"Looks like we found our beneficiary," Aubrey said as he and his son watched the parade on a tablet given to them by his assistant. It was the same one responsible for leading the investigation on who benefited the most from their loss in Esparia.
The image was the same as the one that had enraged Arieh, showing Aron and Rina conversing and smiling in happiness. It seemed like they really enjoyed each other's company.n0vElusb.C0M
"Who's that?" George asked the assistant.
"Aron Michael, the sole owner of GAIA Technology and Connect," the assistant answered.
"What connection is there between an up-and-coming billionaire and the Rothchilds?" Aubrey asked. He knew that company, thanks to the Morgans being involved in forcefully acquiring the technology from them in order to benefit from it. That said, even up until now, they had gained nothing substantial for their efforts. "Is it so he could take revenge on us for stealing his technology using the government?" he continued. He was quite curious as to what had brought the groups of people together, to the point of even causing Rina to return to Eden.
"The closest connection we can see between them is the relationship between Aron and Rottem, who used to be his professor. Aron was a student that was expelled by Rottem for falling asleep in one of his presentations. Shortly after that, he developed BugZapper, and we assume he used it to collect dirt on the professor before releasing the program. Through that, he must've found her and handed her the evidence that led to Rottem's divorce. Shortly after that, Rottem's dirty laundry was aired before to the whole school, resulting in losing his tenure and professorship," the secretary recited, seemingly from memory.
"Any evidence backing that claim?" Aubrey asked. It sounded like that report was also relying on the same guesswork the previous one had, and that was simply too much speculation.
"Though there isn't a direct link to him hacking the university, after going through the financial reports we received from Microsoft, Facebook, and Google with the program in mind, we found that they paid Mr. Michael nearly two hundred million each before he took BugZapper public. That means he must've used it to find the weaknesses of those companies. And if he did that, doesn't it also make sense for him to be the one that found the evidence of Rottem's corruption?" That was how the assistant had reached a conclusion from gluing together bits of speculation with a few pieces of minor evidence.
"But that in itself shouldn't be enough to warrant her going to Eden just to watch a parade with him. All of her gratitude can just be repaid with money, or even a favor or two from her. I'm pretty sure she interfered with the government's attempt to stop his company from moving to Eden, and maybe she was even the one behind the deal between NATO and GAIA," George said, figuring that there should be something else. But the mistake he made was that he thought of how he would do things and didn't consider what Rina was feeling.
"We suspect he's the owner of the PMC we faced in Eden, and that it's funded by the Rothschilds. At least in part, or maybe it's funded by Rina herself and she just has him watching over it for her. That would mean the dog and pony show they're putting on today is nothing more than an excuse for her to inspect the troops. At the same time, she's also announcing to the world that she, or the Rothschilds, have one of the world's most powerful PMCs under their control," said the assistant.
"I think they're the Rothschilds' baby. She's just being used as a spokesperson for them, since it'd be impossible for her to fund it alone. And Mr. Michael's existence there can be attributed to Rina convincing him to move under the promise of protecting his technology from being seized again. She put him directly on an island that she has complete control of," George said in a tone of disappointment. He thought it was Aron's mistake to agree to something like that without considering that 'protection' is the same thing as 'ownership'.
The moment George finished speaking, he picked up the remote and turned on the tv so that they could watch the parade on a bigger screen. Its importance level had just been raised.
As they watched, the parade ended with the unknown helicopters from the earlier online clip flying over the location with the flag of Eden hanging under one of them and the flag of its military hanging under another. The helicopters had officially been introduced to the world and people were rightfully impressed by them, despite the chance of it just being a very good paint job.
As the Morgans thought the parade was about to end, the emcee announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a small speech from our president to wrap things up." The citizens attending the parade cheered.
"Sorry for speechifying on such short notice, but during the parade, I realized that it's the best moment to give you all some very good news. Three months from today, we'll be holding our country's first presidential election...." Alexander was forced to pause for a moment due to the overwhelming cheering at hearing the news. "I decided to announce it today, not tomorrow, because I want it to be a proclamation to both the citizens of my country and the rest of the world. I kept my promise!" he continued once people had calmed down a little.
"Just like I promised, the country was only led by me without being elected until we could be sure that everything's been sorted out. And now, we're ready to welcome the new government officials. So after the presidential election, the next three months will be for the rest of the elections. After safely completing those, we'll have officially begun this new history we're writing in the hop—"
Blip.
Aubrey turned off the tv and said, "There's nothing more of importance to be gained from watching that pointless spectacle." He put the remote control on the coffee table, then ordered his assistant, "Comb through the footage and gather as much information as you can, then deliver a report to me on it. We need to come up with a plan in accordance with some conclusive evidence to return the favor to whoever the real owner of that PMC is. And no matter how long we'll spend doing it, or how meticulous we'll have to be, we absolutely must regain our honor."
"Yes sir," answered the assistant, who then turned to leave.
"Also, find out what Rottem's been up to and bring him back home. It's about time for him to be useful again, and he needs to redeem himself after he failed to impregnate that bitch and give us a chance of taking over the family from the inside. Thankfully, that brother of hers is a fucking idiot, so he'll still keep working for us and doing things that are in our favor even if he doesn't know it," Aubrey added.
The assistant, who had already been on his way out of the room, turned back and bowed again to show that he understood his second order, too.
