Strange that Skulduggery is getting serenaded by Queen when over on the other side of the table it has gone completely quiet. The quiet in a movie trailer before the Inception noise plays. Where it's so quiet that for a moment your brain tricks you into thinking there must be noise because it couldn't possibly be that quiet. That's the sound that Max is hearing right now.

He has now stared at the cards for a good minute, hoping that the 900 different computations he's done a thousand times are somehow wrong - hoping that somehow all those diamonds don't count.

But they do.

As his gaze falls to the shirt again that Inception noise finally plays. Max's eyes have moved, but he has not. Perhaps if stays right here and doesn't move eventually the sea air will rust him and corrode through his central processors and he'll die. That's a solid plan.

Okay he can... He can... Well.. He still hasn't done much, but he has picked the shirt up.

Why oh why does he honor his deals?