The Fencer confronts Ernest and Juliette, and after a brief refusal to move, Ernest complies with his silent command to join the others. The Fencer gathers Ernest, Juliette, Michelle, Gabriel, Felix, and Remy. The group moves to the vestibule, where they find Eric, who was trying to get out, but the door is chained shut.

After Eric joins them, the Fencer becomes enraged upon discovering that Cordelia and Laverna were missing. He violently overturns furniture while searching for them, revealing that he requires a specific number of hostages. The thief holds a gun to Eric’s head and whistles. Laverna and Cordelia emerge from an office. The entire group is herded upstairs.

The nine hostages are locked in a third-floor boardroom while the Fencer goes to find Winston Huxley. As police cars block the street below, Remy argues with Felix, who surrendered his gun. Juliette and Ernest urge the group to remain united. They all still have their phones, and Eric live-streams the ordeal to his followers on the gaming platform Twitch. The hostages draw up a list of demands for negotiation, including food, water, and milrinone, a heart medication for Cordelia. Juliette discovers that Cordelia is the subject of a recently successful $150,000 online fundraiser for her medical care.

Remy suggests that they attack the Fencer, and a vote is held. To Ernest’s surprise, the motion passes five to four, with Remy, Michelle, Felix, Gabriel, and Cordelia voting in favor. Cordelia states that since she was already dying, she was not afraid.

The plan to ambush the Fencer fails when he enters the boardroom using Winston as a shield. Using a voice-changing device, the Fencer orders everyone to put their phones in a duffle bag. Ernest deduces that the disguised voice means the Fencer is known to at least one hostage.

When Winston tries to negotiate, the Fencer makes a bizarre demand: $1, taken directly from the vault. The hostages pool their cash, but he rejects it. Then Ernest breaks his recent non-disclosure agreement to reveal that the vault cannot be opened. Winston’s brother, Edward, changed the code two days prior and has since disappeared. Unmoved, the Fencer answers a phone call from the police negotiator outside. He states that he has no demands but will not leave until the vault is opened.

Upon discovering Ernest is Ernest Cunningham, the famous detective, the Fencer allows him to search for clues to the vault code for 30 minutes. He sends Felix as an escort and keeps Juliette as collateral.

In Edward Huxley’s office, they find his pet parrot, Ditto. The bird repeatedly squawks cryptic phrases: “You are dead,” “You can’t kill me,” and “I am not a clue” (93). Ernest then examines several items of interest separately: a safe bearing a magnetic message from Edward’s son, Ben; a gold bar on display; a thank-you card from Cordelia for a donation; and an invoice for a security review, dated the day Edward vanished.

As they search, Ernest explains to Felix how he uses the conventions of classic detective and heist fiction to solve real-life crimes. In such stories, he argues, the real target is usually hidden, there is always a switch, and an inside man is involved. They wonder whether the parrot is repeating Edward’s last words, but they don’t quite make sense.

On their way to the basement, Felix tells Ernest that Edward’s son Ben was killed during a swatting incident at their home nearly a year ago. The Father’s Day message on Edward’s safe was from Ben, preserved since the previous year.

In the basement, they examine the vault’s exterior. Felix explains that while the vault has a failsafe system, Edward must have disabled it. On the stairs back up, Felix speaks bitterly about the Huxley family, revealing deep resentment despite his family’s long history of service to them. Although Ernest dismisses the Fencer as a serious threat, a sound like a gunshot echoes through the bank.

The sound was the front door’s knocker. While Felix heads upstairs, Ernest speaks through a gap in the chained door to the police negotiator, who introduces himself as Tobias Cuthbert. Ernest provides details about the Fencer and the 10 hostages.

Tobias reveals that he is Eric’s father, and Eric’s piggybank contains valuable silver coins. He gives Ernest a two-way radio and a single dollar coin, hoping the Fencer will begin negotiations. Tobias, a divorce lawyer by profession, explains that he is not a full-time police negotiator but has some experience. He agrees to send supplies like towels (they are all soaked after the sprinklers went off) and to start a search for the missing Edward Huxley. He warns Ernest to tell the Fencer that any escalation would force a tactical team to storm the bank.

Ernest finds the hostages relaxed in an open office area; the Fencer has briefly disappeared after leading them in yoga. He speaks with Eric, who confirms that he competed with Ben Huxley in a competitive video game called Buccaneers. Ben won the first prize, a gold bar, while Eric came in second and won the silver coins that are in his piggy bank.

Juliette tells Ernest that Gabriel believes Edward vandalized the church graveyard. He tells her about Ditto and his speech about a clue, and she tells him that a “clew” is an old term for a ball of thread, referencing the Greek myth of Theseus in the labyrinth.

When the Fencer returns, he accepts a glass of bourbon from Winston, who got it from his office, and retreats to Edward’s office, leaving the door open to keep an eye on them. Ernest follows and gives him the radio, but the Fencer refuses to talk to the police. When Ernest presses him about his true motives, the Fencer becomes agitated and slams the door.

Winston confesses to Ernest that he feels responsible for the death of his brother Edward’s son, Ben. He had given Edward a high-end surround sound system for Christmas, and the realistic gunfire sounds from a video game convinced the police, who had been falsely sent there, to raid the house, and they killed Ben. Ernest listens and offers what comfort he could.

They try a new idea for the vault code: 020924, the date of Ben’s death.

The police push supplies through the crack between the chained front doors. Ernest, Juliette, Winston, Eric, and Gabriel bring water, clothes, food, and Cordelia’s milrinone upstairs. Gabriel tells Ernest that Edward vandalized the church mausoleum and that Gabriel has holy water stored in his safe deposit box in the vault.

While retrieving Cordelia’s IV stand from the foyer, through the skylight, Ernest sees someone on the roof. He follows and finds the Fencer unmasked and out of his boiler suit, gloves, and boots. Ernest recognizes him as a man he had seen that morning in the café. The man introduces himself as Bryce Fredericks. He says the robbery is finished, admits that he has killed “her,” and speaks in confused terms about death and energy. As Ernest tries to bring him back inside, Bryce suddenly bursts into flames.