I get a picture from Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading. Bob/Scoop is Cincinnatus, condemned for gnostical turpitude (specifically, treating NW elites honestly and fairly). His executioner (JeffBob in real life) poses as a fellow prisoner to get to know him & size him up for the chopping block. Eventually the increasingly bizzarre world of the prison (DL/NW) disintegrates, and Cincinnatus is freed into reality.