Point of Origin (War Eternal Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Amway? Had Digger been wrong about Watson's inability to remove data? Or had the information been removed from existence by someone else? Origin, maybe? If so, why?
    "Well, shit," Steven said. "I wasn't expecting that."

7

    They spent the rest of the afternoon in Tio's study, trying every query they could think of to connect to Kathleen Amway. While they failed to find mention of her anywhere in Tio's archives, they did learn that the company, Nova Taurus, had been a pharmaceutical corporation based out of New York. They traced the name forward through mergers and acquisitions, covering the centuries until they eventually came to a head with the name of a mega-conglomerate: Newterra Bionetics, more commonly known as the company that had sponsored the colonists who had founded New Terra.
    Was it a coincidence? Mitchell didn't think so, considering that Watson was a New Terran. Somehow, Origin, or Kathleen Amway, had discovered a connection there. Did that mean the Tetron had embedded themselves into that nation all of those centuries ago? Did it mean that the New Terrans on Asimov were the ones they needed to be concerned about?
    Did they even have any New Terrans on Asimov?
    In any case, the best they could do was speculate. There was no other information to go on, and nothing else to suggest or strengthen the Tetron's tie to New Terra beyond that single instance. There was also no obvious reason to believe that Nova Taurus' absorption by that specific mega-corp was anything more than coincidental. They could have been bought out by any of the founding companies of the Frontier Federation just as easily.
    "So where does this leave us?" Steven asked as they stepped out of the ring.
    Mitchell was tired, and his head hurt from the hours spent sifting through the data. "The same place we already were. I was hoping to find some answers about what happened all of those years ago, but they seem to be answers that don't want to be found."
    "If you had, do you think it would have helped us with the war?"
    "I'm not about to rule it out. Kathleen Amway vanished, though. The only explanations are that Origin wanted that name to disappear, or that name was only used the one time to get into Nova Taurus."
    "Should we keep looking? Maybe search on other variables? I noticed that the initials they use are almost always K.A. Do you think there's a reason for that? Maybe we can query for names beginning with those letters plus the right age and appearance?"
    Mitchell nodded. "It isn't a bad thought. Let's pick it up in a couple of hours. I'm spent, and I need to check in with Aiko and Digger."
    "I can keep going," Steven said. "I'll run the queries for you and let you know what I find."
    "You aren't tired?"
    "I'm a dead man walking. I'm also not about to quit on you. If you think this information might help, I'm all in."
    Mitchell considered it for a moment. If Steven wanted to keep going, there was no good reason to stop him. "Okay. Just make sure you take a breather to piss."
    "Roger."
    Mitchell put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Thank you, Steven."
    "You're welcome."
    Mitchell retreated from the room, and the home, heading back towards Operations. His entire body felt numb, and he hated himself for being tired. Not that he had any time or intention to sleep. He had to get his eyes off the projections of images and videos and old databases. He had to think about something other than the past.
    He found Aiko at the singular working terminal. Two of the other techs stood on either side of her, Devin and Maria. They were all staring at the same kinds of things he had been sifting through with Steven. Query results of records dating back a dozen years or more.  
    Pulin had been off Tio's radar for years.
    "Anything to report?" he asked, coming up behind them.  
    Aiko shifted in her seat, startled. "Colonel," she said, blushing. "I didn't know you were there."
    "I could see how engrossed you were. Anything to report?" he asked again.
    She