Part 19 (1/2)
”A back exit. As you can see, it's tough to see the castle from here. And for anyone in the castle looking down, it's tough to see us while we stand here.”
”Are we hiding?”
Ken looked around and then back at Annja. ”We've had company with us since we left Ueno-s.h.i.+.”
Annja frowned. She had no sense of that. There'd been no warning. ”Are you certain?” she asked.
”Absolutely.”
”Who are they?”
Ken shook his head. ”I'm not sure. It's a couple, though. A man and a woman. Both j.a.panese.”
Annja sighed. ”So, now what? Do we ambush them or what?”
”Hardly. That would be counterproductive to what we're trying to achieve.”
”Yeah, but-”
”The best course of action,” Ken said, ”is to get as far away from them as possible. Right now, they should be in the main entryway. They'll go upstairs and look down and realize we aren't there anymore. That's when they'll get nervous about losing us.”
”So, we'd better leave now. Come on,” Annja said.
Ken shook his head. ”No. We wait.”
”What on earth for? We have a head start. We can get into the woods before they do and they'll never know where to look for us.”
Ken leaned against the stone wall. ”Have you ever done any escape-and-evasion training?”
”Uh, no.”
He nodded. ”One of the lessons I learned while I was going through that myself was how to discourage pursuers.”
”And you're going to enlighten me.”
”If you'll permit me, yes.”
Annja leaned against the stone wall with him. ”Fine.”
Ken smiled. ”It's only one option, but when there's a group of people pursuing you, you can try to get behind them. You have to find a way to penetrate their line as they progress. Then once you're behind them, you have a certain amount of freedom. You can go back the way you came and go off in a different direction entirely.”
Annja watched the sun start to dip behind the clouds to the west. ”Is this what we're attempting to do now? Penetrate their line?”
”Yes.”
”And you really think they'll freak out when they can't find us?”
”Absolutely. I don't think they know where we're headed. Otherwise they would have moved on us already.”
”You think it's the Yakuza?”
Ken shook his head. ”No. I think these are your friends. Not mine.”
”The ones who broke into my hotel room?”
”Presumably.”
Annja sighed. ”Wonderful.”
”You didn't really expect them to give you the freedom they promised, did you? They'd be fools if they did.”
”I don't know what I expected.”
”They need to keep tabs on you. This is how they'll do so. And they must be quite committed to the hunt since I've been doing little things throughout our trip to discourage potential tagalongs.”
”Maybe they're good,” Annja said.
”They are good,” Ken replied. ”I have no doubt of that. Now it will be a matter of seeing if they fall for my little ruse or not.”
”And how are we going to be able to tell that?”
Ken led her away from where they'd been standing to a small pathway that ran alongside the moat of the castle. Annja could smell the hyacinth bushes and a.s.sorted other late-blooming flowers that sprang up this time of year. ”Smells nice.”
”Not in the moat,” Ken said with a low chuckle. He parted some of the bushes and entered them.
”You're kidding.”
His face reappeared. ”Would you please get in here?”
Annja glanced around. Anyone seeing this would a.s.sume the two of them were engaged in some sort of s.e.xual shenanigans. She grinned. Not that that would be such a horrible thing. ”If my clothes get torn, you owe me,” she said.
She ducked inside and followed Ken for a hundred yards or so through the dense foliage. When they emerged, they were on a steep embankment that overlooked the road leading to Ueno Castle.
Ken pointed. ”There's the train station.”
”I didn't realize it was so close. Why did you waste money on the cab fare?”
He shrugged. ”It was necessary to see our pursuers. If we'd walked, it would have been harder to spot them.”
”I can see the entrance to the castle from here.”
”Exactly. But it's difficult for us to be seen provided we keep ourselves low.” Ken checked his watch. ”I would say any moment now we'll learn if we've been successful or not.”
”There,” Annja said. ”A man and a woman just came flying down the steps toward that cab.”
”Indeed.”