…Minus 017 and COUNTING… “I can’t see you,” Killian said, “bu

Dan Killian joins the hijacked jet by relayed voice-com and tells Ben Richards that the Games Federation can hear him, though not see him. Killian notes that Richards’s wounds and forest escape have already been turned into broadcast legend, making Richards the greatest contestant the Games have ever had.

Killian argues that the plane hijacking is Richards’s most spectacular but weakest move because Richards has left ordinary people behind and is now surrounded only by the Network’s power. Killian says Richards has survived the last two hours only because Killian kept him alive long enough to push through an unprecedented offer.

Killian proposes that Richards fly to Harding, where a Games limousine will be waiting and a fake execution will be staged. Afterward, Richards would join the Games team. McCone reacts with furious surprise, and Amelia Williams appears stunned, but Richards suspects the offer may be another performance designed to manipulate him.

Killian escalates by revealing that the Federation knows Richards is bluffing about having plastic explosive. Killian says a red button on his desk can trigger surface-to-air Diamondback missiles that will destroy the plane within seconds, and he explains that multiple detectors on the plane and parachute would have exposed any real explosive.

The revelation poisons Richards’s leverage, though Richards insists that the Irish may still be real. Before Richards can regain control, McCone steps beside him, grins, and points a gun at Richards’s temple, announcing that he is about to blow Richards’s head off.