He remembered the framed quote in his kitchen, which he’d never before thought about. Author Josh Jameson’s belief that sometimes it was wise to give up, if the chips were stacked against you, but sometimes you needed to dip into reserves and push on.

‘I will not close the book.’

The next leg was long, no stops. It gave her time to think. She tried to remember Miller’s instructions on how to talk to captors. She replayed everything Ball Cap had said to her, trying to get a read on his personality so she could work out tactics for conversing with him later. But soon after something happened that dissolved her belief that Ball Cap was the leader of the pair.

He tapped her head with his foot. ‘What is it these guys are after? Why’s it called the Forcefield?’

Not ‘us’. ‘These guys.’ And delivered in a whisper. Was he just some kind of helper, unaware of what was going on?

She got her answer when Dominic said, ‘Hey, man, you were told not to ask about that. You’re not supposed to know, that’s why we call it the Forcefield.’

‘I thought that was in case the cops were listening.’ She felt him shift close. This time his breath was right by her ear. ‘Come on, tell me. What is it they want? What’s this lark about?’

She didn’t want to antagonise him, but also didn’t want to tell the truth, not if he didn’t know already. So something cryptic, thus safe, slipped out:

‘Immortality.’

‘Dude, Jesus, I told you not to ask her,’ Dominic said.

That feeling of proximity was gone. The feet were on her back again. The car rolled on. The minutes trickled by.

The next time the car stopped, it did so for a long time. She knew they had arrived. But nobody said anything. She felt the daylight losing control to darkness. Dominic shut off the radio. He announced he was going for food and got out. Now, she knew, Ball Cap could do what he wanted. He could go between her legs, or he could insist on that answer he so wanted. But he did nothing, said nothing. Dominic returned with what smelled like fish and chips and both men ate noisily and talked about nothing that mattered to her. She wanted food but didn’t ask. Weirdly, though, upon the heels of this thought, Dominic said, ‘Hey, don’t scoff the lot. Some of that was for her.’

‘She’s had paper.’ Just a joke because chips pattered to the carpet by her face. She couldn’t move her arms because they were jammed by her sides. Rather than eat like a dog, she didn’t eat.

‘Hey, don’t waste it,’ Ball Cap said. ‘You don’t want to try a daring escape and find you’re out of energy.’