Chapter 1476 Taking the Initiative (2 in 1)

Jealousy is a universal thing in the world. Jack originally wanted to talk about topics like washboards at the dinner table.

Although this thing is not common in the United States nowadays, if you trace its origin, whether it is the modern washboard with wavy wood or the wavy metal plate inlaid in the wooden frame, they first appeared in Europe and the United States.

The original information of the latter can still be found in the archives of the United States Patent Office.

But considering that he was probably the man most likely to be attacked by the group, Jack finally chose to keep his mouth shut.

It has been more than a week since the last confession, and everyone has been doing their own job, investigating intelligence related to the "Machine" project.

Those who have been exposed to the public include Reese's former boss in the CIA action team, Mark Snow, suspected NSA agent Hersh, and a special prosecutor named Bolton.

This prosecutor was the guy who sounded like he was giving orders when Fusco had tapped Hersh's phone.

Fusco's previous judgment was wrong. Hersh was not an NSA agent, but a department under the Pentagon called the Intelligence Support Operations Office.

The "Machine" project had many code names, one of which was the "Aurora Project". The "Intelligence Support Operations Division" was the secret department that originally led the project.

The nominal head of the "Intelligence Support Operations Division" is Special Prosecutor Bolton.

It is said that this secret department successfully established a project called "Explorer" after the end of the "Aurora Project", providing a considerable amount of valuable anti-terrorism intelligence to various intelligence agencies including the CIA and the FBI.

The Intelligence Support Operations Directorate announced to other intelligence agencies that the Explorer project was a secret intelligence comprehensive analysis department that they had integrated through years of experience based on the NSA's many mathematicians and intelligence analysis teams.

Relying on the support of the CIA, they have established dozens of professional action teams around the world, which are simply "assassination teams" that specialize in eliminating targets that pose a threat to the Federation in the name of eliminating "terrorist threats."

It is now basically certain that this so-called "Explorer" project is actually a cover-up code for "Machine".

"This project has been going on for several years. To be honest, according to some reports, the results are remarkable. The 'machine' has never made a mistake in its judgment. The congressional gentlemen are very satisfied with this."

"Wait a minute. I remember Mark Snow was Reese's superior in the CIA. How come he is involved with the 'machine'?"

Detective "Dou Dou" is just a strong guy who looks a little silly, but he often has flashes of inspiration.

Jack glanced at Lydia and noticed that when he mentioned the "Northern Lights Project", his expression was not right, and Finch, who was sitting opposite him, had an inexplicable look in his eyes, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

When Finch recruited Reese, he didn't just screen on the "dark web" and randomly picked a former CIA agent who looked capable and decided to let him "save" the world.

It just so happened that Reese had almost finished eating. He put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth with the tissue on the plate, put his hands on the table, and sat upright, looking at Finch, who didn't dare to look him in the eye.

"On my last mission, Mark Snow sent my partner and I to Afghanistan to recover a laptop."

Finch continued to keep his head down and remain silent, as if the green beans fried with shrimps on the plate looked particularly handsome today.

Reese continued, "Alicia Corwin (NSA officer who died at the hands of Root), although I didn't know her name at the time, she was standing next to Mark Snow as an intelligence officer.

When she mentioned the mission objective, in order to emphasize the importance, she mentioned that the laptop we needed to retrieve was loaded with an extremely dangerous computer virus, which was related to the extremely confidential 'Northern Lights Project'.

So everyone present looked at Finch in unison. Even Gen, who now seemed to have "recovered", couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, revealing a sly smile that had not been seen for some time, as if he was enjoying a good show.

"I still owe you an explanation and apology, Mr. Reese." Finch finally raised his head and said slowly.

“That laptop was indeed related to me, but I cannot reveal the specific reasons at this time. I had no way of knowing it at the time, and I could not have predicted the consequences.

Now I can only say that although I never intended to hurt anyone at the time, I should have anticipated that someone might be hurt by it.”

As he said this, he glanced at Jack with gratitude, and then looked at the figure in the yard. It was Jessica who took the initiative to go to the yard to play with "Little Bear" because she didn't want to get involved in such confidential conversation.

"I have been secretly thankful that this incident did not lead to some irreversible tragedy in your life."

Although Finch's words were a little vague, everyone present roughly understood what had happened.

Reese's last mission almost got him killed. Although he escaped by luck, due to injuries and fear of being hunted down, he traveled around the world and it took him nearly a year to return home. This also made him miss the opportunity to save his lover Jessica.

If Jack and Jie Jie had not suddenly wanted to live a world of their own and chose to drive back to New York from Miami and accidentally saved Jessica, then from a cause and effect perspective, Finch would have indirectly changed Reese's entire life.

Of course, Reese had no intention of questioning him. The time they had spent together was enough for him to recognize his character. Even though Finch had his own difficulties, he still chose to believe him.

Reese also looked at Jessica's figure in the yard, his expression slightly moved, "My life changed when I remained silent to her in the terminal many years ago (Chapter 1298), and you have nothing to do with it.

Jessica can attest that in the early days of our reunion, I woke up from my dreams countless times to confirm that she was lying safely beside me. "

The old man, who usually showed no expression, looked at Jack with slightly red eyes, "I dreamed that I lost her forever, and lived alone in the world like a zombie."

Jack "."

Who am I? Where am I? It feels terrible to be looked at affectionately by a middle-aged man. Who will save me?

"Cough!" Gen coughed loudly, interrupting this scene which also gave her goose bumps.

"I thought we were discussing how to respond to the crisis and help the 'machines' gain freedom."

She paused and glanced at Jack. "Well, I mean, since there are countless malicious hands reaching out to the 'machine', trying to seize control of it, what should we do about it?"

"There is no response, Ms. Root." Finch glanced at Root. It seemed that only when talking about "machines" would she return to her previous paranoid state.

"The 'machine' is currently safe. Whether it is the NSA or the secret intelligence department mentioned by Jack, their goal is to maintain the stability of the anti-terrorism intelligence network and eliminate all possible threats.

Anything less would draw unwanted attention, which is the real threat to the Machine."

Gen immediately retorted, "Yeah, so Mr. 'Hypocritical' and 'Man in Suit' working on saving 'Irrelevant Numbers' every day won't attract attention, right?

I would like to ask how those secret departments will react when they find out that you used backdoor permissions to obtain "irrelevant numbers" from the "machine"?

Do you think you can be safe hiding in an old library? I'm afraid that by then even this secret FBI base will be blown up."

Although Gen's tone was a bit sarcastic, there was really nothing wrong with what she said this time, and everyone felt a little strange about Finch's attitude.

Only Jack could vaguely guess that the reason why Finch was so "calm" was because he had made a backup plan early on, but judging from his attitude at the moment, it was obvious that he did not want to reveal his trump card in advance.

Jack knew what was going on. Even though Finch seemed to be so pretentious on the surface, he knew that this guy had been waiting for a suitable opportunity.

The first satellite under the name of "Shangri-La" Group has been launched into space. Although it was very low-key and no publicity was done, the news has spread throughout the financial circle.

Countless people lamented that if this was a listed company, the stock price would soar to such a terrifying level like a satellite in the sky.

Finch has been transferring assets to Shangri-La in an extremely covert manner, such as purchasing corporate bonds from Shangri-La through multiple fund trust institutions, exchanging cross-holdings and even acquiring high-quality corporate assets at low prices.

According to Chris's estimate, the total funds exceeded 40 billion US dollars, and according to their private agreement, most of the 40 billion US dollars were used to build a new data center and launch the three geosynchronous orbit satellites.

Needless to say, this is Finch preparing a new home for the "machine" baby.

Jack didn't know what he was going to do specifically, but since Finch said he wanted to wait and see, there was no reason for him to stand up and oppose it at this time.

Of course, it is not realistic to do nothing and just wait as Finch said, because Jack already has a long list of deaths in his hands.

In addition to NSA official Alicia Corwin and former CIA Deputy Director Denton Weeks who died at the hands of Root, dozens of names, including a nuclear power plant engineer named Daniel Aquino, are all believed to be related to the "Aurora Project."

Although the federal secret intelligence agencies, including the CIA, have always acted ruthlessly and killing people to silence them is commonplace, such as what happened to Reese.

But in most cases, things don't need to be so extreme. For example, the series of surveillance programs that the NSA has come up with, the top mathematicians and analysts involved are themselves kept highly confidential.

When a secret project is exposed, the person being questioned is the Federal Congress, the Honorable President, or a department head who is being pulled out to take the blame.

For example, in Jack’s previous life, although the government authorities were criticized for the famous “Prism Project”, no government official involved in the project was criminally prosecuted.

What needs to be reviewed should be reviewed, and what needs to be questioned should be questioned. In the end, it’s all good for you, me, and everyone. It’s all for national security, and we have no choice but to cross the line a little. How can we discourage the “people with lofty ideals” because of this?

For this purpose, Jack specially sought out several "professionals" in his own company to discuss the matter, and the conclusion reached was that someone had indeed taken over the "machine" project to some extent.

This person may not be a specific individual, but a group of people or an interest group.

This is consistent with what they have investigated so far. The "machine" itself is disguised as a comprehensive secret intelligence analysis department, which is the "Explorer" announced by the "Intelligence Support Operations Department".

Almost all people who had come into contact with the "machine", including but not limited to the team of engineers and related personnel who dismantled and transported the server to a secret location, built the secret location, and re-installed the server, were killed.

Even though most of them probably don't even know what they're doing.

Rossi and Zoe's judgment on this was surprisingly consistent. There was a group of scheming guys who were using the "machine" to gain credit and political achievements for themselves.

The former CIA deputy director Denton Weeks was one of them. Finch once said that he had someone try to hack into and control the "machine" as early as when the "machine" was first completed and before it was handed over.

They even suspected that Denton Weeks might be a member of Decima.

One of Jack's cheap fathers-in-law, Harry Tasker (Arnold), who is equally muscular and brainy, now leads the "Omega" department, which has been secretly investigating "Decima", a private intelligence organization called a technology company.

Although the boss of "Decima", Greer, accidentally got involved in the "nuclear crisis" and was killed on the spot by Jack when he tried to trade the "red mercury nuclear bomb" with Dr. Edward Bailey (Chapter 1340), this secret organization did not disappear.

The Intelligence Support Operations Division was most likely infiltrated by Decima a long time ago, and the old MI6 agent Greer took advantage of the personal desires of some of them to bring about the current situation.

Thinking of this, Jack looked at Finch deeply, and then used his eyes to signal Gen to stay calm, "We will discuss the issue of letting the 'machine' regain its freedom later depending on the situation, but there is indeed an imminent crisis that needs to be dealt with right now.

Waiting for the opponent to come to you is never the best strategy. Now that we have found out some information, we might as well take appropriate action.”

"First, there's Reese's former boss, Mark Snow, who has been missing for nearly a month."

Facing everyone's gazes directed at him, Reese shrugged helplessly, "It wasn't me. I swear it has nothing to do with me."

"Anyway, I hope you can pay attention to your former boss, who is obviously targeting you."

Jack continued, "Then there's the suspected head of the Intelligence Support Operations Division, Special Prosecutor Bolton. We need an undercover agent lurking beside him, Ms. Root, what do you think?"

Gen, who was named, looked a little surprised, "Are you sure?"