Murderguy wasn’t quite as tall as her frightened mind’s eye had remembered him, but he was more than a head taller than she was, easily cracking six feet. He opened the rear of the SUV and returned his hands to the back of his head, returning his gaze to her, both unimpressed and expectant, as if to say, What now, genius? He didn’t even look afraid; instead, he looked calculating. Like perhaps the plans to kill her might come to fruition in a different way from what he had hoped, but he still saw it working out in the end.

“Do you have any rope?” she asked. He opened his mouth, but she cut him off: “And don’t lie, or he’ll know.”

That cracked his stone expression a tiny bit. This had been something she’d kept in her back pocket for a while; when in doubt, play off people’s fears that aliens can read minds.

“No.”

“Do you have any twine?”

His lip twitched as though he’d been hoping to evade having to tell the truth if she wasn’t specific enough. “Yes.”

“Do you have any duct tape?”

“Yes.”

“Go get it.”

He hesitated, hands still behind his head, and then he crawled inside the SUV, slowly, carefully. Too slowly. “Move it.”

He pulled out a white cardboard box, out of which he removed a spool of twine and a roll of duct tape, which was nearly used up. She shoved the gun in the back of her jeans before his feet were even on the ground. Then he put his hands back behind his head, his expression a lake on a cold day with no wind.

“Hands together in front of you,” she said, keeping her voice low and serious.

She tried not to touch his skin as her shaking fingers wound the twine around his wrists. She wrapped it no fewer than ten times, cutting the twine with his pocketknife after she tied a knot. Then, she tore off a strip of duct tape, and nearly slapped it onto his mouth, then covered his eyes with a second strip.

She pulled the pulse emitter back out, and jammed it into the small of his back to remind him it was there. She grabbed the nape of his shirt, and pushed him to the front passenger side of the SUV. She seated herself in the driver’s side, turned the ignition, and the engine rolled to a purr. She switched on the headlights and looked back down into the woods.