David, a Teller, wins the absurd and potentially fatal contest, but to his horror the madman goes back on his word and releases everyone else.

In the hours that follow, Hawksley terrorises his sole hostage, using him as little more than a court jester while he awaits the inevitable. "Keep them talking", David had been instructed during a staff security seminar, and with the awful muzzles of Hawksley's gun pointed at his head, the young man struggles to satisfy the murderer's bizarre whim...