With a clear goal in mind, Moz and Gianna moved quickly. They left Castle behind at his estate, where he was waiting for the construction company to begin building the facility for housing his supercomputer. Despite being heavily pregnant, Gianna had no intention of resting before her due date. She took her husband John along as her bodyguard, with Moz acting as her legal advisor, and boldly headed to Washington, D.C., to meet Benjamin Arthur.
Yes, the second presidential candidate of the donkey party wasn't in New York but in Washington because Benjamin was a congressman working there.
Like Gavin, the congressman who once lent his estate to Vincent Adler, Benjamin was also a donkey party representative. However, unlike the foolish Gavin, Benjamin didn't have any dirt linking him to shady businessmen or scammers. It was no surprise that in Castle's previous life, Benjamin had become the president of the United States—he had relatively little scandal attached to him. This might have been one of the reasons he ended up becoming the occupant of the White House.
Of course, this man would go down in history as one of the unluckiest U.S. presidents. In his first term, he was nearly ousted by a mercenary group led by a North Korean operative, who almost captured the White House and wiped out the entire American leadership, except for Vice President Morgan Freeman and the Senate Majority Leader, who was secretly the mastermind. They even came close to stealing the nuclear launch codes.
It was only thanks to the efforts of the "Spartan King" Gerard—no, wait, actually, Secret Service agent Mike Banning—that the fall of Olympus was averted, with the help of the hidden passageways designed for presidential escapes inside the White House.
But Benjamin's misfortune didn't end there. During his second term, while attending the funeral of the British prime minister in London, he was nearly beheaded by Bakar, the man who had recently tried to buy the "big bomb" from Dr. Bailey. Three Marine One helicopters, carrying the president, were shot down by surface-to-air missiles, leaving the American president barely alive—once again saved by Mike Banning.
At this point, Castle realized it might not be Benjamin who was the unlucky one. Maybe it was his bodyguard, Mike Banning, who was cursed. It was hard to tell whether Banning's presence was helping or ruining Benjamin's luck.
Reflecting on this, Castle came to a new realization. Banning was the true jinx! After all, when Benjamin left office and Banning started working for President Morgan Freeman, that president was also targeted in an assassination attempt. It was no coincidence that both the "fall of the White House" and the "fall of London" seemed to revolve around Banning's presence.
Castle had decided to invest in Benjamin now, while he was still a dark horse, because recent events had made it clear that going solo or relying solely on the small group around him would no longer suffice. He had the time and resources to engage in high-level political maneuvering, and the discovery of Bakar as a key figure behind future crises convinced him that Benjamin Arthur had an 80% chance of becoming president. In a situation like this, how could Castle pass up the opportunity?
Moreover, with Gianna's support—since she was bored and looking for something to do during her pregnancy—she was more invested in this plan than anyone else. Gianna, the second-in-command of an Italian mafia family, had the chance to involve herself in the U.S. presidential election. If Castle's usual spot-on information was right, and Benjamin Arthur really did become president, the returns from this investment could be massive. Gianna imagined herself becoming one of the most powerful figures at the High Table, even outshining some of the elders.
While the outside world was buzzing with excitement over the Freemason treasure and the bombing in the UK, Gianna and Moz went to Washington, Neal brought his evidence against Senator Pratt to the FBI, and Beckett basked in the praise from her superiors and the Freemasons. Meanwhile, Castle began preparations for a truly ambitious project at his estate.
After receiving an early delivery of a server array from the company providing his supercomputer, Castle summoned his trusted companion Moz again. He quietly revealed to Moz that his ultimate goal for building the supercomputer was to develop the world's first artificial intelligence. Moz went wild with excitement. For a hacker like him, artificial intelligence was the ultimate dream. Although Moz wasn't sure why Castle was so confident in his ability to develop AI, his trust in Castle was unwavering, and he eagerly joined the project.
Castle hadn't initially wanted to tell Moz about this, but Moz would eventually notice something unusual while managing the supercomputer at the estate. It was better to bring him in from the start.
Not only was Moz simple-minded enough to trust implicitly, but having him as an assistant could also help reduce suspicion from the outside once the AI was born. Although Moz was relatively unknown to most people, he had a strong reputation in the hacker world. Together, Castle and Moz could claim they had accidentally developed an AI—a convenient excuse for the public.
Moz would also be an excellent tool for the project. Castle's "system" had given him the code for Tony Stark's AI, JARVIS, from the Marvel universe, but it didn't magically type out the code for him. Building an AI from scratch required coding each line by hand. Given Castle's extreme laziness, the sight of the endless lines of code made him despair.
After Castle revealed his plan, Moz was so excited that he nearly showed up with supplies ready to camp out at the estate. This was perfect for Castle—he could offload some of the coding work to Moz, saving time and giving Moz a chance to prove his skills.
Once the servers were delivered and the construction crew began work, Castle and Moz holed up in the second floor of the main estate, each equipped with a high-performance workstation, and began the long process of coding.
Alexis had long known that her unreliable dad had crazy ideas, but she was still surprised when he told her he wanted to build an AI. Though she doubted how her dad—who was great at writing but not exactly a tech whiz—could suddenly become an expert in artificial intelligence, Alexis decided to keep an open mind. After all, her dad had already designed drones and advanced missiles. Curious about whether Castle could actually pull off the world's first fully functional AI, Alexis readily agreed to Castle's request that she either come to Long Island or have her grandmother Martha take care of her while he worked on the project.
Beckett, finally free from the overwhelming praise and awards after recovering the Freemason treasure, was surprisingly unbothered when she heard that Castle and Moz were building an "AI" at the estate. In Beckett's mind, if this kept Castle occupied and out of trouble, it was a good thing. As for whether he would actually succeed? Beckett was skeptical.
In fact, she thought it might be good for Castle to fail for once.
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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