"Drop your weapons! Put your hands up!"
"Get down on your knees! Cover your head!"
The Most Wanted team, accompanied by a large group of NYPD officers, poured into the fourth basement level of the parking garage. Simmons, also in uniform, struggled briefly, raising his hands while attempting to explain.
"We're on the same page, we're on a mission."
"None of your guys are here!"
Fusco said, striding forward and kicking him in the knee before expertly handcuffing him.
Facing Simmons's glare, Detective "Bean" raised his head with a hint of pride and delivered the words he'd been preparing for a long time. "I've been undercover in HR under orders from Commissioner Reagan, so yes, I'm undercover."
"Send him to the federal building for solitary confinement, and you'll keep an eye on him," Jack instructed Aubrey, turning and running towards the abandoned maintenance passage.
Something was amiss. Leaving "Gen" alone with Finch was indeed Jack's plan, which was why he hadn't said anything when Reese offered to stay.
But what about this unfamiliar female voice? Jack had no recollection of the Alicia Finch had just mentioned. Was she even in the original series?
The previous communication interruption and Finch's presence outside were all impromptu events, impossible to predict. In other words, this woman named Alicia had been following him the entire time.
The conversation in the headset continued, and after accusing Finch of creating a "machine" that had killed Nathan, Alicia choked up.
"I can feel its presence right now, watching us constantly. There's nowhere to hide. I'm tired of this life."
Finch was silent for a long time before whispering, "I've made some mistakes, but creating the 'machine' wasn't one of them. You're not hiding from it, Alicia, and it wasn't the 'machine' that killed Nathan.
You're hiding from people, from those you and I once thought we could trust."
"Perhaps you're right, but when you created that powerful 'machine' with that arrogant mindset of a creator, didn't you consider the consequences, the disaster it would cause if its power fell into the wrong hands?"
At this point in the conversation, the two of them were clearly at odds. Feeling he had grasped the truth, Finch turned to accuse the woman named Alicia.
"What do you mean by 'the wrong person'? Someone like you, willing to pay a corrupt cop like HR to hunt down an innocent woman just to lure me out?"
"What do you mean?" Alicia's voice was filled with confusion.
Finch, in turn, grew excited. "You know how the 'machine' works, the 'irrelevant information list.' You know if Turing's life is threatened, the 'machine' will spit out her number."
Alicia interrupted him. "I don't understand what you're talking about. I don't need to lure you out. I've been following you for weeks."
The abandoned maintenance tunnel leading to the riverside water treatment plant was long. Jack ran at full speed at first, only slowing down once he had barely caught up with Reese.
"Finch, keep talking to her to buy time. We'll be there soon," Reese gasped.
But the next second, gunshots rang out, and both men stopped in their tracks. Reese's voice trembled. "Finch! Finch!"
The two men, one in front of the other, almost sprinted towards the exit. The sound of their conversation that followed brought a slight sense of relief to Jack's heart.
"It's so nice to finally meet you in person, Harold Finch. You can call me Root."
"Did you hire 'HR' yourself? You're willing to risk your life to find me?"
Finch's voice trembled. He knew what the name Root meant, as it had only been a few months since their first encounter. He
hadn't expected the other man to shoot someone dead right in front of him the moment he appeared. Although Alicia had pointed a gun at him before, it wasn't to the point where
Finch had mostly hidden behind the screen. The only real danger he had experienced was the car explosion that took the life of his friend Nathan.
Seeing someone die right before his eyes, confusion, bewilderment, fear, and an inexplicable rage mingled with it. Veins popped up on Finch's forehead, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably.
"I once blackmailed the CEO of a corporation under an alias. That's a long story." Root dragged Alicia's body from the passenger seat with some difficulty, opened the back door, and got in.
"But anyway, I was participating in a team-building activity called 'Trust Fall,' where you close your eyes, fall backward, and wait for someone to catch you.
I know you won't let me down. You have a great team: that man in a suit named Reese, and Jack, who's just as good at disguises."
Ruth smiled brightly, but the gun in his hand was always pointed at Finch's head. "Drive, I know they're coming soon, and we still have a lot to discuss."
-
Reese kicked open the iron gate that was in the way, and his face darkened terribly when he saw the deserted riverside path before him. Finch's black Lincoln had disappeared, replaced by the body of a middle-aged white woman.
Jack walked over to the body and squatted down, picking up Finch's crushed phone and an in-ear headphone from beside her.
"Finch has a GPS, so he should be fine,"
Jack said, his words of comfort only half-spoken. He looked up and saw Reese standing in front of a surveillance camera, muttering as if to himself, "He's in danger, and it's all because of you. So you have to help me find him."
So now the pressure is finally on the "robot" baby?
In Jack's previous life, when "Person of Interest" was filming, there were still many pay phones on the streets of New York. However, due to the interweaving of multiple series in this world, the actual plot is quite chaotic.
At this point, all landline phone booths in New York have been converted into free Wi-Fi hotspots. Instead of phones, they now have electronic screens that update weather and traffic conditions.
Therefore, the scene in the original show where "Robot" calls Reese from a landline phone booth is doomed to fail. Jack watched the high-mounted surveillance camera with interest, its small red light flashing, as if it were a living electronic being.
A moment later, Reese's phone beeped, and the words "Unknown Number" danced softly on the screen.
Reese expressionlessly turned on the speakerphone. After a beep, different male and female voices, cut from various recordings, began to read out words one by one.
"Family, Alpha, Mike, Uncertainty, Romeo, Kilogram, Rondo, Juliet, Oscar."
(End of Chapter)