Reading the final chapter reminded me of this webcomic:
http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/starslip-number-735/
Audrey O’Hanrahan's entire existence was to deliver that report. To build enough credibility to pin the death of those inner onion layers on the GA. I think part of this was more than just Houdini, part of this related to uplifting and genetic slavery. Because if the biggest anti-slavers are actually nut jobs, maybe its not so wrong.
Which is part of the mistake the inner core made along time ago. Darius is, ironically, a pretty good planet showing their uplift ideals need not be horrid. (That said we don't know about the rights and privileges a Gamma might have versus an Alpha). (Also it's confusing to me if Darius has any Genetic slaves or not, previous discussions indicated it was about half slaves).
I also question how many survivors of the MA outside of Darius can put things together. We know that there's a fair amount still out there, although their knowledge is compartmentalized. I'm also thinking there's a lot of employees of catspaws that know enough to put some stuff together.
We know Audrey is out in the world, the Renaissance Factor, and various agents. Firebrand knows something, and there's got to be similar agents around.
There's also got to be lots of traces via their employees. Large clone vats and terraforming equipment being moved to Darius back in the day would of taken non-onion members to move. Those Manpower and Jessyk Combine vessels moving non-slaves around may remember. And if they killed everyone, Blowing up all those ships means someone's lover/family member/etc will get suspicious. Finding a depot where the MA ships interface with the economy of mesa may lead to finding Darius.
Heck some shlubs at Technodyne had to see the missile order movements. Even if guy ordering the missiles moved is in the onion or just knows where he's bought and paid from, dozens of other people will be involved. When their suspicions start to be raised as of the final flourish, these guys are going to be nearly impossible to kill off.
I'm assuming fireband is going to be of limited use due to his MA nanotech. Otoh how much can he share if he desires and is clever about a work around? Getting a bomb out of his brain is a pretty good motivator.
How many remaining folks in the galaxy know just enough to be dangerous? Even a few stragglers on Mesa who put two and two together would be insanely dangerous, even if they're on borrowed time until their implants go off. 10 minutes with a vid screen could give plenty of clues and evidence.
I think the MA are too smart for their own good. Reminds me of a guy I went to high school and college with who was very smart. He thought he was smarter than everyone else, and thus above morality. His illegal business got him 5 years in federal prison.
