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?"
