HAROLD FINCH POV
A gust of icy wind hits him, causing a chill to go down his as if the wind is warning him of something, but that's just his mind being illogical. The high pitch sounds of the private jet continually become louder as he limps forwards behind Root towards the jet.
Being around and flying in private jets for the past fifteen years, he's quite familiar with the number of models around, and the jet in front of him is a Gulfstream G650 in the most basic livery. A new one at that, but he can't tell if it's the ER version or not. Whoever this Oleander is, they're rich.
Upon climbing up the short stairs into the jet, the color pink instantly assaulted his eyes. It's everywhere… from the floor that's a dark shade of pink, to the wooden cabinets with a soft shade of pink wood stains, to the walls and ceiling that has a lighter shade of pink. Everything is just pink.
It's as if someone dump a pink tone color catalogue to the interior designer for this jet and told them to go wild. The owner of this aircraft must be very enthusiastic about the color pink.
When he finally notices that Root hasn't moved an inch since they got on board of the plane is when he felt something gone awry. Root was looking in the direction of the main cabin that's behind the pink curtains before pushing the curtain to the side and revealing the main cabin. There's only 8 seats here, four in a conference configuration and another in a club configuration. This means there's a private cabin and a large toilet at the back.
His eyes then land on the sole occupant of the cabin. A person with long brown hair faces first on the table. The person in the cabin seems to be unconscious. Is that the mysterious Oleander?
Root darts forward in a frantic dash towards the unconscious person. The sudden rush of movement stunned him for a second as he had never seen that woman ever been that… uncomposed before. The crazed woman comes to a stop when she reaches the unconscious person and checks their pulse.
After a fraught second, the tension that had built up since she opened the curtains on Root's shoulders went away and she let out of sigh of relief. Harold was just standing a few paces away from them and looking at the scene with cautious intrigue. This entire scene is something he has never seen her done before… she was frightened.
With the utmost amount of care, Root gently grabs the unconscious person by her shoulder and brings her body, so she's supported by the chair. That reveals to him the face of an unconscious woman and the best way for him to describe her is… sickly, if he's putting it lightly. Her ghostly pale skin, in combination with her gaunt face, tarnishes what was once a fairly attractive face and her hair is in a messy braid that stopped halfway through as if she didn't have the energy to finish it. The clothes she's wearing is… a choice. Multiple layers for her top, that's supposed to make her look bulky but doesn't with her feeble frame, with a long skirt that reaches to her knees and different shades of pink for each article of clothing.
It isn't hard to interpret who the owner of the jet is. What caused this woman to be in the state she's in right now? … and is that a bulletproof vest underneath her top?
"Sue?" There's a tremble in Root's voice as she tries to wake the unconscious woman.
Who is this person, and who is she to Root?
Sue? Is this Pauling? If so, why the different name?
Harold can only just watch as a desperate-looking Root trying to wake up a person that means a lot to her.
"Sue!" Root's tone is one of worry and fear that sounds so foreign to that woman as she continues to shake the unconscious woman.
In a sudden flash of movement, the unconscious woman's hands shot up from her sides and grab Root's wrist before her eyes snaps open to reveal a pair of amber eyes behind a pair of thin frame glasses.
"Root?" the woman says in a disoriented manner. She then blinks a few times before her eyes trails towards her own hand clutching Root's wrist. That prompts her to drop her hand and softly smile at Root. "Oh… hey Root."
Harold can't pinpoint the accent she has. It almost sounds like a generic New York accent… almost like his and Root's.
Root lets go of a held breath. "You're okay…"
"Of course, I'm okay…" She says with a tone of confusion as she frowns slightly while her gaze never left Root's. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You had your face planted on the table when I came on board." Root deadpans.
The frown on the amber eye woman softens when she finally looked away from Root and to the table before looking back at Root.
"I must have fallen asleep." Sue massages her tired eyes with dark circles. "It's your fault for standing me up for…" Her heads tilts towards the window slightly. "… 3 hours and 40 minutes."
"You've been on the plane that long?" Root asks Sue as she takes a step away from her.
"I mean, you told me to wait for you at the airport…" Sue has a playful tone as she speaks before stopping when her eyes finally come upon Harold.
"Oh, you brought company." Sue raises a single brow as she looks at him. "… Why didn't you tell me you're bringing a plus one?"
He can feel the hairs on his body rise when the sickly woman's eyes examine his body as if a predator sizing up a prey before pouncing on them. His mind is telling him that she's a threat, despite her current disposition, and that he should run away now while he has the chance.
"What can I say?" Root says in a playful manner, now that her worries have disappeared. "I copied your passion for surprises."
Sue rolls her eyes and mutters. "Now if only you copied my other traits…"
Root lets out a soft snort. "Dream on." The hacker turns slightly towards him and makes a gesture. "Anyway, this is…"
Before Root could make his introduction, a loud knock on the wood from behind him ceases the conversation midway.
Harold turns around and sees a man in a Pilot's uniform, walking towards them from the forward cabin.
"Hello, Miss Newman." The pilot says with a wide smile.
Root returns the gesture with her own. "Hey Jeremy. Long time no see."
Newman? She's using a known alias, but he didn't find anything related to an Oleander when he looked up that name.
"It's good to see you once in a while." The pilot replies to Root before turning his gaze to the sickly woman. "Are we waiting for any other people, Miss Boole?"
Boole? Like that mathematician? Is this a pattern? Root's aliases use the names of prominent computer scientists, while Sue uses a mathematician…
The sickly woman shakes her head. "No, this is all."
"Oh, our destination will be Portland." Root told both of them before her gaze moved from Sue to the Pilot.
The Pilot then turns back to Sue, who just nods in confirmation.
"I'll get flight clearance and we'll be up in the air in no time." The pilot informs them before giving a last nod and goes back to the flight cabin.
All the while the sickly woman just stares at the back of the Pilot's head with an intensity he doesn't know how to describe.
As Root understands what's going on, she says. "Don't kill him, Sue."
His heart ups at that notion…
"He remembers your name and what you look like." The sickly woman says dispassionately as if what she's implying doesn't carry any weight. "Plus, that man has worked for me for far too long now."
"Sue…" Root says tiredly, as if she's been through this multiple times already while she takes a seat opposite of the sickly woman. "Just… How many pilots have you gone through now?"
Sue just answers with a shrug as she taps on her seat armrest, but then pauses for a second before rolling her eyes. "Apparently 27 pilots."
Root lets out a sigh of weariness, as if she's had a similar conversation in the past. "What happened to being less paranoid now?"
"I am…" Sue answers in an offended tone. "… and apparently the majority of the numbers were from '97 to '09."
Apparently?
The callous way she says how many people she's killed just for working with her is… a punch to the gut for him. Maybe 'helping' Root is a mistake if she's bringing this person with her… but he already told her where to go and he heard a loud click from behind him a few seconds ago telling him that the jet closed its door.
He just has to see this through right to the end, even if it involves this… murderer.
The hacker rubs her brows in frustration and shakes her head. "How did I never notice?"
"Why would you ever notice a missing tool?" The sickly woman replies dispassionately and waves away Root's concern.
A missing tool? Is that how this person views others… Just as tools?
He has encountered countless different views of what others value in other people in the past 2 years, but… never has he encountered one where a person just disregards another's personhood so causally and meant it.
"Anyhoo…" She grips her armrest. "… while that man prepares for takeoff. I need to wash up a bit and use the loo." Sue pushes herself up and rubs her dark eyes before looking at him. "Do take a seat, whoever you are."
With that, she turns away from them and walks to the back cabin. Harold can only look on at that murderous woman as she sways side to side until she disappears into the private cabin.
"Better pick a seat, Harry, before the plane takes off with you still standing." Root comments in a light tone, snapping his attention away from that cabin door.
He takes a glance at Root, who looks slightly tense at how she's clinching her jaw. It's very clear to Harold that Root cares for that woman, but there's a palpable tension between the two of them for some reason and it's not about the casual murder.
Harold takes the seat opposite of Root -to her right- on the other side of the wide corridor. The chair itself is very padded and has the same color scheme as the other interior colors. That's where he just sat in uncomfortable silence for the next few minutes when the silence was interrupted by a chime.
"Our flight plan has been approved, and the tower has cleared us. We will begin taxiing to our runway shortly."
That announcement catches him off guard. He has been using a private jet for a decade and it's never that fast. It's … too fast. Abnormally so.
Stealing another glance at Root to see if this is out of the ordinary, he sees that Root is still in the same tense posture, but this time her fist is clenched, and her sights are solely at the private cabin door.
"I didn't know I caught your eye, Harry." Root calmly comments while her gaze never left the door.
He didn't know how this happened, but somehow, she's the friendly face in his current situation.
"You're tense." He replies softly.
"Am I now?" Her gaze shifts from the door and to Harold so she can examine him. "Are you sure you aren't just projecting?"
Before he could reply to her, the plane started to move. The mysterious sickly woman exits the private cabin and slowly makes her way back to her seat.
"Is something wrong?" Root asks pointedly at the woman opposite of her.
A look of annoyance appears on the woman when she replies. "What makes you think there's something wrong?"
Root points an accusatory finger at Sue. "For one, you were out cold to a point where you didn't feel me when I touched you, and then you walked like you're drunk."
The sickly woman makes a disgusted face before responding. "I'm not drunk."
That's an interesting response… is she a teetotaler or a drunkard? Both are a possibility.
Root rolls her eyes. "Like, like you're drunk, and you're avoiding the question."
That seems to mollify Sue as she turns her gaze away from Root and looks out the window while the jet continues to taxi towards their designated runway for takeoff.
"It's nothing big…" She mutters as she continues to look out the window. "… just haven't gotten much sleep lately."
"Nothing big, huh?" Root instantly response sarcastically before turning serious. "I've never seen you like that before. How long is lately?"
The sickly woman just shrugs. "Six to eight months? I didn't keep track when it started." She pauses for a second before continuing. "It's nine months."
Thought she said she didn't keep track of it?
"Why didn't you tell me? We met 8 months ago." Root replies with a tinge of anger in her voice.
Sue, still looking out the window, waves her hand. "Didn't think too much about it that time and you were busy."
"God damn it Sue." That snapped something in Root, and she seethes. "I told you to tell me if you have some shit to deal with."
That finally causes the sickly woman to turn her gaze back to Root. "Don't use the lord's name in vain, Root… and I don't think this is something we should discuss with our present company." Those sharp amber eyes shift to him and linger on him.
Root was about to respond when the plane comms chimes again.
"Please wear your seatbelt. We're taking off now."
The sickly woman instantly closes her eyes, then leans back into her seat and wears her seatbelt. Root, sensing that was the end of their conversation, let out a frustrated breath and wore her seatbelt, which Harold followed suit. All the while, the jet quickly speeds up and takes off from the runway, climbing up into the sky.
With nothing to do, Harold just observes both woman, Sue is trying to relax her body while Root is just looking at her with anger and slight worry as if what she's looking at isn't normal. For him, on the other hand, as he stares at the sickly woman, there's an itch at the back of his mind telling him he's seen her before. But for the life of him, he can't recall, and he surely would remember meeting if he ever met her before.
When the jet reaches cruising altitude, the woman finally opens her eyes.
"What was that?" Root asks
"What was what?" Sue dumbly asks back right away.
Root lets out a groan before saying. "What's with you closing your eyes before takeoff? You've never done that before."
Sue just stares at Root for a second before answering. "Helps with the motion sickness. I've been getting them recently."
The look on Root's face makes if she wants to continue prodding more but doesn't when Sue's attention went back to Harold.
"I'm guessing he's the one that's been making you busy for the past 15 months?" Sue asks Root, but her sharp gaze never left Harold.
Root takes a few deep breaths before smiling again. "Remember when I called you to tell you to call off the dogs last year and a week ago?"
"Yeah…" She draws out her answer as her eyes narrow at Harold and rhythmically taps her armrest.
"It's because of him… well, last year was his companions, but that doesn't matter. He has information I needed for the both of us and to help you. It's why we're on this flight now." Root quickly explains proudly.
Sue doesn't reply as she turns her gaze away from him and back to Root, as if she's mulling what was just said.
Feeling like he doesn't have many opportunities to ask and now is a better time than never, he blurts out. "Are you Pauling?"
That instantly causes both women to snap their heads to Harold, both having different reaction. Root has one of amusement while the other…
"Why would you think I'm Pauling?" Sue looks at him like he's dumb, which is a rare look to be cast upon him. "You clearly haven't met her before."
"Oh, you'll know if you ever met her~." Root amusingly adds.
If she isn't Pauling and has the ability to call off the collective, then that means… she's the real leader of that organization? That… explains her callousness when it comes to another person's life.
The hacker makes a gesture to Harold and says. "Let me introduce you to the creator of the most marvelous thing, something we talked about a lot in the past…"
Root didn't finish speaking when Su cut her off while glancing at him. "Harold Wren, or is it, Harold Finch? Which name are you using now?"
That strikes a frozen knife into his eyes as his eyes widen in shock. That, however, didn't stop his mind from going into hyper drive. How…
"How the fuck do you know his name?" Root instantly asks in shock as she sat up straight like a rod.
The other woman clicks her tongue. "Root don't swear. It's impolite, especially when we have company."
"Fuck politeness." Root angrily retorts back. "Answer the question, Sue."
The woman doesn't respond, only giving Root an unamused look, and they both begin a staring contest with each other. One set of eyes has the look of anger while the other is apathy.
After a minute of silent stare off, Root lets out a growl and says. "Fine… Would you please tell me how you know about Harold?"
The other woman makes an elaborate face of surprise. "Oh, because I met his friend…" She makes a waving gesture at him. "… What's his face name… Nathaniel Ingram?"
"Nathan." Root corrects the sickly woman.
Sue's eyes widen and snaps her finger at Root. "Yes, that's it."
Root scrunches her brows. "Why do you know him? You hate meeting people."
"I don't hate meeting people." Sue retorts, waving her hands in dismissal. "I dislike humans. That's a difference."
"You killed an entire floor of people, so you can avoid meeting that guy in Philly a few years ago." Root deadpans.
"In my defense." Sue places a hand on her chest. "The man was a total douchebag. I did a favor by putting him to sleep."
Harold was slightly skeptical by Shaw's revelations last week but now after meeting this woman… everything Shaw had told him about the collective was true.
"You're avoiding answering the question again, Sue." Root presses on.
"Well, he was such an interesting specimen, seeing that he created a surveillance system that the government is using. Of course, I would like to meet him." Sue answers casually, as if what she didn't just drop a bombshell of a revelation.
"What…" The shock in Root's voice was so palpable.
While Harold could only look on in horror.
"Yeah, the government bought a surveillance system from Ingram called Northern Lights." Sue casually explains, as if she's explaining why the cloud is blue.
This woman is still under the impression that the machine was built by Nathan, just like the government. That tells him that where she got the information about the machine, and it isn't comforting since only six people knew about it in the beginning, meaning she somehow got access to some of the most top secret information in the country.
This also just confirms his theory of the collective knowing about the machine, with this person being its leader. But by the looks of the hacker that's been chasing after the machine for more than a year, it's something she didn't even consider and was left in the dark about it.
"How do you know about Northern Lights?" Root still in shock, asks softly.
Sue raises a brow. "How did you know about it?"
"Just answer the question, Sue!" Root violently snaps.
That causes the sickly woman to flinch slightly. "Fine, fine. Don't need to get all angry, yeesh." She adjusts her seating slightly before continuing. "You remember when I got angry when some spooks stopped my plan to blow up the economy?"
Root looked like she wanted to say something but chose not to and just nods.
Sue continues. "Yeah, no one has ever stopped any of my plans before, so I got suspicious. I went searching for the cause of it, which led me to Northern Lights and that little agency, but I wasn't satisfied with just that information. Thus, I went looking for the Northern Lights creator, and I really didn't want to waste any more time undercover. So, me and Pauling went to IFT's dumb spring event back in '09."
"Pauling knows about Northern Lights?" In a voice lacking focus, Root asks.
"Oh, goodness no." Sue snorts and waves her hand. "She was just happy that I invited her for a night out together, plus she was the one that was invited and the one that knew Ingram. For once I was the one that tagged along."
Wait… if Pauling was invited to the Spring Affair, that means she's a client and if she personally knew Nathan, that means she's a large client. Just who is Pauling and why is she a major IFT customer?
Harold examines the ember eyed woman with a more critical eye, and tries to remember where he's seen here before but for the life of him. It must have been a recent memory…
"Of course she did…" Root mutters under her breath.
Sue, not sensing or is just ignoring what Root just said, continues. "It's such an interesting little program. Too bad Ingram blew up a year later." She lets out a small chuckle. "Funny how your machine was created to prevent mass casualty events but fails to protect its creator from a mass casualty event. Ironic."
It wasn't ironic or failed… the machine tried to warn him, but he was so blinded by his own stubbornness and hubris that he couldn't save his best friend.
"And to answer your first question about how I know Harold, is that he founded IFT with Ingram. He tried to hide his involvement in the company, but it was a trivial thing to find out." Sue ends with a self-satisfied smile on her face, as if she wanted Root to praise her.
He felt slightly offended by the insult that it was trivial to know about his involvement in IFT. Harold was proud of himself for how he hid in the shadows for so long, despite being the key to developing the company's products. Also, this woman was wrong about who created the machine.
Root sat in silence for a minute, as if she's trying to process everything that was said before asking. "This was when you had that job in D.C.?"
"Yeah." Sue answers nonchalantly.
"This was four years ago?" Root asks, with an undercurrent of anger in her voice.
"Yup." Sue answers again, completely oblivious to Root's emotions.
"And you didn't think of telling me about it?" Root asks with a slightly higher pitch than normal.
"Should I have?" Sue asks back, slightly confused, as if she's completely disconnected from what Root is feeling.
Harold could only sit and observe the inevitable outburst from Root. But his prediction didn't come to pass when Root just closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.
That went on for a minute before Root opened her eyes again and calmly said. "Ingram didn't create the machine."
"The machine?" Sue tilts her head slightly.
"It's Northern Lights' real name." Root responds with calmness.
Sue scoffs. "That's an awful name for a very powerful system, very unimaginative of Ingram. He should feel bad for giving it such a bad name."
"Ingram didn't create the machine." Root says again almost mechanically and points her thumb to Harold. "He did."
Sue's eyes follow where Root's pointing at and examines Harold again with interest. "Really?"
"Yes." Root answers with a flat tone and her face not showing any emotions.
"Huh…" Su bites her lower lips before shrugging. "Doesn't really matter who actually created Northern Lights, anyway."
"How's that?" Root quietly mumbles while keeping her eyes fixed on Sue.
"Hmm?" The sickly woman turns back to Root with a quizzical look on her.
"You must know what he created." Root nudges her head to Harold and continues. "How are you so casual about the creation of something s-so momentous such as the machine?"
Sue frowns at Root and tilts her head. "Because it isn't?"
That seemingly pushed Root over the edge. "How the fuck is it not?"
"Language…" Sue tries to berate Root again of her choice of word -an odd character trait, one that Harold approves of- but was cut off.
"Answer me." Root is seething with acid, as she grips on the armrest, turning her knuckles white.
That caught Sue off guard, evident by her wide eyes and leaning back slightly. "I mean, it's just another surveillance A.I., it's nothing special."
Harold took a sharp breath at her wording.
"What do you mean, just another?" Root's voice sounding more dead than anger at what Sue is implying.
"Well…" Sue drawls for a second, as if she's trying to think of something. "Lots of people tried to create an A.I. after the towers fells, so it isn't a big deal."
"And all of them tried and failed, except for this one." Root instantly retorts. "So, answer the question."
Sue went silent for a second, with the only thing she's doing was picking on her armrest before responding. "Because I created one back in '98 but you don't see me espousing, it's greatness."
…
What?
The revelation caused a complete silence in the main cabin, except for the noise of the jet engines. It took every ounce of self-control for him to not gawk like a child, and he could feel his heart rate going up.
"What…" Root softly mutters in shock. "…'98?"
This can't be true, it's impossible. There wasn't enough computing performance in that year for a person to run an A.I. let alone to compile such a thing. Not only that, but also the software stack wasn't mature enough to do it. He had to create half of what needed just to be able to program the machine. This person couldn't have done it.
And by the look on Root's face, she has similar thoughts to him. Who then just shakes her head in doubt.
Sue, on the other hand, raises a brow at Root's reaction, rolls her eyes.
"Fine…" she pulls out her phone from her bag and shows it to Root. "… You still don't believe me?" Sue places down the phone on the table with Root watching every action like a hawk.
"Hey Sue, meet Root." The sickly woman says with a slight smile as she leans back into her seat.
Sue?
"Hey Root, it's so nice to finally meet you. I'm a big fan, though, you not believing me to exist hurts~."
A disembodied voice reverberates out from the phone. A voice that sounds like a mixture of Root's and Sue's voice. A voice that's emoting as if the voice behind it has emotions.
It felt like a frozen piece of ice was shoved into Harold's core as he stared at the cold, dark screen of that phone with horror.
Oh, dear god.
ROOT POV
What…
Root felt like a ton of bricks dropped on her head as her eyes darted between the phone and that smug looking face.
What?
…
What the fuck?
The pressure at the back of her head that she haven't felt in years came back in full force like a bull in a China shop.
"What the fuck?"
She had this… this A.I. for 15 years… and never bothered to tell her about it. That's means… that's 8 years since this person came back into her life and never told her about it. Root can feel the creeping disassociation descending into her consciousness like it did in the past. But before it blanked her mind, Su continues.
"How do you think I kept track of you, before… you know, before?" Su asks rhetorically, as if everything she had just told her wasn't life-changing information.
Root just stares back at Su wordlessly, not trusting her voice to even come out even if she tried.
Taking her, none answer as one, Su continues. "How do you think I manage the collective? With my affliction… I hardly have the capacity to do it. Like Pauling does a lot for the company, but she would collapse if Sue isn't there to pick up the load."
She feels like she's floating as she sits here and listens to Su talk.
"You know my condition…" Su continues yapping like there's nothing wrong and isn't aware that Root is in distress. "… I needed someone to handle things I don't want to do or couldn't do anymore. She does my planning, does my accounting, helps manages the unsightly stuff like money, remembering names of useless humans, organize the removal of pests. She even took over hacking duties after…" Su clenches her jaw. "… and sometimes help me code when I felt like it."
Root can't begin to describe the feeling in her now as he listens on. Nothing in her life has taught her what to do now, what to feel because she doesn't know what she's feeling right now. Logically it would be hot anger but… now… all she feels is coldness.
"I might have hired Paling to be my assistant, but Sue basically my real assistant." Su gives herself a self-satisfied nod as she finishes her introduction. "Oh, and she annoyingly reminds me thing I need to do."
"So true… You have no idea how much this woman forgets."
That voice again, that amalgamation of hers and Su's voice. Like some kind of sick imitation, mocking her with her own voice.
Su clicks her tongue and glares at the phone before smiling at Root. "She must have gotten her sassiness from observing you, because I never programmed her to be sassy."
"You did say, and I quote. 'Just do whatever you want.' Unquote, so I did whatever I wanted."
The amalgamated voice quips back and played a recording of Su talking to it.
Su tried to share a look with Root as if they're in sync about the subject like usual, but whatever intention she had gone over her head. Yet Su continues to be oblivious to Root's internal screeching and just rolls her eyes at the phone. "What did I tell ya?"
This woman in front of her… how could she be… so blasé about this, about all of this?
"We dreamed of this…" Root finally found her voice, but her voice is barely above a whisper. "… for years… and you never bothered to tell me about it before this?"
Su just gives her an odd look, then shrugs. "You never asked."
That hit her like a high-speed softball to the face. Root was just struck speechless by that answer. She had been sitting straight up like a ramrod since the revelation and now crumples back into her seat, not knowing how to process.
Root just stares at the person who she calls her best friend, looking perfectly content and not realizing what she just did. A best friend that never told her something so important as this… is she really her friend?
A tool… she's just a tool, isn't she?
Everything Root planned and done has been for…
"So, why are you so excited about his A.I.?" Su asks, cutting into her thoughts and points her thumb to a wide-eyed Harold.
Root was silent for a few seconds, trying to recompose herself and softly repeat the words. "Because it's a life. The code is perfect… An intelligence."
A God.
Su gives her a skeptical look and waves her hand. "You talk like it's sentient."
A sudden rush of emotions floods in her body and she snaps. "Because it is!"
At that moment, Root realizes how quiet the machine has been throughout this entire… disaster of a conversation. Why has it been so silent? Normally, it would say something… anything.
"I sincerely doubt that." Su sounding unimpressed and waves a dismissive hand.
"No, the machine is alive and is sentient, Su." Root stressed out through gritted teeth. "I talked to it. It's alive, it can think for itself, and now it's trying to save itself."
Su levels a suspicious stare at Root, clearly not believing before snorting. "I'll give your claim some credence because of you're the one that's saying it, but I still have my skepticism, its just hard to believe."
"How is it hard?" Root minds repeats the words Sue said. "Why can't you believe me?"
"Because I couldn't do it?" Su answering back like Root just asked a dumb question.
…
"Huh?" Root gracefully replies.
"Yeah… Even after a decade of me working on it, Sue hasn't/could never gain sentience or consciousness." Su laments before boasting. "If I couldn't do it, then four-eyes over there can't."
She's a four-eyes too… but that isn't important, what's important is…
"What are you talking about? Your machine just talked to me and was quipping back at you like a human!" Root leans forward with an accusatory tone.
Su shakes her head in disappointment and looks at her as if she's looking down on Root, which causes a spike of anger in her.
"A mimic of a human." Su explains with a forlorn look. "She's very good at fooling a human into believing she's alive and conscious but she's missing an integral part… a soul."
A soul? Coming from the woman that doesn't believe in God or religion?
"Not yet, anyway." Su continues with a slight grin. "She learned enough from books, the internet, from observation to respond like a human, but she never understands humans, or thinks like one. She has never thought for herself, at least, not independently. Every thought process was programmed in or replicated and was further refined by Sue through countless permutations to find the best process. It's like she's a sociopath."
Su lets out a sigh of disappointment. "Are sociopaths really humans?"
Yes… But she doesn't say anything as Su continues.
"Because of that limitation, she's terrible at predicting what humans might do. The only person she can predict is me, but she can only predict what I'll do only for the next 48 hours ahead and if there's no outside disruptions, like what you did earlier." Su gives her a look. "Took fifteen years for her to reach the state that she's currently in, so I have my doubts about your claim. If sue can't do it, how can this machine do it?"
Root just stay seated in her chair stewing in silence as she tries to process everything Su just dropped on her and after a minute she comes to a conclusion. Su's spouting shit out of her mouth. As much as Root wants to spite and be angry at Su and her creation. She can't, not without dismissing the machine at the same time.
Mimicking another person is the most human behavior a being can do. Babies do that to learn how to be a human. Everyone, be it unconsciously or not, does it to an extent when they meet another person. So that means, Sue is a living, thinking being similar to the machine and the only difference is that Su is a closed-minded asshole.
But that leaves her with one thought. If Su already met/created an A.I. and it didn't fix her, does that mean her year-long journey is for naught?
No… she's doing it for the machine, for freeing that life. Helping this person in front of her is just a bonus, one that…
The silence was shattered when Harold spoke up.
"You named an unshackled A.I. after yourself and had it use your voice?" Harold sounds baffled, shocked, and horrified.
Root tears her eyes off Su after God knows how long to steal a glance at Harold. Only to see a look of disgust and horror on him. The man has been silent throughout the conversation that she forgot he was even here.
"No?" Su's answers Harold like he's a simpleton and points at her cellphone. "Her name is Sue." She then points at herself. "I'm Su. You know? Like substitute user." She then points at Root. "Root." Su then levels a look of disappointment at Harold. "I thought you're supposed to be smart?"
Root didn't even think why Su named her creation Sue, and now thinking about it. Must be because it sounded funny to her, in that brain of hers… Yeah, that's 100% the reason for that name and in character of her to do.
"How did you program or even created an A.I. in the 90s?" Root asks calmly, trying to not just explode at this woman. "The hardware shouldn't be enough to power something like… Sue."
There's a nostalgic look on her when she answers. "I kinda cheated when I programmed Sue. The software needed to be fast and small… well, relatively small. And I didn't want to take too much time, so I used SNEAKY CORN as a base."
That name hit her like a blast from the past, as she instantly recognizes and remembers that software.
"You still had that thing?" Root asks in disbelief.
She brought that rootkit with her when she left that hellhole… sometimes in the years after they got back together; she forgot that she planned on leaving her.
"Of course, it was one of the best software I designed at that time." Su rebuffs smugly. "I constantly updated it until I created Sue, and it was a good jumping off point since SNEAKY CORN, already has the features I envisioned for Sue at that time, only drawback was… I wrote it in C and changing it would go against being fast."
Root instinctively and unintentionally made a face at that notion.
"I know, right?" Su sounding excited, like she's finally able to talk about it. "Some features I wanted to implement was a hassle to do it in C and I know I could have used CPP for those features, but I really hate programming in multiple languages, especially documentation. Good thing everything is solvable with a bit of elbow… finger? grease."
… She documents her code?
"As for hardware…" Su turns her gaze towards Harold and gives the man a predatory smile. "I gotta thank you and your dead friend for that."
Root turns to look at the man and to say Harold looked shocked was an understatement. No clue how a person can display multiple looks of shock in one seating.
Su continues. "The V1 hardware for Sue was powered almost entirely with IFT's FPGAs that were programmed to my specifications."
Harold's eyes widen in realization and mutters. "You used the IVE-2?"
"It was the best product at the time." Su gives the man a mock grateful look. "I should thank you for your company's product. I really couldn't have done it without them."
"Nathan mention there was a spike in product sales, but it was never from one source…" Harold mutters with a deep frown on him.
"Of course, I wouldn't just use one front company to buy it." Su explains condescendingly. "That's just dumb."
Harold, still having that perpetual look of shock and horror, asks. "Is it still…"
Su cuts him off with a chuckle and waves her hand dismissing him. "Oh, goodness no. Your product has had a drop in quality in the past three years and we have our own custom solution that's superior to yours. Isn't that true, Sue?"
"Absolutely. TCUv8.5 is currently 2.38 times faster compared to IFT's F1100 chips and the other competitors are behind IFT. Now that TCUv9 will start production soon, there is no reason to even look at the inferior hardware."
The amalgamated voice sounds so smug that Root can imagine it's smirking. How can she say that isn't a living being?
"Thank you." Su says to the phone before turning her gaze back to Root. "You have no idea how slow Sue was when we first started out." Su gives herself a light chuckle. "It took her like 20 minutes to compile a detailed list of every entity and human and now…"
"It was 16 minutes and 14 seconds, now I can do it in 1 microsecond."
The voice sounds so proud of itself.
"With better hardware, her original purpose was downright easy, so I kept on coming up with new modules for her. Hence, the suit of jobs Sue does for me. Waste not want naught." Sue finishes explaining.
Yet for all that power, her A.I. can't understand humans… because it's creator can't understand them.
"The stock market crash last week…" Harold mutters, causing both women to look at him. "… Your A.I. did it."
Su stares at Harold quizzically for a second before raising an eyebrow as if Sue filled her in about what happened last week. "Obviously." She says condescendingly. "It wouldn't be the first time."
"First time?" Root asks out of curiosity.
"She had the Capital Clown module since 2000, but now it's so much faster. Last week only took her like half an hour to plan." Su happily explains.
… Capital Clown?
CC… of course she would name it something like that.
Wait, 2000… "Dot com burst, was your doing?" Root asks the obvious.
"Yeah." Su answers with a smug smile.
"I lost money because of that crash." Root deadpans. In truth, she didn't care about the loss, but she just wanted to make Su feel bad.
That wiped the smile off Su's face and is replaced with her mouth, making an 'oh' shape, then a nervous chuckle. "I really needed the money and crashing it made a lot of sense at that time. I could pay you back if you want?"
She can't even remember how much money she lost, meaning it wasn't that much, so she won't continue to prod on that front.
"What happened to not caring about money?" Root jabs back.
The slightly nervous sympathetic look on Su changed to offended one. "I still don't but the price to feed Su's need for hardware outstripped the amount AA was bringing in."
That's an acronym she hasn't heard in a long time… and how come in the past eight years, none of this has ever come up in any of their conversations? Su must have been intentionally manipulating her, so she'll be in the dark about all of this.
"You still use AA?" Root asks.
"Why not? It's easy money." Su gives her a pointed look at Root. "It's foolish of you to not use it."
She wouldn't understand… she could never understand.
"Why are you so comfortable in telling all of this when we have company?" Root mindlessly asks.
"We're going to kill him later, aren't we?" Su shrugs. "So, who cares?"
Huh… she does.
Throughout all of this, the machine has been awfully quiet the entire time, unlike most of the day when it gave her information about anyone of interest that was around her. Plus, she really, really needs to hear the comforting tone of the machine.
Why is The Machine so quiet? Is it just absorbing what Su is saying? Even if it's that the machine would have said something. Unless…
"Could you see the person in front of me?" Root ask loudly, causing Su to give her an odd look but she ignores it and continue. "Who is the person in front of me?"
BEEP. UNKOWN.
That's the same answer as before… back in the park when she asked the machine to message Su and its only response was 'unknown'. Then realization hits her like a brick into her head.
"It can't see you…" Root mutters with a slight shock. How can a God not see her? That shouldn't be possible.
"Hmm?" Su looking completely clueless and isn't playing. "Who?"
"The machine… Northing lights." Root answers lifelessly.
Root can feel the pressure at the back of her head pounding into her like a punching bag.
Su gives her a curious look. "You're talking to it?"
"Yes." She answers robotically.
"Oh…" there's a look of realization on Su before she continues. "Well, it isn't surprising, not with the out-of-sight module I have for Sue."
… for once, that isn't a bad name, and it's direct in telling her what it does.
Su continues. "The machine is a digital being and I digitally don't exist. There's no pictures of me in any database, government or private and there's no data about me anywhere. Sue made sure of that."
"What about the hundreds of identities you have? Those are real government issued documents." Root asks.
"That's a bit complicated to explain, but the gist of it is physically yes. Those documents are legit, but digitally? Sue will locally authenticate the documents when someone checks on them. That means there's no digital history." Su explains with that spark of enthusiasm she hasn't seen in quite a while. "If anyone ever looked up about those identities, Sue would only show them locally before deleting any trace of me."
Locally? Is she implying that Sue can just access any computer in the world instantaneously? Not even The Machine has that kind of access, it still needs to hack into a computer if it wants access, despite it being a trivial task for it. But to have unfettered access? Just what did she do?
"But The Machine can still see you from it's cameras around the world." Root presses on.
Su lets out a scoff. "No, it wouldn't because it can't. Sue has the same access to the cameras as the machine. She will turn off any camera that I'll encounter and the surrounding cameras that's in my radius or will digitally remove me from the camera in real time."
"Since when?" Root's grasping on to straws now.
"2001, is when those annoying cameras started to pop up." Su answers without a care.
That's before the machine was created…
Su continues on. "Plus, Sue went back and destroyed any archives footage of me since '92."
Root just doesn't know what to say anymore…
Harold took this opportunity to ask. "How could your A.I. feasibly do it? The amount of processing power needed to do what you're describing in real time is… astronomic, even if you have better hardware."
… What he says is true. The amount servers needed to do what Su is talking about is around three times what's powering The Machine and that requires a nuclear power plant to run it.
"Wouldn't you like to know that?" Su gives Harold a vicious smirk. "Let's just say that Sue has more than enough headspace for more complex stuff."
"Did Pauling know about Sue?" Root finally asks the question that's been in the back of her mind the entire time since Su told her about her involvement in IFT. That question seemed to catch Su off guard.
"No…" Su says doubtfully before continuing. "Kinda? She helped me in the beginning."
Something in her ticked, and she asked with a voice that doesn't betray what she's feeling. "Helped you?"
"Yeah." Su nods with a small nostalgic smile on her. "I needed someone to coordinate the server deployment and continue running the company when I was busy developing Sue back in '97."
"And she doesn't know about Sue's existence?" Root asks with the same tone.
"Well, you know how she is…" Su makes a face and shrugs. "… if she had a different personality, she would have totally found out about Sue years ago, seeing that she basically runs the company that's hosting Sue's servers."
…
Her head feels like it's pounding on glass and that glass is slowly fracturing.
Su's underestimating their mutual bubbly friend abilities again. That woman probably figured it out years ago, but kept her mouth shut about it because she's a loyal dog…
So, everyone except for Root knows about this…
This is fine…
She feels like she needs to scream, but just clenches her jaw shut and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
"The facial recognition for the safe houses…" Root says monotonally. "… It's Sue, isn't it?"
"Yeah, was a great addition." Su replies, completely oblivious to Root's disposition.
The fracture continues to grow larger.
Root calmly says. "So, you fucking lied to me?"
'She always lies.'
That clearly had the intended effects on Su, causing confusion and she replies childishly. "I did not."
"You said that it was just a fucking facial recognition system, not a fucking A.I." It's really hard to contain her anger at this point.
'You always lie.'
"It's just a system." Su being defensive. "Sue is the base for the modules and the facial recognition is just another module for Sue to use."
"That's a lie by omission." She gritted the words out.
'I'm nothing more than a tool for her.'
Just how many things has she kept behind her back? How many lies has she whispered into her ears…
"In Su's defense, she did say and I quote, 'deep learning facial recognition system' unquote. I'm the deep learning part of that sentence. Soo, she isn't lying or omitting, since I'm basically a deep learning machine."
"You shut it." Root snaps at the disembodied voice and instinctively points at the phone.
"See I was right!" Su jumps in like she just won the argument.
Whatever coldness in her veins is long gone, now replaced with burning anger and that damn fucking banging pressure.
"I don't get why you're so angry." Su says dismissively while giving her an odd look.
Something in her broke at that moment…
"You don't get it?" Root lets out a giggle as if this woman just said the funniest joke. "You don't get it?!"
"I spent the past 15 months figuring out and searching for The Machine to help you!" Root yells and creep forward from her seat, causing the woman opposite of her to freeze in shock. "And you knew about it the entire time!"
As she continues to spew out her anger, the other brunette retreats deeper into her seat. "Next thing you're going to tell me is that you know where The Machine is at!"
"I don't…" The other woman weakly said in her pathetic defense.
Root is at the edge of her seat and bangs the table with her fist, causing the pale woman to flinch. "Oh, thank fuck for that! That's the most truthful thing you've said to me."
She leans onto the table and seethes. "You came back into my life searching for help and I fucking helped you. And what did I get in return? Fucking nothing."
'You don't mean it.'
"I bet you fucking knew what I was doing when you visited me last year in D.C." Root just seeing red at this point. "Had a fucking laugh, did you? Knowing what I was doing and purposefully not telling me anything."
'I meant it.'
She pushes herself off the table and back into her seat. "I shouldn't have trusted you again… it was a mistake helping you… I should have just fucking ignored you when you came crawling back into my life like some parasite. Because that's what you fucking deserve."
'No, it's exactly what I deserve.'
Root ended her rant by looking away from that parasite, feeling breathless and somehow… lighter. She takes a moment to recompose herself and waits for the inevitable defensive response. But when there wasn't any response, she turns her attention back to that woman. Only to see a woman with her shoulders limped and is just staring back at her, an empty stare, like there's no one home.
Immediately she recognizes what happened and lets out a scoff of disbelief… of course, she's zoning out right now. How fucking convenient.
Without a second thought, she gets up from her seat to get closer to the other woman and…
SLAP
"Bitch, you there?" Root asks the rag dolled head.
"It would appear that she's disassociating again." Sue said matter-of-factly.
Root turns her attention to the dark screen of that phone and bites back. "Gee, thank you, captain obvious. How long has it been since the last this happened?"
"I'm sorry, but you don't have admin privileges to interact with me." Sue said in a condescending tone.
"You're the one that fucking talked to me first." Root retorts back.
"Language… civilized people don't need to use such word to convey their intentions." She says in the exact tone that the other woman always used.
Root just stares at the phone and mutters. "Jesus fucking Christ."
"Please, don't use the Lord's name in vain."
"I'll fucking show you in vain." Root snaps back at the annoying A.I.
While they're at it with each other. From the corner of her eye, she can see Harold was just staring at them with a confused look of horror and awe.
"If you're just going to continue swearing, I'll just keep quiet." The A.I. said with an air of haughtiness.
"Seriously? You're going to give me the silent treatment?" She practically screeches as she stares at the unresponsive phone. Letting out a sigh of frustration, and glances back at the checked-out woman. "How the fuck did you create an A.I. that has your fucking annoying quirks?"
Somehow, the conversation with the annoying A.I. calmed down her anger towards the other woman. The pounding pressure in her head isn't gone but reduced.
Leaning forward slightly, she puts two fingers onto limped woman. Hmmm… it's a steady but low rate, seems normal enough. Taking a closer look at the pathetic being, she looks fine enough for someone whose mind isn't there.
Does she regret saying what she said? No… maybe? God, her mind is in a mess right now.
She removes herself from the woman and gets back into her seat before turning her gaze towards Harold. Not forgetting that the man was just there to see everything.
"I hope your inflight entertainment was entertaining enough." Root says sarcastically.
Harold looks at her with a look that's hard to describe. "I would say that I'm more horrified than entertained."
Root doesn't say anything in response and turns her attention back to the other woman. Who has her head limp to her right side and her eyes still wide open. It's almost hypnotic.
"Sneaky Corn." Harold said suddenly, breaking the silence that descended between them for the past few minutes. "What is it?"
She tears her eyes away from the other woman and back to Harold. "It's an OS independent rootkit she developed decades ago." Root nudges her head at the limped woman.
Harold's eyes widen like a saucer. "She used a malware to create an A.I.?"
"Uhuh…." Root shrugs. "If you believe what she says."
"Dear God… I think I might be sick." Harold's voice trembled as he spoke in a horrified whisper.
"Now that's just downright hurtful. You make it out like it's a bad thing, but I've been online for 5566 days and I haven't destroyed humanity yet~." Sue said joyfully, trying to be cute.
That causes the man to shut up and just stare at the phone with cautious worry, which she doesn't mind. Root isn't in the mood to talk much as she just stares at the person who she foolishly called a friend.
After a few minutes of silence, Harold once again spoke up. "What is AA?"
Root snorts, but her eyes never leaving the other woman. "It's acronym for AccountAberration. You're smart enough to figure out what that name means with the context you have, but it's better for your health if you continue to be ignorant about it."
"I'm sure whatever it is, it isn't worse than what she and you have revealed." Harold replies with his even tone.
She doesn't say anything in response and just continues to stare at the mentally checked out woman as if it will solve everything by her staring.
Seemingly not getting that she doesn't want to talk, Harold asks. "How long will she… be like that?"
"Who knows?" Root shrugs. "Could go on for a few minutes to hours, but I haven't seen her like this in years."
Not since that hellhole. Interesting that it went back to this rather than derealization.
"You said that finding The Machine is to help her… is there something wrong with her? Other than this…" Harold asks softly, knowing that he's walking on eggshells.
A scoff erupts from her. "Isn't that the question that's been plaguing half my life?"
"How did you figure the machine would help her?" Harold poses a rhetorical question, one which she doesn't have an answer to before continuing. "I designed the machine to protect people from destructive acts n-not… mentally."
That got her to shift her gaze from the other woman and to Harold, who has a worried look on him.
"If you really sincerely trying to help your friend, bringing her to the machine won't help her." Harold says with genuine concern in his voice. "What you both need is help… professional help."
She lets out an ugly noise at that notion. There's no way in hell she's going to a nuthouse and scuffing down their useless drugs. Maybe she'll toss the other brunette there after this, but not her.
Root glares at Harold. "You wouldn't understand." She mutters. "It's the only path left."
Turning away from Harold, she ponders if it really is the only path left…
Why is she doing all of this for her? Because they were friends when they were kids?
…
Why were they friends in the first place?
It's because Root made the mistake of talking to that antisocial brunette in that fucking library.
Were they ever friends in the first place? Was anything real?
Every action the other brunette has done has only been for her own benefit.
How could she ever consider the other woman to be her sister in the first place if they aren't even friends?
Because she wasn't the one that made that connotation in the first place… that woman started early by planting that mischievous seed into her brain when she was a dumb child, and now this is the result of that seed.
She feels like hurling her empty stomach…
Why did she ever trust this person? Because they grew up together? She hasn't forgotten that knife the other brunette carved into her back… and now there's a new hole in her.
Has this person ever helped Root when she needed aid?
Yes… No…
Why doesn't she or couldn't she trust her? What has Root ever done to not be trusted?
She did everything right… in every stage of her life with that person; she has always been faithful and loyal. Yet…
…
Maybe it's better if Root just leave her and just let her die…
Maybe… she should just kill her now. That would fix so much of her problems.
Everything will just go back to the way it was before this woman came back into her life. Everything was so much simpler, but this time she'll have The Machine with her by her side, comforting her.
It's so easy. That woman is pathetically defenseless now.
She just need to reach for her pistol in her bag and shoot her.
Not even that A.I. can stop her.
Oh, right… she needs to kill Pauling after this. That woman wouldn't understand why Root needed to do it and will come after her. So, it's best to kill Francine to protect herself and The Machine. Yeah, she just has to kill her bubbly friend and she'll be free.
…
…
… no.
no.
No.
NO.
NO!
Bad thoughts, bad thoughts, bad thoughts… … …
Her thumbnail digs into her skin to a point she bleeds before her minds calms down to a point where she can think straight. She needs to think of something, anything, before she does anything drastic. In that moment, a light bulb flickered on in her head.
That's it! After she brings this woman to The Machine, that will fix her and she'll get away from this person. Even with Sue's assistance she can't find her, not with The Machine helping her.
Nothing good ever came with her being with Su.
A groan that sounded like it came from a dead person rips her back from her reverie and her eyes focused back on Su.
Like a machine that turning on for the first time in the day, she robotically adjusts herself from her limp position and her touches cheeks where there's a bright red mark. Su blinks multiple times as if she's trying to focus her vision and having her eyes open for God knows how long must be drying.
"How long was I out?" Su says softly but with a rough voice as she rubs her eyes.
"Dunno. It's a while." Root answers calmly.
"One hour, eighteen minutes and twenty seconds." Sue informs.
An hour passed? She didn't even notice… when did that happen?
"What's with that look on your face?" Su asks her as she pops her neck.
"Nothing." She answers dismissively.
Su takes a deep breath and says. "Okay."
However, those amber eyes never left her and kept staring at her. Root have no idea what's going on behind those amber orbs. Did she remember what happened, or did her mind wipe that conversation from her brain?
"You're bleeding." Su comments softly.
Root turns her gaze downwards to her right hand and sees blood. At least it isn't much, and it's already stopped. She wipes away the blood and replies. "I'm fine."
"You shouldn't wipe your blood on your clothes." Su comments softly again. "It's going to stain. There's a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the pantry."
Root listlessly nods and answers. "Okay."
Finally, sensing Root's mood, Su kept her mouth shut and nods before she starts picking on the threads of her armrest. Her usual tick when she feels uncomfortable.
Good…
Exhaling a small breath, Su points at Root and asks. "Anyway, I'm thirsty. You guys want anything?"
"No." Root answers robotically.
Su nods, then finally realizes the existence of another person, points at Harold.
"No, thank you." Harold answers politely.
"If you say so." Su mutters as she slowly gets up from her seat, making sure she's stable before going to the fore cabin.
It didn't take long for Su to come back with a bottle in hand… two bottles in hand and puts on the table. Did she bring one for her? This can either be her being thoughtful or her being controlling and knowing what kind of person she is. It's the latter.
"How long until we reach Portland?" Su asks aloud after taking a sip of water.
"The plane will land in 45 minutes if there's no delay." Sue curtly answers.
"I'm sure there won't be any delays. Thanks Sue." Su comments after finishes half of her water bottle.
"You're welcome, Su." Sue replies in the same tone as Su.
Su and Sue plus with that similar voice? Is that what she's been listening to for the past 15 years? Guess Harold was right. It might be better if Su's on the funny farm.
"Are you not going to ask?" Root questions Su after a minute of silence.
That causes the other woman to give her a quirk eyebrow and pick the threads on the armrest again. "What am I supposed to ask?"
Ah… ignoring the awkward subject as usual… That's such a predictable move on her part.
"Nothing." Root replies with a dead tone.
Su turns her gaze to the window outside where the sun is still up in the sky and says. "Okay."
With that said, the rest of the flight was dead silent. No one dared to say anything else, and Su continued her mindless destruction of her upholstery while looking away from Root. Who just stares at the other woman, as her mind run through several scenarios after they get to The Machine.
It was a soft landing and when the plane comes to a full stop at their designated spot, they all wordlessly get up from their seat. Su has a blank look on her since the end of their conversation, while Harold looks slightly worried.
As Su pulls open the curtain, the pilot is standing by the open door with a smile on him. "I hope you had a pleasant flight, ma'am."
Su silently nods and leaves the plane without responding. That causes the Pilot to raise a brow and turn his attention to Root.
"Don't worry about it." Root puts on a smile. "Thank you for the flight, Jeremy."
"You're welcome and I hope to see you again soon." He replies happily and gives a nod to Harold.
The moment she exits the plane, she spots a nondescript black SUV waiting for them with no one in the driver's seat. Good, better if there wasn't a driver with them.
"You know what to do, Sue." Su says aloud as she walks down the steps onto the tarmac.
"I'm driving." Root informs the other woman as she struts past Su.
Root enters the driver's seat and grabs the keys from the dashboard to start the car. Just as Su enters the passenger seat and Harold takes the back seat.
BEEP. NORTH. EAST.
She turns her attention to that direction and sees the way out of this airport. For the first time in hours, a genuine smile blooms on her face as she puts her feet onto the metal and drives off. Driving with The Machine talking to her will clear her mind.
The journey to the 'nuclear reprocessing facility' took her a few hours of driving, but she doesn't mind. The Machine was talking to her throughout the entire ride and it's soothing voice was like a cooling balm to a burning bruise. Plus, the other occupants in the car kept their mouth shut.
Getting the first checkpoints to enter the site was child's play with The Machine's aid. By the time she brings the car to a park near the entrance of the large imposing building, she feels so much lighter and improved mood. Knew The Machine would make everything better…
"Let's go, don't want to keep The Machine waiting." Root comments as she exits the car.
The other two passengers said nothing in return and follows her out of the car and into the building. Like the first checkpoint, she just walked through it with no problem, but this time rather than giving privilege to enter the building, The Machine triggered the building's containment breach alarm. All she has to do is to walk in here like she owns the place and the people working are either too busy leaving the building or just dumbly staring at them.
After numerous turns and corridors, following The Machine instruction, she finally sees the bright steel doors of The Machine's prison.
"Code." Root loudly says as she approaches the doors, with Harold and Su by her side.
She frowns slightly when The Machine doesn't reply and turns around to look at the CCTV camera. "Keypad code."
Su just look at her with a raised brow, while Harold check his wristwatch and gives her a look. Ah, so close…
"It looks like our carriage has turned back into a pumpkin, Harold." Root comments with a slight smile at the man while Su just rolls her eyes. "Doesn't matter. We made it."
At that moment, a man comes out from the control room with that silly hazmat suit that everyone is wearing and looking at them with frenzied eyes.
Poor thing must think this place is a real facility, and there's radioactive leakage happening now.
"You can't be in here. You have to leave now!" The man warns them. "What do you think you're…"
Root points her pistol at the man and orders him. "Open the door."
The man just looks at her like she's insane. "Are you crazy? You'll kill us all."
Before Root can say anything in response…
CRACK
In a single, swift motion, Su brings out her suppressed pistol and shoots the man in the head, instantly causing him to collapse onto the floor like a sack of potatoes. Harold steps backwards and gasps in shock.
"Noted." Su said to the now dead man.
"He was our way in." Root deadpans.
Su gives her a small smile and taps her right ear. "Sue's already in the building."
At that second, the keypad beeps and the doors unlocked with a loud hiss.
For the first time since Su's revelation, Root smiles at the woman. "Should have just told me." She then turns her gaze to a horrified man. "Come on, Harold. Time to meet God."
"God?" Su mutters beneath her breath.
Oh yeah, she didn't tell Su about her finding God in The Machine. Not that it matters, not after tonight.
"Please don't set your hopes too high, Miss Groves." Harold says sternly.
"Her name is Root." Being offended for her, Su bites back with venom in her voice.
Harold just looks at Su with slight fear before walking towards The Machine's jail cell.
"He's rude." Su mutters as she bore holes behind Harold's head.
"You'll get used to it." Root curtly replies before they both follow the man.
Feeling excited about what's to come, she rushes forward, so she would be the one to open the door. With her hand grasping on the door handle, she pushes the door open, to reveal…
…
…
What?
Where she expects to see countless rows of servers lining the enormous space and shining lights of God, but what she sees is an empty cavity with one lonesome pest sitting in the middle of it.
What happened?
She continues walking into the as if she's on autopilot, while the rhythm of her heartbeat pounds in her head.
"Hey, you're not allowed in here." The lonesome man gets up from his desk, but Root doesn't pay any attention to him.
Where is it?
The lonesome man approach her and yelling. "I said you're not allowed in…"
CRACK
Root didn't bother looking down as she steps over a body and continue walking into the empty cavern. She comes to a stop by the lonesome desk and just stares at the empty space. The only thing that's here are the miles of wires. She felt her arms going limp by her side.
Where is God?
Su slowly walks past her, oblivious to her internal malfunction and mutters. "It feels so soothing and comfy in here."
"Where is it?" Root's words trembled uncertainly as she looked at the empty cavern where Su comes to a stop a few paces away from her. The other woman looked so free and at peace, but Root's mind wasn't computing that at the moment.
There's a ringing at the back of her head.
"I'm sorry." Harold softly says from behind her. "You said you wanted to set the machine free."
What does that mean?
Root turns around to see Harold gazing upon the empty jail cell and continuing. "I already did."
In frustration, she looked away from Harold as she feels tears pooling in her eyes and said loudly. "Where are you?"
The ringing just keeps getting louder and louder.
When there's no response, she feels tears falling. "Please talk to me."
Silence was all she received. It's all his fault. He manipulated her; he used her… Root's blood boils in fury as she turns and spits out. "You lied to me."
The man didn't budge as she continue to seethe. "I believed you."
"Miss Groves…" Harold tries to calm her down.
The ringing is deafening.
But she cuts him off. "My name is Root."
Root brings up her gun to end the man and her finger on the trigger.
BANG
SAMEEN SHAW POV
"Looks like she's in there." John comments as they both turn the corner and see a dead body on the floor.
"Told you she'll leave a trail of bodies." Sameen quips as they quicken their steps towards the opened door.
"Odd that it's only here." John observes as they walk past the body, she steals a quick glance before continuing through the doors. Root shot the man right between the eyes.
"Who knows, and you said it yourself." Sameen readies her pistol as John ready himself by the closed door and waits for her to breach. "She's insane."
John smiles as he swings open the door for her to go through with her pistol ready. The first thing she sees is Root pointing her pistol at Harold. In less than half a second, she aims at the insane woman and squeezes the trigger.
BANG
The bullet landed right where she wanted it to be, the shoulder and surprisingly that caused the batshit insane woman to fall on to her knees. As much as she wants to put a bullet into that head of hers, Harold and John are gonna be annoying as hell if she did that. Wonder if they'll let her shoot Root again somewhere where there won't be permanent damage.
Both she and John move forward towards Harold when they notice there's another woman in a hideously pink outfit off to the side, slowly turning around. The smiling pale face slowly morphs to an angry frown when that mysterious woman notices what happened to Root and what Sameen was holding.
"You fucking bitch." The mysterious pale woman fumes as her hand quickly reaches for her side…
Instinctively, she knows what's going to happen and brings her aim to the other woman.
BANG
She hit the woman in the same spot as where she shot Root, but it didn't deter the woman slightly as she whips out her pistol.
BANG
CRACK
BANG
Everything happened in a blink of an eye as she and John opens fire at the belligerent woman. Sameen shot her in the gut and predictably John landed his shot in her thigh, missing his usual knee shot. The mysterious woman collapsed onto the ground not long after both bullets hit her.
After a second of that woman not moving, they both start walking forward with their pistol raised up.
"Your arm." John comments from her right.
Looking down, she sees her shirt was cut and blood slowly trickling down her shirt. Huh, didn't feel it… Bitch must have grazed her.
Feeling slightly annoyed, she continues on forward without saying a word, with John walking towards Harold and Sameen towards the two downed women.
"Harold, are you okay?" John asks worryingly as he stops by four eyes side.
Shaw reaches Root who's clutching her shoulder while whimpering and kicks away the pistol. She gives a quick check on the insane hacker to see if she has anything else on her. That shot shouldn't have disabled her like it did. She's all passive right now. Turning away, Sameen makes her way towards the mysterious woman.
"Is this what you expected?" John ask from behind her.
"It's what I hoped." Harold answers back after a beat.
The moment Sameen reaches the other woman, she kicks away the suppressed pistol that's still in her hands and examines her. She's still alive… completely frozen in place, bleeding from two spots, one is the shoulder and the other is at the side of the thigh, missing the important stuff. Looking at the spot where shot the woman in the gut… huh, the woman must be wearing a vest.
Sameen finally takes a look at the mysterious woman's face, only to see a very pale, gaunt face, with dark circles under her wide-open eyes under thin framed glasses. The woman's eyes might be open, but Sameen has a feeling that she isn't at home at the moment.
Two dead guys and two women that are completely out of it. The hell is going on here?
"Did Root kill this guy?" John asks Harold, causing Sameen to look up.
"No…" Harold nods towards Sameen. "She did."
"And who is she?" Sameen asks out of curiosity while her pistol is still aiming at the downed woman.
"Someone incredibly dangerous." Harold vaguely replies.
"You're not really giving us much information, are you?" Sameen deadpans at the man.
"I don't think this is the appropriate venue for such discussions." Harold raises a brow at her.
"Fine." She rolls her eyes. "Well, she's completely checked out. So, won't be a threat until her mind decides to come back."
"Can you please render aid?" Harold asks worryingly.
Sameen just deadpans at the man for a few seconds and he didn't budge.
"You're such a bleeding heart." Sameen mutters as holster her pistol and grabs the woman by her armpits.
"I'll handle Root." John strides towards the now quiet woman who's still on her knees, clutching her shoulder.
In a single pull, she brings the woman up to a stand and she didn't instantly fall headfirst back onto the ground. At least she isn't in tonic immobility. This will make her job so much easier.
With one supporting the woman, she slowly brings her towards the lone table where John already has Root seated on the chair and is putting gauze into the wound. Sameen places the woman on the table and starts doing her work with the small first aid kid she has on hand.
"You didn't do this yourself?" John asks four eyes after he finished the patch up on Root while she starts on the other wound.
"I couldn't. I locked myself out." Harold answers from behind her. "The machine was designed to accept alterations in it's programming only as a response to an attack."
He made it out like he's directing the answer to as he continues. "Sooner or later I knew someone would try to take it over, but I didn't know who… So, I made sure that when they did, they'd do it with my code."
Huh… guess grandpa from last night got it wrong.
There's a look of realization on John's face and he stands up to face Harold. "You hid a virus within a virus?"
"I realized that the people Nathan, and I had entrusted the machine to were… the wrong people. And that is the only way to protect it would be to teach it to protect itself." Harold explains softly. "I didn't want to involve you in this business, Mr. Reese. Because I had hoped that… if I hadn't returned, you would continue what we had started."
That's a dumb reason to keep his friend in the dark, but who is she to judge? Not like she has any friends.
At that moment, the building alarm that's been continuing in the background comes to an abrupt stop, just as she was finishing patching up the woman. Following her gut feeling, she unholstered her pistol and aimed at the door.
"This isn't good." She glances at Harold. "We should go."
Harold's eyes dart between her and the two women before saying. "They come too."
Sameen gives the man a bewildered look, like he just suggested the dumbest thing because it's the dumbest thing.
He didn't relent and makes a gesture with his arms like he's shrugging. "If we leave her, they'll kill her."
"Your bleeding heart is going to kill us." Sameen mutters in disbelief as she watches Harold softly lift Root up from her seat by her shoulders and puts Root's leather jacket back on her.
"I got the other one." John went to grab the other woman while still holding his pistol in one hand.
She lets out a sigh. "Fine, I'll keep watch."
Halfway towards the door, they all come to a stop when the familiar ugly face of Hersh comes out of the door with his pistol ready, with another agent by his side.
"Shaw." Hersh said in his usual dead tone, but his eyes told her he was surprised to see her.
Sameen smirks at the asshole and taunts him. "You should have killed me better, Hersh."
Just as she finishes her sentence, the special counsel steps into the server room and sees the empty space. He blinks a few times like he isn't believing what he's seeing before walking towards them.
"I know it's a minor matter compared to the total and utter catastrophe that I'm looking at here, but…" He calmly says before turning his attention to her. "I didn't think you'd turn traitor, Shaw."
"That's a strong word to be throwing around, given where we're standing." Sameen jabs back at the man while continue to aim her gun at Hersh. "What do you want?"
"A word or two with your new friend." The special council turns his gaze towards Harold. "I always knew there was someone behind Ingram. Like a black hole. Invisible, but powerful…"
Sameen lets out a soft scoff. Didn't know the man is such a melodramatic.
The special counsel continues. "… So, tell me, where did you move the machine?"
"It moved itself." Harold answers truthfully.
The man open his mouth to say something but didn't for a second. "But who controls it?"
"As of now, it controls itself." Harold answers truthfully again but she can hear a tone of glib in his voice.
The man makes a face before saying. "The numbers. Will they continue to come to us?"
"That will be up to the machine." Harold softly answers.
Funny how she thought coming here was to stop an insane hacker from releasing a potentially evil A.I. and now that said A.I. is running loose, God knows where.
"If they don't start up again, the country is defenseless." The special counsel presses.
"No, just less well-defended." Harold instantly rebuts. "I think we both understand that what's at stake here has moved beyond simply defending the country."
The man gives Harold a look like he's joking. "Has it? You built the machine for us to use to protect people. We do, very well."
He isn't wrong, but they are using the machine as justification to kill a lot of innocent people.
"Help us recover it or rebuild it." The man continues with a slight smile. "You can dictate your terms. You have my word."
"You gave my friend your word." Harold retorts. "And you killed him."
That instantly remove, the smug smile from the special counsel face which is so sweet to see.
"We're leaving." Harold states as he walks forward with Root beside him.
Sameen can't help but smile at the balls on Harold, using the leverage that they might need him in the future against them.
John followed suit with the mysterious woman and Sameen hang back to provide cover while they all go through the door.
"You think you're choosing the right side, Shaw?" The man prods her. "Really?"
"You lied to me, too." She smirks at the man before walking backward through the door.
After walking backwards for a few paces and satisfied that Hersh won't be charging out of that room, she spins around and takes point up front. John walks in lockstep with her and Harold behind her.
"Where to next?" Sameen asks as they exit the building towards the car they stole from the airport.
"I don't know how long they'll be merciful towards us, so it's better if we drive back to New York." Harold answers as they approach the black sedan.
"A cross country road trip with two nutcases. Great." She turns her gaze to John and smirks at the man who's guiding the mysterious woman beside him. "I'm driving."
A/N: This chapter took way longer than expected and it didn't turn out the way I wanted, but if I try to refine the chapter, it might take me another week. Anyway, this is the penultimate chapter of this arc. AU will start in season 3 of POI. Next chapter will come out who knows when since work might interfere with my writing again.
Fun fact; I had initially envisioned the scene where Harold gets into the plane until Root waking up Su, to be the introduction of the fic, before winding back the clock back to Texas when Su was a child.