Sebastian Jones's day starts badly enough. He's beaten up – twice. Then he's nearly killed. He doesn't think life can get much worse. He's wrong.

When his delivery for El Duce goes awry, Sebastian takes the money and runs – all the way to the Rigel system. There, he meets Philippe LaGrain, a con-man who double-crosses Sebastian and leaves him to die on an airless asteroid. Sebastian claws his way back to civilization, but Philippe has organized a little surprise for him involving someone Sebastian hoped he'd never see again – El Duce . . .

If he can survive the fate El Duce plans for him, Sebastian still has to face the ten thousand hour countdown his internal computer's been keeping. What will happen to him when it reaches . . . zero zero zero?