You’re underground, but that’s about all you know. The room is roughly circular and coloured red, made dark by the subdued lighting.
You’re sitting on a straight-backed chair, with your hands secured to the sides. You’re wearing a light blouse and a knee-length skirt. You have no shoes on, and you were asked to remove your underwear as you arrived.
The rules were explained to you as the sensors were taped to your temples and your chest beneath your blouse.
You will be measured for blood pressure, heart rate and electrical conductivity across the skin. Basically any excitement you feel will show on a sliding scale you can see on a computer screen by your left arm.
You can see blacked-out windows cut into the red walls. It doesn’t take much to guess that the same people who wired you up are watching from behind the glass.
As long as the level stays within the blue zone on the computer scale, you get paid for every minute.
But every time it strays outside, you get a small shock – and no cash.
At first it seemed easy, but as your hands were tied to the chair, you couldn’t help noticing the needle slide up a notch.
“Ready?”
The voice over the loudspeaker makes you start. Another notch on the scale.