“Then what?” Akiko asked.
“We flag down a passing car—hopefully, something high-end with plenty of headroom.”
“A Bentley would be nice,” Joe said.
Kurt smiled in the dark. “My thoughts exactly.”
They crossed the grounds and reached the twelve-foot iron fence. Kurt pulled out the phone he’d stolen off of Kashimora. He dialed a number from memory and waited for an answer.
He started speaking the moment Nagano picked up. “This is Kurt. We’re on the west side of the property, by the fence near the access road. Can you pick us up?”
“I’m down the road,” Nagano said. “Cars are streaming past. What happened?”
“I’ll explain when you get here,” Kurt said. “But make it quick or they’ll feed us to the koi.”
Kurt heard the Bentley’s engine roaring over the phone. It was a comforting sound.
With the phone back in his pocket, he reached for the bars of the wrought iron fence.
“Don’t!” Joe shouted.
Kurt turned and saw Joe pointing to well-disguised wires looping in and out of the hollow crossbar. “Electrified?”
“Looks that way,” Joe said. “The second wire could be tied to a sensor. One way or another, if we touch the fence, they’re going to know where we are.”
Kurt looked back toward the main building. He could hear dogs barking and see flashlight beams playing across the grounds. “They’re going to figure it out soon enough anyway. Can you short it out?”
Joe was looking for a weak point. “Not the way they’ve set it up.”
“They’re coming,” Akiko said.
So was Nagano. Far down the access road, a pair of headlights swung into the lane. Kurt could hear the big engine of the Bentley growling as it rushed toward them. He got on the phone again.
“We’re trapped behind an electric fence. You’re our only hope to get out. The lower part of the fence is a brick foundation. You need to knock a hole in it for us to crawl under.”
The Bentley was closing in, as were the dogs and the security guards.
“I see you,” Nagano said. “Stand back.”
Kurt waved Joe and Akiko back from the fence as the Bentley slowed down, swung wide and then turned toward the barricade, accelerating once again.
It hit the barrier like a three-ton hammer, bending the iron bars and, more importantly, blasting a two-foot gap in the brick foundation.
A cloud of dust swirled, lit by the Bentley’s high beams. The flashlights from the guards converged on them and the dogs were released. They sprinted forward in a yelping pack.
“Go!” Kurt shouted.
Nagano pulled the Bentley free. Shoving a few stray bricks aside, Joe crawled through, Akiko followed and Kurt dove through right behind her.
By the time he got to his feet, Joe and Akiko were getting into the car and the dogs were bounding down the hill.
Kurt rushed forward, pulled the front door open as the pack of dogs made it to the fence and charged underneath. He jumped inside and slammed the door behind him, closing it against a flash of canine teeth.
“Get us out of here!”
Nagano had already stepped on the gas. The Bentley spun its tires in the gravel and charged off in a cloud of dust, leaving the guards and the barking dogs far behind.
“I hope this isn’t a one-way road,” Joe said.