…Minus 100 and COUNTING… She was squinting at the thermometer

In a poor Co-Op City apartment, Sheila Richards checks her baby Cathy’s temperature while Ben Richards sits at the table watching the Free-Vee. Cathy has a dangerous fever, and Ben’s unusual fixation on televised money games frightens Sheila because every apartment is required to have a Free-Vee, and the shows exploit desperate people.

The program Ben watches, Treadmill to Bucks, rewards sick contestants for staying on a treadmill and answering questions, while punishing failure by taking money away and increasing the strain. Cathy’s worsening illness forces Ben to confront their lack of money and medical care, and Ben insists Cathy needs a real doctor rather than unsafe local help.

Sheila begs Ben not to leave, fearing the Network will kill him if he enters one of the games. Ben argues that Cathy may otherwise die in a pauper’s grave, and Sheila’s resistance collapses into grief. Before leaving, Ben makes Sheila promise to take any money that comes, even if it is tied to his death.

After Ben descends the stairwell, neighbor Mrs. Jenner approaches Sheila and offers access to black-market penicillin once money arrives. Sheila screams at Mrs. Jenner to leave, and Mrs. Jenner retreats angrily.

As Cathy continues crying and the Free-Vee celebrates a contestant’s collapse on Treadmill to Bucks, Mrs. Jenner writes Sheila Richards’s name in a notebook. The chapter ends with Mrs. Jenner resentful and watching the next game, while Ben has gone to seek money through the dangerous televised system.