Nathan Ingram was Finch's oldest and best friend. They started the company IFT together, with Nathan being the agreed upon public face so Harold could maintain his anonymity.After the attacks of 9/11, Nathan wanted to create something that would protect the country from future terrorist strikes. He and Harold began working on a government-sanctioned surveillance device that became known as Northern Lights; though Harold just called it The Machine .During the machine's construction, Nathan discovered that the Machine was sending them information about more than just terrorist attacks - it was sending they numbers of potential murders. Nathan and Harold clashed over what to do with this information; Nathan wanted to try and help the people the Machine told them about, Harold didn't want to get involved. Harold coded the Machine to sort the numbers in terms of issues of national security - terrorism and other crimes with mass-casualty predictions were dubbed relevant , any other crimes were irrelevant . Only the numbers relating to relevant crimes would be passed on, the rest would be deleted. Harold and Nathan continued to argue over how to handle the so-called irrelevant list. The night before the machine was due to be transferred to the government, Nathan secretly programed a backdoor that would allow him access to the irrelevant numbers.Eventually, Harold became aware of what Nathan had done. He terminated Nathan's access to the machine, and begged him to move on from the numbers. Nathan started on a downward spiral, quitting work and drinking excessively. He eventually decided to break his secrecy agreement with the government and made plans to tell a journalist about The Machine. Harold warned him against going public, fearful of the government's response. Nathan dismissed Harold's worries, and told him he should join him in telling their side of the story .Nathan planned to meet a journalist on the Liberty Island ferry. At the last minute, Harold goes to join him. However, the government was aware of Nathan's plans and manipulated a terrorist bombing of the ferry in order to silence him. Nathan was killed in the explosion, and Harold was seriously injured, forever walking with a limp afterward. The events opened Harold's eyes to the error of his ways; after Nathan's death, he re-accessed the irrelevant list, determined to finish his friend's work. Show less «