After the concluding events of Lowball, Officer Francis Black of Fort Freak, vigilante joker Marcus 'The Infamous Black Tongue' Morgan, and ace thief Mollie 'Tesseract' Steunenberg get stuck in Talas, Kazakhstan. There, the coldblooded Baba Yaga forces jokers into an illegal fighting ring, but her hidden agenda is much darker: her fighters' deaths serve to placate a vicious monster from another dimension. When the last line of defense against this world weakens, all hell breaks loose, literally.... The Committee in New York sends a team of aces to investigate. One by one, each falls victim to evil forces - including the dark impulses within themselves. Only the perseverance of the most unlikely of heroes has a chance of saving the world before utter chaos erupts on Earth. Edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin, HIGH STAKES features the writing talents of Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, David Anthony Durham, Caroline Spector, Stephen Leigh and Ian Tregillis. Now in development for TV: rights to develop WILD CARDS for TV have been acquired by Universal Cable Productions, the team that brought you The Magicians and Mr. Robot, with the co-editor of WILD CARDS, Melinda Snodgrass as executive producer.