
Sir Robert Aylward calculated a two-million-pound reward inside an office built to make speculative finance resemble granite certainty. Eighteen months ago I faced ruin; now the public will pay handsomely for confidence. You step into this one-chapter preview with Alan Vernon at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. Alan held the unsigned copy while the first prospectus bundles were carried past him. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
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