Morales hadn’t stopped watching Ryan through all of this — the sa warm, settled attention, the smile present but doing less work than it had been at the start of the eting.
"You ca prepared," Morales said.
"It’s an important eting," Ryan said.
"Most co in here nervous," Morales said. "Even people who have nothing to worry about. The environnt—" he gestured vaguely at the room, "—tends to produce a certain anxiety."
"I don’t have anything to worry about," Ryan said. "So I’m not anxious."
Morales looked at him.
The warmth was still there. But sothing behind it had shifted in a way that was subtle and deliberate — the friendliness becoming a tool being considered rather than a default being offered.
"Tell about your relationship with Diana Lockridge," he said. "Beyond the investnt."
"Professional," Ryan said. "She’s an investor and an advisory board mber. We communicate regularly about the company."
"How regularly."
"Weekly at minimum. More frequently when there are active decisions."
"And you’ve t in person—"
"Several tis. The gallery introduction, the initial investnt eting, a team presentation she attended, a golf event, the Lockridge Foundation dinner."
Park was writing steadily.
"The Foundation dinner," Morales said. "That was a social event."
"It was a professional event I was invited to as a portfolio company founder. Diana introduced to several contacts that are relevant to the business."
"Do you socialize with Ms. Lockridge outside of business contexts?"
Ryan looked at him. "The question sounds different from the ones before it."
Morales smiled. "Just building a complete picture."
"The complete picture is that Diana Lockridge is my investor and I conduct myself accordingly." Ryan held Morales’ gaze. "Is the nature of my relationship with my investor relevant to the examination of my financial records?"
A beat.
Ryan knew it was. They wanted to know if he was close enough to Diana to have her edit financial records for him, but that wasn’t an accusation they could outrightly make with no evidence.
Park stopped writing.
Morales tilted his head slightly. "We ask broad questions at this stage, Mr. Russo. It helps us understand context."
"I understand," Ryan said. "And I’m happy to answer questions about my financial records and business activity. If the scope is broader than that, I’d want to understand the basis for it."
The room was quiet for a mont.
Morales looked at Park.
Park looked at his notes.
Then Morales leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk, and the warmth in his expression had reorganized itself into sothing more direct.
"Mr. Russo," he said. "Let’s talk about the period before the Lockridge investnt was formalized. Specifically the two weeks prior to your registration of Rebuild Tech. During that period your account received several deposits that predate any docunted business activity." He paused. "Where did that money co from."
Ryan looked at him.
He reached into his folder.
He produced a third docunt — a one page summary that Patricia had prepared, titled ’Pre-Formation Financial Activity — Russo Personal Account’, which outlined a series of small consulting engagents conducted in the weeks before the company was registered, informal work perford during the period he was developing the company concept, paynts received from two individuals whose nas appeared in the docunt along with their contact information.
He placed it on the desk.
"Consulting work," Ryan said. "Informal, pre-company. The individuals are contactable if you need to verify."
Morales picked it up.
Read it slowly.
Set it down.
And for the first ti since Ryan had walked into the room, the expression on Agent Morales’ face wasn’t the one he’d been wearing.
Park wrote three lines.
"We’ll need to verify these," Morales said.
"Of course," Ryan said. "The contact information is on the docunt."
Morales looked at Ryan like he was recalibrating.
"Mr. Russo," he said, "how long have you been in financial services."
"I’m a software developer," Ryan said. "I’ve just had good advice."
Morales looked at the docunts on the desk. At his own folder. At Park’s notes.
"I think," he said, "we’ll take a short break."
He stood.
Park stood.
"Can I get you anything?" Morales said. "Water. Coffee."
"Water would be good," Ryan said. "Thank you."
Morales nodded and both n left.
Ryan sat alone in the office with the plant in the corner and the window showing the side of a building and the folder on his knee with two more docunts still in it.
He didn’t reach for his phone or look at the door.
Just sat.
The water cooler in the hallway gurgled faintly.
He waited.
The consulting docunt. Patricia had put it together from real information — two forr colleagues from ridian who Ryan had done informal technical work for in the weeks after he left, small things, an afternoon each, the kind of favors that happened between people who’d worked together and that nobody formally docunted. Patricia had formalized them retroactively, reached out to both n, confird the work, and produced a docunt that was accurate in every detail.
It would verify.
He recalled Morales’ face when he’d read it. The warmth reorganizing itself. The calculation behind it becoming visible for the first ti.
These were not n conducting a routine examination. Routine examinations didn’t have two agents, didn’t start with twenty minutes of deliberate comfort-building before shifting gears, didn’t ask about the personal nature of his relationship with his investor.
Soone had pointed them here.
Not a flag from the bank’s automated system. That would produce a letter, a standard query, a single agent with a checklist. This was sothing else — the shape of an investigation that had a direction before it walked into the room.
The texts.
*We are onto you Russo. It’s only a matter of ti.*
*You’re running out of ti.*
Unknown number with no follow-up. No demands. Just pressure, applied at intervals, designed to produce exactly the anxiety that Morales had noted Ryan wasn’t showing.
Soone who knew his na. Who knew enough to know there was sothing to find. Who had decided the IRS was the right instrunt.
Ryan sat with that.
The door opened.
Morales ca back in with a paper cup of water and his settled expression restored to its original setting, the recalibration complete, a new approach loaded.
Park followed. Sat. Opened the pad to a fresh page.
Morales set the water in front of Ryan.
"Thank you," Ryan said.
"Of course." Morales sat. Looked at his own folder briefly, then back at Ryan. "The consulting contacts — we’ll reach out this week. Standard verification." He paused. "In the anti, I want to co back to the Lockridge investnt tiline."
"Okay."
"The term sheet," Morales said. "You said the initial investnt conversation happened shortly after the gallery introduction."
"Correct."
"That’s a fast tiline. Gallery introduction to term sheet in — what, two weeks?"
"Just under three," Ryan said. "Diana moves quickly when she’s interested in sothing. It’s one of the reasons her fund performs the way it does."
"Did you have a formal pitch prepared at that point."
"I had a concept and a team. The formal deck ca later, for the full investnt eting. The initial conversation was more directional."
"What did you show her."
"The problem the product solves. The market it addresses. The team I was assembling." Ryan picked up the water. "She asked to tell her in two minutes why she should care. I did. She asked for a formal eting. We had one."
"And at the formal eting."
"Full deck. Team present. Her technical advisor attended."
"Dr. Cole," Park said.
Ryan looked at him. "You’ve done your research."
"We do thorough work," Park said evenly.
"So does Dr. Cole," Ryan said. "She recomnded the investnt."
Park wrote.
Morales leaned forward slightly. "Mr. Russo, the investnt agreent — the backdated consultation period." He said it plainly, watching Ryan’s face. "Walk through what that period actually looked like."
The room was very still.
Ryan looked at Morales.
"The agreent reflects a consultation period that began prior to formal docuntation," Ryan said. "That’s standard for early stage investnts. The relationship and the directional conversations predate the paperwork. The paperwork formalizes what was already in motion." He held Morales’ gaze. "That’s in the agreent itself. The language is precise."
"It is precise," Morales said. "Diana Lockridge’s attorneys are excellent."
"They are."
A pause.
"Mr. Russo," Morales said, and the warmth was gone now, cleanly and finally, "is there anything about your financial activity in the past two months that you’d like to tell us before we continue? Anything that might be helpful for us to understand the full context."
Ryan looked at him.
Picked up the water. Took a sip. Set it down.
"Agent Morales," he said, "I’ve provided docuntation for every deposit in my account. I’ve provided contact information for verification. I’ve provided the investnt agreent, the disbursent schedule, the company financial records, and the anded pre-formation activity summary." He looked at both of them in turn. "If there’s a specific transaction you’d like to address, I’m happy to address it. If there’s a specific discrepancy in the docuntation, I’d like to see it." He paused. "But I’m not going to speculate about what you might be looking for in the hope of accidentally providing sothing you haven’t asked for."
The room was quiet.
Park’s pen was still.
Morales looked at Ryan for a long mont.
Then he looked at his folder.
Closed it.
"I think," he said, "that’s probably a good place to pause for today."
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