Ah yeah thanks for the catch. I'm still experimenting with my style which is why i'm all over the place with tenses and perspective, I see what you mean about the present tense being more alive and immediate. I'm actually most comfortable writing in the first person. This is my first major work from the third person, so I haven't really found my third person voice. I'm reading this book at the moment.:
https://www.amazon.com/Third-Person-Possessed-Page-Turning-Fiction-Century-ebook/dp/B08D7V273R
I'd be interested if you have any references for third person style, or if you have any more advice.
I really Appreciate all of the read throughs. I skipped ahead to experiment with this scene, so I have a number of opportunities to introduce the concept of misdirection in the scenes preceding this one. I agree it would work better if the concept is warmed up before the analogy.