"Leonard Speaking"
'Leonard Thinking'
Coney Island, New York
Leonard pulled up to Coney Island. He was greeted with salty air, making him crinkle his eyes with slight discomfort. He looked around at the rides, taking in their sights as he imagined the bustle this place saw during peak seasons. To him, Coney Island was something people associated with joy, laughter and park rides, never noticing how it represented change in America. He walked around taking in the views before he received a call from Mike.
Mike greeted, "Leonard — I am at Coney Island."
Leonard asked, "Is Elliot with you?"
Mike answered, "Yeah, I picked him up about an hour ago."
Leonard instructed, "Well, I am at the boardwalk. Do you see me?"
Mike paused, seemingly looking around before spotting Leonard in the distance, "Yeah I see you."
Leonard spotted Mike coming towards him, with a hesitant Elliot following him. The two came to Leonard, shaking his hand and saying their greetings. The trio walked the boardwalk. No one spoke a word, but Leonard kept observing his surroundings, his mind constantly active due to McCall's first lesson. The walk ended as the trio looked at a small, decrepit arcade. The arcade was originally named Fun Society, but some time ago, the U and N had fallen off, leaving the sign saying F Society.
Leonard turned to the two, "What happens next will be confidential. You don't speak on F Society with anyone else unless they are a part of it."
Leonard quickly opened the side door, letting the two in. As the two looked at the decorations, the broken arcade machines, a small popcorn machine at the side and dim, yellow lightbulbs lighting the room, the two turned to each other, puzzled.
Leonard interjected, "This will be the base of Chaldea's hacker division. As the world moves closer to the digital age, not having a network security division is a flaw in our organisation. Elliot will head this place."
Elliot, who was awkwardly looking around suddenly turned to Leonard, his eyes taking a calculating look that made him seem much older. He asked, "So, what can I do here?"
Leonard looked at Elliot before responding, "You can do anything here, at least at normal times. But when Chaldea calls upon you for help, you must answer."
Elliot moved around, looking at things, as if examining the place. He said, "This is nice. It is quite isolated, but public enough to go unnoticed. Since it is Coney Island, the power supply and network connectivity is strong here. We could build a real hacker's hub here. Maybe get some more people to form our team. What do you think?"
Mike looked worried, "You do know that hacking is illegal. No matter what we uncover through hacking, we cannot use it in courts. And when we get caught, everyone even remotely connected to this hacker group will be investigated. This could potentially devastate Chaldea itself."
Leonard's eyes narrowed slightly. He slowly moved behind Elliot, a hand reaching slowly inside his jacket.
Elliot turned to Mike, "So we will not get caught. Having a hacker team has more advantages than disadvantages. It helps in covert investigation, may even help in uncovering plots against us. It can also help in paralysing enemy corporations while Chaldea attacks from the light."
Leonard spoke from behind Elliot, "Quite true, though, I wonder, who are you again?"
Elliot turned to Leonard, only to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun. Leonard's eyes bore into Elliot, carefully studying them while maintaining vigilance. Mike recoiled at the presence of the gun before he started trying to reason with Leonard, "Leonard calm down. You called for Elliot. You don't have to shoot him."
Leonard kept his eyes trained on Elliot, while speaking, "Relax Mike. I am not going to shoot Elliot, but the person before me is not Elliot. At least not completely."
As Mike tried to grasp the difference, Leonard spoke, "You should have noticed the differences. The sharper speaking tone, the lack of nervous twitching. Elliot is quite awkward. It is the eyes that tell you the truth. Elliot is smart, but he is quite pure. This guy is quite calculating. He decided to take the leadership position I offered too quickly. Elliot would have hesitated, at least once."
Elliot looked into Leonard's eyes, as if sizing up a predator before sighing and smiling in an un-Elliot way, "You are quite sharp. Normally, people don't pick up on those changes quickly."
Leonard spoke, "I'll accept the compliment, but the question remains. Who exactly are you?"
Elliot spoke, "I am Elliot, or at least a part of him. You can call me Mr. Robot."
Leonard seemed to guess the reason, "A personality shift I reckon. Normally, people with severe trauma often dissociate using personalities to deal with situations. So, was the Elliot we know the same as you, another personality?"
Mr. Robot shrugged, "Who knows. In fact, I don't even recall who the real Elliot even is? It could've been him, or another personality. The lines get blurry when many share the same psyche. I know that there are three of us, but there might be more."
Leonard pondered, his hand gingerly rubbing the trigger. He asked, "Are the personalities for or against Chaldea?"
Mr. Robot said, "Chaldea is one of the things all the personalities are hopeful about. We hate corporations because they only take from people. There are chances that Chaldea will give to society something more than money."
Leonard waited for a moment before lowering his gun. He said, "That is okay in my book. Since every personality is okay with Chaldea, you can lead the hacker division. I don't need you to work on this place every moment of your life, but do try to make it run well enough. I will pay for the equipment. I don't need a constant watch on everything, but keep your eyes open for anything against Chaldea. Your scope includes information sold on the deep web, any bounties on Chaldea members, any communication mentioning Chaldea. That sort of thing."
Mr. Robot seemed to be annoyed, "Do you realise that what you are asking for is pretty much a full time job. Most companies that involve big data and constantly scour the dark web do so with thousands of analysts, cybersecurity experts and hackers."
Leonard nodded at that before speaking, "I know what you mean. But don't worry. I have something that will bridge the gap."
Leonard took out a small cube from his pocket and set it down on the table. Mike, who was shocked and disturbed by the exchange, stared at the cube with a slight blue light, "It looks like a fucking holocron."
Leonard laughed at that. Mr. Robot cracked a smile at the outburst. Leonard explained, "It does look like one, but its functions are mindblowing. This is something I call SynthBrain. Well, it is actually a light version of the SynthBrain. It is a hybrid quantum computer that can work at room temperature just fine. The secret lies in its lattice structure and CNT based brain cluster simulators…"
Before Leonard could explain more, Mike raised his hand to stop him, "You do realise that I don't understand a word you are saying. I am a lawyer not a scientist."
Leonard gave a sheepish smile before explaining, "In short, this little cube can process big data. Think of it like a pair of eyes on every word written on the internet. As long as our hacker team wants to find something, it can scour all over the internet, from its good looking surface to its darkest depths, to find it. If someone so much as types our name on the other end of the world, as long as it is connected to a network, this cube can help us find it."
Mike looked at the tiny cube in shock, "That is a lot of power for something this small."
Mr. Robot nodded, "I agree. I understand the need for security, but why even build something like that?"
Leonard smiled, "It actually runs my personal AI, another helps with my medical robot."
Mike looked at Leonard, "You have a medical robot. Is it like those that modified Darth Vader?"
Leonard grinned, "It is close to that. It can think of every medicine or surgery, innovate on medical technology and even perform surgeries with the accuracy of a world class surgeon."
The three kept discussing the details. Leonard informed Mr. Robot about the approaching conflict with Axe Capital. The vigilante hacker was more than happy to keep his eyes peeled for every piece of information on Axe Capital and its movements. Finally, the three separated. Leonard had already instructed Robert to go to Los Angeles, where he had rented a place for him. With nothing else to do in New York, Leonard travelled to Los Angeles. After all, he had a very important person to pick up.
Los Angeles Airport
"Don't worry Director Seibert. I am quite familiar with Dr. Swanson. I am already at the airport so picking her up is not a problem for me."
Leonard talked for a few minutes before hanging up. He took a deep breath, before his eyes looked at the arrival gates, his eyes searching for Paige with anticipation. Soon, he spotted a head of blonde hair. His eyes lit up as he called to Paige, urging her to look towards him. Paige turned upon hearing her name. Her eyes shone as she looked at Leonard, excitedly waving to her, trying to be as noticeable as possible. She quickly dragged her luggage towards him. As the two approached each other, an air of awkwardness arose between them. The two stopped a small distance from each other. While the two were close, they were not close enough to hug each other so publicly.
Leonard smiled, trying to disperse the awkwardness, "Hello Athena."
Paige smiled at the address, before replying in turn, "It's nice to see you too, Prometheus."
Leonard smiled a gentle smile, finding that kindred feeling in Paige's grey eyes. He greeted, "Good morning Dr. Swanson. I am Dr. Leonard Hofstadter. I will take you to Caltech for your conference."
Paige said, "Lead the way, Dr. Hofstadter."
The two came near Leonard's car. He quickly loaded the small amount of luggage in the trunk before driving out of the airport. As the two drove to the university, Paige asked, "How has everything been Leonard? Is everything going well with Chaldea?"
Leonard replied, "Things have been going well. Chaldea is profiting well with my patents. We have been able to fund many new projects. Dr. Rao's new cleaning robot has begun its testing. He has even started a new project. A robot that can help clean up heavy metal pollution from soil."
The two kept talking, sharing incidents that happened in their life. Leonard talked about his upcoming training with McCall. Paige was slightly worried at Axelrod's revenge, but Leonard reassured her. Soon, the two arrived at Caltech. Leonard quickly took Paige to Director Seibert.
Caltech Cafeteria
Sheldon stabbed his peas eating with slight hesitation. Howard and Raj looked at Sheldon while eating their lunch. As the two were about to continue, they heard Sheldon groan. They decided to ignore it before Sheldon gives out another groan. Howard asked the question, "What's wrong Sheldon?"
Sheldon stabbed some more peas before saying, "It is Alex. She has filed a sexual harassment complaint when I heard she was going to ask Leonard to attend Kip Thorne's lecture. Now, I have to meet the head of HR to straighten things out."
Howard gave a smile, "Don't worry Sheldon. I am quite familiar with Janine. She is a reasonable woman, as long as you don't get on her bad side."
Sheldon humphed before saying, "I just don't get it. Why is it that so many women seemed to want to do things with Leonard? Besides, Alex is supposed to be my doctoral student. The only person she should be sucking up to is me."
Howard remarked, "Well, Leonard always had some luck with the ladies. He got together with Penny, then there was Stephanie the doctor, then Priya and now Alex. Ever since he returned from his sabbatical he is much more mysterious as well."
Raj nodded, "True, women love mysterious men. Apparently, they are like puzzles to be solved."
Sheldon scoffed, "Oh please. The only reason women may find someone attractive is their hormone fluctuations. They are slaves to their biological impulses. A mysterious man is simply a trigger that stimulates that biological impulse."
Howard sighed, "Please don't talk like that in front of Janine."
Suddenly, Raj spotted Seibert approaching their bench, accompanied by Leonard and a beautiful blond woman. While he wanted to signal Howard, he did not get much chance. Seibert approached the group, "Good morning gentlemen. It is good to see you. This is Dr. Paige Swanson. She is the lead particle physics researcher at CERN. She will be a part of our physics conference next week."
Seibert turned to Paige, "Dr. Swanson, allow me to introduce our best scientists. This is Dr. Cooper, Dr. Koothrapali and Mr. Wolowitz."
Paige shook hands with Howard, "Mr. Wolowitz."
Paige offered her hand to Raj, who could only give a hesitant smile before turning to Sheldon, "Hello Sheldon."
Sheldon turned to Paige, a frown coming to his face, "Paige."
Leonard turned to Paige with surprise, "So, he is the Texan friend you mentioned. I should have known. Few people would show up on your radar."
Paige turned to Leonard, smiling softly, "Yeah, we attended the same advanced mathematics class."
Sheldon seemed annoyed with Paige. He quickly said, "Yeah, but those things were in the past. You work at CERN now. Do you have time to appear at random conferences?"
Seibert seemed annoyed at that, but Paige decided to ignore it. Leonard spoke, "Paige is quite efficient with her work. She completes her experiments before coming to conferences all over the world. Perhaps, you can learn something."
Sheldon insisted, "I am a theoretical physicist. My time is better suited to tear the mask of nature to look at the face of god. I never attend boring conferences."
Paige laughed a little, "Oh you haven't changed a bit Sheldon. Still, it was nice meeting you. Leonard, let's talk in your lab. We have so much to discuss."
Quickly asking for permission from Seibert, Paige and Leonard left for his lab. As Raj looked at the two, he remarked, "Well, they seem awfully close."
Howard comments, "Penny will not be happy after learning about this."
AN: Thank you to all my patrons who have shown their support to my writing. It is your support that has motivated me to write consistently
AN2: The next chapter will start the battle with Axe Capital. Stay tuned
Support me on Patreon at patreon.com/SparksNFlames