Rohan is confronted on an Atlanta rooftop by an armed man demanding a wild-card ticket for Avery Grambs’s Grandest Game. Rohan remains calm, reveals that he knows there are no wild cards left, and lets the man realize that Rohan has claimed the final two tickets himself.

Rather than hand a ticket over, Rohan explains that he prefers to choose his own competition. From the rooftop, he spots Gigi Grayson investigating a statue in the courtyard below and implies that one ticket may now be down there. The armed man rushes toward the stairs, and Rohan quietly warns that if the man hurts Gigi, the man will regret it.

Later, Rohan sits in a luxury hotel suite he does not own, watching a report confirming that all seven slots in the Grandest Game have been claimed in less than forty-eight hours. The reporter says the players’ identities and the game’s location are secret, but Rohan has already gathered enough money, contacts, and intelligence to know far more than the public does.

As Rohan prepares for his pickup time, he reflects on the advantages of living like a ghost for the past year. In the shower, he draws chess symbols in the steam to sort the seven competitors into types. He has already categorized Odette Morales, Brady Daniels, and Knox Landry, then turns his attention to the three players closest to his age: Gigi Grayson, Savannah Grayson, and Lyra Kane.

Rohan sees those three young women as potential assets in the game. He has observed Gigi in person but knows Savannah and Lyra only from research, and he wonders which of them might prove most useful—or whether any of them has the power and flexibility of the queen.