"I wasn't the first person to exploit that old library.
" "I wasn't the first person to actually discover the anomaly in the 'machine.'
" "I wasn't the one who actually installed a backdoor in it, making it output those 'irrelevant numbers.'"
Finch wiped his glasses for the second time and recounted the past in a calm tone. "It was a snowy winter day when I followed Nathan into that abandoned old library for the first time."
"I remember when you first took Jack and me there, you said you bought it because you thought it was too tragic, a symbol of the decline of Western civilization," Reese whispered.
"Yes, I asked Nathan to help me buy 15 similar libraries, but I don't remember it at the time."
Although they knew there was no boasting in his words, everyone present, including Aubrey, who had always represented the wealthy class before Finch's appearance, exchanged glances in tacit understanding.
Finch, who was completely unaware of this, continued, "We had an argument again that day, and Nathan pointed to the blackboard covered with photos and said with a tone of pride and sadness, 'I saved five people and lost the remaining seven.'
I will never forget his expression at that time. Jack, you are a very good psychologist. You guessed a lot of things right, but you were wrong about one thing.
I am not a 'saint', Nathan is."
Finch took a deep breath, and his voice was slightly crying when he exhaled. "He said, 'I can't help but think about those people, those so-called irrelevant numbers.'"
For a moment, the only voice in the room was Finch's low narration, and everyone held their breath.
"We had a huge argument over this, because saving unrelated numbers would increase the risk of the 'Machine' being exposed, and the federal government wouldn't sit idly by.
In fact, my subsequent investigation also confirmed this. After the 'Machine' was handed over, many engineers involved in the transfer and reassembly disappeared one after another.
But Nathan didn't believe it. He wanted to expose the existence of the 'Machine' project to the media, because in his opinion, related numbers are just as important as unrelated numbers. When it comes to saving innocent lives, there is no such thing as a minority obeying the majority.
Even if the authorities finally shut down the 'Machine', it was the choice of the people."
Finch seemed to be Buddha turned gray, his voice cracking. "He finally convinced me, and Alicia (the NSA officer shot in the head by Gen in Chapter 1451), who was his liaison, to hold a press conference together.
You all know what happened next. The next day, Nathan died, and I'm in this situation now."
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Finally, Jubal, clutching his forehead, sighed. "Go straight to the media? Didn't you think of talking to a congressman first? Even if not a senator, at least a few representatives?"
Seeing Finch's slightly bewildered look, Jack understood the crux of the matter.
Finch and his good friend Nathan were indeed a perfect match: one responsible for internal technology, the other for external PR.
Their personalities also complemented each other perfectly: Finch was extremely distrustful of the federal government, while Nathan was adept at dealing with federal agencies and promoting their products.
The problem, however, was that both men were classic idealists, or perhaps, idealistic in certain ways, leading to a black-and-white perspective.
Jack grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds from the coffee table nearby and scattered them on the conference table, gathering them into an equilateral triangle. He then drew two lines down the middle, splitting the triangle into a smaller triangle and two trapezoids, one large and one small.
"Imagine this is the structure of a government department. The top triangle represents the decision-makers, the middle represents the middle managers, and the bottom represents the executives. Is that correct, Finch?"
Finch blinked a few times behind his thick glasses and asked hesitantly. "Is there a problem with that? If you want to say this is just an ideal model and that the actual situation is much more complicated, I understand."
Jack sighed and spread out the sunflower seeds, arranging them in small piles. While the final shape remained roughly triangular, it was almost indistinguishable, with many individual seeds scattered around the model.
He then took more sunflower seeds and arranged them into similar, vague triangles, filling almost half the table and creating a dazzling display.
"This is the ideal form,"
Jack said, pointing to the largest pile of sunflower seeds in the center. "Let's say this is the NSA, the one next to it is the CIA, and these are the other departments involved in the 'machine' project."
He took the top few sunflower seeds from the NSA, then took one from each of the CIA and other federal departments, holding them all in his palm and showing them to Finch.
"You think you signed a secret contract with the federal government, but in reality, these are the only things you actually interact with."
Jack slammed the sunflower seeds in front of Finch. "Look carefully, these are the only ones."
"There's no such thing as prioritizing the greater good, no such thing as sacrificing the few for the benefit of the many. I won't comment on the meaningless internal friction between you and Nathan. Carrying the so-called moral cross on your own was your choice.
But when you finally decided to make this public, you chose the worst possible approach."
As Finch stared in amazement, Jack picked up the half-empty glass of water in front of him and poured it directly onto the conference table.
Water flowed freely across the table, scattering the piles of sunflower seeds into scattered shapes.
"Find a few opposition members of Congress and ask for a special hearing in Congress. Prepare some backup documents and materials, which will be automatically released online if they lose contact.
Damn it! You really don't think those two reporters who exposed the Watergate scandal dared to publish those stories in the newspaper without any backing, do you?"
Jack didn't know how to comment on the utterly naive behavior of Finch and his friend Nathan. They simply jumped from one extreme to the other.
You're about to flip the table, but don't you think the other party might do it first?
Isn't the best way to deal with a small group of people to unite others first? Treating the entire federal government as a whole and charging straight in?
It's like Jack's usual disdain for Marvel's mutant series. Most of the persecution and discrimination is self-inflicted.
By this point, everyone had a basic understanding of the entire situation. While there were still many details that Finch left out, Jack likely knew some of them through his past life's memories.
For example, the NSA official, Alicia Corwin, must have tipped off her superiors about Nathan's decision; otherwise, the car bombing, disguised as a terrorist attack but actually a targeted killing, wouldn't have been planned so hastily.
Eliminating all the project's actual executors, including Nathan, must have been a unanimous decision by all stakeholders. CIA Deputy Director Denton Weeks, shot dead by Gen, might not have been the final order, but he was at least one of the decision-makers.
However, given Weeks's unawareness of the destination of the server containing the "Machine" program, there must have been a top leader in charge of the project.
He or she likely had some kind of partnership with Mr. Greer, the old man behind Decima Technologies, whom Jack had shot dead early on (Chapter 1339).
Jack now deeply regretted not watching Person of Interest from beginning to end. But with his current state of mind, he doubted he would have remembered it even if he had.
The details of the show's central plot are hidden within each episode's independent plot, often spanning only a few seconds or a minute or two in flashback.
This is the allure of this genre: often, a sudden plot twist leaves one bewildered, only to rewatch it again, twice, or even three times before realizing the devil is in the details.
Finch wasn't the saintly figure Jack believed him to be. In fact, he had strongly opposed his friend Nathan's actions, and his stringent measures against the "machine" were largely intended to protect both Nathan and himself.
However, an explosion claimed Nathan's life, and with it, Finch's soul. He stuffed his friend's ideals into his own broken body, stumbling down a path of self-destruction.
Accompanying him was Reese, equally devastated by the loss of his beloved. He saw the "machine" as an electronic god, believing it could ultimately correct the inherent "errors" in human society.
This outcome was predictable, a tragedy seemingly preordained.
Of course, this was the ending without Jack, but at least he had saved Reese's soul. With Jessica by his side, the former CIA agent was no longer alone and lost.
As for Finch, he didn't need saving. Jack could heal his body, but not his broken soul. But there was someone who could, and that person had always been there.
As the secret meeting concluded, everyone left the base building with varying expressions. They all needed time to process what they had heard.
After all, some things were beyond their comprehension. The idea of a man-made electronic ghost sounded too sci-fi.
Although everyone had experienced some major events with Jack, for the most wanted criminals, especially Jubal, Aubrey, and the Alice people, it still felt a bit unreal.
It was like someone walking down the street suddenly being handed a pair of five-jeweled gloves and told to put them on and snap their fingers, and half of all life on earth would vanish.
Compared to the fact that the "machine" was a soulful electronic being, the fact that everyone in the country was under surveillance seemed insignificant.
This was thanks to Finch's clear explanation of the principle under Jack's guidance. Everyone knew the NSA had been doing similar things for a while, and now it was just irrefutable proof. The
oppressive feeling of "Big Brother is watching you," a terrifying depiction that only existed in science fiction, was truly suffocating. But when everyone realized that "Big Brother" was merely a silicon-based lifeform trapped in a "black box," they
couldn't help but feel a strange, though not quite sympathetic, feeling of resentment, which certainly wasn't hatred either.
"Want to go out for a walk?" Jack approached Gen, who was still seated in a daze.
"No, thank you. To be honest, I don't really like that outfit." Gen looked at the restraint suit tossed carelessly on the coat rack.
"I think you might need some time to think. Until you make a decision, you'll be restricted from leaving this building. But if you're willing to stay in my sight, getting some fresh air is fine."
Jack gestured politely. "Come on, I'll take you somewhere. I know you hate Finch right now, but after going there, I hope you'll understand his frustration to some extent, or at least stop harboring the thought of killing him." After
a moment of contemplation, Gen suddenly looked up, his drooping lips curling up in a faint smile. "Okay, shall we go to the old library?"
—
The afternoon sun was blazing, and as usual, the Audi R8 parked by the roadside attracted a number of envious glances. When Jack and Gen exited, they drew even more.
Although Gen was several years older than Jack, she possessed a baby-faced face with full, apple-cheek cheeks, a rarity among European and American women.
Although this world seemed to have a more beautified look than Jack's previous life, with handsome men and beautiful women everywhere, Gen was the only woman he knew who, besides the girls around him, could still look young after 30.
Looking at the Washington Arch, a replica of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, not far away, Gen, despite not being a native New Yorker, instantly recognized his location—Washington Square Park.
"I remember you said it was an abandoned old library," Gen said, turning to look at the beautiful Bobst Library at the south end of the square.
Jack smiled back. "I didn't promise to take you to Finch's lair, at least not yet."
He walked over to a drink stand near the park, glanced at the handwritten sign, and said to the owner—a bespectacled, honest-looking, and somewhat student-like Asian-looking young man—in Mandarin, "Two cups of herbal tea, please."
"It's free, fellow countryman. It's just herbal tea. Pour it yourself," the stall owner, busy at work, replied in standard Mandarin without even looking up.
Jack didn't hesitate to take two disposable paper cups, and filled two cups from a stainless steel bucket labeled "Herbal Tea". He handed one to Gen and took one for himself, and walked towards Greenwich Village on the west side of the square.
After a while, the owner of the beverage stall looked up with a slightly dazed look, looked at the two figures who had already walked away, and scratched his head in confusion.
"It tastes weird, but it makes people want to keep drinking it." Gen didn't even ask Jack where he was going to take her, and even took his arm, as if they were really out to relax.
"Next we are going to visit a stranger. My name is Detective Danny Regan, and you are Detective Kate Beckett. Remember these two names and don't let them slip. I know you are very good at this kind of thing."
Jack walked to the door of an apartment, gave instructions, and without waiting for Gen to continue asking questions, he pressed the doorbell in front of the white door.
(End of this chapter)