CHAPTER 29: VERIFICATION

Rin didn’t sleep that night, just sat at his computer reviewing the files over and over, looking for inconsistencies, signs of manipulation, anything that would prove this was elaborate forgery.

He found nothing.

Every document had proper formatting, correct encryption signatures, timestamps that aligned with known events, the communication patterns matched Association protocols exactly.

Either Thorne had access to incredibly sophisticated forgery tools or this was real.

At 0600 his phone rang, Joy calling.

"Did you sleep?" she asked.

"No, you?"

"Maybe two hours, kept having nightmares about that factory, about Thorne’s face." She paused. "Did you review the files?"

"Been doing that all night, everything checks out technically, I can’t find obvious signs of forgery, but that doesn’t mean it’s authentic, just means if it’s fake they did a really good job."

"So what now?"

"Now I need someone who can actually verify this stuff, someone with forensic capability who isn’t Association affiliated." Rin rubbed his face. "Problem is, who do you trust with evidence that the Association might be killing its own Hunters?"

"Fiona," Joy said reluctantly. "She’s got resources, connections outside official channels, plus she already thinks the Association is corrupt."

"Yeah, but giving her this information also gives her leverage over me, she could use it however she wants."

"Do you have a better option?"

He didn’t, Fiona was dangerous but at least her motivations were transparent, self-interest and power accumulation, predictable in a way the Association wasn’t.

"I’ll reach out to her, set up a meeting." Rin checked the time. "What are you doing today?"

"Supposed to meet my dad for lunch, family obligation thing, but I can cancel."

"No, go, might be useful actually, feel him out about the Jin raid, see if his reaction gives us anything."

"You want me to interrogate my father?"

"I want you to have a conversation and pay attention to his responses, there’s a difference." Rin stood up, stretched his stiff muscles. "If someone high-level ordered Leo’s death, your dad might know something, senators have oversight committees, access to classified information."

"My dad hates you, he thinks you’re a dangerous uncontrolled element, asking about you specifically is going to make him suspicious."

"Then don’t ask about me, ask about the raid, about Jin, about protocol for Hunter deaths, frame it as general interest."

Joy was quiet for a moment. "Okay, I’ll try, but if he clams up I’m not pushing, my relationship with him is already strained, I’m not destroying it over this."

"Fair enough, let me know what you find out."

They hung up, Rin showered, changed into clean clothes, sent a message to Fiona.

Rin: need to meet. have something you’ll want to see.

Fiona: intriguing. same place as last time, 0800.

The Sector 9 facility looked the same as before, reinforced warehouse exterior hiding a professional training space, Fiona was already there when he arrived, working through combat forms.

She stopped when she saw him. "You look terrible."

"Didn’t sleep."

"Clearly." She grabbed water. "What’s so important you’re messaging me at dawn?"

Rin pulled out the data drive. "The Architect gave me this last night, claims it’s evidence the Association ordered Leo’s death, I need someone who can verify if it’s authentic or sophisticated forgery."

Fiona’s expression shifted, actual interest replacing her usual bored neutrality. "You met with them."

"Yeah, factory in Sector 15, professional setup, armed guards, Thorne himself was there."

"Dr. Elias Thorne, interesting, most people never see him in person, he usually sends representatives." She took the drive. "What’s he asking for in return for this information?"

"Cooperation, wants fracture energy samples, claims it’s for research."

"And you believe him?"

"I don’t know what to believe, that’s why I need this verified, if it’s real then everything I thought about the Association is wrong, if it’s fake then Thorne is more dangerous than I realized."

Fiona plugged the drive into her tablet, started reviewing files, her eyes scanning through documents rapidly. "These have Association encryption signatures, proper formatting, if they’re fake someone spent considerable resources making them appear authentic."

"Can you verify them?"

"I have contacts who specialize in digital forensics, former Association analysts who went private sector, they can check metadata, trace file origins, determine authenticity." She downloaded the files to her secure storage. "Give me twenty-four hours, I’ll have preliminary results."

"And if it’s real?"

"Then we have leverage, proof of Association misconduct at the highest levels, that kind of information is valuable to multiple parties." She looked at him. "What are you planning to do with it?"

"Haven’t decided yet, depends on if it’s real."

"Wrong answer, you should already have a plan for both scenarios, if you wait until you know for certain you’ll be reacting instead of acting, reactive positions are weak positions." Fiona set her tablet down. "If it’s real, you have three options, go public and expose them, use it as blackmail for concessions, or sell the information to the highest bidder."

"I’m not selling evidence of Leo’s murder."

"Sentiment clouds judgment, if the Association killed your friend they did it because he was a threat to their operations, making them pay for that death is justice regardless of the currency."

"That’s cold."

"That’s practical, Leo is dead, no amount of revenge or exposure will change that, but you’re alive, you can use this to improve your position, remove the leash, operate independently." She started walking toward the combat area. "While we wait for verification, might as well train, standing around worrying accomplishes nothing."

She was right, Rin needed to do something physical, needed to burn off the anxiety and frustration.

They spent two hours training, Fiona teaching him advanced fracture energy manipulation, how to create stable constructs, how to layer defenses, how to project force at range without wasting power.

His control improved noticeably, the techniques she showed him were efficient, practical, clearly developed through actual combat experience.

"You’re a natural at energy manipulation," Fiona said after they finished. "Most people struggle with fine control, you pick it up quickly, probably because fracture energy is intrinsic to you rather than learned."

"Doesn’t feel natural, feels like I’m always one mistake away from losing control."

"That’s normal, power without fear is dangerous, fear keeps you cautious, caution keeps you alive." She checked her phone. "My contacts are already working on the files, preliminary analysis should be ready by tonight."

"That fast?"

"I pay well for priority service, money motivates efficiency." She headed toward the exit. "Meet me here at 2000 hours, I’ll have results, bring your pink-haired friend if you want, this concerns her too."

Rin left the facility, caught a taxi back to his house, spent the afternoon reviewing mission boards, he needed to maintain his cover, keep doing assignments, act normal despite everything.

Available missions were standard E-rank fare, rat extermination, goblin patrol, warehouse security, nothing that interested him.

His phone buzzed, message from Joy.

Joy: lunch with dad was weird. he asked about you specifically, wanted to know if we were close, if you seemed unstable.

Rin: what did you tell him?

Joy: that we’re friends, that you seem fine, asked why he was concerned. he said the association flagged you as potential risk, something about your psych eval after the exam.

Rin: they’re building a file on me.

Joy: looks like it. he also mentioned the jin raid, said there was an internal investigation, results were classified, when i asked why he changed the subject really fast.

So Senator Castellanos knew something, had access to classified information about the raid, his reaction to questions suggested guilt or at least discomfort.

Either he was involved or he knew who was.

Rin: be careful, if your dad thinks you’re getting too close to me he might try to interfere.

Joy: let him try. im not a child, i make my own decisions about who i associate with.

Joy: btw tayo wants to meet up tonight, debrief about last night, said he saw some stuff from his vantage point we should know about.

Rin: tell him to come to the sector 9 facility at 2000, we’re meeting fiona there anyway, might as well include him.

Joy: you sure? fiona’s not exactly a people person.

Rin: she’ll deal with it, tayo’s proven himself, he deserves to know what’s happening.

At 1900 Rin headed to the facility, arrived early to think before everyone else showed up, the training space was empty, quiet, good for clearing his head.

He practiced the techniques Fiona taught him, creating fracture energy constructs, platforms and barriers and weapons, each one more stable than the last.

[Progress assessment: Energy manipulation efficiency improved by 34%]

[Construct stability increased significantly]

[Combat applications expanding]

’How much stronger do I need to get before I can actually face something like Kazriketh?’

[Estimated power requirement: Minimum A-rank output]

[Current output: High E-rank, approaching D-rank]

[Gap remains substantial]

’So basically I’m nowhere near ready.’

[Correct assessment]

[However improvement rate is accelerating]

[Continued training with Fiona is beneficial]

Joy arrived at 1945, followed shortly by Tayo, Fiona showed up exactly at 2000 carrying a tablet.

"Your friend is here," she said, looking at Tayo without much interest.

"Tayo, he was our overwatch last night."

"Irrelevant to current situation but fine." She pulled up files on her tablet. "Forensic analysis is complete, results are concerning."

Everyone gathered around as she displayed the findings.

"The documents are authentic," Fiona said. "My contacts traced file origins, verified encryption signatures, checked metadata against Association databases, everything confirms these came from actual Association servers."

"So it’s real," Joy said quietly. "They really killed Leo."

"The evidence suggests someone within the Association ordered his death, yes, specifically the communication chain points to Director Ashford as the approving authority." Fiona zoomed in on the critical message. "However there’s a complication."

She highlighted a section of metadata. "This message was sent from Ashford’s account but the digital signature is slightly off, not wrong enough to be detected by standard security but my contacts noticed inconsistencies in the encryption pattern."

"Meaning what?" Rin asked.

"Meaning either Ashford sent it using a secondary authentication method, which would be unusual but possible, or someone with access to his credentials sent it pretending to be him." Fiona closed that file, opened another. "There’s also this."

She showed them communication logs from around the same time period, messages between Ashford and other Directors discussing the Jin raid, all of them showing concern about the reclassification, questioning the decision, suggesting delays.

"If Ashford ordered Leo’s death, why would he simultaneously be questioning the raid parameters, it’s contradictory behavior unless he’s covering his tracks or he didn’t actually send the death order."

Tayo spoke up. "So someone might be framing Ashford?"

"Possible, or Ashford is running a compartmentalized operation where his public communications don’t match his private orders, standard intelligence procedure." Fiona pulled up more data. "I had my contacts dig deeper, looked at administrative access logs around the dates in question, found something interesting."

She displayed login records. "Three different accounts accessed Leo’s investigation files in the 48 hours before his death, Ashford’s account, which makes sense since Leo reported to him, Deputy Director Reva’s account, also reasonable given her oversight role, and a third account that’s listed as ’System Administrator’ with no personal identifier."

"That’s not normal?" Joy asked.

"System administrator accounts are supposed to be logged with operator identification, this one isn’t, it’s a ghost account, someone with high-level access who doesn’t want their actions tracked." Fiona zoomed in on the timestamps. "This account accessed Leo’s files, accessed raid scheduling systems, accessed classification databases, all within a six-hour window, then disappeared."

"So someone other than Ashford might have ordered the hit," Rin said.

"Or Ashford used a ghost account to maintain deniability, either way, someone high-level with technical sophistication orchestrated Leo’s death." Fiona looked at them. "The question is what you do with this information."

Rin thought about options, going public meant exposing himself, losing Association support, becoming a target, using it for blackmail meant leverage but also making enemies, selling it meant profit but felt wrong.

"I want to find out who actually sent the order," he said finally. "Ashford or someone else, I need to know who’s responsible."

"That requires investigation, resources, access to systems you don’t have." Fiona closed her tablet. "However I might know someone who can help, former Association analyst, now works as a private investigator, specializes in digital forensics, if anyone can trace that ghost account it’s her."

"How much?"

"Ten thousand credits, maybe more depending on complexity."

Rin had about twelve thousand saved from missions, spending most of it on this felt risky but he needed answers.

"Set it up."

"I’ll contact her tonight, she’s paranoid about meetings so expect elaborate security theater." Fiona stood. "While that’s being arranged, you three should continue normal operations, don’t change your patterns, don’t raise suspicions, if someone knows you’re investigating they might act preemptively."

"Meaning kill us," Tayo said.

"Meaning eliminate the threat, yes, whoever ordered Leo’s death won’t hesitate to repeat the process if they feel exposed."

They left the facility, Rin’s mind was spinning with new information, Ashford might be innocent, someone else might be pulling strings, the Association might be compromised at levels even higher than Director.

His phone buzzed, message from unknown number.

"Have you verified the evidence? Are you ready to discuss cooperation? Time is valuable. Don’t waste it deliberating. - Thorne"

Rin stared at the message, Thorne wanted an answer, wanted commitment, wanted access to fracture energy.

But giving him that meant trusting someone who’d admitted to experimenting on Hunters, who ran an organization that abducted people, who claimed noble goals while using horrific methods.

On the other hand, the Association had Leo killed, or someone in the Association did, they couldn’t be trusted either.

He was caught between two dangerous entities, both claiming to want what’s best, both willing to kill to achieve their goals.

The leash around his neck belonged to one of them, the other wanted to put a different leash on.

Neither option was freedom.

He needed a third path, something that didn’t involve submitting to either side.

But finding that path required power, required independence, required being strong enough that neither group could control him.

Which meant more training, more missions, more growth, until he reached a level where he could dictate terms instead of accepting them.

"Not yet," he typed back to Thorne. "Still considering options. Will contact when decided."

The response came quickly. "Understandable. But understand this: The longer you delay, the more danger you’re in. The Association knows you have evidence. They will act. Choose quickly or the choice will be made for you."

Rin closed his phone, looked at Joy and Tayo who were waiting.

"We need to be careful," he said. "Someone’s going to make a move soon, either the Association or the Collective, maybe both."

"So what’s the plan?" Tayo asked.

"We keep working, keep getting stronger, keep gathering information, until we’re in a position to actually do something about all this." Rin started walking. "And we watch our backs, because someone’s definitely watching us."

They headed home, each to their own places, Rin spent the rest of the night thinking about next steps, about who to trust, about how to survive being caught between two forces that both wanted to control him.

The data drive sat on his desk, evidence of murder or elaborate manipulation, he still wasn’t completely sure which.

But tomorrow he’d meet with Fiona’s investigator contact, get closer to the truth, one step at a time.

The grind continued, but now the stakes were higher, the enemies were closer, the margin for error was gone.

He needed to get stronger fast.

Because eventually, he’d have to choose a side.

Or forge his own.

And either option was going to be dangerous.