Girl Seven by Hanna Jameson

makes sense. Let me live and I can do the legwork for you. What have you got to gain by killing me anyway? You wouldn’t even have tried. You wouldn’t even know what you could be gaining. All you’d be doing is leaving evidence around for people to find later.’
    Isaak snorted. ‘This is ridiculous.’
    ‘No, it’s not,’ the driver said.
    ‘You’re going to listen to a stupid girl ?’
    ‘Shut up!’ Alexei snapped. ‘ You’re being a stupid girl! Do you not hear what she is saying?’
    ‘And you trust her?’
    ‘What’s the worst that can go wrong?’ I cut in. ‘I fail, I get killed? Just a longer way around to the same ending... except if I don’t fail you reap the benefits.’
    Alexei turned to the driver and they conversed in Russian.
    Isaak shouted something but was reprimanded.
    I shut both eyes, desperate to speak again but not wanting to push my luck any more.
    Alexei mixed his Russian and English for a moment, and then addressed me.
    ‘You know, if you are lying, we will kill you, and it will not be as quick as the death we were going to afford you now.’
    I nodded. ‘What does it matter if it’s between you or some­one else? What reason would I have to lie? To give myself, what, an extra week? An extra month?’
    It was lucky, I realized, that they all thought I was dim-witted because of my gender. They probably didn’t think I had the mental capacity to lie at this point, and I would just be begging for my life like a typical weak female in movies.
    ‘Alex, you don’t believe this bullshit?’ Isaak spat.
    ‘Isaak,’ Alexei gestured at me, ‘what can she do? Are you really that scared of her?’
    Isaak fell silent, but glared at me.
    I tried not to look too smug, but I hoped my expression was pissing him off.
    ‘We will be watching you,’ Alexei said. ‘In the meantime, you will wait for our instructions.’
    Isaak rolled his eyes but said nothing further.
    ‘Now, get out.’
    I had to regain control of the situation somehow. If I let them leave it like this they’d never listen to anything I had to say again, so I didn’t get out right away. Instead I looked at Alexei and said, ‘I want a passport’.
    ‘You what ?’ Isaak looked at me as if I’d said I’d wanted to publicly defecate.
    ‘Well, I assume if I’m still holding up my end of the agree­ment you’re both going to uphold yours?’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘I can’t get to Japan without a fake passport, can I? Noel will just have me followed. You think I’m stupid?’
    ‘You f—’
    ‘All right.’ If I wasn’t mistaken, I thought I saw Alexei wink as he said this. ‘That is fair.’
    ‘I’m going to want to see proof of it.’
    Isaak drew back a fist. ‘Get the fuck out now , before we change our minds!’
    I put my hands in the air and retreated back into the corner. ‘Fine! Fine, I’m going.’
    The driver unlocked the doors and Isaak pushed me out so hard that I fell to my knees in the road outside, scraping my hands. I got up, shaking, as the car pulled away.
    Across the street a woman was walking her dog but all she had done was quicken her pace.
    I looked over my shoulder for the vehicle but it was too far away to read the number plate.

12
    I lay awake for most of the night in the living room with the light on, trying not to count, trying to meditate instead, medi­tate myself to sleep.
    Everything I’d said in the car had been from panic and now I couldn’t see a way out. It was only going to afford me an extension at best. I was certain they’d kill me when I was no longer useful to them, but I’d have to deal with that when it came to it. Until then, all I could do was plan ahead as much as I could and be prepared.
    I began to think of other times in my life when I’d had to convince people to do things for me. It had never been difficult. Getting into a drug dealer’s house wasn’t going to be the hard part, but what the fuck was I going to do once I was in there?
    I’d need a