The email arrived on a Tuesday, which Richard would later think was such a plain, unremarkable day to have his whole life tilt sideways.
He was sitting in the student union at Ashford University, a half-eaten sandwich going stale beside his laptop, trying to finish a economics problem set that was due in forty minutes, when his phone buzzed with a notification from an address he didn't recognize. Central Scouting Bureau — Regional Evaluation Request.
He read it twice before it made sense.
They wanted to send someone to his next three games. Not just a scout from the Thunderbolts, the way there'd been a scout or two drifting through the stands all season — scouts came to college games all the time, and mostly nothing came of it. This was Central Scouting. The organization that fed inform
