‘If you kill me,’ I cried desperately, ‘you’ll never find out where it is.’ I didn’t know what ‘it’ was but I reckoned bluffing was my only chance.

He gave an evil grin. ‘I don’t need to kill you, girlfriend. I dangle your toes in that tank and you’ll soon be begging to tell me where it is.’ He surveyed the controls again, studying the two remaining levers, touching first one, then the other, as if trying to choose between them. I watched him, transfixed. Then he smiled up at me. ‘Now, which one opens lid?’

He reached for the middle lever and I screamed. ‘Not that one!’

He raised his eyebrows questioningly. ‘No?’ he asked, grinning, and pulled it towards him.

I knew he would.

He wasn’t prepared for the sideways movement of the grid, the sudden swing out. I’d operated the machinery and I was. I braced myself and clung on, bending my knees and then thrusting my legs out straight. Both boots kicked him in the throat before he realised I was swinging in his direction. He sprawled backwards, hitting the floor. I let go of the grid, dropping to the concrete, yelling at the impact as I landed on my feet.

Vlad staggered upright, laughing, breathless. ‘Now I think I kill you,’ he said, and the knife flickered in his hand.

He was between me and the door. I dodged right, but so did he. I began to back away, behind the tank, but I was backing my way into a corner and searched around desperately for a weapon. There was nothing except the coiled hose mounted on the wall. I grabbed the end of it and pulled, unreeling a length of hose whilst with the other hand I struggled with the tap. It was stiff and unyielding, squeaking as it began to turn.

Vlad laughed when he saw what I was trying to do. ‘You drown me now, girlfriend?’ he asked. ‘I don’t think so.’

I aimed the nozzle. Nothing happened. There was no powerful jet of water to force him back, not even a trickle. He came towards me, blade gripped in his fist. Suddenly the hose became a writhing snake as the pressure surged through it. I struggled to keep hold as water gushed from its mouth, but the hose was a sinuous, coiling monster, drenching us both in an avalanche of cold water. Cursing, Vlad dodged back. Water poured across the concrete floor and I almost lost my grip. I grappled with the hose, gripping it hard, about three feet from its end, my wet hands choking off the water. As Vlad surged towards me, blade in hand, I swung it like a club and the brass nozzle caught the side of his head. It knocked him out cold.