…Minus 064 and COUNTING… The woman was very old; Richards tho

Bradley brings Ben Richards to his family’s apartment, where Bradley’s very old mother cooks a meal bought with Richards’s money. In the bedroom, Bradley’s five-year-old sister Cassie screams from advanced cancer, and Bradley tells Richards not to mind it. Stacey has gone back out while Richards and Bradley talk.

Bradley points out that he could turn Richards in, kill Richards for the money, or collect the reward, but Richards doubts Bradley would do it. When Bradley asks why Richards entered the Games, Richards explains that Richards’s daughter Cathy has pneumonia and needs paid medicine and a doctor. Bradley calls Richards a sucker for feeding the Network’s spectacle, but acknowledges Richards’s nerve.

Richards explains the Game’s daily mailing requirement and Richards’s fear that the postmarks helped trace him to Boston. Bradley says the problem can be beaten but postpones the explanation. Richards considers fleeing toward Vermont and Canada, but Bradley warns that the roads out of Boston will be blocked and that a disguise like dark glasses would draw attention.

Bradley proposes a safer route: Richards will pay for a car, a Wint, bought under Bradley’s unflagged name. Bradley will have someone drive it to Manchester and park it there, then Bradley will drive Richards north in another car, hidden in the trunk, using roads where only limited checks are expected. Richards worries this will make Bradley an accessory, but Bradley says his family needs the money, especially so Cassie can have powerful drugs before she dies.

Stacey returns with medicine for Cassie, excited that he paid for it himself. The family eats, and Bradley reassures Richards that the druggist is unlikely to inform because the family may now have more money for Cassie’s medicine. After the meal, Richards remains silent while Bradley goes into the bedroom to dose Cassie, having accepted the risk and the plan.