Chapter One: The Ace They Stole

The clinic called for payment. His practice range canceled his contract. At twenty-nine, Lu lost his job, reputation, and last route back to professional golf in a single hour. Under an overpass, he hurled the LC-17 ball at a concrete pillar. The world went still. The ball did not strike immediately. A line of gold, fine as hair, appeared ahead of it. It grazed the pillar, angled toward the guardrail, then ended inside a discarded metal drum twenty meters away. Dozens of dimmer paths scattered around it, ending in cracks, drains, and dead bounces. Lu thought he was hallucinating. The ball followed the sole golden path—wall, rail, then a ringing drop into the drum.