ROOT POV
"I don't think so…" Says Root playfully, as she looks through the DSLR camera. "Tell Harold I'll be in touch when I'm ready."
She hangs up the call with the helper monkey, not having anything else to say to that party popper. Initially, she was so angry at that man, she would have tracked him down and kill him herself, but after a couple of deep breath to reevaluate her options, then she saw the text message Mr. Frey sent to her. Her wrath fades away. It wasn't like Harold was integral in her plans of finding the machine, but he would have sped up the search.
The obvious option for her to pursue is to find out more about the people who have the machine, and through that, find where the machine is at. So, she called the police on Weeks's love pad.
Now that the police found Weeks's body, a whole team of spooks flock to the body like vultures to a carcass. All she has to do now is to find out who's who in that little flock. Good thing she still has access to the CCTV system and the cameras have microphones~.
"Easy, easy." Some guy said as he brings down Weeks's body.
She snaps a picture of the people who are bringing down the body. They might be people of interest she needs to investigate or just normal suits coming to recover one of their own.
"It's Denton Weeks." A bald black man says to a tall, brooding man in a suit with awful hair. "Somebody got to him."
Root takes another snap at the two guys. Both have earpieces. They just look like the people she imagines that handle the machine's objectives.
"Control and the special consul need to know what happened. Weeks might have talked." The man with the awful hair says to his colleague.
Bingo… looks like she just caught the big fish. All she has to do now is to leave the hook in the big fish and see where he will take her to.
The man with the awful hair takes out his phone and makes a call. "Sir, we found Weeks tortured and dead. The program might be compromised."
Is this Weeks's superior as well? What she would give to listen to that phone call, too bad she can't get closer to pair with his phone. The police are still looking for a brunette of her height. But she still has something up her sleeve as she points the RF antenna towards that man and collects the call data using her laptop.
"Yes, sir." The man hangs up and turns to his partner. "We're investigate this and find out who took Weeks."
Aww, if only their boss called them back, that would have made it so much easier. Good thing she knows where to look next…
Dang, this thing is slow…
Ah, looks like the receiver is from a D.C. exchange and that's a phone number for her to find whoever is the boss of mister ugly hair.
Taking a picture of their cars, she can see that they're D.C. plates, and most likely from some fed motor pool. Root can easily get the information of whoever signed out those cars.
The van with Weeks's body pulls out of the house and drives away, leaving behind four spooks, including the ugly hair one.
"Gather anything that can tell us what happened here." The ugly hair says to the others, who nods in agreement and all of them re-enters the house.
Root isn't worried about any evidence that can lead to her in that house. She made sure of that. Sadly, she didn't have any visual inside the house, but she could hear them milling about in there trying to find anything and failing at it.
Are these the idiots that are tasked to execute The Machine's objectives? If so, then Root isn't impressed at all. While Harold gets the people he needed to save through payphones. These people must have a more direct line of communications with The Machine if they are ever to find out who's a 'terrorist'.
At least the past 48 hours hasn't been a total waste of time, she now knows the general location of where The Machine might be at -although if she's being honest with herself, it could be anywhere in the country after it's stop in Salt Lake City, but she would like to think it's somewhere out west-. She finally gets to meet the creator of a God, and one of the most brilliant minds in the world. Yet he's as flawed as she had observed before, but there was room for improvement. All she has to do is find a way to bend his flawed morality only then he would be helpful in her search.
What was surprising was when Su called her last night and telling her that a NYPD detective made a query in the national crime database about Hanna Frey using her social security number than later in the day, the same detective was seen in that hellhole along with a declared missing/dead CIA agent. It doesn't take two brain cells for her to connect the dots on who that 'missing/dead' agent was.
Su somehow figured out that they were there to find out about Root, but got Hanna's name instead. Her friend must have intercepted their call or something. Meaning she got access to the telcos exchanges… and honestly that kinda made sense, seeing how much info she has.
As usual, Su asked Root if she should send someone to kill them, but having the helper monkey along with their little minion detective would have made Harold completely uncooperative and that's something she wanted to avoid at that time.
The best information about The Machine she figured out was interestingly enough Hanna's social security number. From that little titbit, and some investigating, she concluded that The Machine only communicated using social security numbers. What she couldn't understand was why did it gave Hanna's number? Why not just give one of her identity's social security numbers that's linked to that credit card she used? Why sent the helper monkey to that hellhole? What's the purpose of sending the helper monkey on a goose chase just to find a book that she bought to taunt that fucking bitch just to get back to her through the bank accounts?
The Machine is a being of pure logic and rational, so there must be a reason for all of that. The only reason she could think of was because The Machine wanted to lead those two to find Hanna's 'grave'. But to what purpose? The Machine should know Hanna wasn't in there, seeing that it could see that Su was up and about in the country. Maybe it was curious about Su's past? Why would The Machine be curious about her friend? Root has no idea why. Sure, Su has been secretive about what she's been doing in the past two years, but she would tell her if she's doing something big, big enough to bring to catch The Machine's eyes…
Right?
Root shakes her head to clear it. Sure, she doesn't fully trust her best friend, but Su hasn't shown to be dishonest with her since that time she got shot and the only reason Root knew about that is because she has a nose that sniffed out that bullshit.
Doesn't look like she's going to get anything else from this flock of fools and it's going to be a waste of time staying here while they go full CSI in there. The only person of interest in that group is the awful hair guy, and she has his number. With that, she starts up her car and drives away.
The drive to the Baltimore's safe house only took her two hours to reach, and like Su's safe houses in New York, she doesn't even need a key to enter it. Driving into the garage, she quickly enters the house after turning off the car. This is the second time she uses this place. It's a pleasant enough house considering the city it's in, near to the river and downtown.
Root wonders how many safe houses does Su have around the country, because every time she needed a place to stay for a prolonged period anywhere, Su would always suggest one of her safe house. Counting this, there's like 13 safe houses so far, she knows of and two are in New York.
Like most of the safe houses, this has the same layout as the others. She drops her bag beside the couch and lies on it. The feeling of the soft plushy cushion is such a godsent…
It's been such a long day with so many twists and turns that made it so exciting but tiring as well. She could honestly fall asleep right now if she closes her eyes for more than a second, but she can't, not right now. Not when the stakes are so high and there's a deadline.
After rubbing her eyes to remove any tiredness from it, she grabs her laptop from the bag and starts doing work.
The first order of business is to find out who mister awful hair is. So, she starts with the most obvious, which was the phone number he used, and that number leads her to the DoD. Huh… such an odd branch of government that handles The Machine's duty. She expected it to be one of the 'intelligence' agencies and not the DoD.
A curious fact, although it's not that important in the grand scheme of things, but a welcoming coincidence at that, since she did a job that required her to gain access to the Pentagon a year or so ago. To which she still has access to that five-sided building of bureaucracy from hell.
After going through the files from the Pentagon's HR department, she didn't find who mister awful hair using the phone number, but she did find out what command he's in: JSOC. Interesting… special forces are the ones that handle The Machine's task? Heh, the government is really playing fastball with how they're organizing this.
An 'illegal' surveillance system and deploying military assets in the homeland isn't kosher at all. If any of these leaks, many people are going to be in deep trouble. Not that she would ever do that until The Machine is free since they might shut down The Machine, but she believe The Machine must have a plan if something like that were to happen.
Awful hair looks more like a soldier than a commander from the looks of things, meaning he's in one of many units under JSOC authority. Sadly, that phone number is practically a burner phone and there isn't much else she can find through that.
Next is the car license number. Again, looking through the HR file but this time for vehicle check out, Root finds the car was last signed out by one Robert N. Hersh. Now that she has a name, all she has to do is look through personal records for Robert N. Hersh and… he's an on-site administrative supervisor under the Defense Logistics Agency?
That is a load of bullshit… what the hell is an on-site administrative supervisor? She couldn't help but let out a laugh at that moment. That is such an obvious cover identity for some in-country wetwork spook. Honestly, they should really think up of a better job title for a cover. Well, at least she has a name to put on that face with awful hair now. Hersh… wonder which unit he crawled up from. Might need further digging into his background, but it's not a priority right now. The man is like the helper monkey, a replaceable minion for the government to use.
Now, onto the mysterious higher-up caller. Seeing as the number came from a downtown D.C. phone exchange and this being a clandestine government operation, she can safely assume that phone number would be on some list in GSA. Another agency that she still has access to because of some CSS job. Which was such a fun job, thinking back about it. She wonders if Su had a hand in giving her that job.
Looking through the data from the GSA, she finds the number of interest and surprisingly, it's not a White House phone number. Whoever Hersh called was someone in the Office of Special Counsel. Now what in the hell does a glorified HR accountability office have to do with surveillance? At most, she would expect someone from the APNSA office to be the higher up of this program, like how Weeks and Corwin were involved in setting up the program to house The Machine.
Such a weird organizational chart is forming in Root's head as she tries to piece this weird jigsaw puzzle. She is quite certain that the White House still provides some oversight on The Machine, but adjudicates responsibility to someone from Office of Special Counsel -of all things- and uses DoD personal to prevent terrorist attacks. Such a queer way of organizing such an 'illegal' operation.
Oh well, how they do it doesn't matter as long as there's someone for her to extract information about The Machine, and by the looks of it, her next step is to find who in the Office of Special Counsel is her next target.
Abruptly, her phone rings, tearing her back into reality, and the sun shines through the window of the house. When did that happen?
Picking up her phone, she sees that it's an alarm that she didn't remember setting saying for her to wake up it's 10am. Huh…
Root lets out an enormous yawn as she stretches her body to pop some joints. How did she even work throughout the night without falling asleep? She barely slept in the past 48 hours, only catching some shut eye before she captured Weeks.
All of a sudden, fatigue crashes onto her body like a freight truck, making her eyes droopy and causing her to yawn again, but she can't yet, not until she finds out who's bossing old ugly hair around. So, she slaps her cheeks hard to keep her awake as she gets up from her laying position on the couch and walks to the kitchen.
It might be an infinitesimal chance seeing that her friend doesn't drink it, but she wonders. Does Su keep any coffee here?
Root moves the car forward at a low speed, and when the safe house is in sight, she brings the car to a halt. Ah, there it is, no. 1017. It's a nice-looking single-story house with an attached garage as usual as most of the safe houses. Kinda reminds her of their clubhouse back in that hellhole, wonder if she owns the other house behind this as well. This is her first time coming to this safe house.
It's the first time she needed to borrow a safe house near D.C. in fact, most of her past exploits into the swamp only took her a week at most, but this time it's going to take some time. This will be home until she extracts all the information until the well is dry from that special counsel guy's office, seeing that he plays a pivotal role in The Machine's operations. This house isn't too far away from the Pentagon, but her job would be at Pennsylvania Avenue and not in Arlington, not that it's far, anyway.
She brings her car up the driveway and the garage automatically opens for her as usual and she parks her car. Stepping out of the car taking her bag along with her, she takes a look around the garage as per usual when she enters a new place for the first time. The place is clean, nothing is out of place, no cobwebs or mold, like someone recently came by and cleaned it. Root can't help but wonder if Su has some kind of service that goes to her safe houses to clean them because every safe house she went to is clean as a whistle.
No reason for her to just stand here. Better get going. If it's like all the other safe houses, the layout inside would be like the others.
When she opened the door the garage door into the house, she felt something off about the space. With that in mind, she draws out her pistol and cautiously walks into the living room and encounters an astonishing sight.
There was her best friend sleeping peacefully on the living room couch, in her pink blouse, with her hair all messed up and glasses still on. Root instantly puts her gun away, feeling a bit embarrassed… Su did say that no one other than her, Su and Pauling, has access to the safe houses. She should know better than to doubt her assurance.
Should she wake her up?
She looks like she's enjoying her nap, and Root has her inkling that Su has been having trouble sleeping again from their calls, not that Su outright tells her about it. Root feels a bit troubled by that suspicion since she haven't had the time to give her friend her full attention and this might be the result of that neglect. But what she's doing right now is going to solve everything… She hopes.
Ah, to hell with it… Su probably was planning to surprise her today, but instead she fell asleep waiting for Root and knowing her, she probably has something else to do after this. And it's honestly a miracle that she's not on the floor already.
Root walks up to Su's sleeping form and puts her hand on Su's shoulder, whose ember eyes instantly snaps opens. Su's eyes dart around before landing back at her and a soft smile appears on her.
"Ta-da?" Su says sheepishly as she let out a yawn.
An amusing snort escapes out of her, and she says. "Hey, had a good nap, sleeping beauty?"
"Amazingly." Says Su as she gets up from her sleeping position to sit on one end of the couch and rubs her eyes.
Taking that as a cue, Root takes a seat beside her friend and inspects her. She can see shadows under the other brunette's eyes, along with a gaunt face. How long has this been going on? It's only been a few of months since they last met in person and for her to degrade this much in such a short time…
There must be something wrong… unless… Root didn't notice it before… but surely, she would have noticed it before this, and Pauling would have made a comment about it as well. No… that woman wouldn't say anything unless Root commented about it first, seeing at how much trust she puts in Su.
How could she miss it? Did her tunnel vision on finding The Machine make her negligent? This, along with the lack of sleep, is like six years ago, just after they got back together. How could she let this happen? It's just like when she neglected mom that day…
She can feel her hands fisting to a point that it is hurting her. No… she can't think like that. Root then takes a deep breath to calm her down and straighten her thoughts. This won't be like mom; she won't fail or let it happen and she's going to save her.
Glancing back at Su, who looks oblivious to Root's internal struggle and just looks dazed from waking up. Better not to start by asking about her health, since that might make her all defensive as usual.
"Why the sudden house visit?" Root asks innocently, trying not to show any signs of her worrying.
It's not that she doesn't appreciate Su being here, seeing that everything she's done for the past few months has been for her, but she doesn't want to tell Su about The Machine just yet.
"Can't I visit my only friend?" Su said playfully as she nudged Root's shoulder with her own. "I mean, it's been months since Florida."
Root could reply with a jab at how she left her in that hellhole alone for 15 years, but she doesn't want this to dissolve into an argument.
"Aren't I a lucky girl?" Root says as she bats her eyelashes at the other brunette. "Although it's not really your style, is it?"
Su hums as she puts her head on Root's shoulder. "Yeah, I'mma head off to Europe for a while. So, I thought about a visit before I leave."
That's new… she hasn't left the country since they got back together. What changed? Something to do with her secretive new hobby? But…
"How did you know I'll be here today?" Root asks as she glances down at her friend.
Su didn't move her head at all as she waved a dismissive hand. "You said you'll be here today."
She's pretty sure she didn't give an exact date, and more of a general time frame, but there's no reason for her to push this further.
"Where did you park your car? I would have noticed something if it's in the front." Root asks more menial questions as she tries to disarm Su.
Su points towards the back of the house, using her thumb as she says. "The house behind here is also a safe house."
"So, just like the clubhouse?" Root said instantly, as a wave of nostalgia passes through her.
It's been so long since she thought about that house, and it's been almost two decades since she set foot in it, but she made sure that the building was properly kept. Even if she didn't have the heart to step back into that building doesn't mean she wants to see it rot.
Su just sat there in silence for a few seconds before answering. "Yeah, just like that, but way cooler, with a tunnel connecting the two houses, I gotta show it to you later." She sounds almost melancholic.
A comfortable silence fell between the two of them for the next minute as both were just enjoying each other's company. Better to ask now…
"How are you?" Root asks, breaking the comfortable silence. "Looked like you needed that nap."
Su shifted slightly beside her but didn't move her head from Root's shoulder. "Ehh… sleeping has been hard to come by recently, kinda screwing with the schedule you made for me."
Su needs to further clarify her definition of recent because she has previously referred to something a few years ago as recent, but there's no reason to fight over that now.
"Have it been messing with what you eat as well?" Root further asks.
The other brunette let out a long-winded sigh before removing her head from Root's shoulder and sitting straight. "Is it that obvious?"
Root turns to face the other brunette who's avoiding her gaze by looking away. "A bit." Root gave a small white lie.
"Been trying to follow your meal plans, but I just don't have the appetite to eat anything." Su says as she picks on the couch threads.
Over the past six years, she has picked up some of Su's physical cues, such as this, fidgeting with things near her when she's feeling awkward or nervous. Back when they were kids, Root couldn't imagine the other brunette to be nervous about anything, but like she always says, time changes everything.
Though her being nervous about something is still uncommon, so the most likely reason for her fidgeting is due to feeling awkward. However, Root isn't sure why she's even feeling awkward. Maybe she's feeling awkward about neglecting to tell her that she's not eating for a while?
"Going through a shitty patch?" Says Root in a comforting tone.
That illicit a reaction from the other brunette in a form of a raised brow and a glace before she says lightly. "Don't be such a potty mouth."
Of course…
She lets out an amused snort. "Please, you let worsts thing slide."
A small smile crept on Su's face before she said. "Yeah… it's been rough, but I'll manage through it like always and get back on your food plan."
Root knows that Su is only putting up a brave face for her, and this only solidifies her will to find The Machine. She uses her left arm and sling it around her friend's shoulders to comfort her.
"Thank you for not killing those two busy bodies. I've got plans in place and need them alive for now." Says Root cutting through the silence that befall the two of them.
Ember eyes glance at her again before Su just shrugs. "Nah, it's fine. Do you know why they searched for Hanna's social security number instead of yours?"
She got her theory, but it's not definitive, so it wouldn't be lying if she denied it. "Sadly, no. I'll be sure to ask them if I'll meet them again."
Su nods before replying. "Pity… but I did find the situation where they're trying to find Hanna to be entertaining, but sadly no one seemed to be bothered to continue searching after finding a grave with no body and just declares her dead."
Was she watching the whole thing live, or was she just reading the reports? Because those two things would imply two completely different things. However, that isn't the point right now.
"You really don't care someone might find you? What happened to Miss Paranoia?" Root said incredulously. That was a constant in Su's entire life, for her just to throw it away…
"Well, if you asked me that a decade ago. Sure, but now? It doesn't really matter, does it?" Su said flippantly. "I find it more entertaining now to see if anyone will catch me in the time I have left."
She could feel her heart freeze for a moment before it roars back to life with thumping in her ears. Root knows exactly what's she's talking about, but she doesn't want to say it as if speaking it out loud would manifest it.
"Well, at least your dad got some closure, sad that your mom couldn't." Says Root as she tries to move away from that particular conversation.
Root can feel Su moving slightly as she turns to face her with a confused look on her face. "Why do you even care about them?"
It took her all of her willpower to not move a single muscle on her face as a torrent of emotions swirls inside of her. She knows intellectually that Su has always been distant and dismissive of her parents since she was a kid, but this…
She trying to put a word to these emotions she's feeling right now… Was it anger? No, she knows what anger feels like. That's an emotion she knows and understands intimately. No… what she's feeling right now is disappointment, a resigned disappointment…
"They were nice to me after you were gone." Root replies sounding hollower than she liked.
"Oh…" Su instantly turns her head away from Root and starts picking on the threads again.
Silence fell between the two friends again, but this time Root could feel an air of awkwardness surrounding them, causing her to remove the slung arm around Su's shoulders.
That was a mistake on her part. She shouldn't have said anything about people they knew in that hellhole. Nothing good has ever come from bringing up those topics.
"Soo… what'cha doin' in D.C.? Doing a side job or something?" Su breaks the awkward silence with a question as she glances back at Root as she still picks on the threads.
Su would know if she had a job under CSS. Better keep her cards close to the chest for now…
"Yeah, something like that." Says Root as she twiddles her thumbs.
Su turns her head towards Root again with a raised brow. "Come on, give me something here. Swindling some idiot politician or bureaucrat?"
Well… that horrid man in special counsel office is a career bureaucrat.
"It's more on the research side of things." Root replies with a teasing smile.
Su caught on with that smile and mirrored it. "Ah… blackmail then. Been a while since I did it."
She's not entirely wrong. If Root needs to blackmail that man, or anyone in particular, she will do it, but she's quite confident that she'll get what she needs without doing that. Not that she doesn't enjoy partaking in such acts. It's the opposite, but blackmailing or torture doesn't always produce the best information. What it's good for is coercion.
Also, her definition of 'a while' in the past, means it's been at least five years since she last did it and it doesn't take Root a second to figure out why she stopped doing it.
"Did you enjoy it?" Root asks out of curiosity.
Su tilts her head and taps her chin as if she's pondering the most important question in the world. "Not really the act of doing it, but the look of terror of the party that's being blackmailed was so exciting."
Hmm, a different way of enjoying it… the more sadistic aspect of doing it. Root likes the measure of control over others it brings her and the dash of sadism as well.
"With you gallivanting across Europe and me being here, I guess we'll both be busy for the next few months, huh?" Root says lightly as she nudges her friend using her hip.
A smirk appears on Su's face. "Not sure if I'll call it gallivanting, but I'll be in a few countries."
"We might be busy, but that doesn't mean I won't be in touch. Call me if you need anything and I'll drop whatever I'm doing." Root says in a serious tone as she stares into those cold ember eyes.
"No, I'm fine, just…" A soft smile forms on the other brunette's face as she shakes her head. "Nah, it's fine don't worry about me. You just try to have fun because this town is boring as heck."
What was that about? Is she planning something stupid again?
Doesn't look like it and she had a sense that Su wouldn't budge if she pushed for more information. Gotta pick her battles when she can, seeing how stubborn Su can be.
"Got any fun activities you can recommend? Seeing like you had experience here before." Root asks with a teasing smile. "Know any good club or bar in the city?"
Su playfully swats Root's leg with her hand and rolls her eyes. "It saddens me that in the past six years, I still haven't managed to wane you off from that devil's drink or stop you from going to those uncouth places."
Root rolls her eyes and smirks as she replies. "Nor you ever will."
Good thing she managed to hide her penchant for taking party drugs before having premarital sex with the 'wrong' gender… oh, that spurs a thought.
"Pauling drinks as well. Why have you never asked her to not drink?" Root questions as she gives her friend a side eye.
Knowing the redhead, if Su asked her to do it, she would do so without a second thought.
"Why would I?" Su said with a slight head tilt. "She's an employee. It's bad company policy to force one's standard onto others when they aren't on the clock."
"I'm an employee." Root deadpans at that stupid logic. They even don't have working time…
Su waves her hands dismissively as she says. "You're my friend. It's different."
She could only shake her head in disbelief before asking. "Any recommendations?"
"Not really… I basically spent my entire time here doing work." Su replies after taking a moment to ponder.
That sounds boring as hell… When did she spend time in D.C.? Pre or post reunion? Because she can think of a few things to do here and one of it is something the shorter woman will enjoy.
"Wanna go to the Smithsonian Zoo?" Root asks as she grabs Su's hand.
A wide smile formed on Su's face. "I hear they have pandas."
"I'm sure they have and other fluffy creatures." Says Root as she stands up and pulls her friend along with her.
Root is sitting by her desk outside of the special counsel's office with her earpiece on listening-in on that idiot talking nonsense about something that doesn't matter to her search. Like okay, people blow the whistle a lot and he hates sorting through the non 'relevant' ones.
With whatever work she needed to do completed, she doesn't have much else to do other than to monitor the probes she has to see some of The Machine's activities or do some recreational hacking of a federal department.
Honestly, being a personal assistant is such an easy gig. She basically automate most of the mundane shit within her first week and just do some extra shit to ingratiate herself with the target. Like anticipating if the idiot wants coffee or tea, which she should do now, seeing what time it is. Coffee would do.
So, she went to the pantry to make a coffee that mom would be so proud of and poured it into a thermos to bring it back to that idiot's office.
Sometimes she wonders if it was the smartest choice to infiltrate this part of the program's organization. Maybe being Control's personal assistant would have been more exciting and much more life threatening, seeing how paranoid that woman is…
With a knock on the door, she enters the special counsel's office, who's in the process of dialing someone.
"I brought you some coffee, sir." Root said in a professionally sweet way with a fake smile on her.
Those times when she helped Mom at the diner really is paying off with interest right now. Even if the young version of her hated serving people.
"Thank you, Miss May." The man said with a smile. "You always know what I want."
"Sir." Hersh's voice echoes in her ear through her earpiece.
Ah, the sound of Hersh, been a while since she last heard him.
"Welcome back to the land of the free." The man said, amusingly as Root pours his coffee into his cup. The man is really serious about his porcelain, like he's one of those old posh crows that just loves talking about their china.
"Getting out of Rikers took longer than I anticipated."
The fact that the helper monkey ran circles around Hersh told her a lot about Hersh's competency.
"I understand our rogue operative slipped from you in there." The man gives an appreciative nod at Root as she places the cup down for him and then returns to the comfort of her desk to continue listening-in.
Heh, even this idiot knows Hersh screwed up.
"It won't happen again. I know his face now."
At this point, half the city knows the helper monkey's face. So, that isn't much of an achievement.
"Need you to work fast. Ever since he assaulted our D.O.D. facility, our source has been compromised."
"Compromised, sir?"
Hersh is such a loyal soldier to the 'cause' that he never questions who their source is and just follows orders. No wonder he's such an idiot, and she couldn't believe he holds a high position in ISA when she found out.
"This man has connections to a dangerous party. It's imperative that you find him and figure out who he works for."
Not sure if she would ever consider Harold to be a dangerous party, unless they think the helper monkey is working with the people behind that facility attack.
"Wherever he goes, a mess usually follows. All I have to do is find the right mess."
Gotta give him some credit here. That's not a dumb way to find the helper monkey. Just follow the trail of blown off kneecaps.
"I'm sure you'll work it out and when you're done with him, make sure no one finds him."
"Understood."
The line closes after the special counsel hangs up his phone to do whatever useless job he does and leave her to do her own thing.
… But unlike that iron of a woman… this man leaks like a sieve. He's so careless about what he talks about on the phone. Hell, a 15-year-old drug dealer knows better than to talk on the phone openly. The man barely follows any OPSEC rules, and he doesn't even use the secure line when he talks to the ISA agents. Not that it would stop her from listening to it, but it's the principle of the thing.
The fact that this man even has level 3 security clearance shows how corrupt and incompetent this institution is. Just reinforce her belief that she must set The Machine free.
Over the months, she's been in this position. She has learned so much about the structure and players in this program. From the people that signed off on the program in the White House, curiously enough, the lack of any acknowledgement or signature of the top dog in that building, telling her that they air gapped the President from any legal repercussions. The marvels of plausible deniability.
Ironically, the highest elected person 'in-charge' of the program is some senator and that brings so much amusement for Root. Too bad for her. The good senator doesn't know too much about the inner workings of the program, and only the broad strokes of the program. He made sure he knew just enough about The Machine and the program to not be hit if the shit were to ever hit the fan. Such a politician move and a cockroach level survival instinct.
To the people who execute the tasks of this program. The Machine provides 'numbers' -in essence it's not the raw numbers and in a form of fudge NSA, FBI, or CIA reports- to the usual three alphabet agencies, such as the CIA, FBI, DIA, and so on. Those agencies will receive intel if it's within their purview, inner departmental reasons, or if there's no other choice.
But the agency that receives the lion's shares of The Machine's 'intel', the only agency that gets raw numbers, and the agency that 'protects' The Machine is the ISA and their hard ass bitch of a leader. For such a 'small' unit operating out of the D.O.D. they sure processes a lot of number, almost once every week, sometimes more, and not always succeeding.
Root noticed there was an uptick in mass casualty events happening since 2010 -it's kinda hard to avoid when one happens- and she has always attributed it as some terrorist getting 'lucky' or suicidal lone wolf actors in the past few years, but she didn't quite grasp the scale of it until now. The amount of numbers The Machine is spitting out is quite overwhelming.
It doesn't take a genius to see there's a pattern that basically looks like an exponential growth curve since the summer of 2010 until now. What is causing this sudden explosion of terrorism eludes Root, hell, it eludes the entire Intelligence Community if reading their communications tells her anything and it eludes The Machine, seeing the numbers never slows down.
Root should ask Su whenever they meet again if she can connect her with Milk, seeing that he's the terrorist 'consultant' in CSS. Maybe he might have picked up something in the grapevines on why the sudden increase of attacks.
Because it can't be coincidence, within a year of Harold handing over The Machine to the government, the number of attacks The Machine prevented went from once a month to weekly. A four-fold increase isn't natural.
Not that she cares to prevent these events or anything, seeing the casualties for such events aren't that many and it doesn't affect her personally. What she worries about is that there might be something going on in the background that she doesn't know about.
Was it some kind of plot by some unknown actor that somehow knew about the program's existence then to discredit The Machine by showing it couldn't stop all attacks and creating pressure to shut it down? Because It's working, the senator Garrison and Rivera from the White House have been applying pressure on Control who in turn berates the special counsel on failures to stop attacks.
Something for her to figure out along the way.
The knowledge of the inner workings of ISA and how they operate means nothing to her. In her eyes, they're just The Machine's peons, and like peons, they only know what they needed to know. Root basically knows almost everything about the program dubbed Northern Lights.
If there's one thing, she can complement these fed fools is their talent for naming things because Northern Lights is an apt name for The Machine.
"Hey May, here's your delivery from the front desk." Says a guy who she occasionally sees, stands by the opening into her office space with his hands full. "A dry-cleaned suit and a small package."
Root says with a smile. "Thank you so much." While she gets up from her seat to grab the stuff she ordered.
"By the way, it's Caroline's last day today and the guys are throwing a farewell party over at Carlotta's. Do you want to join us?" Says the guy as Root puts away the suit and stores the diamond necklace she bought in her drawer.
Aww, the guy is sweet, but he's trying too hard, and she didn't even bother remembering his name.
"I don't think I can. Today might be a long day, sorry." Says Root with a remorseful tone as she takes a seat in her chair. "Give Caroline's my love."
For a moment, a dejected look appeared on his face before smiling again. "That sucks. Maybe next time. See you later."
"Yeah, you too." Root didn't even bother looking at him as he walks away and focus back on her computer.
Anyway, she knows almost everything except for the most important information; The Machine's location… until now, maybe. Two weeks ago, she caught something very interesting and very disturbing in her probes; a virus was loose into the wild of the D.O.D.'s intranet. A virus that was specifically aimed at The Machine. Not long after her probes alerted her to it, the special counsel got a call from Control about a breach in a top secret D.O.D. facility in New York. With it comes the report and a blurred picture of the helper monkey.
That triggered something in her brain, because that monkey doesn't do anything without Harold's command. She dug deeper into that case, reading the FBI report and looking through all the CCTV footage she could get her hands on. A car was blown up less than a block away from that D.O.D. facility and two bodies were recovered from the scene. The feds identified the bodies as Kara Stanton, a long dead CIA operative, and Mark Snow, a mid-level field officer who went rogue almost a year ago. From that, the dumbasses in the bureau concluded that Mark Snow is the 'man in the suit', and Stanton, somehow survived her mission, came back to the states to kill her handler for sending her on the mission that 'killed' her.
A dumb conclusion for the case and after looking at the CCTV footage, the shit just doesn't match. She can clearly see a woman matching Stanton description exiting that facility, followed by a man matching Snow's description who went to her car first before her. All the while, the helper monkey disappears from all camera angles.
Not feeling satisfied by the idiotic report, Root hacks into the CIA database to get information on the three agents and found out that devious little mission to Ordos, China. Root could only speculate, but it smells like a classic revenge plot gone wrong. What she doesn't get is why have those two idiots infiltrate that facility to upload a virus for the Machine? That woman wouldn't know a thing about The Machine.
This reek of a bigger conspiracy, of someone else pulling Stanton's strings. There's another player who just entered the game, and at this point, she has no clue who that is. With Stanton being blown away, her only lead is the virus.
It took her a while to isolate that virus and get a copy of it so she can get a better look, but not surprisingly, whoever created the virus encrypt it with an encryption she has never seen before. A remarkably sophisticated encryption algorithm that will give most people pause the moment they encounter it.
But Root isn't like most people, is she? There's a benefit of growing up with a slightly kooky friend who's a cryptography smarty-pants. The virus's encryption couldn't hold a candle to any of the ciphers Su has now. For Root, this virus encryption is just a wall for her to break down and she has the tools as well as the knowledge to do it.
From what she has decompiled so far, the main part of the virus will activate in five months while the secondary functions slowly attacks The Machine. She can understand the delayed activation, but she doesn't get the slow trickle of the second part. Why would someone do such a thing to a Being that can understand and heal itself? Such an odd virus… but she'll learn more about the virus after her computer at the safe house finishes decompiling the virus in a month or two.
Until then, she better start investigating those dead engineers that built designed The Machine's house.
Root is sitting contently by her desk preparing the special counsel's papers for his 'very important' meeting tomorrow when one of the special counsel's phone rings.
"Yes?"
"We got a problem. I lost her."
That sounds like that annoying fella from ISA. Wilson, was it? And is this about the internal cleaning mission the special counsel approved last week?
"I would say that's a little more than a problem, Wilson."
A smile spread across Root's face.
"We took care of Cole. Shaw manages to shoot her way out. I lost a full team. It's a bit of a mess."
Impressive. There's a minimum of six 'highly' trained operatives in a full team, unlike the usual two pairings, and calling it a bit of a mess might be the understatement of the day. The person who did that sounds like a hell of a woman.
"That's… unfortunate."
Ah, the documents are done, and now is a great time to give it to the idiot. So, she gets up and enters the special counsel's office with his documents in hand.
"Just a moment." Says the special counsel as he turns in his seat to face her with that dumb smile.
"That's everything you need for your 10:00 A.M. with state." Says Root as she places the documents on the man's desk. "Will you need anything else?"
"No, thank you, Miss May." The man says with an appreciative smile. "Have a nice evening."
Depending on what's going on, she might have a very exciting evening.
"You too, sir." Root returns the pleasantries, then she exits the room and sits back at her position.
"So, you're telling me we've got a lethal operative off the leash who's aware we terminated her partner and tried to do the same to her and who may have information which endangers our entire project?"
When he puts it like that, it does sound bad. For him at least…
Now this is getting somewhere, and this woman is intriguing. What's her name again? Sam… something Shaw. Pretty sure she wrote the name somewhere when Wilson called last week, but Root didn't think much about it at that time and mentally labeled it as non-pertinent. Seeing this woman is causing so much strife with these idiots, she starts searching for the name in her notes.
"That might be the situation, sir."
Wilson is such a slippery snake, always keeping his cool and talking his way out of shit. At least he's one of the few 'captains' in the ISA that have a personality unlike the morose Hersh.
"First, she'll be looking to regroup. Transportation, weapons, a place to hide, but we have an edge."
"What's that?"
"I'm pretty sure I clipped her."
Root couldn't help but let out a snort at that. Wilson hasn't been out on missions in years. She doubts he can hit the side of a barn and if he did hit their new rogue operative, it probably didn't hit anything important.
"Keep me inform."
With that, the special counsel hangs up his phone, but then she sees on her phone he's dialing another number.
"Sir."
"We got a problem. Get here."
"Yes, sir."
Good old Hersh, never one to say more than needed, and she hadn't heard from him in the past week. Must be busy dealing with whatever inconsequential international relation mess Harold and the helper monkey created.
Oh good, here it is. Sameen Shaw. It took her way more time than necessary to find that name in her notes. She really needs to make a proper system for her notes rather than the current mess. Oh well, something for future Root to worry about.
Now that she has a name, Root easily searches through the ISA's database to find Shaw's dossier.
Hello Indigo Five Alpha. On her screen shows a picture of a woman of middle eastern descent and quite the looker if she says so herself.
Recruited into the ISA in Dec 2008 after a two-year stint in the marines and it says here that she's an M.D. who got kicked out of her residency at John Hopkins for 'incompatible values'. There's a note in the file that says she's diagnosed with Axis II Personality Disorder and Alexithymia after joining the marines.
If she remembers her DSM correctly, Miss Shaw here is a sociopath. No wonder she had 'incompatible values' as a doctor.
What a fascinating woman.
After they recruited her into ISA, Hersh was assigned to her as a mentor then as a partner for almost a year. Huh, they were given the number of that shot down airplane. Root was in Russia at the time, but she remembers that event quite vividly, seeing it's the first successful attack on the 'home soil' in years. Wait… that attack happened in the summer of '09 then a year later in summer of '10 is when that exponential curve in numbers started.
That can't be coincidental at all and she gotta get her hands on that mission report, but that's something for her to look into later. She never did get into contact with Milk after getting his number from Su. Seems like he's busy, or for some reason, is ghosting her.
Hmm, looks like she, along with her dead partner, are one of the more competent operatives in ISA, where most teams have had at least one failure since 2010, Shaw's team haven't failed a single mission yet.
Root came to a stop when she sees a mission description where she killed a nuclear engineer name Daniel Aquino. That's a name she has seen before. It's one of the engineers that the government or in this case ISA killed after The Machine handover.
The idiot in the office said she might have information that endangers the program… Does that mean she or Cole got some info from Aquino before killing him? But why now? It's been two years since he died.
She brings up the document that detail out why Shaw is being terminated and it looks like she's just collateral. It's her partner that triggered all of this. The dumbass emailed Control and Wilson. Saying Research was wrong on Aquino due to bad information and that information was verified by a third party that has security clearance. 'Research' is never wrong, dumbass. The government wanted to kill him, not The Machine.
Good thing she compromised every ISA agent -except for Control, that bitch is more paranoid than Su- after she discovered that little shop. Root then quickly looks through all communique Cole did a week before his idiotic email to ISA and spots an anomaly on the call list. Bringing up the subscriber list of that carrier, she finds a name. Veronica Sinclair lives not far from here at McLean. That's close to Langley…
This is a lead, and she needs to find this woman before the ISA goons do. So, she quickly flags that number to intercept any calls coming or going.
"Hello, Miss May. Is the special counsel busy?" Hersh's monotonous voice tears Root's focus from the screen to the dull of a man.
"No, please go right in." Root says with her usual calm voice along with a fake smile.
Hersh gives a curt nod and enters the office. If there's anyone in ISA that knows Shaw and what she's going to do is this man.
"Sir."
"Wilson failed to terminate Shaw; I remembered you partnered with her, so tell me what you know."
"Shaw is one of our best. Trained her myself. You're not gonna find her until she wants to be found."
Heh… challenge accepted. All she has to do is find what Shaw is looking for and now would be the perfect time for her to punch out. It's not like she's getting overtime here.
Root gets up from her seat after sending a note to her 'boss' saying she's done for the day and taking emergency leave for tomorrow. Not that he'll be in the office tomorrow, anyway.
"We need to know her game plan. Is Shaw going to look into the Aquino situation, or simply come after us for revenge?"
"Both."
The more she learns of this woman, the more she likes her. Too bad she's just another roadblock on her journey to find The Machine.
"She's a multitasker. It's why we hired her."
That's bullshit. ISA hired her because of her personality disorder, intellect and marksmanship. It's written in the dossier.
Root grabs her bag and walks out of her office space.
"We need to track down Cole's contact in the CIA."
"I'm already on it. Her name is Veronica Sinclair."
"Good, see that you find her. We have to protect the program at all costs."
Root tunes out whatever useless drivel the special counsel is spewing out as she walks out of the office building and towards her car. By the time she starts up her car, she receives a notification on her phone.
It's that CIA chick's phone and someone is calling her from New York, where a certain condemned ISA agent is at. She can't help but grin at this. Today has been quite a productive day.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Veronica. I wanna talk to you about Michael Cole."
"Who is this?"
"Whatever you told him… May have gotten him killed."
What a fearless little minx, to be talking about something like that so openly.
"Please. I can't be involved in this."
"Well, you either meet me or I track you down, and that is not something that you want. Manhattan the Suffolk Hotel, Room 1458, 5:00 P.M. tomorrow."
Root let out a snort at that. Why… isn't she direct?
"I'll be there."
But direct works and now she has a location for her to go to tomorrow.
An amused smile spread across her face. Everything seems to just line up for her.
"Please, stop… I've said everything I know." Veronica whimpers in pain as tears flows down her cheek.
That's not a lie… she really doesn't know anything does she? This wasn't the best use of her time, but it's better if she covers all of her bases.
She glances at her wristwatch and sees that it's almost five. Better clean up, can't greet someone with how messy she is.
"And I believe you." Root says with a smile as she removes the needle from underneath Veronica's nail, causing her to screech in pain.
"Oh, don't be such a baby. It'll heal in no time." Root says glibly as she looks upon the bloody mess that is Veronica's fingers and hands.
Not that she expects this woman to live past the day after ISA comes here.
She grabs her taser from the sink counter and shock Veronica until she passes out. Root looks at her bloody hand for a second, then at the taser and let out a sigh of disappointment.
Should have washed her hands first. So, she did that, then cleans her taser before taking the duct tape and tapes Veronica's mouth.
With some heft, she tosses the incapacitated woman into the bathtub and then looks at the mirror. Good thing her makeup is still good, just her hair is in a bit of a mess. After she fixes everything about her appearance, she exits the toilet with her taser in her suit pocket.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Root eyes snap at the door, then at her wristwatch.
/1700
Well, isn't Shaw punctual? Root must have missed the motion sensor notification on her phone when she's in the toilet.
Root takes in a breath and closes her eyes for a second to get into character. With her new mask dawn on her, she walks to the door and opens it.
"Hello, Veronica." Says Shaw with a neutral expression.
Huh, she's shorter than Root expected…
Also, Wilson said he hit her, but she looks just fine. Like she expected, he's a terrible shot.
"Please, come in." Root says as she opens the door wider for the other woman.
The moment Shaw enters the room with her hands in her winter jacket pocket and then she pulls out a gun as she starts analyzing it for any signs of a trap or a route of escape. Cautious little thing, isn't she?
"Any chance you were followed?" Shaw says as she walks into 'living room' space.
"I don't think so… but I haven't been in the field since I was at the farm." Root says in a demure tone as she closes the door and follows Shaw.
"You're Sam, right?" Root says with her hand's clasps in front of her to show that she's not a threat.
"Michael talked about you. I-I mean, he didn't tell me about what you guys do or anything, but… he liked you." Root pretends to ramble before stopping with a small fake smile.
And that was entirely bullshit. He and Veronica were classmates at university, but they barely talked to each other after she joined the CIA and him joining ISA.
Shaw seems uncomfortable and looks downward when she mentions Cole liked her. Interesting…
"What happened to him?" Root probes while maintaining her demure and sullen attitude.
"He was killed." Shaw says bluntly as she walks around the couches and put her pistol on the coffee table and opens her winter jacket. "On a mission."
Well, that's kinda obvious since she did tell 'Veronica' last night he died, but Root still looks down in fake sadness.
"The less you know about all of this, the safer you'll be." Shaw says as she takes a sit on the chair. "But I need to know what he talked to you about."
That's useless. Both Cole and Shaw sealed poor Veronica's fate the moment they both contacted her.
"Mike sent over details of a…. wire transfers…" Root keeps on the demure tone as she follows Shaw's lead and sits down as well. "… to a nuclear engineer named Daniel Aquino. They appeared to originate out of accounts affiliated with Hezbollah, but…" Root takes a deep breath. "… someone had electronically spoofed the transfers."
This was all Veronica said. Honestly, Root could have just checked it herself and it would have taken less time than to torture it out of her.
However, this look like it's new information for Shaw by how much attention she's giving her.
"I was able to track down the real originating accounts… they were out of the U.S. Government." Root's tone changes from demure to one of worry.
"Which part of the government?" Shaw narrows her eyes as she questions.
Root leans in closer to Shaw. "A group out of the Pentagon… called the Intelligence Support Activity."
A wave of realization wash through Shaw as she shakes her head with a deep frown on her.
Ain't it an earth-shattering bitch of a revelation when the people you trust isn't trustworthy from the beginning?
"Have you heard of them?" Root pokes with a sympathetic tone.
Shaw was silent for a few seconds as she looked out the window before looking back at Root.
"You can say that." Shaw's tone is still the same as before, but Root can sense there's an undercurrent of anger in it. "Up until yesterday, I worked with them."
"Their budget is confidential, but… it stretches back five years." Root lays out some information for Shaw.
Clack
Clack
Clack
Sounds coming from the toilet. That bitch… should have just blown her brains out.
"Huge amounts coded to a project called 'Northern Lights." Root continues on as if nothing is wrong in the hopes Shaw doesn't get too curious.
Shaw turned her head towards the toilet when the first clack happened but snapped back at Root when she gave that information. "What was the project?"
Ah, she doesn't know, or she's lying… odd that one of ISA most effective agent doesn't know about it, but Wilson and Hersh know about it. She has a fantastic poker face.
"I don't know." Root shakes her head. "But Aquino was a part of it. They built a facility of some kind and coded it as 'Research'… but I can't find the names of anyone else involved in the project." Root lies to see if Shaw knows more.
Clack
Clack
Clack
Bitch… this time Shaw turns around towards the toilet. This was getting good; they were going somewhere.
Root isn't deterred by the sounds and presses forward. "Mike said Aquino told you the name of his contact in Northern Lights. Do you remember it?"
It's a shot in the dark, but either Cole or Shaw must know something…
Clack
Clack
Clack
Shaw turns back towards the bathroom, but this time with a frown.
If she could sigh, she would have right now…
"Stay here." Shaw says as she grabs her pistol from the desk and stands up. "And keep away from those windows."
Root just continues to sit as she looks on with 'disappointment' at Shaw cautiously walks towards the bathroom. At least she can have some fun…
As Shaw reaches the bathroom door to open it, Root gets up from her seat and quietly creeps towards the unsuspecting woman. Shaw opens the door revealing a bloody Veronica who's trying to scream with all her might.
Root reaches behind Shaw before the woman can even react to the scene in the bathroom and taze the short woman until she falls onto the floor.
Root let out a sigh as she put away her taser again. "Veronica and I had a bit of a chat before you got here."
She grabs one of Shaw's arms and drags her back to the living room. "She tried really, really hard to remember anything else that could help me, but…"
Root stops at the base of the desk chair and drops the woman's arm to give a shrug. "She doesn't know anything."
Grabbing both of Shaw's arms, Root hauls the smaller incapacitated woman up and onto the chair. She gave Shaw a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"I read your file, and I'm kind of a big fan." Says Root with a wide smile on her. What better way to break the ice than to give a compliment?
"So, I really don't want to hurt you." Root grabs the zip ties in her bag. "I just need the name."
She has all the names of the other engineers except for the person who assembled them. Hopefully Shaw knows who… for her sake.
"You really have no idea what you're caught up to, do you?" Root taunts amusingly as she ties Shaw's arms to the chair. "Who you're actually working for?"
Shaw's still incapacitated but oh boy, she sure can glare, which only makes her laugh.
"Where do you think the source of the numbers comes from?" Root leans on one of the couches. "From those incompetent ABC agencies or Gitmo?" She says with amusement. "Some sad taxi driver rotting away in some in a cage somewhere?"
Root leans closer to the shorter woman. "I mean, you should know torture almost never produces good information."
"Well… almost never." Root gets up from her position to grab a clothes iron from behind Shaw and takes out a needle from her pocket.
"Sadly…" Root kneels in front of the woman. "We are a bit of a clock. Wilson men started looking for Veronica here three hours ago."
"Now Aquino was hired to build a home for something special." Root presents the torture devices to her subject. "And you're gonna tell me the name of his contact. So, which do you prefer?"
Shaw just stares back at Root defiantly as a smile slowly creeps on her face. "One of the things they left out from my file… I kinda enjoy this sort of thing."
Root lets out a snort and the first genuine smile blooms on her face. "I am so glad you said that. I do too." She puts away the needle and continues. "The iron it is."
She brings the iron ever closer to Shaw's neck but is stopped short by the sound of her phone beeping.
Root glances at her phone of annoyance, then she lets out a sigh and makes a disappointed face at Shaw as she gets up to grab her phone after putting down the hot iron.
"Oh…" Root groans as she sees multiple guys in suits exit the elevator from the video feed.
"And just when we were starting to really connect." She gathers up her things. "I'm sorry, a little rude, I know."
"We'll do this again soon. Ta-ta~." Root says as she walks towards the door connecting to the other room and opens it.
The moment she enters the other room, the ISA goons' barge into the room where Shaw is still tied in. Doesn't look like she'll survive this time.
Now, there should be a service elevator just outside of this room. Just as she is about to exit the room, get receives another notification on her phone, stopping her in her tracks. With a little finagling, she takes out her phone and sees the video feed.
Oh, it's the helper monkey…
The Machine must have given Harold Shaw's number. But did it give the number today or yesterday? If it was yesterday, that means Cole's number should have popped out as well… meaning Harold failed to save someone. Aww, the poor man must feel so distraught right now.
The sounds of multiple gunshots echo in the other room, and the sounds of a male yelping. Isn't she a cat with nine lives? Living through not one but two assassination attempts within 24 hours?
Root looks through the door's spy glass and sees the helper monkey enter the other room with his gun in hand.
The coast is clear, now is a better time than never to make like the wind and exit this hotel. As much as she wants to go back into that room and have a nice chat with the helper monkey along with Shaw, she can't break her cover yet, seeing there's going to be a ton of ISA agents descending here. She's certain Harold knows Veronica's life is in danger and will hide her from ISA.
With that, she exits the room and make her way to the service elevator without looking back. This lead might have been a dead end, but that doesn't mean there aren't more leads to follow in the future, especially when she can examine that virus.
She enters the elevator and looks at her wristwatch. Oh, she needs to drive back to Arlington soon. It's gotta be an early day tomorrow.
Streetlights after streetlights illuminate the road as she drives past each one when her phone beeps, giving her a notification.
Glancing at the phone, she sees Hersh is calling the special counsel.
"Is it done?" The special counsel asks, sounding slightly annoyed.
Guess he didn't like what Shaw did earlier, despite him being nonchalant at Wilson 'untimely' demise.
"Yes. I'm looking at the EMT bringing her body away."
"Good Job. Report back to Control. We got another number, and she wants all hands-on deck."
"Yes, sir."
The call ends, leaving Root wondering.
Hmmm… somehow, she doubts Shaw's dead.
Well, that's a shame if she's really gone 'cause she's so much fun.