The hours crawled by at geological speed. If it weren’t for the dealer shifts—every thirty minutes, even with no game actually taking place, with change-of-the-guard-type solemnity—it would be easy to think the high-stakes room existed outside the domain of Time. A couple more regs showed up later in the morning, but neither stuck around long.

By the middle of the afternoon, conversation at table 14 sounded like something out of Beckett.

“We should start a game,” said Bryan.

“I’m gonna die if I don’t,” said Eike.

“I’m dead already,” said JJ.

“It’ll just be the four of us,” Calvin said. “Nobody else will play.”

“I don’t think he’s even coming,” said JJ.

“We should still start a game,” said Bryan.