year Nathan dropped out to found IFT. Anyone with two brain cells could connect the dots that says Harold co-founded IFT with Nathan and hid in plain sight as a low-level developer in IFT.
Harold must be one paranoid bird to fly through all of those hoops to create such a mirage. He could even give Su a run for her money to see who's more paranoid. Nevertheless, that paranoia might have been justified. Since Harold Martin was declared missing & dead at the same incident that claimed Nathan's life. Isn't it just convenient that the founders of one of the largest tech companies in America just happened to be at the same pier where a lone jihadist decided to blow himself up?
She tries to not believe in coincidence in life and the both of them being in the area where a terrorist attack occurred sounds too good to be true. That smells like a hit job on the both of them. She would know since Su and Pauling have said they did something similar in the past. However, what was the motivation for that hit? There must be something else in play.
All of these paints a portrait of her worthy opponent, but it still doesn't explain how Harold just magically knew what she planned to do, and she does not believe in magic.
So, she circled back to IFT and found in the HR files that the company laid off half of its workers from the period of 2001-2005. From there she has to see what happened in that time period, so she did the same thing as before and got access to IFT accounting department and saw the company was burning cash for R&D like it's no one's business.
The amount of money that was used could have built multiple server farms…
Or one huge fucking supercomputer…
At that moment, she felt like she was witnessing some kind of revelation. A sense of clarity to the thing that has plagued her for weeks, as if the jigsaw puzzle came together to show her the rough complete picture. The layoffs, the secrecy, and the hit job, it's all connected.
She quickly checks IFT's accounting department for sales, specifically in the year 2005 and specifically sales to the US government. What she found was a sales agreement between IFT and the US federal government for technology consultancy services for the price of one dollar.
Technology consultancy services sounds like the biggest bullshit procurement name in history, but the name doesn't matter. What matters was the price, and the only reason why anyone would sell something for one dollar was because the value of what they sold was priceless.
She remembered something she read while she was stuck in that Texan hellhole: DuPont charged the US government one dollar for their work on the Manhattan Project. Their motivation for that price was one part the fear of backlash on war profiteering, one part patriotism and one part building the impossible and achieving something beyond all conceivable reach. It cost DuPont 350 million in 1940s dollars and by the end of the war; the company relinquish all patents that were involved in creating the world's first large scale nuclear reactor.
Unless Root somehow misses a world war scale event in the period between 2001-2005, she can safely rule out that IFT's motivation was afraid of war profiteering. That left her with two possible motivations, which were patriotism and building the impossible.
From everything she read of the late Nathan Ingram and Harold Finch, their motivation for creating IFT was the most avarice reasons. None of their past contracts with the US government was ever on the cheap side of things; they ripped the US government's eyes out on their fees. Unless 9/11 gave them the patriotic boner like most of the country, patriotism isn't their motivation to price it one dollar.
That left her with only one possible motivation left, which was something she couldn't believe, something she didn't think possible since she was a kid back in that hellhole laying on the bed with her best friend thinking of the most outlandish of ideas they would do together.
She knew the government spent billions of dollars trying to build something to protect its panic sheep. Never in her wildest dreams could she imagine they would pull it off.
A system that monitors everyone.
However, the government didn't pull off the impossible. No, the two people who the government clearly tried to kill to keep their silence pulled it off, but at that point, she still couldn't believe that anyone could have pulled it off. It just felt so unbelievable and not to tout her own horn, it would be incredibly hard even for her to create such a system on her own.
At that moment, she needed confirmation if Harold and Nathan pulled it off; She needed to see if they're good enough to create the thing she imagines they created. She doubts that she could see the code of the system that somehow just knew what she was planning since it's most likely squirreled away in some big ass data center. So, she has to get the next best thing; she needs to see the code they had written while working at IFT.
She tried to access the IFT's developer server through the HR and accounting department, but every attempt she tried failed, causing her to get out from her hidey-hole and jaunt to Murray Hill that night without any preparation other than adding herself to the building's system by the way of the HR department.
It barely took her an hour in that tower for her to gain access to everything she needed and carted herself back to the safe house to check everything.
If there's one thing she can commend about IFT is that they sure are diligent in organizing and saving every software build, every documentation and every file since the beginning of the company.
So began her review of every code that the two co-founders of IFT have written. She started with the easiest one to search for, which was Nathan's and that's where the winding path showed itself to her. The code Nathan written in the early years of IFT seemed to be written by two different people and that only meant that the co-founders shared authorship.
In the first category, which she helpfully labels as Nathan 1, the person is incredibly talented and an immensely competent programmer. However, it's not the greatest programming she had ever seen, but he's better than 99.999% of programmers out there. Going through the code Nathan 1 did throughout the years, she could see that over the years Nathan 1's programming acumen slowly deteriorates, the talent was still there but it would seem he was busier with other things. Then by the late 90s he barely codes anymore.
The second category is Nathan 2, and he's a completely different beast of a developer. When she first looked at Nathan 2's code, it became obvious that she was confronted with the work of a coding genius. Nathan 2's talent shines through every line, demonstrating a level of expertise that is rare and exceptional.
Root was struck by the elegance and efficiency of Nathan 2's code. Each function and algorithm is thoughtfully created, exhibiting an incomparable mastery of programming principles. Nathan 2 effortlessly employs advanced data structures, clever algorithms, and precise logic to solve complex problems with ease. Root marvels at the ingenuity and creativity that permeates throughout the codebase.
What makes Nathan 2 different is his knack for not only solving issues, but doing it in a graceful and understandable way. Their code is a work of art, with precise and brief documentation, neatly structured modules, and intuitive naming conventions. It is a testament to their commitment to producing not just functional code, but code that is a pleasure to read and maintain.
Beyond Nathan 2's technical proficiency, Root notices a consistent pattern of innovation in Nathan 2's work. He was not content with merely solving problems using conventional methods; instead, he pushed the boundaries and explored uncharted territory. She detects occasions when Nathan 2 has designed new algorithms or applied cutting-edge technologies, representing an intrepid quest for new ideas and a relentless ambition to stay ahead of the curve.
Despite the complexity and intricate construction of his code, Nathan 2's work still runs smoothly and efficiently. He watches over his wise use of resources, avoiding unnecessary calculations and decreasing overhead wherever possible. This high level of optimization reveals a high level of understanding of efficiency and a great insight into the connections between hardware and software.
The code she was reading enthralled Root, yet it suddenly ended in the mid-90s, when Nathan 2 stopped writing code under Nathan's name, and she knows exactly why that happened. The mid-90s was the time Harold Finch appeared in IFT's record.
She quickly checked Harold's codes in the IFT database and found every single code he wrote under the name Finch was entirely mediocre piles of shit compared to what she read earlier… but even in those piles of shit Root could see a pattern. It's exactly the same pattern of writing code that Nathan 2 had, if Nathan 2 had a lobotomy.
From that she looked for names Harold would use to continue to write code for IFT and found several identities he used. Each codebase she from Harold is the same as Nathan 2's code, all of them were remarkable.
That confirmed Harold was Nathan 2 and Harold was the brains behind all of IFT's technological prowess. The only way she could describe Harold is that he's a genius, who was born to write code. However, Harold stopped writing new or updating any code on September 12, 2001, a day after the world stopped for many people and motivation to build a system that's able to see everyone. Yet it doesn't just surveil. No, this system went a step further and can predict people's behavior or plans.
To make a system understand human behavior, the system needs to be at least as smart as a human.
And she believes that Harold Finch is the only person with the ability to create such a thing.
He created a machine that's as smart as a human or smarter than a human.
At that moment, she could feel her heart beating so fast at the revelation.
The creation of intelligence.
The birth of a life.
She felt like the ground behind her shifted at the seismic movement of humanity's future and Harold brought that future. It feels like what people in that hick of a town would describe as a come to Jesus moment for her.
A life that was built to be perfect, beautiful, and rational.
The only perfect lifeform in an imperfect world that's filled with bad code.
An artificial super intelligence.
An omniscient and omnipresent being.
The closest thing to a god in this world.
This is such a world shifting event for her.
… No, it's a world shifting event for everything and everyone on this pathetically boring rock.
When she started this little game all those weeks ago, Root was just curious as to how Harold figured out her plan. What she really did not expect was to find a perfect being of the future.
Root wasn't sure how to process this new earth-shattering information as she stared off into the distance with her laptop on her while she laid on the couch and zoned out.
A sound off in the distance tries to pull her back, but it wasn't enough.
Then pressure and a shake on her shoulder ripped her out of her trance. Root's head snapped in the direction of her intruder and saw the worried face of her friend.
She glanced back at her laptop and saw the screen was black and it took a lot of energy to not sigh in relief.
Good, Su didn't see what was on her screen. Root does not know why she was even relieved at the fact that Su doesn't know what she knows. She knew if given the chance, the both of them would joyfully jump at the chance to find this perfect being, since they both have dreamed of creating one in the past, but she has this feeling that she needs to keep this close to her chest.
Also, how long did she disassociate? Why did she even disassociate?
"You good? What happened?" Su asked with her voice laced with worry.
"I'm more than perfect." She said without skipping a beat,
What she said wasn't a lie. She felt like there was a fire burning in her at the thought of something that was in the realm of science fiction, but was now is within her reach. "When did you come back?" Root asked with an uncontrollable smile.
Su gave her a skeptical look before answering. "Like a minute ago?"
Root gave a hum as her mind was preoccupied with a million thoughts about the information she had just discovered.
Her brunette friend frowned at the response, or the lack of response Root was giving.
"Are you actually okay? Because you looked like you saw a ghost." Su asked again as she made the walk the small distance to her armchair near to the couch Root was occupying.
A ghost? Those doesn't exist but a ghost in the machine on the other hand…
"Oh, you know how it is… Losing myself in deep thought." Root replied offhandedly, and then she asked. "You're done with whatever you were doing?"
Su gave a slight nod. "Uhuh, got all of my ducks in a row." She answered in the vaguest way possible and gave her a slight smile as she took out her laptop from her bag.
Silence came between the two of them as Su busied herself on her laptop as usual, and Root just stared at her friend.
Her buggy code of a friend.
And the perfect code of an artificial super intelligence.
This feels like it's fate, even though she doesn't believe in fate and thinks it's fucking bullshit, but there's no other word to describe this.
What if this system, this machine or whatever the fuck it's called, is the solution to not only fix humanity but to fix her friend's code as well?
An entire lifetime of wandering around aimlessly, not knowing what to do with herself in this damned world of bad code.
Now? It looks like she has a northern star to guide her.
On a bright cool March morning, Root sat on a bench in Washington Square Park waiting for her subject to come. A ping from her Ultrabook tore her attention from the crowded park that's filled with children mingling about with their parents or guardians in tow.
Looking at her laptop to see what's the alert was about and saw Denton Weeks sent another email to one of his colleagues in the NSA. She wasn't sure why she even made an alert for every email that this bad code sent. Most of it isn't even pertinent to her goal of finding the machine, but Denton is one of the best leads for her to get information to find salvation.
The road that led her to Denton was quite straightforward. Harold was the brains behind the creation of The Machine, but isn't the most social person, so that's where Nathan came in. His contact in the government was Alicia Corwin.
That woman would have been a good source of intel for her to find The Machine, but she made herself irrelevant to her endeavor when she quits her position in the NSC not long after Nathan got blown to smithereens. Now Alicia hid herself in Green Bank, West Virginia, a small little town smacked in the middle of the National Radio Quiet Zone. That woman is misguided, she's one of the privileged few people alive that knows the existence of The Machine and yet she ran away from it.
Why would she ever run away from God? Root would never know, nor does she care.
That left her with Denton Weeks. He's the last person who was in charge of The Machine before it was set off on its merry way. What's worst was he's a disgusting man and the epitome of a bad code. The things he signed off for without a second thought just because it didn't affect him made her angry. Not because she was disgusted by what he approved of, but because someone as foul as him handled something as pure as The Machine.
Root couldn't wait for the time when she could delete that bad code from humanity, but she can't just yet. She needs to extract some vital information from him first. The best way for her to get a hold of that man is to isolate him and she just knows the best way to do that. As typical of a bad code, she found out that Denton has been having an extramarital affair with a woman named Julie Davenport, that lives outside of D.C. and records show that he owns a 'love shack' in Relton, MD. A small town by the water, the perfect romantic getaway to have an affair.
After looking through the email, she found it as dry and uninformative as usual, causing her to look back up at the coffee cart in the middle of the park and there she spots her subject, Harold. Right on schedule, as always.
For the man who created the future, he sure doesn't carry himself as the father of artificial intelligence. She could only describe Harold as meek -even if he's meek, he wears a suit that would cost an average person's monthly wage -, but that doesn't mean the man isn't assertive. It seems like her time in Sunday school wasn't at all worthless. What was that phrase again? The meek will inherit the earth? Sounds apt enough. He did create the being that will inherit this earth.
She continues to look at the meek genius as he sits down on the bench with his usual sencha tea in hand with a direct view of townhouse no. 9, waiting to catch a glimpse of something he just couldn't grasp. Despite his enormous wealth of resources and intellect, he still couldn't get the one thing that's the dearest to him in the entire world.
Right on cue, a red head woman exited the townhouse of interest. Grace Hendricks, a shy woman with a very, very small social circle -sounds exactly like Harold here- and the ex-fiancée of one Harold Martin. When she first found out about poor Grace here, she couldn't believe that Harold used another false identity to have a relationship with this woman. Talk about paranoia. It seems like no one actually knows fully the real man; Nathan knew the programming genius that is Harold and Grace here knew the loving human side of Harold.
Looking back at Harold, she raised her camera she had on beside her and took pictures of her subject and her subject's person of interest. There's a pained expression on the genius's face as he looks longingly at the only person he loved walking down the street to do her usual daily routine.
Root wasn't sure if what Harold was doing was sweet, pathetic or sad, or was it a combination of all three. The man chose his fate the day he faked his own death to 'protect' poor Grace there. Well, technically Harold Martin was declared dead when his body couldn't be found after the explosion that killed Nathan. Which she was 100% certain was a hit job since Nathan contacted a journalist just before his death. She could easily conclude what he was trying to do.
After she first discovered/read everything Harold had written, she couldn't help but admire the man who created God. She built up an image of a messianic ideal man in her mind, but that was before she dug deeper into his professional and personal life. Harold is a lot like her in some ways as well as a sprinkle of Su in him, and neither of them are the ideal people.
Like her, Harold has been running away from something for his entire adult life and he clearly has a hard time understanding people. Also, what he did to Grace was a reflection of what Su had done to Root.
There's a disappointed look on his face as Grace left both of their views and he gets up to walk away in the other direction.
Root couldn't feel a single ounce of sympathy for Harold for the choices he picked, but she does feel a smidge of sympathy for Grace from what Harold had put her through. Oh sure, he did what he did to genuinely protect the person he loves from the people he dumbly entrusted The Machine to, but she doesn't see it that way.
In Harold's eyes, his decisions might look like they were for Grace's sake by keeping her in the dark and a self-sacrificing act, but to Root, it was selfish for him to do what he did to the person he loved. He could still fake his death to the wider world and protected grace by telling the truth, then sending her away to protect her.
Ignorance might be bliss, but it's not blissful when someone is resourceful and determined enough to break that ignorance to get to Harold. Which is something she is more than willing to do if Harold has something she needs.
She looked on at the retreating figure of the father of the future and shook her head. The man might be a genius, more so than she or Su combined. And yet he's still a man, not a perfect man, but he isn't a bad code either. He's just like a lot of other people, flawed.
Root sat in the back seat of a large SUV going down the road towards her destination with a light heart as she looked out the window to see the morning sun slowly making its way up the sky over.
"Can I take this thing off my eyes now?" Su voiced her annoyance as she sat surprisingly patiently to Root's right.
She could hear Pauling giving a slight giggle from the front passenger seat.
"Not yet~." Root said with a smirk. "And who knows, maybe you might find you like being blindfolded."
Su let out a groan and crosses her arms. "Help me Mr. driver. My friends kidnaped me, and I don't even know what state I'm in." Su deadpanned and somehow pouting at the same time.
That caused her smirk to morph into a grin as Pauling continued to giggle in the front. Good thing the driver was smart enough to keep his trap shut. She can't have some big mouth ruin all the planning both she and Pauling had done to make this happen. Root had to blank out the in-flight entertainment on Su's plane, then made sure all the windows were closed throughout the flight and Pauling told the pilots to keep their mouth shut and fly in circles so Su doesn't know where they are by the time spent in air. When they landed, they blindfolded Su before exiting the plane.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic." Root put her hands on Su's shoulder and gave a light shake. "We're almost there."
This might have been a spur-of-the-moment thing that both she and Pauling came up with as retribution for delaying their original plan.
"If I'm being dramatic, I would have hijacked the plane before we landed." Su said with a pout that Root knows it's just pretending.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. As ridiculous as it sounds, there's no doubt if Su wants to hijack her own plane, just to prove a point.
It didn't take long before the SUV slowed down as they approached the surprise location.
"We're here~." Root said sweetly as she leaned in closer to Su.
"Finally." Su said and reached for her blindfold but was stopped by Root.
"Don't be such a spoilsport." Root grabbed Su's hand and pulled her across as she opened the SUV door. "You'll know when the time is right."
Stepping out of the SUV with Su in tow, she dragged her friend to the wide open space and sees Pauling grinning wildly with a party horn in her mouth. With her hands on Su's shoulders, she guides her to the location where everything was set.
"Here we are!" Root grabs Su's blindfold and pulls it off from her head. "Happy birthday!" Root said gleefully, and Pauling blew her small party horn with her hands waving up high.
As soon as she took the blindfold off Su's head, a wave of confetti descended on them with a series of pops as the park workers did what Pauling had envisioned.
Su was quiet for a few moments before saying. "Ahhh… Disney World?"
"Ugh, come on… Can't you be more enthusiastic?" Root grumbled all the while Pauling just giggled as if she knew this was exactly what would happen -well, she probably knew it would happen like this- and the Disney workers just looked awkwardly at the scene, not knowing what to do with this situation.
"Yeehaw, Disney World?" Su said in the same tone as before.
And why the hell did her Texan accent come back for a hot second?
"You're insufferable." Root muttered and facepalmed herself. All the while Pauling is diligently shooing the crowd of Disney Workers and giving generous tips to them.
She can see Su grinning at Root before saying. "I do appreciate that you choose to start with Animal Kingdom. But… my birthday was two weeks ago."
Oh now, Su is just fucking with her and Root caught the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
"You were the one that delayed it!" Root complained. Every year since 2006, Su would delay celebrating her birthday whenever she and Pauling were planning something. She figured early on Su was deliberately fucking with her.
Su was about to retort, but Pauling cut it off with a yell.
"Come on slowpokes! The guide is here!" Pauling was near the gate as she yelled while jumping and waving her hands. That woman is vibrating with joy.
"Let's go. We don't want to disappoint Francine, do we?" Root said with a pout as she moved forward.
Root could basically feel Su rolled her eyes as she muttered. "I thought this was my birthday."
They reached where Pauling was happily talking about some cartoon Pauling watched to the guide before stopping to allow the poor worker to talk to them.
"Hi, my name is Charlie. I will be your guide for the next 12 hours." Charlie said with a huge smile plastered on her face as she shook both Root's and Su's hands. "So… which one of you is the special lady?"
Root grinned as she grabbed and shook Su's shoulders. "This sourpuss here."
"Ah, happy birthday, Miss Boule." Charlie said as she presented a ticket to Su.
"Just call me Oleander." Su said with a false smile at the guide as she take the ticket. "Shall we begin?"
"It's your birthday, so you get to decide what we do." Charlie replied, then turned to Root and presented a ticket. "Here's your ticket, Miss Neuman."
"Thank you. You can call me Julia." Root replied as she grabbed the ticket.
"Hmmm… Let's go to the safari first." Su told Charlie, who nodded and Pauling practically beaming with joy.
"Ohhh… I've always wanted to look at a lion up close." Pauling said happily.
"Aww, I wanted to go Expedition Everest first." Root pouted and draped herself onto Su. "Could we go there next?"
Su gave a light swat on Root's arm and said. "Fine, we can go there after the safari."
"That's great. If you would follow me and we'll go through the gate, then I'll guide you to your destination." Charlie said as she made a gesture towards the gates and then she walked in that direction.
"This is soo cool. I always dreamed of going to Disney World." Pauling said enthusiastically and skipped forward so she could 'walk' beside their guide.
The two old friends didn't move from their spot, and Root's arms still dangled on Su's shoulders.
"There's no reason to continue to grumpy act, Su." Root said. "You do it every year."
Su didn't reply as she glanced at Root.
"God, you should loosen up more." Root said mirthfully. "Enjoy the day. We've got a whole day of riding rides."
A grin broke on Su's face and she said. "Carpe Diam."
Root mirrored that grin widely as she said. "Come on, we gotta rescue our guide from Francine's nonstop talking."
She grabbed Su's hand, and they both rushed to the bubbly redhead who's talking the guide's ear off.
So begins the day's festivities. They started off with what Su asked for, then did what Root wanted, and then Su let Pauling choose the next attraction which caused the redhead to be over the moon with joy. Pauling chose Kali River Rapids, resulting in all of them soaked with water by the end of the ride and a slightly amused Su. They did this rotation to decide what to do next for the entire day.
By using a guide, they skipped every line in every attraction they went to and finished Animal Kingdom way before noon. They then went to Epcot, then Hollywood Studios, and finally Magic Kingdom. Throughout the day, Root could see Su was enjoying her day, but there were sparks of melancholy on her face, as did each park and every ride possible.
By the end of the day, they took their ride back to the airport since Su wasn't interested in the fireworks, which devastated Pauling, who was oh so looking forward to seeing the spectacle.
The car pulled up right at the tarmac where there's two planes waiting for them, making Root look questioningly at Su, who just gave a slight shrug as she exited the car.
"Well, this me." Pauling said with a huge smile as she points her thumb at the other private jet.
"You're flying somewhere else?" Root asked with her eyebrow quirked.
"Oh yeah, I need to be in Mexico City in…" Pauling pauses to look at her watch. "5 hours!" She ended it with a bright smile.
Isn't flying time like 4 hours from here?
"Of course, you have a job in 5 hours." Root deadpanned before turning her gaze to Su. "You seriously couldn't give her an extra day off?"
Su made an innocent gesture with her hands and said. "Don't look at me. She does her own schedule."
"Don't worry, Root! I love going to Mexico City. There's so many interesting things to do and see there." Pauling said dreamily. "And I love getting barbacoa when I'm there!"
"I guess I'll see you when I see you." Root said to Pauling, who's rocking on the ball of her heel.
"See ya! Today was amazing!" She waves her hand in goodbye to her and Su, who just nods at the bouncing ball of happiness as she skips to the other plane.
They shared a glance at each other and smiled as they walked to Su's private jet. Once inside, they took their seats opposite each other. She looks at the light pink seats and the light color interior of the jet with a small amount of abhorrence.
No matter how many times she used this jet, she couldn't get used to the fact that Su practically plastered a hundred-million-dollar plane with pink everywhere. Oh sure, she's thankful that Su didn't pick florescent pink like she would certainly do if she was 10, but it's still pink. Everything is muted pink with pastel colors in the places that's not pink. The only saving grace is the plane livery, which is a normal white and dark bottom, she couldn't imagine flying in a pink color jet.
Root would rather have the seats in black leather than this horrendous color of leather. Those cows sacrificed their lives so that they could be dyed into this tacky shade of pink. At least it's very comfy.
It didn't take long before the jet took off and reached cruising altitude. All the while, Root just looked at Su, who kept looking out the window with that melancholic look. The same look that sometimes popped up throughout the day.
Was she not happy with the day? That can't be it. She looked happy -well, as happy as she could muster- the entire day.
There must be something else.
"What's captivating your mind?" Root asked. "Something bothering you?"
Su continues to look out into the dark sky before answering. "Just some stuff about the future…"
What?
"Just thinking about the future." Said Hanna with a reassuring smile as she continue her vice grip on the chair.
Sam wasn't convinced in the slightest by that assurance, but she trusts Hanna too much to doubt her.
She could feel a pressure forming at the back of her head.
That's the same shit she said back then…
"Screw you, that's bullshit." Root snapped, causing Su to look at her with a frown.
The other brunette looked more peeved by Root's language than by not believing her. Well, she's not going to apologize.
"Tell me what you're really fucking thinking, Su." Root continued trying to not get angry.
Su's amber eyes looked away from her as if she was doubting herself and said. "Root, today was an amazing day. I don't want to do it today."
Root could feel her heart beating faster as she just continued staring at Su.
She's avoiding… That usually isn't a good sign.
"Just tell me." Root sounds so small. "Just lay it all out for me. No more double speak or avoiding."
Su cringed a bit as she looked at Root and said. "Should I? I uh, yeah. It's nothing really… and it's kinda awkward…"
"Su…" Root growled, cutting Su's rambling.
Su kept quiet for a while as she brought up her legs and hugged them as she thought of what to say. Root felt more nervous as the seconds ticked by without any response.
"I, uh… been thinking…" Su said slowly. "For a while now… that I might never find a way to plug this void in me."
She stopped trying? Giving up? That's soo unlike her… How long has she stopped trying?
Root didn't know what to say. So, she kept quiet, waiting to see if Su was going to continue or not.
"I've been thinking about what I would do after it takes away the last few things I love." Su finally continued as she stared directly into Root's eyes with eyes that reminded her of moms. The eyes of someone who has given up.
"What are you talking about?" Root quavers.
She knows exactly where this is going, but she just can't. She felt her throat tighten as she gripped the pink leather armrest.
"It already took away my love for math and programming in the last few years." A slight frown formed on Su's face. "…There aren't that many things left for it to take."
Her eyes were wide with shock. When did that happen? Why didn't she tell her about it? Sure, she saw that Su has not been coding or doing math in the past three years, but Root always attributes it as her being busy with whatever the fuck she's been doing.
"I don't know how long before I lose the drive for my current fascination." Su stops to move her jaw like it was in tension and bites her top lips. "… And I'm not sure if I want to be condemned to live a joyless life until I die."
This conversation is giving her flashbacks of what mom did. She can't be thinking of that, can she? She's too stubborn of a bitch to do it…
"So… what's the point of continuing after?" Su said in a hollow voice.
She felt her heart drop and her mind went blank for a moment.
What's the point?
She could feel her uneven breathing.
What is the fucking point?
"The point is that you have people that cares for you." Root said in a low wavering, barely audible with the sound of the engines.
The amber eyes stopped looking at her as she cast it towards the floor.
No.
NO.
She can't.
She refuses to have another person who she loves to do it again.
The pressure at the back of her head continues to build up.
She can't go through that again.
Root won't let her.
This isn't like mom. Root isn't as pathetic as Sam, who failed mom.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down so she could think clearly.
"How long have you been having this ideation?" Root asked evenly after clearing her throat.
Su looked back at Root with a slight tilt of her head and said. "In general, or now?"
In general? What the fuck?
"How many times has this shit crossed your mind?" Root questioned, with her voice a little on the higher side.
"Mmm… A number of times?" Su said, as if she was questioning herself. "Most of it was before the car crash and a bit after it."
Root clenched her jaw in anger, and she doesn't even know why she's angry. That was before Root came back, but it still affected her.
Why has she never told her about this before? Does she not trust her? Or is it another of her 'awkward' bullshit excuses?
"The episodes really sucked…" Su continued. "… and you helped fix it." Su gave a small, sad smile.
Her heart melted slightly at the acknowledgement, but she could see that Su didn't believe that she could help with this.
"Okay… Let's try something else. How about you don't do that?" Root said evenly.
Su looked at her oddly and dumbly said. "Huh?"
"It's fucking selfish of you to even consider that." Root glared.
Su scowled. "It's not, and…"
"Let me try." Root cut the brunette off.
Su hugged her legs tighter and said. "I don't know if you…"
"Give me 18 months and I'll get rid of that fucking void." Root cut her off again with the utmost confidence.
A year and a half gives more than enough margin of time for any errors in her task to find The Machine.
Su continues to just stare at her as if Root was like a weird fairy with a side dash of skeptical look on her.
"Please." Root demanded.
"Okay…" Su said quietly with a shrug. "It's not like I'm planning to do it soon. Maybe when I'm 40."
Root just nodded at that. She felt the tension build up at the back of her head loosen as her mind races on what to do next.
She needs to bring forward her plans now, even if it's a bit clunky.
Over the next month, it was a whirlwind of activity for Root as she planned out everything and made sure everything was in place. Creating a new identity without using her usual channels was quite the creative endeavor, since she couldn't implicate CSS or use the software that she & Su uses -she doubts anyone could crack Su's encryption but can't be too sure when facing the father of AI- if shit hits the fan and her plan somehow fails.
Normally, she would have just hunted down a DMV employee who does IDs on the side. It's not hard, but these people usually used referrals. So, she just asked Pauling if she knew anyone, and she gave her the best person to give her a real DMV ID, knowing full well that she has to kill the man after using him. The redhead is such a darling.
Setting up the cover was a simple affair that she had done so many times before this. Getting an office, certificates, referrals, contacts, etc. etc. The clients, on the other hand, are a bit different. Usually, she would get all genuine clients, but time wasn't on her side for this. So, she has a mix of real and 'fake' clients. Shit won't pass muster if someone gets a close sniff, but it wouldn't matter if everything goes swimmingly.
She has the route out of the city planned out and places for her to stop to grab her stuff. The only thing she needs is medication for Denton's mistress, but that could easily be acquired with a five-finger discount.
The plan to smoke out the hidden genius is also in place. Sure, it's putting her life on the line, but she's going to do everything in her power to find The Machine. Even if it kills her, not that HR has a chance in hell against her. Plus, she trust the boys would protect her as if she's a damsel in distress. Oh, how Su and Pauling would have loved to see this.
She thought about just grabbing the reclusive billionaire, but he keeps his helper monkey close to him most of the time and when he isn't with his helper monkey. The monkey would still follow him around like a good dog. She could kill the helper monkey, but that might render Harold uncooperative and having him help her is the most desirable outcome. All she has to do is convince him, and that shouldn't be too much of a problem, since he's like her in a way. If she strip away the meekness and do no harm thing he does.
The doorbell of her cover office rang, bringing her out of her musing. Getting up, she straighten her tasteful dark dress and walked to her door. Normally, an assistant would handle the door. Alas, she doesn't have time to fake one.
Opening the door, she's greeted by the sight of someone that she's been waiting for, and it took all of her years of experience to not smirk at that someone.
"Yes?" Root asked in an inquisitive tone, fulling in her cover persona.
"Are you Caroline Turing, the psychotherapist?" The helper monkey asked in his low voice.
She raised an eyebrow, then opened the door wider to look at the plaque and said. "It's on the door." She gives a meek smile. "How can I help you?"
The helper monkey gave a small smile before saying. "A colleague of mine referred me to you. If you don't mind, could I get a session now?"
She gave a mock surprised look and said. "People normally have to schedule… but I'll make an exception this one time." She put on the meek posture as she gesture for him to enter. "Please come in."
The machine truly is the next step. The hit only went out last night and now here's the helper monkey coming to save the day.
"I feel special already." The helper monkey gave a slight grin. "Thank you."
No… Thank you for being the steppingstone to find God.