Chapter 24 Summary

Jeffrey Kruger quietly finishes his covert search through Jenkins’s vacation emails, then calls Special Agent Javon Morris to say he’s forwarded the messages. Javon discovers an email indicating that Jenkins suspected he was being followed, sent to a Hotmail account whose owner Javon needs to identify. Javon forwards that email to the FBI Technical Forensics team and asks his local IT department to retrieve routing metadata, hoping a header trace will reveal the message's origin and provide the investigation with a fresh lead.

Meanwhile, in Austin, Bravo takes charge after incapacitating his unreliable partner, Larry, and drives to scout the assigned target: Steven Schroeder’s upscale apartment. He parks discreetly behind a construction embankment and slips into the building using intercom confusion, picks the maintenance-room lock, and finally quietly works Schroeder’s apartment lock while the occupant is in the shower.

Inside, Bravo surprises Schroeder, drags him from the tub, wraps him in a shower curtain, and demands he memorize a menacing, scripted warning phrase. When Schroeder struggles to recite it, Bravo physically coerces compliance. Then, savagely inflicts multiple fractures on Schroeder, leaving him unable to flee or fight, and leaves the warning message on the pillow beside the unconscious man. Bravo places a 911 call from Schroeder’s phone claiming an attack, trips an emergency exit alarm to create chaos, and bolts out into the courtyard. He returns to the hidden car, finds Larry as he left him, and drives away as sirens close in. The operation, now completed, was violent, precise, and chillingly effective.