Cayden James

"I don't trust anyone's word, Mr. Diaz. I put my faith in data, information. Ones and zeroes never lie."

- Cayden James to Ricardo Diaz

Cayden James (died February 8, 2018) was the father of Owen Post, and the founder and leader of Helix, an organization uniting masterful hacktivists. Although no official case was formed against him, he was denoted as a "person of interest" by A.R.G.U.S. and illegally imprisoned in a black site facility. James's Helix allies, led by Alena, eventually rescued him with help from Felicity Smoak. His time in custody caused him to go insane, and he developed a plan to wipe out the world's internet, recruiting Black Siren to his side and clashing with Team Arrow, as well as his his former allies Alena and Felicity.

Believing Oliver Queen was responsible for the death of his son, the master hacker committed a series of attacks throughout Star City, wanting to avenge his son's death and formed his own cabal to do so. It was later proven to him that Oliver was not responsible for Owen's death, and James was subsequently taken into custody. Shortly thereafter, he was killed by the true mastermind behind his son's death; James's former associate Ricardo Diaz.

Founding Helix and A.R.G.U.S. imprisonment
At some point Cayden James founded Helix, an organization uniting hackers that pursued political activism. Considered by A.R.G.U.S. to be 20 times more dangerous than Snowden as a security risk, James was captured by the organization when he was supposedly trying to hack an A.R.G.U.S. transponder. Although his crime was not proven in court, Amanda Waller illegally gave the order to keep him imprisoned as a "person of interest". James was moved to a black site prison, which was eventually located by his Helix allies in 2017.

The Helix rescue team led by Alena and Felicity Smoak ventured into the facility, opposed by A.R.G.U.S. security force and Team Arrow. They successfully extracted James and moved him to an undisclosed location. Back in the command of his organization, the Helix leader decided to cut off ties with Felicity, considering her ties to Team Arrow a liability, but worked with the code to figure out a program she was looking for that would allow to locate Prometheus's location. Leaving a flash drive for Felicity's use, Helix evacuated from their old base to a new location.

Dangerous plans
While in Corto Maltese, James received a package which contained a USB which revealed that his son was killed by the Green Arrow, this caused him to make plans to have vengeance on the Green Arrow who he soon discovered was Oliver Queen. This change of attitude made Alena think that it was the aftereffects of prison not knowing it was really due to the death of his son. He developed a plan to destroy the world's internet as whole, even worse than the Calculator's plan. Seeking out allies for his scheme, he observed the battle on Lian Yu and saved the life of Laurel Lance/Black Siren, adding her group's strength to the power of Helix.

When Alena disagreed with James's plans, he attacked her, making the young hacktivist escape Helix while pinging his phone in Corto Maltese. Alena seeks out for Felicity's help, and the two tried to contact Amnesiac for the ghost drive. They eventually came to the old Helix building intending to prevent Cayden's plans, but were caught by his team, which included Black Siren. James explained his disappointment in Alena being duped by his Corto Maltese phone and tried to execute the two women, but was stopped by Team Arrow.

Cayden and Black Siren's group went on their path to the International Domain Name Directory vault, slaying all the guards. They were pursued by Team Arrow, with Oliver Queen taking on the role of Overwatch. Thanks to her personal presence on the field, Felicity managed to remove James's internet-threatening virus, but only through taking down the facility's firewall processors, with them exponentially overclocking and the cooling system disabled. However, it was never James's plan to take down the internet, but rather to get Felicity to take down the firewall, leaving her "digital fingerprints". Once Felicity had taken down the firewall, James was able to upload a critical piece of code to Arclight. As such, he would be able to frame Felicity for the results of his true plan.

With Black Siren's help, James created a new plan, involving a terrorist attack on Billy Joel's concert, masking his men as police officers. As Green Arrow arrived at the stadium, he was confronted by James, who explained that the bomb was a hoax and he merely wanted to see Oliver and talk with him tête-à-tête, saying that Oliver was responsible for the death of his son, and all James truly seeks is revenge. He enacted a part of his revenge by releasing footage of Team Arrow members beating up his goons masked as police officers, swaying public opinion against vigilantes, who were seen "attacking SCPD officers".

James had Black Siren kidnap Quentin Lance and blackmailed Oliver Queen to steal an item from A.R.G.U.S. James discovered that Oliver had sabotaged the device but convinced Oliver he had no idea and met him at a digital blackpoint so Felicity couldn't observe them. James confronted Oliver and mentioned he is a man of his word as he wouldn't tell Oliver that he would destroy the city if he wasn't. When Oliver demanded proof of life from Quentin, James agreed and proved that Quentin was still alive. When Oliver handed over the device, James refused it knowing it was sabotaged and ordered Black Siren to kill Quentin and have his men kill Oliver. Both plans failed though when Oliver and Black Canary fought off the attackers and Black Siren freed Quentin instead of killing him. Later on, James watched Team Arrow self-combust as it was revealed that when he sent Black Siren to attack the Arrowcave, she had set up a secret camera as well. Black Siren questioned if this is what he planned when he had her set the secret camera up, but he admitted that it was more then he was expecting. Soon other members of his secret Cabal arrived including Anatoly Knyazev, Vincent Sobel/Vigilante and Ricardo Diaz/Dragon.

James along with Black Siren and Ricardo Diaz visited Jerry Bertinelli and threatened him to give up his access to the docks, they gave him 48 hours or he would send Black Siren to New York to have her pay a visit to his daughter. While at their base of operations, Black Siren complained how it would be easier to just kill Bertinelli and they would soon be attacked by Green Arrow, only for him to be surprised by the appearance of Cayden's Cabal. James allowed Green Arrow to escape much to the chagrin of Black Siren and Diaz. After over-hearing a conversation between Team Arrow, James sent his Cabal against Bertinelli, who was secretly working with the Green Arrow. James's Cabal was successful in subduing Green Arrow, in which James offered Bertinelli a choice to kill Green Arrow, and realizing his failure Bertinelli decides to kill Green Arrow, but he escapes. Despite giving James the docks, Cayden had Bertinelli killed but told his dead body that his daughter was safe.

Attacks on Star City
James initiated his plan and caused many accidents throughout Star City killing many people including Captain Frank Pike. James then visited Oliver Queen at City Hall, and told him that unless he pays $10 million every night, there would be more incidents. When Oliver confronted him about this James revealed the events that led to his son's death stating that he was killed by a stray arrow from Oliver a year ago, unknown to James at that time Oliver was at Hub City recruiting Dinah Drake, meaning someone framed Oliver for the death of James's son. After Oliver released a public announcement revealing that the incidents were caused by Cayden James, James sent Sheck and Vigilante to attack one of the safe houses that Oliver had created to protect the people of Star City, unfortunately for James this fails and leads to the death of Sheck. Despite this, as the day approaches James's deadline Oliver is forced to give in and pays the money.

He soon discovered that Vigilante was a spy aiming to take down the Cabal. After Vincent stole certain data, he was captured by James and Anatoly. James had both Ricardo Diaz and Anatoly torture Vincent to reveal that he is a traitor. Once Vigilante escapes with Dinah Drake, James and Black Siren ambush them ordering Siren to end Vigilante's life and even threatening her when she hesitated.

Death
After Cayden James announces that he is about to detonate the bomb at midnight, Team Arrow finally gives video evidence with help from the Flash that Green Arrow didn't kill Owen but someone else did. He recognizes that one of his former Cabal members had doctored the video. He makes Team Arrow find his former allies and brings them to him with the threat of the bomb. The presence of William caused James to remember his own son causing him to be vulnerable allowing Green Arrow to subdue him. In prison, he advises Oliver to be a better father and asks him to visit his son's grave which he accepts.

Ricardo Diaz later appeared to the arrested Cayden James and told him that he'd used James to take over Star City saying that it's ripe for the taking and that James was too clueless to realized he was used by Diaz. He also stated James doesn't understand that things should be taken over and not destroyed while revealing he bribed the new police captain. He then murdered James telling him he was the one who had his son killed and calmly exited the building.

Personality
Cayden was once close with Alena, who became immediately distraught and very concerned for Cayden as soon as the Helix team found him, losing her cool. He is also a very suspicious individual, ordering Alena and Helix to cut ties with Felicity altogether after being saved, not trusting an individual affiliated with Team Arrow. Cayden was also self-righteous, physically harming Alena for daring to question his plans for the world that would threaten the lives of millions. He possesses a calm, collected, yet also smug attitude, considering everyone a pawn in his plans. Ultimately, however, he was motivated by passion for his dead son, whom Cayden considers a victim of Oliver Queen's activities as a vigilante.

In the last moments of his life, James made amends to Oliver, showing remorse for his actions.

Abilities

 * Computer specialist/Master computer hacker: James is a highly skilled computer hacker, so much that he was able to hack an A.R.G.U.S. transponder. His abilities made him a "person of interest" for A.R.G.U.S. and a security risk considered 20 times more dangerous than Snowden. As soon as he was freed from captivity, he managed to immediately figure out the code for the program that Felicity needed, but neither she nor Alena could figure out on their own. According to Alena, he is the best hacker on Earth One so far that no one has ever heard of him. His skills surpassed those even of Felicity Smoak's hence making him one of the best hackers and one of the most intelligent individuals in the multiverse.
 * Genius-level intellect/Master tactician/Leader: James not only created and ran Helix as a powerful organization, but also inspired loyalty into hackers under his cause, so much that they staged a massively dangerous operation to rescue him from a heavily guarded government facility.

Equipment

 * Prototype T-Sphere: James used the Prototype T-Sphere that Black Siren stole from the Arrowcave against Oliver Queen (under the guise of Green Arrow).

Arrow
{{Scroll|

Season 6
}}

Behind the scenes

 * Cayden James is similar to past characters Michael Emerson has played such as Benjamin Linus from Lost, Zep Hindle from Saw and Harold Finch from Person of Interest.
 * He is similar to Harold Finch in that: they both address people by Mr/Ms, they do not enjoy killing, they both have genius level intellect, they were both noted to be a "Person of Interest" which Michael Emerson had a co-lead role in, they are both excellent hackers. They are both wealthy, except Harold Finch is the good guy who cares about people and Cayden James is a bad guy.
 * He is similar to Benjamin Linus and Zep Hindle in that: they are both villainous.
 * In We Fall, James introduces himself as Ben Gale, a combination of the name of his character in Lost (Ben Linus) and the name he had used in the beginning of that series (Henry Gale).