Chapter 17

Chapter 17 SummaryJeffrey Kruger arrives early at the office, determined to reestablish his routine and maintain composure after the prior day’s events with Walter Jenkins. Before he meets with FBI Agent Javon Morris, Roger Cortez stops in to warn him that Anthony Russell is expected at GenaSeed later that day. The news unsettles Kruger, who considers Russell's meeting with executives a poor decision, although Cortez frames it as a strategic move to keep a rival close. Their exchange leaves Kruger wary, but the matter is set aside as Morris arrives for his scheduled interview.In Kruger’s office, Morris questions him about his relationship with Jenkins, pressing on reports of disagreements and Jenkins’s public criticisms of GenaSeed. Though Kruger tries to appear cooperative, his nervousness is apparent, and he deflects where possible. He admits that Jenkins often clashed with him, sometimes threatening to quit, and recalls a heated argument just weeks earlier following Jenkins’s media comments that had hurt the company’s stock. Kruger claims the matter ended with an apology and that he himself suggested Jenkins take a vacation, a detail that now casts Jenkins’s disappearance in a more complicated light.The meeting is briefly interrupted when Kruger excuses himself, retreating to his private washroom to compose himself and change his sweat-soaked shirt, a sign of the pressure he feels under Morris’s scrutiny. Upon returning, he masks his anxiety with casual small talk, but Morris continues to push, requesting copies of Jenkins’s last email communications. Kruger agrees to provide them, but privately resolves to intercept the emails before they reach the FBI. As Morris departs, Kruger is left uneasy, aware that the investigation is tightening around him and determined to control what information is uncovered.