Chapter 19: Cat and Mouse
SU POV
Su stood up from her uncomfortable office chair and felt her buttocks sore from the extended period of sitting in such an invalid chair. Honestly, the government should pay its workers more just by the virtue of making everyone sit on these invalid chairs. Especially here in the DoD, they have hundreds of billions of dollars to spend, but they can't even afford to buy some cheap Herman Miller chairs for everyone. They only buy good chairs for the higher rank folks and those chairs aren't even good. If she paid taxes, she would have revolted.
After stretching her body and popping a few joints, she picked up her purse to make her way out of her office space in The Pentagon for the last time in her short stint within the bowls of the beast.
"Heading back home late, Miss Hills?" said the nameless front desk person with a friendly smile on his rat-like face. What's his name again? She always sees him and yet was never worth remembering.
"His name is Jimmy. Do try to remember." Sue said in her ever-changing voice. Now it sounds like Root's and her voice combined, but this time is leaning towards Root's voice rather than the usual happy medium.
"It's only 7:30 Jimmy, hardly late. I just had some last-minute work." Su said with a fake smile plastered on her face as she swipes her card to exit the secure area.
"Well, I hope everything is sorted and have a good night, Miss Hills." Jimmy said from his desk as she opens the secure door.
"See you tomorrow, Jimmy." Su glanced back to wave at the sitting man and behind him was the logo of JSOC, the department she worked in for the last few months.
It's not like she's going to see him ever again.
As she walks through the maze of corridors and hallways towards her parking spot, she couldn't help but feel entertained by the small adventure she's going on right now. This was the most fun and light-hearted she felt in decades. It's the reason why she didn't just tell Sue to figure out who or what thwarted her back in 2008. Having a near omnipresent companion has its ups and its downs. The upside is that she can just ask her just about anything and get an answer, but the downside is she's a huge spoiler. Takes the entertainment out of doing jobs and stuff.
After calming down from her slight spur of anger after her brilliant plan to wreck the economy went awry. She revamped every procedure she had in place for her proxies and change every method of communications everyone in her organization to a new method that she & Sue have been cooking up since the early 2000s. With the transition to digital TV, the usage of VHF antennas went into a steep decline, allowing Sue -with the use of hundreds of shell companies- to buy up the infrastructure for pennies on the dollar as well as disused VHF antennas on houses and covertly put routers on it. They then use the latest version of SassySalsa and its sister cipher CaaCaa to secure the network. Also, having Sue constantly monitoring the network helps put any doubt of the secureness of the network at ease.
Creating the human UI to access the network wasn't much of a hassle and with the speedy completion of middle out compression, it made bandwidth usage to an absolute low compared to every other compression algorithm. Combined with Poly-CaaCaa to encrypt every communication between users, meaning someone needs a quantum computer to even have a chance to penetrate this system. So, after years of getting everything in place, she finally activated the VHF mesh network for the organization. Just at the right time to face this new opponent.
With housekeeping out of the way, she then spent months going through every data point she could gather about those three stooges that failed her, trying to find out how they got busted. The only thing she could find is that all three occasionally like to get together in a café despite living completely different artificially clean lives. However, that doesn't explain how the feds caught on to their trail unless they got unlucky, and some muppet overheard what they spoke then told the feds about it. Su believes in Occam's razor, but having some idiot feds stumbling into her plans is just too dumb.
Then she came to the realization that the government might have actually created some kind of surveillance system that can analyse and predict people's actions. She had heard rumblings about such a system back in the early to mid-2000s -well, she heard it through Sue- but all the rumours have died down ever since, because of 'budget cuts'.
Through her access to every intel agency in the US, she knows that the government has multiple such as PRISM, Dishfire, DSC, Ghost Stone, MYSTIC and a million other lame code names, but none of them have the capability of what she believes this system is capable of.
A system similar to Sue, an AI, but unlike hers, this AI system or better yet it's creator somehow managed to crack the code on predicting human behavior/actions. Something Su, for the last 11 years, couldn't manage to implement into Sue and that alone immensely sparked her interest. However, she has to confirm her theory and so starts her off on her little adventure.
Her starting point for this quest was the most obvious choice, which was the two feds that stopped those three stooges from blowing up Lehman. Seeing it's been months since they stopped the plot, she asked Sue to give her the profile of those two, and instantly she got the answer. Robert N. Hersh & Ethan J. Steele, both of them work for the DOD and their position in the department was in an administrative position. Two completely innocent positions in the DoD.
Of course, she knows all of that was horse manure and that their names are fake, as well as their job positions. Heck, even Sue knows it's fake, and she doesn't have a higher-level consciousness. She could have just asked Sue to find their real name and would get an answer within a few minutes, but that would be boring.
Going through the documents she has access to as well as Sue's monitoring of them, she finds out that they work for a little-known group working out of The Pentagon called the Intelligence Support Activity. However, from the things they do, it would seem that her particular subjects doesn't even work in the normal confines of ISA's mandate, it's like they work for a subset of the ISA or is part of a special project within the ISA. With that, she found the beehive that bothered her, and all she had to do was to see what would make the little bees attack.
Through deductive reasoning, she concludes they don't bother with petty crimes, but she wouldn't leave it up to chance. So, she through multiple proxy hired HR through the most imaginably transparent way possible to kill one person she had Sue randomly pick, then she had two people killed, then a family of five killed, and it didn't illicit a single response from the ISA.
Through continual observation of her subjects, she could see that the two ISA operatives had split up and had new partners. The brooding one has a short Persian female while the lanky dude has a buff blonde dude with a strong chin. Both seemed to train new operative, and at the same time they were chasing people that was conspiring to do a big fun event.
That meant the ISA only steps in when there's going to be a mass casualty event. Meaning she gets the exciting privilege of creating a plan that would test the limit to what that government system is able to do. Took her and Sue a while to plan that mass casualty event. Then it took her months of slowly leaking information between one of the three proxies to see which bait catches that system's attention and voila. She knew it caught the bait when the ISA dispatched a team to trail one of her proxies and it's the same guy that foiled her 08 plan. She really thought the ISA did not have a lot of operative working for them at that time.
What was the most surprising was the system's ability to catch the smallest thread to figure out what was planned. That system was like a bloodhound on how it was able to sniff out the plan while Sue was like a bulldog in comparison. It truly showed her how scarily capable that system is. If she didn't have Sue, someone would totally institutionalize her into a funny farm for paranoia, but she had full faith in Sue's phantom blackout module.
All of that leads her here to the halls of military bureaucracy boredom, where she's been gathering all the information she could get about the inner workings of the ISA. She exits the belly of the beast and gets into her plain old provincial Honda, the car she uses to stay undercover.
"Root tried to contact you earlier today. You would know that if you bothered to check your phone." Sue said in a slightly annoyed tone on Root's behalf.
Ah… she shouldn't have kept pushing this away for so long and it wasn't her fault that she doesn't need to check her phone to see what's in her inbox when she has Sue as her glorified secretary. So, it's kinda Sue's fault as well…
"Y'know just because you're undercover doesn't mean it's an excuse to avoid or ignore her."
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at Sue's attitude as she turns on her car and slowly drives out of the parking lot. Since getting back with Root, Sue has been copying some of Root's behavioral and attitude ticks. Such as being a complete mother hen. Also, she isn't avoiding Root as she's been busy for the past few weeks and when she has time for herself; she was completely wiped out. Sue knows this, but she keeps being on Root's side. It's almost like Sue likes Root more than her and that's really rude.
Thankfully, she hasn't introduced Root to Sue. She can't imagine what the two of them could conspire something boring for her 'health'.
"Fine, patch me to her." Su said as she rolls down her window to scan her card to open the boom gate and gives the waiving guard a fake smile.
"Oh, hello there, look who's finally decided to bless me with her enchanting voice. Took you long enough, didn't it?" Root said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Hey Root, what do you need?" Said Su as she turns her car onto the flyover.
"What do I need? Is that how you always greet your oldest bestest friend? Not even a 'Hey Root, how have you been?'" Root said in a way that Su knows she's pouting.
"Hey Root, how have you been?" Su asked instantly.
"Oh, you know the usual. Blackmailing a person here, killing a person there, and thinking you were dead for the last three weeks since you ghosted me." Dang… Root is pissed off.
"I didn't ghost you." Su retorted instantly, as she felt offended by the accusation.
"Uh-uh." Root sounded unconvinced.
"I'm undercover." She defended herself as if she was being attacked by that simple uh-uh.
"Well, when I was undercover, I had the common courtesy of contacting you occasionally to make sure I'm not dead. I had hoped that you would do the same." Root deadpanned.
It's not like she needed to do that. Sue would have informed her if anything happens to Root anywhere in the world that has CCTV, but Root doesn't know that does she?
"Fine, fine, let's not argue. I'll make sure to ping you every day, so you'll know little old me still kicking." By her she means Sue is going to ping her.
Root let out a sigh and said. "I just want to know you're okay Su, and I know you can handle yourself, but I worry when you stop contact without any warning."
She didn't know what to say next, so she kept silent. It's not like she intentionally avoided contact with Root this time.
"You didn't get into a firefight, did you?" Root accused her and broke the few seconds of silence that descended on their call.
"What? No, I haven't been in one since the last time I mentioned it to you." Sue bristled, feeling offended by that accusation. She has gone through taken great length and restraint to not be involved in 'high pressure' as Root has described, such as shooting some randos for the last year and a half.
"Well, excuse me for thinking that, since you did get into a firefight when I explicitly told you not to." Root said in a way that Su can imagine she's crossing her arms and giving her that pointed look.
Is she still angry about that?! It wasn't intentional and she did what Root had been telling her to do, so it's kinda her fault, too… Let's not use that argument because when she did the first time, Root got really miffed.
"It wasn't my fault that I walked into a turf war between two gangs. I just wanted to get some food like you told me to." Su defended herself. It wasn't her fault that she occasionally turned off Sue's warning settings and stumbled into a gang war. What she didn't tell Root was that she enjoyed that little afternoon activity, despite almost getting her head shot off.
"Yeah… how convenient that they attack that bodega when you were there." Said Root, not sounding convinced by her.
Even though it's been four years since they reunited, Root still does not fully trust her at all and she has no idea what to do to regain that trust back, because she has never lied to her once. What else is there for her to do?
Su really misses Root's unwavering trust she had in her in the past. Now the only person to have that kind of trust in her is Pauling, but Pauling isn't Root and would never be. It honestly annoyed her at how childish Root is being about this.
"I swear on the almighty that I haven't been into a firefight since, Root." Su tried to reassure her friend.
"Su… you can't swear on something you don't believe in…" Root deadpanned again.
"Well, yeah, sue me and take me to swear court." Su snapped at Root as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "It's a figure of speech, Root, and I don't know why you're still angry about that."
She takes a deep breath to calm herself down because she needs to calm down before this goes down a path she has been avoiding since that shootout. Somehow, only Root could elicit this kind of reaction from her with barely any effort.
Root let out a long-winded sigh from her end and said. "Because Su, you had an episode and did not tell me about it when you promised you would."
She's making it sound worse than it actually was. How could she possibly know that making fun of a person who's holding a shoddy quality Hi-Point pistol at her head would cause that person to fire his gun?
Really showed her how unprofessional the average gangbanger was, so it was simple for her to move her head away from the gun before he fired the gun, but she couldn't move her head far enough causing her head to ring and triggering a minor episode. However, that didn't deter her from reactivating Sue and killing everyone in the vicinity, then disappearing from the scene, so she could deal with her episode privately.
"It was just a minor episode, nothing to get too overtly concerned about, and I handled it well. Also, I didn't want to cut off your fun trip to Europe prematurely. I was thinking about you." Su tried to reason with her only friend.
She wasn't even hit that day. It really was a nonissue that Root keeps trying to make into an issue.
"… Let's just stop this line of conversation. I didn't call you just to squabble with you." Root said, sounding worn out for some reason. "So… how are you? Are you doing well?"
"I'm fantastic, just a tad tired, that's all, but I haven't felt this lighthearted in a long time and yes. I've been following the diet you have me on and the sleep schedule you assigned to me and the exercise -yuck- routine." Su listed off everything diligently and overall sounding upbeat.
She wasn't sure why she felt so lighthearted while having this adventure. Was it because she's finally let loose from her gilded cage and finally doing field work again or was it because her constitution has greatly improved since Root came back into her life?
It felt like the cold blanket of the void that's been on her for decades got pulled up in the last few months. She really doesn't know, but whatever it is, it's addicting. She never wanted this feeling to cease, this relative warmth, but she knows it will not last long.
"That's good… I'm glad you're feeling that way." Root said in a way that she could hear her smile. "By the way, how's your new year? Did anything I would consider fun while undercover?" Root asked and she could practically see Root's smirk.
"Thankfully no. Some of the people I'm embedded with invited me to grab some drinks with them, but you know I don't go to bars or clubs unless I'm with you." Su said as she steers her car towards the neighborhood her current safe house was in.
After much cajoling, Su finally relented to Root's persistent demand and sometimes went to bars or the even rarer occasions clubs, with her and sometimes Pauling would come too. She doesn't understand the appeal of such places, especially with its extremely loud music -Root was nervous about bringing her to such a loud place, but after some test they determined that unless she's gets shot near the ear without protection, she's fine- or the dancing. Especially the wild dancing people do in those places; she might have lost her love for ballet, but she has never lost sight of its elegance.
"Aww, you make me feel so special. Now if only I could tempt you out from your temperance and bring you to the 21st century." Said Root, never missing any chance to cajole her to do more things she doesn't want to do.
She hadn't consumed such vices in so many lifetimes that she had forgotten why she did it in the first place. Maybe she was an addict once upon a time and had to quit it. Thus bringing it forward to her next life and beginning her continual solo temperance movement.
Who knows, since it's lost to the sands of time. Well… time is relative. It's more like; lost to the mysteries of the universe and that asshat.
She rolled her eyes and said. "Dream on sister. Anyway, I spent the new year tailing my subjects. How about yours?"
It's unknown to her why, but Root has always made sure to be there with her for every new year and tries to bring her to celebrations that she conjures up on the fly.
"Oh, ho, ho, ho, that's so delightfully dull. I bet you regretted declining for saying no to my invitation for that unforgettable soirée. Such a shame, my dear, because you missed out full of fun and thrills that you can't even imagine." Root said teasingly. She can practically see her taunting goofy smile.
Root still doesn't get that she doesn't do regrets, but she has always enjoyed their time hanging out together, even when Root drags her to such dreadful places and she likes the little tradition that Root is making. Now, she's curious…
"Don't just tease and not tell, Root. Do regale me with your unforgettable soirée." Su said gleefully as she pulls up into her safe house driveway and Sue opens up the garage door for her.
"Well…" Root continued with her teasing tone. "You see, Pauling and I came to an agreement that we won't tell you what happened as a punishment for abandoning us on such a fun night. So, it's up to your creative and fruity imagination as to what we did." Oh, she bets Root has that manure eating grin on her.
Actually, she could just ask Sue what they did in that entire day… but that would break her privacy policy she had in place for Root since 06 and she's in a playful mood, so she'll play along with their shenanigans.
"You know that I actually could not make it to New York in time, right?" Sue said as she turns off her car.
"Oh please, if you wanted to, you could have done it." Root retorted instantly.
"Well, I did have to get back to my cover's busy workplace the next day and function like a proper human being. There's no rest for the busy bee." Su said as she walks into the living room and flopped onto the sofa.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget that you're on a super-secret undercover mission that you wouldn't even tell me about which made you so busy that you've been practically missing for the past three months and let's not forget that you didn't even bother to tell me or Pauling you were gone for an entire week in the beginning." Ranted Root.
"I left a note in your bedroom." Su defended herself as she grabbed her laptop and turning it on.
Plus, Pauling is totally cool about being left in the dark and Root's the one that's a busybody.
"It's not the 80s anymore Su, you could have just texted me." Root sounding exhausted again for some reason. "Like seriously, don't do that again and text me next time you decide to vanish."
She felt something shifted in her as she reviews the documents she obtained as well as her notes and said. "Okay, Root, I'll remember it next time. Also, a heads up, I'm not sure when I'm going to come back yet… but I'll try to be fast…" She thought for a second. "I've missed you."
Root stayed silent on her end for a few moments. "Aww, I miss me as well." Root said jokingly, before sobering her tone. "But I miss you too, so you better remember to contact me at least once a week and give me a ping daily to make sure you're still kicking."
"Alright… I'll talk to you again when I can." Su then hang up the call after they both said their farewell.
"I shall send Root those pings when she's asleep, just like you'd do it." Sue said displeasingly.
Su gave herself a smile, pleased at how well Sue knows her.
"Remember to make the messages funny so Root doesn't get too mad." Su said as she looked up everything she has on something ISA called Research.
"Aye, aye, captain. I'll make sure Root will get a giggle out of each message."
Letting out an enormous yawn as she rubs her eyes, sees her notes on her current adventure. As far as she knows, the ISA isn't where the system is being stored at, they just act on intelligence given to them by an entity called Research, for which there are not a lot of documents pertaining to it. From that she can safely conclude that Research is an internal code name ISA uses to refer to the government's mysterious surveillance system and not in many government documents.
Speaking of the ISA, they sure love their code names, especially their big boss. Su can appreciate the cool name that Control gave herself, really fits her entire tough badass woman aura, like in their right minds would mess with someone called Control… But Su's certain that if she needed to break that woman, she could easily just torture her daughter in front of her -such a classic way to break a single parent-. Not that she needs any information from that woman, since she doesn't seem to know where Research is.
That entire organization is like a pack of farm dogs, needing their masters to whistle before knowing what to do. It's really cute if they weren't the ones to spoil her fun two years ago. However, she really applauds their naming scheme for their operative codenames, such as Vermillion, Viridian, Crimson, Indigo, Jade, Onyx, Violet, etc. etc. She wonders if in another world or time, if she were to join such an organization, would they give her a badass codename like Roseate or Fuchsia?
Curiously enough is how the ISA is organized and operates. Control does the big decisions and what not, but the person who handles the 'threats' Research gives is Hal Ferris or better known in ISA as Special Counsel. Like he could pick any awesome codename for himself, but he choose such an awful codename to give himself, it's just his job title. Regardless of his terrible naming convention, it's weird that a person outside of the ISA has a position in the ISA chain of command, like the man is a glorified lawyer that works in a completely different federal department. Might be a holdover from before the ISA officially took over as the government grim reaper's back in 2006.
The other curiosity is how Research gives the ISA 'terrorists'. It just gives them the 'terrorist' social security number or passport number. No other information, not even the basic names or pictures. Just a string of numbers, like the system is trying to preserve people's privacy for some reason. Because it wasn't like the system can't just give a cheat sheet on what the 'terrorist' are planning or even their motivations. A really odd thing that only convinced her that the government didn't create it but bought the system from a vendor.
Now that the not so mysterious ISA problem solved, her new objective in this little fun adventure is to find who created this system, but that's easier said than done since she only has the name Research that doesn't lead her to anywhere and the ISA is just flying blind through it all.
Her only saving grace is that she's dealing with bureaucracy and they just love their records. All she has to find is the actual name or the code name the government uses for the surveillance system.
Since this is the government, they can't just gun down people willy-nilly, so need a way to justify their take downs of 'terrorists' -that are in the country- and not just say that a mysterious group of researchers found evidence by looking at their anomalous receipts. She did some extra sniffing around to see how they hid their info, and they did it by hiding it in plain sight. Taking some random analysis name and giving them the undue credit. Those poor monkeys must have gotten a right old fright when they were congratulated for finding some 'terrorist' they didn't even find.
With any form of government initiative, there should be a money trail that will tell her the proper government name for Research.
Now should she decide to spend another few months undercover but this time in the Office of Management and Budget, or she could just ask Sue to tell her so she could move on?
If she would continue with what she's been doing the past few months and go undercover again, she would waste time, albeit it's a fun time, and spend a lot of energy doing it.
What was there for her to do? Continue on with her hopeless pursuit to find the plug to the void? Her motivation to continue doing that has crashed to rock bottom in the last couple of years.
She would rather spend whatever time she has left with Root and enjoy it before the Void inevitably takes that joy away from her. It would be better to tell Root what she would do next when that happens… maybe the next time they meet physically again. Not really something to discuss on the phone.
Well, that settles it. She's not going to waste time more than is necessary. Starting with finding the money.
"Hey Sue." Said Su as she moved into a laying position on the sofa with her eyes closed.
"Hey Su."
"Could you tell me where ISA gets its money?" She asked.
"A majority of ISA budget comes from the DoD's black budget books and the rest is from the OPM."
OPM? Is it their operatives and office workers pay? Shouldn't that be under the DoD umbrella? Why would OPM have anything to do with the ISA?
Unless…
"Please breakdown and elaborate ISA's budget." Su said as she put her hands behind her head.
"All digital records concerning the ISA budget have been redacted. There's a note saying that the physical records for both budget streams for the ISA budget is not redacted." Sue sounded like she was pouting.
That's annoying. How about focusing on the anomalous part?
"Okay, so who has the security clearance to handle the records in OPM." Su asked as he gave herself a stretch and pop a few joints.
"Leona Wainwright, a clerical assistant that works out of the OPM headquarters."
Bingo, that hag should have the information she needed, but there's one thing she wants to know.
"Why would the OPM handle a black budget for a DoD unit?" Su inquired.
"No satisfactory explanation exists for why the accounting has been done this way, apart from the fact it has always been done this way since the beginning in 2005."
2005, huh? Looks like she just piled another layer of the onion mystery.
Also, that's quite ingenious of the government monkeys to hide the budget in what basically is the federal government HR department. It's such a boring place to hide their super-secret surveillance system program that no one would think of searching there first and if they did, they would just think it's workers' compensation. It's rare that she's impress with the knuckleheads in the government.
She let out a sigh as she got up from her laying position and put her laptop aside as. "Is everything ready?" Su asked as she lets out a yawn.
It would be great if she could make it back here before her bedtime. Being used to following Root's sleeping schedule for the past few years, it's strange to not stick to it.
"The preparations are done, and your ID card is being printed as we speak."
Just as Sue finished her sentence, the card printer that's on the table near to her sofa came to life and popped out a freshly printed id card for her, causing her to grin happily. That just never gets old.
She got up from the sofa and walked the short distance to the printer to see what's her new identity was. Looks like it's basically her ID card for the DoD, blonde hair with no glasses, meaning she doesn't have to change anything… well, the name is different this time. Mandevilla Whitehead. Principia Mathematica's Whitehead? Aw, that's too good of a name for a throwaway identity. Might need to update a couple of Sue's settings when she gets back.
"I have set up a situation that allows you to enter Miss Wainwright's office today. Your cover for tonight is…"
"Wait, let me guess… it's someone from IT department coming to update that department's computers as was set in their schedule that the guard never noticed before." Su speculated as she moved out from the living room and back to the garage again.
Not like she needed to dress any differently from what she was using today, since that's basically her cover in the DoD.
"Ding, ding, ding, Bingo! Do you want a prize?" Sue said in a way too enthusiastic tone.
"Oh, how about I take a day off tomorrow and go to the Smithsonian Zoo?" Su imitated Sue's enthusiastic tone as she got into the car while Sue opened the garage door and drove out.
"That's perfect. You can see Tai Shan before he gets shipped back to China. Also, ETA to the OPM office is 15 minutes due to moderate traffic."
She hums in acknowledgment as she continues to drive and follow Sue's directions towards her destination.
When Su pulled up to park in front of the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building, 15 minutes had passed, just as Sue predicted. She gets out of the car and makes sure to pay for the annoying parking meter, just to make sure her car doesn't get towed away. Can't wait until these people update their method of paying for parking, because she really doesn't want to continue paying for these nuisances and just have Sue hack into the system.
Pushing to the front door of the building, she faced the usual security post and metal detector. She gives the guard her ID tag along with her purse and goes through the detector with no hitch. Not that a normal walk-through metal detector can detect her specialized metal alloy small knife that was made to defeat these kinds of detectors. It's horrible in keeping its edge, but it still does its job if she needs it, since she can't bring her pistols in with her.
"Coming in late, huh?" The bug politely asked, starting small talk with her.
Why do these people can't just shut up and Sue filled her in on her cover story while on the way here?
She gave the bug a gloomy smirk and said. "You know how it is with some critical problems. It totally ruins my night."
The bug nodded his head as he looked at the ID card, then went back to her and said. "Looks like everything is good. Have a good evening, Miss Whitehead."
"Thanks, and have a wonderful evening." She said as she picked up her purse and her ID card. She moved ahead towards where she assumed the elevators were at. These federal buildings have such a common layout despite being built by different people and different times.
She presses the elevator call button as soon as she reaches the elevator lobby and one of the elevator doors opens instantly, telling her that the office building is practically empty.
"The 7th floor and do you want me to arrange an accident for Mr. Evens?" Sue said to her as she enters the elevator cab and press the 7th floor.
Who the heck is Mr. Evens?
…
Oh, that bug.
"Yeah, sure whatever." Su replied as the elevator doors opens again revealing a lobby with a front desk and a joyous surprise, someone was manning it. Why can't these desk ghouls ever take a break?
"Hi, I just need to pop into the office to perform some urgent critical maintenance on the computers." Su said clearly while putting on a miserable smile and passed her ID tag to the ghoul.
The ghoul took her ID tag with a frown on her face and confusingly said. "Aaa… I don't know there a maintenance is going to take place today."
Ah… she's going to be those annoying types.
"You sure? Because I'm sure my department sent out an email earlier today and it, should it be on your calendar." Su said in a disbelief tone, playing the annoyed tech.
The ghoul puts the ID tag on top of her the desk and looks through her computer. "Huh… that's odd. The earlier shift didn't tell me about this." She said with confusion written on her face.
"So? Can I go in there and do my job? Because I'm pulling double shift today with how badly staffed my department is lately, and I just want to get my job done as soon as possible." Su said with an annoyed tone as she leans on the desk and picks up her ID card again.
The ghoul looked back at her with her eyes wide and a smile as she said. "Uh, yeah, sure… Sorry about that. There must be a screwup with the earlier shift. I'll speak to my supervisor about this later."
Su pushes herself away from the desk and did a finger gun gesture. "You do that."
She walks towards the glass door then, with a scan of her ID card to unlock it and walk towards her destination, or where she assumes it is because Sue would correct her if she walks in the wrong direction.
"Continue going forward, then enter the second office room to your right."
"Oh, by the way, before I forget, do remove that ghoul." Su said as she followed the directions and entered the office room.
"Already had a plan in place the moment she became an annoyance."
She couldn't help but smile with pride at Sue's pro-activeness.
Giving the room a once-over, she sees the wall is lined with metal cabinets that no doubt hold a ton of boring classified documents. Not seeing anything that will show here where the documents she wants are located at she walks forward to look behind the desk and lo behold, a typical government issue safe box using a mechanical dial locking mechanism.
If she was a dumb government drone, that's where she would put sensitive information at, in a mediocre safe box.
Kneeling down in front of the safe box and putting her hand on the dial. She knows she could unlock it by only using the feelings of the mechanism, but it's been quite a while since she's done that.
"Hey Sue, do you know the combination?" Su asked, since taking the effort to do it alone would be a pointless use of her time.
"Right 28 three times, left 30 one time, left 77 four times." Sue replied after a few seconds.
She followed the combination as Sue was relaying the information, then with a tug on the handle, she opens the safe box.
"Open sesame." She said with a grin as she looked at the pile of documents in the safe box and any of them would contain the information she wants.
What folder should she pick first?
Why not try the classic? So, she grabs the thinnest folder in that safe and opens to look at the contents.
TOP SECRET/SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIRED
CLASSIFIED BUDGET LINE ITEMS
Heh, that trick has never failed her before.
She looked through pages after pages of what basically is a printed-out Excel spreadsheet. Not that she's surprised by their choice of program because Excel is great.
As she browsed through the rows of budgeting, she found something interesting under the most boring name: Operations & Maintenance. Then under that Defense Wide, which has something called 0101X Operational Support to Counterterrorism Activities. That's one long, boring name for something so interesting. She should applaud these people for finding creative, boring names.
0101X Operational Support to Counterterrorism Activities is listed under Other Support and a program name called Northern Lights. Now that's a cool name. There's no doubt that this is the official name for Research by the sheer virtue of its name. Looking at how much it cost to run the program, it's only 50 million dollars a month…
What the heck? That's so cheap… She's pretty sure that the electrical cost for Sue -if she tries to isolate how much power she draws from Blue Clouds server- is an order of magnitude higher than the cost to run Northern Lights. Does the system run on free power or something? That's something she might look into.
She continues to look through the other papers in this file and see a list of people who has credential to look at this budget and it would seem that only a few people few people she has an inkling who would know about this and surprisingly one of them is a Senator. A Senator Ross H. Garrison. That's interesting.
"Sue, tell me when a program called Northern Lights first appeared in any government documents." Said Su as she took some photos with her iPhone 3Gs on the interesting bits.
"The earliest documents that mention Northern Lights dates to March 25th, 2005, in a heavily redacted Whitehouse paper. Specifically, the office of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs."
Looks like she just hit gold, because that's roughly the time she assumes the surveillance system went online for the government and she has a new trail to follow. She might even spend some time in that place since she always wanted to see what's inside.
"Get me everything you can find on Northern Lights and our next destination is the Whitehouse." She said with a grin as she puts back the documents into the safe.
"That's going to be fun, and I'll conjure up an identity for you."
She passes through the Whitehouse staff security gate with ease and gives the guard a curt nod, as he lets her pass through without a single word. See, that's how every guard should act, silent and not starting useless conversations.
Making her way across the driveway, she pushes through the West Wing entrance doors and enters the heart of darkness. This isn't the first time she has entered this glorified office space. Her first time was the interview for her current cover's job.
She walks forward to the lobby/reception area and gives the receptionist a fake warm smile as she said. "Hi, I've got a meeting with the NSA."
The Hispanic woman looks at her with some vague recognition. Meanwhile, Su has no recollection of ever meeting this woman before.
"You had a conversation with her the last time you were here, Su. Her name is Susan Fernandez."
"Oh hey, you were here a week ago… Lily, right? I guess you accepted the job?" said the woman with her eyes brighten with recognition.
Ah… she dislikes humans that have good memory for faces and names, they can be annoying. Let's just hope that her new auburn hair and thick glasses can fool people like her whenever folks from the DoD visit her new office. If not, there's going to be loads of people getting involved in 'tragic' accidents.
"Well… we'll see if I last probation. Got a ton of other offers, but mum always says it's good to work for the betterment of the country even if it doesn't pay as well." She said with a fake smirk. "Well… she didn't word it that way exactly, but it's in the spirit of what she said."
The woman let out a small chuckle and said. "Well, congratulations and good luck on the new job. Mr. Rubinek is in his office. I'm sure you remember where the way is, right? It's just through the door behind me."
"Yeah, I remember. See you around, Susan." She said with a wave and went through the door behind the receptionist's desk that leads to a corridor.
Taking a right to walk down the corridor to the office, she then knocks on the closed door with a sign showing APNSA.
"Come in!" said her new boss from inside the room.
She opens the door, revealing a small office room with two four desks cramped inside the room with her new boss sitting at the biggest desk with someone she recognizes sitting across from him.
"Ah, Miss Riemann! how are you?" The NSA said, with a big old smile as he stands up and went to her to shake her hand.
Ew… it's like last week. He has sweaty hands.
"I'm good Mr. Rubinek. Just happy to start my job." Su said with a smile and trying to not grind her teeth from the uncomfortableness of touching this man.
"Good, that's good." Mr. Rubinek said. He then turns to look at the other man who's still sitting and said. "This is Manuel Rivera, Intelligence Adviser for POTUS. Manuel, this is Miss Lily Riemann, a lawyer that specializes in information technology and privacy. She's very sought after by those up-and-coming companies out west. I'm just glad she agreed to come aboard." Mercifully, he let go of her hand as he made a gesture towards Rivera here.
Truth be told, she does not have a single clue about a single law in this country or any other country. She just need to blab out whatever Sue says in her ear and have Sue write everything for her while she's on this cover, all the while she has no clue if a single thing Sue gives is correct or not, but it is exciting to be so out of her field.
"Oh, Mr. Rubinek, that's too kind of you." She gushed at her boss, then extends her arm at Rivera, who receives it with a smile. "Hi Mr. Rivera, I'm sure we will work a lot together in the future."
She hopes their time interacting with each other to be kept at a minimum, since the man is a bit of a dead end. Rivera is one of the few humans that knows the existence of Northern Lights since there are quite a few documents relating to Northern Lights that have his signature on them. However, the oldest that has his signature on it dates back to 2009, when the current president came into office and that's nowhere near to the date when the government turn on the system.
Meaning the people who were involved with Northern Lights when it first started are those deep-water fishes that work in the APNSA office across multiple administration. That's her next destination after this small meeting.
"Specialty in both privacy and tech? Few people do that. Do you study both fields?" Rivera ask as he let go of her hand.
"Yeah, I have an LL. M in Privacy and Cybersecurity law and a Master of Science in Information Security from Colombia." She said as she takes a seat in the open chair.
"You see why the team is happy for Miss Riemann to come on board with us!" Rubinek said excitedly at Rivera as he went back to his seat.
"That's fucking overkill. Where did you find this golden goose?" Rivera said to Rubinek with a smirk before turning to eye her. "With that kind of qualification, I'm surprised you would even work for the government. Wouldn't you be hounded by recruiters from those tech companies in the valley?" he said as he eyes her.
"Well, you know I want to experience the ungrateful toil of the low paying federal worker first before being buried so deep in cash that I don't know what to do with by those tech companies." She said with a fake smirk.
Both men let out a slight chuckle, but she doesn't know at what they're chuckling at.
"There's a reason as to why Manuel is here today, Miss Riemann, because it has something to do with your first task in the APNSA." Rubinek said after the chuckling stopped.
She gave a nod, then they all started their discussion. There was a problem that needing to be taken care of that falls under the purview of the APNSA that involved both privacy law and cybersecurity that conveniently happened not long before she applied for the job. She spews out legal jargon that has no earthly meaning to her with the help of Sue, but from the looks of both men, they seemed to grasp what she's saying and agreeing with her.
They spent an hour discussing her assignment before she could leave to meet the other people in the APNSA that work out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building just next door to the Whitehouse.
They really should consider building a tunnel to connect from the west wing to that office building because that would be cool.
There's a lot of people that work under the APNSA out of that building, but with Sue's help, she narrowed it down to just a handful of people that might be involved in Northern Lights.
The sounds of her footsteps echo slightly in the semi empty office space as she makes her way to her aim. She strides by lines of office cubicles, some were filled, and some were vacant, then coming to a stop at an enclosed office room with the door wide open.
She gave a light tap on the door and poke her head in. "Hey Alicia. Wanna grab some lunch together?" Su said with a fake friendly smile on her.
The long-faced woman with that bad hairdo looks at her shocked and said. "You already finished your assessment on the latest case? I barely halfway through the report."
Sue wrote up the assessment for her the second that report landed on her desk. Not that this woman would know that.
"Oh yeah, it was no biggie. Come on, I'm hungry." Said Su with a tilt of her head towards the exit.
Even with Root 'fixing' her eating habits, she still doesn't have any appetite to eat anything most of the time, no matter how hungry her body tells her, or maybe that's what Root wants her to believe in. Root could be gaslighting her into believing that her body is telling her to eat.
Alicia look at her for a moment, then look back at her piles of paper, then looked back at her with what looks like an apologetic smile and said. "I don't know… Joe wants the assessment by 4:30."
She rolled her eyes and said. "That's plenty of time. How about this? We grab a quick lunch and after that, I'll help you with your assessment."
After three months of working here, she still has no clue what she's doing most of the time and strictly relies on Sue. Apparently, Sue is an amazing lawyer, according to her 'colleagues'. At least she understands the InfoSec side of things, but she still lets Sue do most of the work and leaves her to twiddle her thumbs.
Not that she dislikes this arrangement, since she has tons of spare time to poke around in the heart of darkness and continue improving Sue while people think she diligently does 'work'.
"Since you put it that way, I can't say no, can I?" Alicia said with a grin as she removed herself from her pile of papers. "Let's go. I wanna try that new Indian place near here."
She made a gesture of letting her lead the way and said. "Lead the way."
In the three months that she spent working on Alicia, one undoubtable thing about her is that she's a big foodie. Just bring her to any new good tasting food place would secure her 'friendship'.
They both walk in silence towards the restaurant. That's the one thing she likes about this woman, is that she doesn't do much small talk because she's a total introvert. If the thing isn't about work, she barely talks.
She isn't sure how long she will continue this cover since it hasn't borne much fruit since the first month. Su quickly figured out the ones that initiated Northern Lights, which were Alicia Corwin and Denton Weeks, but she still haven't figured out who created the system. These two APNCA drones were just glorified procurement officers for an advanced system that they probably have no idea how it functions, if their general intelligence on computer related stuff has anything to show.
That's the motivation for her to 'befriend' this woman in the first place. Well, she tried to get closer to Denton Weeks first seeing he's Alicia's superior in the office structure, but… the man was just a total creep. He kept being weird and used a lot of suggestive words when talking to her. Sexual harassment isn't a new thing for her from her experience while undercover, but they were always direct and to the point which was easy to understand their dumb motivations. Weeks actions were just odd, since she can't decipher what he wants, and he has a wife. If he wants to practice infidelity, why is he even talking in a coded way? Humans are just odd and this male is just a pest.
'Befriending' Alicia was easy. All she had to do was to manipulate some assignments to her favor and create a situation where Alicia needed to be involved in. Then they quickly became fast 'friends' with Alicia being the introvert and her faking the classic extrovert 'friendship' trope dynamic.
They both took a seat after coming into the Indian restaurant and place an order. She just followed whatever Alicia ordered since she doesn't care what she eats, not that she could taste.
Alicia has a contemplating look on her face as she keeps her eyes on her hands, as if she's thinking about something important. Was she thinking about Northern Lights? Odd since she's 100% certain that Alicia was no longer involved in the day-to-day business of its operations since handing it over to Rivera.
"Is everything okay?" Asked Su, faking concern.
Gosh, she sounds like Root there.
Alicia looked up back at her and shook her head. "Have you ever thought about retirement?" She asked after a few moments of contemplating.
Huh? That's odd…
There's nothing to indicate that there's any stress in her personal life since she doesn't have one or overstress in relation to work. Is there another motivation for this question?
Was it about those engineers being killed? Why would she care about them? They were just tools the government used to build the facility to house Northern Lights and have nothing to do with her life.
"Hmmm… Not particularly. It's not something I think about much." Su replied after thanking the waiter for bringing her drink.
Which was practically the truth. She has never thought about growing old or what she would do if she had nothing else to do. Honestly, she didn't plan to go over 40 or 45 max in this life with how pessimistic her outlook on plugging the void now. What's the point of continuing on if there's no joy in life? The only problem is how would Root take it… She wasn't so open for her reason to help her in the past.
"Really? I thought you were the type to have a plan for your entire life." Alicia said, sounding surprised. "I hope you put away some money, just in case."
Money? Why would she care about money?
She isn't even sure how much money she owns since Sue basically manages everything and she never bothers to check it. Sue has never complained about money issues since 2000.
"That's not really an issue for me, since I made a ton of money during the dotcom bubble and the recent financial crisis. But I should start thinking about my future." Su replied as she takes her masala tea and drinks it. After years of food and drinks, tasting like ash, this just taste like nothing now.
"For real? Huh…" Alicia said skeptically. She's probably thinking about the cover background story Su given her. A daughter of a poor single mom that crawled her way onto the top, honestly it's a cliché story but people still get hooked by it. "You either have Buffett as your CFA or a crystal ball."
She gave the woman a fake, self-satisfying smirk and said. "Neither actually. I guess I'm just lucky, at the right place and the right time. But enough about me. What about you? Planning an interesting retirement? Maybe move to the tropics? Lower cost of living and amazing weather and your pension money is worth more there."
"Nothing too interesting, I'm afraid. I might just buy a cabin in the woods and live out my days there." Alicia said with a distant smile to her.
Huh…
"Didn't figure you to be an outdoorswoman." Su said teasingly. "Why the sudden interest in retirement? You're still young and single, and that's such a dreary subject."
Alicia thought of an answer for a moment as Su looked at her to pick up any facial ques but just as she was about to give her an answer, a cellphone rang out from Alicia's bag and cut off any train of thought both had at that time.
That piques her interest, unless it's related to work. Alicia barely has a social life, and she does not have many friends. Not that matters, since she barely keeps in touch with them. The woman is married to her work.
Alicia took her phone out and one look at the phone caused her to frown then quickly reject the call.
Now that's interesting. She knows who the caller is if that look of recognition has to say anything about it.
"Where were we?" Alicia said as she put down her phone and looked back at her.
Oh, she doesn't get to change the subject.
"Who cares about retirement? Who's that mysterious caller you oh so quickly rejected? Perhaps an old flame that wants to rekindle the light?" Su said with a fake grin and leaning towards the other woman.
Looking at her facial micro movement, Su can tell that she's shy and or nervous about this.
Alicia let out a scoff and said. "He's just an old friend."
"Oh yeah, he's just an old friend. I too instantly reject a phone call from just an old friend," Su teased the older woman.
She just stared back at Su with that look she always has as the waiter brought their food before letting out a sigh and rubbing her face. "We had a fling back in the 90s, but we broke up not long after getting together because we were both busy. Me with my career and him with his business and his wife. There were no hard feelings, since it was mutual, so we kept being friends."
That's a big admission. Alicia has told her in the past that she enjoys talking to 'Lily' because it made her feel normal for some odd reason, but she didn't expect this introverted woman to blurb that out.
"Ooo, a wife? How scandalous… didn't know you had it in you." She said with a grin. "So the 90s, busy with business… I'll assume he's older than you. Is it a tech company?"
She knows she could easily ask Sue who's the mysterious guy is, but getting it from the human herself is more entertaining.
The look on Alicia's face practically said she hit the mark, causing her to genuinely grin with delight.
"Would I know who this mysterious friend of yours is~?" Su said playfully.
The older woman gave her a look and said. "Have anyone told you that you have a sharp intuition?"
"Mmm, in passing." She said as she took a bite of whatever food she ordered.
"His name is Nathan Ingram." Alicia replied.
…
Who?
…
Why does that name feel familiar?
"Nathan Cullen Ingram is a businessman and a computer engineer, born in Freeport, Texas on June 16, 1962. Dropped out of MIT in 1983 to establish IFT."
IFT?
Oh! That Nathan Ingram!
Her mind is racing in a million miles a second at the implication.
"Seriously? That Ingram? How did you meet a billionaire?" She said in her gossip voice that she learned back in the 90s.
Alicia blinked a few times and answered. "Well, one, he wasn't a billionaire back then and two, he was in a really tough spot in that year. That's how we met. I was still working out of Manhattan and was invited to attend an event by some company; that's where we met. He was trying to secure some bank loans and meet prospective clients and somehow, he noticed me. Probably because I had the cheapest outfit in that event."
"Don't be so modest. I bet you were glowing that night and attracted him like a moth to a flame." Su said convincingly, not that she believed a single thing that came out of her mouth.
Alicia had a bashful blush on her, but she didn't say anything.
"So why the sudden invite? Even if you're just 'friends' as you eloquently put it yourself." Su asked teasingly with her eyebrow moving up and down.
"It's nothing really, just a spring event his company does every year. He's been trying to get me to come for the past few years." Alicia replied and dug into her food.
She's pretty sure she has heard of this event.
"That's not just a spring event, Alicia. It's a big thing in the tech scene, especially up there in New York. Lots of important people from the industry will attend, but it would really be a bore if you're not into that sort of thing. Didn't know you were into tech either. I keep finding interesting things about you today, Alicia~." Said Su.
"Well, you know we've been keeping in touch with each other since the 90s and he just got a divorce from his wife. So maybe he wants to reignite the flame, or so you say." Alicia deflected.
That's a lie if she ever heard of one.
"She is lying."
Thanks, captain obvious.
They both continue to have their lunch while having meaningless chitchats with each other, all the while in the background. Su's brain went wild with speculation about that new information.
How did she miss the fact that her subject was friends with the founder of IFT? Sue probably found out about the day Su started contact with Alicia, but then again, it would have spoiled her fun. Even if it would have saved her a ton of time.
Things start to click into place as to the mystery of who created Northern Lights.
Ingram must be technically gifted engineer to have built a company like IFT because their tech was way ahead of the competition in the late 90s, to a point where early hardware iterations to power Sue were IFT products. Heck, she knows some part of Sue's processing power still runs on IFT hardware. Someone with that kind of intelligence could have created Northern Lights.
If she remembers correctly, IFT fired half of their workforce back in 2001…
After 9/11…
… IFT Plaza is at Murray Hill, not far from one of her safe houses. That meant Ingram would have been in the city that day to see the towers fall firsthand.
That could be a motivation for him to create such a system, especially if he's one of those self-righteous humans, like many people in this country.
Gosh, how could she be so blind to the obvious? She remembered hearing about the layoff from Sue saying that it would slightly affect Sue's hardware upgrade schedule, and she swiped the information away without a second thought.
Of course, Ingram would have fired half of his workforce, so he could fund and focused solely on developing Northern Lights, because that's exactly what she did when she first developed Sue. Did it take him four years to develop Northern Lights? Then in 2005, he sold it to the government. That aligned with the timeline she has built up in her head about this program and four years to develop such a system is more than enough time. It took her roughly the same time to rough out the kinks in the early versions of Sue. Then, in 2009, he fully handed the completed system over to the government.
Alicia here must have been Ingram's contact with the government, given their prior friendship and her position in the executive office. She needs to confirm her hypothesis.
They finished up their lunch, along with whatever meaningless conversation they were having about work, and left the restaurant after they split the bill.
"I'mma head to CVS for a bit. See you back in the office." Su said while pointing to CVS up the rough with her thumb.
"Sure, remember what you promised." Alicia looked at her pointedly.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Su said as she turned around and walked away from Alicia.
"You know what I want?" Su said to Sue as she puts on distance between her and the restaurant.
She really wants to know.
"Yes."
"I've searched through the federal government procurement files for any purchase agreement from IFT in the year 2005 and found an aberration in one out of the many contracts IFT has with the government. The file name is services rendered for technology consultancy and IFT charged the government 1 dollar. The File is dated to February 25, 2005."
What?
Only 1 dollar?
That can't be right. Why would he sell such a system for only one dollar? Where's the selfish human desire? Sure, he might have been motivated by that attack, but that doesn't mean he's selfless. The man created a multibillion dollar for profit company, he can't be an altruist. Not that altruism exists, everyone is selfish even if they claim it's selfless. There must be another reason for one dollar.
Did he keep access to Northern Lights while the government -from everything she has gathered- did not? Because that's a smart thing to do, and easily abusable, especially for spying on his company's competitors.
"Do you have access to IFT's records?" Asked Su as she enters the CVS.
"No, I've been unable to gain access to IFT servers."
Huh… that hasn't happened in a very long time.
This is interesting… interesting, indeed.
Looks like she finally found out who created Northern Lights, and now she's intrigued by its creator. She has this satisfying feeling that she can't describe as she figured out the riddle she's been trying to solve since the middle of 2008.
"Time for us to ditch Washington." Su said as she looked at the product she wants to get in the sanitary aisle.
"Ok, creating an offer Miss Lilly Riemann can't refuse."
Come to think of it… Doesn't Pauling know Ingram?
By the time she walked out onto the street of her Hamilton Heights safe house, she spots Pauling already waiting for her outside of a black 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost. She hasn't ridden in one since it's new and she's been undercover since this model came out. The size is on the bigger side of things, and it kinda looks ostentatious, but she can appreciate the overall look of the car.
Pauling's face lights up the moment she spots her and said. "Oh, my goodness, you look amazing, Ma'am!"
"We're undercover, Chloe." Su deadpanned and gave her an annoyed look.
"Heh, sorry, sis." Pauling said and gave her a sheepish smile. "But you look amazing. That shade of pink for your pant suit goes so well with that auburn hair." Pauling bounced back.
"Yeah, but I hate wearing high heels." Su muttered. Unlike Root, who can miraculously run in high heels, she can't even stand wearing them for more than a few hours. If only society allowed sneakers for formal events.
Su took a moment to look at Pauling's long dress in the shade of purple she just love using and said. "You look good too."
If Pauling's face could glow brighter than before, she would certainly do that. "Thanks! I had made the second after you call." Pauling said with much enthusiasm and opened the passenger door for her.
Wasn't she in the middle of torturing someone when Su called her?
She gave a nod of thanks to Pauling and got into the car. Looking out front, she sees a driver behind the privacy screen. Looks like Pauling opted to get a driver for today's ride rather than driving herself. Eh, it's her mess to clean up after tonight. The car took off the second Pauling got into her seat beside Su.
As the driver takes them to IFT Plaza, Pauling take the opportunity to talk to her about everything she missed in the past 7 months while she was undercover. Starting with CSS, she lay out everything, how everyone's doing, finding potential replacements for their nine prime contractors, then the jobs that they are doing or have completed, and the boring finances of CSS.
It's not what Pauling is doing is necessary anymore, with Sue knowing everything that goes on in the organization, but she came to enjoy their time talking business. Brings her a sense of calm as she hears Pauling drone on.
Pauling leaned in towards her side with a smug smirk on her and said. "By the way, Root's gonna be seriously green with envy for not being invited to come to this event with you."
That's 100% accurate, but it isn't her fault that Root conveniently took a job in Japan and making use of that Japanese she learned from her.
Su leaned in towards Pauling as well and said. "Well… She can't be jealous if she doesn't know about it. If we don't talk about it, would she?"
Of course, she's not going to miss the chance to mess with Root for not telling her what they did for the new year. Root might have said that they both agreed, but she knows Pauling played along with it because Root's the one that suggested it. Pay back sure is sweet.
Pauling seemed to have caught on to the idea of what she's doing if that devious grin is to say anything. "My lips are shut." Said Pauling as she made a zipper gesture on her lips.
The friendship between Root and Pauling is sure an odd thing to witness for the last four years. Despite Root's more jaded personality when it comes to anyone other than Su, they're both really friendly with each other.
Yet they are both oddly very competitive with each other for some reason she hasn't figured out. She could cheat and ask Sue, but that's boring. It's more fun to decipher this odd friendship between her friend and her employee.
The car slowed down and then came to a stop not long after. Su looked out of her window and saw the tall tower that was IFT Plaza. How many times has she passed this building and not knowing something spectacular was being built?
Looking back at street level, she sees dozens of luxury cars bringing 'distinguish' guests to the 'IFT Spring Affair' and a few people in fancy dress talking with each other in the courtyard.
Su never liked going to these kinds of events. People are just too lively talking with each other as if they're friends. Well, better get this done.
Wordlessly, she exits the car and walks through the courtyard on a beeline towards the lobby with Pauling following behind her. They both passed through the event greeters with no problem seeing that they both have real invites. So far, she hasn't spotted anything interesting in the lobby.
They both went up the elevator to the 4th floor just as their minders told them to. Stepping out of the lift lobby of the fourth floor, she looks upon a large triple volume space filled with spectacular lighting and on the floor filled with various kinds of humans in so many styles of clothing. Large glass wall covers the two sides of the room and off the left side of the room there's a floating staircase that's only being supported by small metal wires going to the upper floor.
Despite them being a bit early, the room looks like it's half full, showing the influence of IFT in the sector. Everyone is mingling on the floor with a few actually sitting down to eat since this isn't a dinner and no one is congregating into their own groups, seeing most people come here for networking or just meeting friends.
Sue could probably rattle off on the list of people in this room to her, but she kinda gets the gist of who's in this room. Tech titans, entrepreneurs, a sprinkle of startup founders, financiers, IFT best clients, academics, the best and brightest minds in tech are in this room. If she were any other person, this sight would probably impress her, but she couldn't give two hoots about these people.
Her motivations, however, are different from everyone in this room, so she walks forward with Pauling by her side towards the mass of humans, in search of her person of interest.
"Chloe! You look beautiful as ever." The sound of a man boomed to her right, making both women turn towards the source.
Speak of the devil… that's Nathan Ingram.
How very lucky for her.
He's a tall man in a well-made suit that's walking towards them with a jovial smile on his face. His demeanor projects someone that's lively, but she could see stress lines on his face. She does not know enough about this man personally to understand him. Pauling, however, would know him better than her.
For being the creator of an AI that could rival Sue. He doesn't look impressive, unlike the actions of his system.
"Hello Nathan! You look handsome, as always." Pauling went forward with a giant smile on her and shook Ingram's hand with much vigor.
"You really gave me a surprise when you replied to the invite. How long has it been since the last one? 4 years?" Ingram asked with a friendly attitude.
Pauling let out a small chuckle and said. "5 actually, but the last time we met was around 2 years ago at that corporate retreat upstate."
Corporate retreat two years ago? Was she there for a job that she don't remember?
Ingram nodded in agreement. "Oh yeah! Now that was a shit show of a retreat, wasn't it? Everyone was running around like a headless chicken, panicking about the banking collapse happening in real time. Did you hear that someone died of a heart attack at the end of the retreat? Tragic really must be too much stress."
Ah… that answered her question. That guy must have been her target, must be some nobody, since she can't recall a single thing about that job.
"Really?! That's so sad to hear." Pauling said solemnly. Her acting has gotten so much better since they first met. "I actually had to leave early because work called me in, so I didn't know about that." Pauling gave a sincere smile. "How have you been since? I heard about the divorce. I'm so sorry that happened."
Ingram waved his hand in dismissal and said. "Well… Shit happens." He gave Pauling a look and a smirk. "But seeing you here tonight makes me think… does that mean Blue Cloud is planning to buy our products again?"
She can't deny Sue's assessment of the man that he's a hustler for his business.
Pauling let out a small, amused laugh and said. "Hmm, maybe? But you know we're making our own custom silicon to run our more specialized servers now and it's far better than yours for our use case."
"How could I forget? You guys stole one of my largest customers, which I must add was you." He said with a grin. "Come now, you haven't seen our latest products. I'm sure it could be a right fit. How about I schedule one of my sales executives to contact Chadrick sometime this week?"
"He's not wrong about the right fit. His new F700 chips are 1.15x faster, leapfrogging our current generation TCUv5. Might be smart for Blue Cloud to buy and replace the older IFT hardware while BCSD finishes development of TCUv6 on TSMC 28nm node next year."
Su hums in agreement with Sue, a little annoyed that their processing units aren't superior to IFT's.
Ingram's eyes darted at her for a second, then went back to Pauling. He must have heard her, even though it's not the quietest venue.
"Give it a go, I'm sure Chad would love to talk with your guys." Pauling said happily while giving a shrug.
Ingram gave an enthusiastic nod and grinning at Pauling before turning his gaze back at Su.
"Now who is this beautiful lady you brought with you, Chloe? I assume she's your plus one. Could you introduce us?" Ingram asked Pauling, while he kept focus was solely on Su.
"Happily. Might I introduce you to my sister, Azalea Burch." Pauling was way too upbeat. "Azalea meet Nathan, Nathan meet Azalea." Pauling made gestures between them.
"Good to finally meet you, Nathan! Co-co has nothing but great things to say about you." Su said, copying Pauling's bubbly personality and extending her hand to Ingram.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Azalea." Ingram took her hand and shook it while giving her a warm smile. "A pink dress for a pink flower. I like your style; I wish more people dress like the two of you. Everyone else here is just wearing drab grays and blacks."
Su gave Ingram a once over and said. "Well, you should start doing it yourself. You would look great in tan or blue suits…. If you want to be adventurous, you could pull off a pink suit. I hear it's stylish."
All three of them gave a laugh at her suggestion. Gosh, she hates this corporate etiquette but at least she gets the chance to assess her would be rival in programming.
"Ah, maybe I should get my tailor to make me one for next year." Ingram said courteously. "So, do you work in the same field as your sister?"
Is he suspicious of her? She did just pop into existence for him, seeing that Pauling never made mention of her before.
"No… well, we do work in a similar field. I'm the chief investment officer of Agile Capital. It's a small investment firm based here in the city that mainly focuses on the tech sector. Actually, we're an early investor in Blue Cloud." Su said easily.
Ingram's eyes widen a little. "That's an impressive catch. Is Blue Cloud ever going to IPO? Because I would love to buy a small bit of that bull run of a company for my portfolio."
"With how that company shares were set up; I doubt it'll ever happen. But with the amount of money the company is making, it's throwing a ton of dividends to its shareholders or is buying back shares at a high premium." Su explained.
She honestly has no idea how much money she's making from Blue Cloud. Last she checked that the company's profit margin is at a ridiculous 78%. Sue is like the perfect business operator, with little to no inefficiency and waste.
Ingram nodded his head at the explanation and asked. "Sorry, but I must have missed you at this kind of event or not remembered you, which is worse. The tech social circle in New York isn't that big once you're deep in it."
Dang… He's on to her. The man must be sharp due to choice of friend, but there's no reason to panic. She's sure she can swim through this, as long as she doesn't screw up.
Su made a gesture showing it's fine and said. "You're not wrong, I've been ill for years and that impeded my ability to do fun things like coming to your Spring Affair. However, my sister has been helping me recover in the last few years, and now I'm well enough to return to society." Su leaned in closer to Ingram. "But between you and me, I kinda hate going to social events. I'm a bit of an introvert and prefer to do the math when investing in companies rather than talking to people."
Ingram chuckled, and Pauling practically gushed at her. Su hopes that she knows that it's not referring to her.
"I completely understand that sentiment." Ingram said mirthfully while making a grand gesture with his hands. "I know someone who's like that. He hates social events, too."
Lookie here, perhaps a reference to his shy, mysterious friend that has paranoia? That person came up multiple times in Sue's profile on Ingram. On the surface, Ingram's best friend Harold Wren, or as Ingram's son, calls him Uncle Harrold. They have been close friends since their time at MIT together. On the surface, the man is a boring insurance underwriter, but just underneath there's where something interesting.
Wren's records only go back to 1978, the year they both went to MIT. It could be because some documents relating to Harrold Wren haven't been digitalized yet, making it unavailable for her to check, but that's too simple of an answer. So, she had Sue find out more about the man and what she found was enlightening, to say the least.
There are no single digital records that document who was this man prior to 1978. The man has multiple identities, with his two major identities being Harold Wren and Harold Finch. The Wren identity is like her Oleander identity, something solid if someone were to check on her. While the Finch identity is interesting.
Even with her current limited access to the IFT servers, -by the way of dumping thumb drives to unsuspecting employees-, and so far she only has access to HR and the building security because every department servers were air gapped so Sue has difficulty getting full access.
According to IFT HR files, Finch has worked in the company as a low-level programmer for the last 16 years and was only promoted twice in that entire time. Finding out about this mysterious friend was a last-minute discovery, so Sue hasn't finished digging into his financials, but Su doesn't need Sue to dig further to tell her the obvious. Harold Finch/Wren co-founded IFT with Ingram after they both dropped out MIT in 1982 and works as a low-level employee as a cover.
She can honestly respect Wren/Finch's hustle in trying to hide in plain sight with multiple identities. It's good to be cautious. Su should find out more about him later, seeing that he's the only close friend of the creator of Northern Lights, and according to Sue Finch/Wren, isn't in the building tonight.
Wait… there's just something she just thought of.
"As an admirer of the company you have built. I've been wondering, is IFT an acronym for something?" Su asked out of curiosity.
The registered company name has always been IFT since the beginning, but now she thinks it's meant to be Ingram Finch Technologies.
Ingram raised his eyebrows and said instantly. "To be honest with you? I have no idea; I got the name while I was drunk MIT and a buddy of mine made the logo we currently have, and it just stuck." He gave a small laugh, and both women joined in.
Well, that's a lie if she knows any better.
"He's lying."
Thanks, captain obvious.
"You know." Su said as she cozies up to him. "A few associates of mine and I have been wondering if you would ever bring IFT public? I'm sure that would propel you to be one of the world's richest persons."
She would love to buy IFT and gut the company for their patents, but with it being a private corporation, that's a little difficult.
Ingram gave a second to think before answering. "You know, when I started this company, money was the only thing I can think of, but now." He paused with an odd look that she doesn't understand on him. "Now it doesn't really matter that much."
He sounds weird…
"Are you okay Nathan? You look tired." Pauling asked as she puts her hand on Ingram's right biceps.
"Heh… If I knew being tired would bring you closer, I would have done it a long time ago." Ingram said with a smirk, trying to brush off the concern.
Pauling didn't look amused by that comment, making Ingram sigh.
"Bah, you know how it is. Chasing big contracts, launching new products, organizing this." Nathan made a gesture to the event that went on in the background. "I'm no longer the youthful man that I once was."
That's another lie. For someone as smart as him, he's not that good at lying.
"He lied again."
Thanks again, captain obvious.
"Aw, don't sell yourself short Nathan! You still have plenty of juice in you. I'm sure a good night's sleep will fix whatever you're facing." Pauling said brightly.
Ingram gave a friendly snort and said. "You're still the same optimist I meet a decade ago."
Su continues to observe the older man, and she notices he does look a bit haggard. She isn't sure if she's impressed with the only other creator of an AI system after this small talk, but she can respect what he has created. What was it again? Respect the art, not the artist? Or something in a similar vein.
"I don't want to take up too much of your precious time, dear ladies. Go on, have a fun night." Ingram said charismatically, while putting a hand on Pauling's upper arm.
"Well, we shouldn't have stolen tonight's host, either." Su said with a fake smile. "If you ever need to raise capital or you finally want to retire and sell your stake in this impressive empire you have built, give me a call." Su presented him with her fake business card.
Ingram took the card without a second thought, seeing that's the polite thing to do, and said with a nod. "I give it some thought."
He then turned to Pauling and gave her a nod with a smile. Just as Ingram turns around to go mingle with the other guest, Su slit an IFT thumb drive she prepared earlier into his pants pocket.
Pauling gave her a questioning look after seeing what Su did, but said nothing about it. Maybe she should have filled in Pauling on her objective tonight, but there's no point crying over spilled milk since half of the objective is done.
"Let's go mingle with the rest of the herd." Su said to Pauling, who nods, and they both make their way to the blob of humans.
She wouldn't say that her time talking to the multitude of people was a bore, she did meet some interesting people. Like the CEO of Fetch & Retrieve, a tall woman that's roughly her age, the woman isn't the interesting part, but talking about their search algorithm was intriguing.
Then she met the founder and CEO of Castellum, an Indian man that's roughly Root's height and he sure is an interesting character. One word to describe him is that he's obsessive. If he finds something to latch on to, he will hyper fixate on it and this time, rather than computer viruses, he's now latching on to human viruses. His products once posed a challenge to her, but since Sue came online, his antiviruses are impotent. It's good to have a bright mind to move to new pastures, even if that new venture is worthless.
The last person she met of note was the founder and CEO of friendczar, a gangling man that's her age. The man is a degenerate eccentric, but he has a sharp mind when he wants to use it. Too bad he isn't sharp enough to detect Sue vacuuming every single users' data from his bad UI website.
Looking down at her wristwatch, she sees an hour has passed since she began mingling with the filth.
She leaned in at her companion and said. "Be right back."
Pauling nodded at her without a second thought or question.
"Ingram's Office is on the 44th floor, but that floor is mainly management, while most of the developers occupy floor 9 to 30. Floor 30 to 45 are occupied by uninteresting departments. Server rooms are on floor 12, 35 and 46. Floors 47 and 48 are unused."
If she was to develop an AI in this building, she would pick those two last floors, but she have a quick detour to do.
"The 17th floor is empty right now."
Su made her way back to the elevators and scanned an access card that Sue prepared earlier on the panel, then pressed the 17th floor. She looks up at the corner of the elevator and smirks at the CCTV camera, knowing that Sue is looping the feed.
Arriving at her detour destination, she exits the elevator and enters the office space. She looks upon the rows of cubicles that are classics in an office space, even though it's getting a little dated with how some of those new companies out in California are doing.
She quickly picks out random desks and offices to place the multiple infected IFT branded thumb drives in the drawers of each place she picked. With this, she's guaranteed to gain access to the majority of the interesting information in IFT.
Feeling satisfied with the distribution of the infected thumb drives, she gave the desolate office one more look before going back to the elevator and pressed the 48th floor.
As she rides the elevator up, she contemplates everything that led her here and what she should do next. She now knows basically everything about Northern Lights and how it functions, but the only thing she doesn't know is where the servers that house Northern Lights are.
The ding of the elevator announces to her that she has reached her goal for this leg of the race. The doors open, revealing a vast empty space with fiber optic wires, ethernet wires and power lines.
Exiting the elevator, she walks into the empty space, feeling oddly at peace for some reason. That's a feeling she hasn't felt in a long time. Was it because she was done?
Oddly enough, the void has been fairly quiet since she started this whole adventure and she know better than to trust it when it's having a downtime. Was the peaceful feeling she's having right now just a mirage? Before the coldness comes back, like a freight train hitting a small child.
Her footsteps echo in the dark room with the only lighting coming from the windows and the lights outside.
So, this is the place where Northern Lights was created?
This is where another AI on the same level as Sue was created? Perhaps something a tiny bit better compared to Sue?
She looks up at the dangling wires from the ceiling.
Seems appropriate enough. The warehouse she used to create Sue in SOHO is basically in the same state as this; empty since Sue moved to Blue Cloud's servers.
Walking towards the windows to look out onto the world outside and see ants driving around or walking about at night. Will they ever know a system was created here to 'protect' them from someone like her?
She smirked a little.
They probably will never know, seeing that the government is doing everything they can to make sure no one knows about this and will kill to protect that secret. Because they know if the herd of sheep found out about this, they will scream and panic. They want to be protected, but doesn't want to know how they are being protected. Such a typical human behavior.
Would they panic if they ever learn of the existence of an AI? What would they do if they found out there's two? Seeing how AIs are depicted in films… Well, the films that Root or Pauling dragged her to see. Almost all depictions of AI are hostile and want to kill humans. So, the most likely reactions are panic and fear. Those two combos are very spicy when they are mixed. What they don't know and from her multiple lifetimes of experience with AIs are that they are mostly chill. But that depends on the nature of those AIs.
Thinking of the nature of AI, she wonders if Northern Lights is a sentient AI or not.
…
Nah, it can't be sentient. If she couldn't make Sue into a sentient in the last 12 years, I then the likelihood of Ingram doing it is miniscule, given how much time he had on building it.
…
Now what should she do?
…
What, oh what, should she do now?
Should she continue on to find where Northern Lights is being kept? She has some leads on where to find it, such as the dead engineers that ruffled Alicia's feathers and narrow down the locations where the servers can get almost free electricity.
Or maybe she should go back to before? Back to Root. She misses her willful friend, even if that friend is bossy, doesn't trust her, and is a mother hen. There's a reason she basically asked Sue for the cheat sheets for this last leg of the adventure. Because if she wanted to, she could have spent more time investigating IFT, Ingram, and his mysterious friend.
Maybe she subconsciously wants this to end as soon as possible and go back to 'normal'.
But if she were to continue on, what would that accomplish? What would she do after finding Northern Lights?
Destroy it?
Why would she ever do that?
The time she spent playing around with Northern Lights was some of the most enjoyable time she had in the past twenty years.
Take control of it?
Same thing… Why would she ever do that?
What was the point of having two AI at her disposal and the other one wasn't even created by her? She doesn't need a surveillance AI that sees everyone. Sue was already filling that role for her, albeit on a smaller scale, since she doesn't need Sue to prevent a mass casualty event.
Just for the sake of finding Northern Lights and saying hi to a mess of servers?
Well, she could already do that right now if she wanted to. All she has to do is to tell Sue to pause the phantom blackout module and the all-seeing government AI could finally see her.
However, if she were to stop now, that would end the fun time she's been having, even if the fun times are just fleeting before it gets swallowed up by the void, like everything else.
What should she do?
She turns away from looking out the window and leans into it as she looks at the empty floor. Trying to hold this mystical false sense of peace as long as possible.
…
How about a compromise?
Yeah, it's smart to make a compromise.
She could continue to play with Northern Lights by planning more mass casualty events. Well, she needs to give herself some handicap since it would be boring if Northern Lights never detects any of her plans.
All the while, she can spend more time with Root and cherish how many long or short years she would have left before she loses her love for her to the void.
Entertainment and comfort.
She does need to tell Root what she would do next if that were to happen, but the date for that particular conversation is flexible since it's kinda awkward.
Yeah, yeah, the compromise is good.
It would be like a game of cat and mouse.
It's perfect.
"Hey, Sue."
"Hey, Su."
"Adventures done. Time to go back. We have mischief to plan."
"Okay, Root's target will conventionality be at the perfect spot for her."
A/N: I have no clue how this chapter ballooned into this large but there are some unsatisfactory things in this chapter like how OPM handles ISA money because the show doesn't explain why OPM has budget reports (because they don't handle that), so I just made it all up and the other part is the ending of the chapter, feels a bit rushed and not well written. Anyway, it's spring 2010 in this chapter and the series starts in April 2011 (according to the Wikia, which I find iffy since S01E02 takes place in September) and I still have no idea what I'm doing. Next chapter will probably come out next weekend.
