A named, weighted promise to introduce an off-page expert — a chekhov-explicit setup whose
payoff is the coating specialist himself.
seed.
The payoff
Earliest known caller
(unrecorded)
Why this matters
A chekhov-explicit “trusted off-page expert” promise that deliberately under-sells its subject
(“a specialist I trust”) so the actual reveal (Rayleigh) lands with maximal weight — the
classic Oda technique of hanging a quiet gun that fires as a marquee character.