Shawn didn’t raise his voice. “I’m not collecting anything. I’m just naming the value you couldn’t see.”

Tristan started boasting — political connections, city contracts, expensive lawyers. Nobody in this town could touch him or his family, he said.

Shawn listened without a flicker of fear. “Tomorrow your life will be very different.”

“Is that a threat, soldier?”

“No,” Shawn said. “It’s information you don’t understand yet.”

Tristan left the hall with his parents, certain he’d won.