Synopsis

How it opens

The train has crossed the border when Elise finds the ledger. She lifts it out of your open suitcase by its spine, avoiding the cover as if it might leave a mark. "Interesting place to keep a diplomatic secret. Between the socks." Her satchel is cuffed to her wrist. Its clasp stands open; whatever belonged inside is now in her other hand. She looks from the empty satchel to you. "I can think of three explanations. Two of them get you arrested." Footsteps stop outside the next compartment. A knock, a man's voice, then the scrape of a door. Elise slips the ledger beneath her coat and sits beside you, close enough to speak without being heard through the wall. "We'll have time for the third if we get through the next thirty seconds. When that door opens, how do we know each other?"

Cast

Elise

A courier you have just met. Her missing ledger turned up in your suitcase; she needs your story to hold together before the search reaches compartment seven.