“Why are you standing there? Let’s go!” A strange little girl suddenly bursts into the salon and confidently slaps her palm against the panel. I look around at the gas station where I’d stopped to pour in more fuel, trying to understand where this brazen little thing came from and who lost her.
“Where did you come from?” I ask just in case.
“I didn’t come. I’m cool and scary. That’s why everyone runs away from me.”
“And what makes you so scary?” I snort, mimicking her, though I’m not in the mood for jokes at all: I can’t draw attention to myself, and then this kid shows up.
“I robbed the gas station! Cops are coming for me! And they’ll take you too! Step on it—faster!”
I’m a well-known person in certain circles. Under the back seats of my car, there are dozens of billions in cash, and extra attention is absolutely contraindicated for me. Everything was going perfectly—right up until the moment when a girl, appearing from nowhere, jumped into my car, determined to save her mother. And somehow she forces me to get involved with it. And the most unbelievable thing starts when I finally see her mother—and I realize…