American Detective: Starting as a Rookie Cop in an American TV Show

Chapter 1491: Trip to Washington, D.C.

I have some recollection of "Always Vigilant" Jack; in the original "Person of Interest" series, he was a terrorist organization deliberately cultivated and supported by Greer, the mastermind behind "Desima."

They were determined to expose secret federal government projects, and later staged a so-called "citizen trial" livestream, arresting a number of high-ranking officials, including the "mastermind" Senator Ross Garrison, in an attempt to expose the "evil" "Project Aurora".

But to say that Jack is a terrorist organization "always on guard" would be giving these guys too much credit.

There's a joke among federal agencies about undercover agents: the FBI received a tip that a group of people were planning to bomb a government building, so they quickly surrounded the suspects' hideout.

When the agents burst through the door, brandishing their guns and shouting, "FBI! Everyone down!" the room fell silent instantly.

At that moment, a calm voice came from the corner, "Wait, don't shoot! We're on the same side! I'm an ATF mole!"

Immediately afterwards, a hand reached out from behind the sofa and shouted, "DEA! I'm one of them too!"

The third person in the room looked completely bewildered. He glanced at his two accomplices and then shrugged helplessly. "I'm an undercover agent for DHS."

"Always Vigilant" is a similar case. Apart from a so-called leader and a few key members, almost all of its personnel, funding, and equipment come from "Desima".

The mastermind behind "Desima," Greer, wants to replace the black-box "machine" with another type of artificial intelligence—"Samaritan"—to achieve a cyberpunk-like "big company" model.

That is, to turn "government" into "company", to use AI to rule the world, and to transform the entire human society into a future world without a so-called "ruling class", where everyone is an ant under AI.

Jack strongly suspects that Mr. Greer is a huge fan of The Matrix, because apart from the absence of a virtual world and human batteries, his idea is almost identical to the background setting of that film series.

Since there are no "gods" in the world, and since human nature is so ugly, let's let artificial "gods" rule the world. Humans don't even need to think; they can just live like real cattle and horses. This is the ultimate dream of capitalists.

"Samaritan" is different from "machines." It doesn't have as many veiled secrets as Finch's design. It's closer to the advanced artificial intelligence in most dark science fiction works that lacks "humanity," only mechanically uses logical thinking, and raises humans like pigs.

Jack hasn't yet figured out what this world's "always vigilant" is trying to do, or what its connection is to the "Samaritan."

Logically, after he killed Greer, the leader of "Desima," the organization that was trying to expose "Project Polaris" should have quickly disappeared after losing the lifeline of "Desima."

Therefore, the other party's unusual activity made Jack realize that something was wrong.

Fortunately, it is currently confirmed that although the progress of Project Samaritan is unknown, it should still be in the hands of the NSA and has not been controlled by Desima as in the original series. In fact, Desima even gained military authority and beat up Baby Machine to a pulp.

With its global data centers and geostationary satellites covering North America and Europe (only one has been launched so far), the "machine" baby is now in an invincible position.

After instructing Harry to expedite Omega's investigation into "Always Vigilant," Jack spent a few more days in DC, enjoying a pleasant weekend with Senator Zoe Anderson and Secretary Maureen Cahill.

Maureen has now been officially appointed as the Federal Minister of HUD (Housing and Urban Development), becoming a member of the President's Cabinet. Although the Minister of HUD has the least say among the 17 cabinet members, with a presence similar to that of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Veterans Affairs, the advantage is also obvious: a very relaxed schedule.

Here is something that goes against common sense: the federal constitution does not actually stipulate the necessary existence of a cabinet. All executive power rests with the president. Therefore, the federal cabinet is merely a conventional designation since the Washington era.

In other words, cabinet ministers are merely assistants and subordinates to the president, and do not possess constitutional status or legal representative rights.

Furthermore, with legislative power in the hands of parliament, cabinet ministers only have so-called executive power, which means they simply do whatever the president tells them to do and carry out orders.

Therefore, although cabinet ministers have impressive titles, apart from important roles such as Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Treasury, the others are usually considered dispensable.

After all, cabinet ministers are mostly replaced during the president's term and can't do much practical work. Most of the administrative work is left to those unsung professional bureaucrats.

Before leaving DC, Jack made a special trip to visit Joey, the older brother of the hulking Jack Reacher.

The former president was successfully re-elected in this world and did not suffer an assassination attempt during the campaign like Jack did in his previous life. In addition, with Joey as the deputy director, he was not affected by the "spring breeze" of the Efficiency Department.

The compensation was generally good, and overtime pay was not reduced at all, so the Secret Service is generally considered reliable.

Jack sought out Joey, of course, because of his big, muscular brother.

Reicher recently went to Abbotsville, Maine, where he went undercover with several DEA agents, which caused quite a stir.

By the time Jack arrived at the scene after receiving the news, the entire operation was almost completely out of control. During the operation, a DEA agent was killed, and the involvement of the ATF in the arms deal also drew the attention of the other party.

Fortunately, the matter was eventually resolved satisfactorily. Reicher once again declined Jack's invitation, and after sleeping with a female operations director from the DEA, he embarked on his wandering journey again.

Of course, Jack wasn't there to complain; he was just trying to vent his frustrations with Joey, letting him know about his brother's recent situation and catching up on things.

As a senator, Zoe's private security is currently handled by the "Shangri-La" security department, which is staffed by Brian Mills (Liam Neeson), so Jack is quite at ease.

However, after becoming a cabinet minister, Maureen should theoretically not use her own private bodyguards, but should instead be protected by the Secret Service.

This caused trouble for Zoe and Maureen, who needed some "private time" from time to time. Although same-sex couples are not uncommon nowadays, the two had no intention of turning their on-screen romance into a real one, and Jack still had to step in when it mattered most.

After subtly expressing the dilemma her two older sisters were facing between security and privacy, Joey said with a wry smile that she would make proper arrangements for Secret Service agents stationed at the official residence and her home, and would entrust the task of personal protection for their daily outings to private bodyguards.

(End of this chapter)