Chapter 69: Ten O’Clock
Ryan’s alarm went off at seven.
He was already awake.
He’d slept — actually slept, which he’d been mildly surprised by — but had been lying there since six forty like someone whose body had finished sleeping but whose brain had somewhere to be.
He got up. Shower, the good coffee, eggs he ate standing at the counter because sitting felt like waiting and he didn’t want to wait.
He dressed carefully — the charcoal suit, a white shirt, a tie he’d bought specifically for situations that required a tie and hadn’t worn yet. He stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself for a moment.
He saw a man who ran a company that had received institutional investment.
That was the point.
He left at eight forty-five, took a cab, and arrived at the federal building on Broadway at nine thirty-two. Walked through security. Gave his name at the desk. Sat in a waiting area with plastic chairs and a water cooler and government-issue carpet and waited.
At nine fifty-eight, a man in a grey suit appeared and told him they were ready.
---
The office was on the fourth floor.
It wasn’t an interrogation room — a regular office, two chairs across from a desk, a window that showed the side of another building, a plant in the corner that was either artificial or very hardy.
A space that wanted to seem administrative rather than adversarial.
Two men stood when Ryan came in.
The first introduced himself as Agent Morales. Mid-forties, compact, the kind of face that had probably always looked the same — not young or old, just settled. He had a warm handshake and a warm smile and the energy of someone who genuinely wanted Ryan to feel comfortable.
The second was Agent Park. Younger, maybe mid-thirties, a legal pad already open on the desk in front of his chair. Less warm in the immediate presentation but not unfriendly.
"Mr. Russo," Morales said. "Thank you for coming in. Can I get you anything — water, coffee?"
"I’m fine, thank you."
"Please, sit down."
Ryan sat. Placed his folder on his knee. Didn’t put it on the desk.
Morales sat across from him. Park positioned slightly to the side, pad open, pen ready.
"So," Morales said. "First things first — this is a routine examination. It’s not a criminal proceeding, you’re not under oath, and you’re free to leave at any point or consult with representation before answering anything. We just have some questions about your financial activity and we’re hoping you can help us understand it." He smiled. "Pretty straightforward."
"Of course," Ryan said.
"Good." Morales leaned back slightly in his chair, relaxed, the posture showing he had nowhere else to be. "Tell me about Rebuild Tech. In your own words."
Ryan told him. The founding, the concept, the team, the product direction. He spoke clearly and at the pace that said he knew their material and wasn’t performing knowing it. When he finished, Morales nodded with the interest like he found it genuinely engaging.
"Fascinating," Morales said. "And you registered the company — when?"
"Eight weeks ago."
"And before that you were at Meridian Tech."
"Correct. Three years."
"And you left."
"I left."
Morales smiled again, a inviting elaboration.
Ryan didn’t elaborate.
Park wrote something on his pad.
"So the period between leaving Meridian and registering Rebuild Tech," Morales said. "A few weeks there. What were you doing during that time?"
"Working through the company concept. Meeting with a potential investor. Early development conversations with the team."
"The investor being Diana Lockridge."
"Correct."
"Of Lockridge Capital."
"Yes."
Morales nodded. "And when did you first meet Ms. Lockridge?"
"We were introduced at a gallery event. The Apex Gallery in Tribeca. After that we had an initial conversation about the company, and the investment discussions followed from there."
Park wrote.
"What date was the gallery event?" Morales asked. Casually. Like it had just occurred to him.
Ryan gave the date.
"And the initial conversation about investment?"
Ryan gave that date too. It matched the documentation. He’d known both dates since the week after the paperwork was signed and had run them in his head every morning since like a calibration exercise.
"Good memory," Morales said.
"Important dates," Ryan said.
Morales smiled. "Of course." He shifted slightly in his chair. "Now, the deposits in your personal account. The ones that flagged our system. Can you walk me through those?"
"They’re founder disbursements," Ryan said. "In the early weeks after the investment, before the business account was fully operational, the capital was disbursed to my personal account on a scheduled basis. It’s documented in the investment agreement and in the company’s founding financial records."
"The regularity of them caught our attention," Park said. First time he’d spoken. His voice was measured, precise. "The consistency of the timing and amounts — it’s unusual for disbursements."
"The disbursement schedule is in the investment agreement," Ryan said. "The amounts correspond to the schedule. I can provide the relevant pages if you need them."
He opened his folder and produced two printed pages — the disbursement schedule from the investment agreement, and the corresponding entries from the company’s financial records that Patricia had filed. He placed them on the desk.
Park picked them up.
Morales watched Park read them.
Ryan waited.
Park set them down. Made a note.
"Mr. Russo," Morales said, tone unchanged, still the same warmth, "the amounts in your personal account — they appear to double over consistent intervals. Can you explain that pattern."
Ryan looked at him.
"They don’t double. They’re scheduled disbursements at fixed amounts. The appearance of doubling would be—" he paused, thinking, "—if you’re looking at the net balance rather than the individual transactions, you might see a compounding effect from the disbursements alongside the salary payments the company was making to team members, which were also going through accounts that overlap with the personal account in the early weeks before the business account was fully separated." He paused. "Patricia Chen, our accountant, filed an amended breakdown of that transition period. It should be in the records you have."
Park looked through the folder in front of him.
Found something.
Read it.
Made a longer note than the previous ones.