The second page of notes was nearly full.
Robert sat back from the desk and looked at what he had written without reading it—the way you look at something when you already know its contents and are checking the shape of it rather than the words.
The lamp at the corner had burned lower. The compound outside was completely silent. The window showed nothing but darkness and stars and the faint outline of the forest's tree line beyond the wall.
His thinking had moved past the competition's structure and into what sat underneath it.
The Walker Clan.
He did not approach it emotionally. He approached it the way he approached everything that represented a real threat—by taking it apart into pieces small enough to examine clearly. What he knew: The Walker Clan was one of the four top clans in Celestial Brook City. Their leader, Zilton Walker, had reached Soul Manifestation Level 5 Peak Stage.
