“If the contestants aren’t, as you say, terminals, I don’t think they will be too happy to be executed.”

“Yes…well…maybe…maybe you’re right.” The cripple started coughing, but mercifully, for the producer’s sake, it was only a short spasm. He wiped his mouth with his dirty handkerchief and continued. The cripple appeared to be very tired. “Okay, so Jonathan Denko missed the big question and we killed him. You know the rest. End of story.”

“Wait a minute!” yelled the producer. “Hold on. Give me details. How did you kill the losing contestant, that Denko fellow? What did you do? I think you said you used poison. What kind of poison?”

“I used potassium cyanide in a glass of Madeira,” answered the suddenly exhausted cripple. “I decided to offer the loser a choice of either sherry, port, or Madeira. Regarding the poison, I asked my doctor which was the quickest and best one to use on a human being. Of course my doctor didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with the poison. He thought I needed the information for a book I was writing. The doctor said potassium cyanide was one of the fastest-acting poisons known to science. I asked how long it would take before the person ingesting it died. The doctor said anywhere from three to fifteen minutes depending on the person’s physical constitution. He said the poison was relatively painless and tasteless. I had them put the potassium cyanide in Jonathan Denko’s glass of Madeira. I figured if his death took more than five minutes, I’d edit it down. We placed Denko in a hospital chair, the kind that you can adjust into various positions, so that we could make Denko as comfortable as possible. The poisoned Madeira was on a table by the chair’s side. It smelled like bitter almonds. I couldn’t get it out of my nose for weeks.

“We put a straw in the glass. Denko couldn’t use his hands. He was a quadriplegic. Did I mention that? I think I did. My memory’s getting worse right along with my hearing. Anyway, Denko sipped the Madeira through a bent straw. I had a video camera trained on Denko sitting in the hospital chair. Toward the end, Denko wiggled and winced quite a bit but never shouted or screamed in pain. The doctor did say the poison was painless. I think the poison could have been a little more painful. I think I would have liked it better if Denko did scream a little. He just died quietly. Too quietly for my taste. But his skin turned bluish. That’s something to see on TV. I may change the poison when I do it again. Like I said, something more painful, though I must say, painful or not, Denko’s death was a fascinating thing to watch.”

“How long did it take?”