Tyler's Challenge

At dawn, Tyler followed Victor through three full patrol routes across Blackwood Manor's grounds — the perimeter sweep, the garden circuit, and the woodland path. Victor noticed him on the second loop. By the third, he was giving silent hand signals that Tyler correctly interpreted.

"Training begins tomorrow at zero six hundred." Then he handed Tyler a towel.

Sophie watched from the south gate, notebook in hand. She had already known Tyler would pass. She had written "he will succeed" at the top of the page at 07:42, twenty minutes before he mounted the rope wall.