Geoffrey noticed a machine gun resting on the seat next to him, and he pulled it closer with a shaking hand.

The two guards jumped up from chairs and operated a control panel. The gate began to open and they waved them through.

"Awesome," whispered Otto.

The guards on the outside of the gate also waved them along, but as the gate started rolling shut behind them, Geoffrey saw one of the guards on the other side grab his neck and fall just before it closed.

Geoffrey turned right and stepped on the gas, pushing the heavily armored car up the road as fast as it could go. "This is the way to the palace, right?"

"Yeah, I think so," Otto said. "My God, Maxim killed him." He shuddered and looked at Geoffrey. "He shot Katsuyuki! What are we going to do, man?"

"Make sure that sprayer's ready," Geoffrey said. "Something might be chasing us. If we get through the door to the palace, we can't afford to let anything get in with us."

"How will we get in, man? There must be guards with fucking guns outside the gate and they won't just wave us through this time!"

"This is Maxim's limo," Geoffrey said. "It can probably take a direct hit from a nuke. And Stalin's palace is the most secure place in the city."

"Shit, this is hairy, man, I don't know!"

"It's all we've got. Get ready!" Geoffrey hit the brakes and skidded around a corner to the left, pushing the gas up the last length of tunnel.

2:40 A.M.

Sasha and Nell spotted the limousine racing toward the palace on ever closer cameras. Sasha cried, tears streaking her face. "What about Papa?"

"He's OK," Nell said. "He's safe, Sasha. We've got to let them through the gate, all right?"

Sasha tapped the keys on her father's keyboard. "We have to rescue Papa!"

"We will! But you've got to open the gate! Geoffrey will die if he can't get through!"

"I can open the door," Sasha said.

"Great, honey. Thank you!"

Sasha sniffled. "The guards inside will kill him, though."

"They will?"

"Yes."

Nell thought. "Can we call Geoffrey and warn him, honey?"

"Uuuh-hey, yeah." Sasha clicked on some prompts and they heard a phone blurting on the computer's speakers. "Good thinking, Nell."

2:40 A.M.

Geoffrey followed his headlights up the long tunnel, its walls honeycombed with the doors and windows of medieval dwellings carved out for the villagers of Gursk to inhabit in the event of invasion. He did not see anything following them in the dark through the rearview mirror. "Answer the phone, Otto."

"Phone?" Otto asked.

Geoffrey pointed at the ringing phone on the dashboard. "Answer it!"

Otto grabbed it. "Yeah?"

"Geoffrey, the guards will kill you," Nell said.

"Nell?" Otto said.

"Oh, Otto-is Geoffrey with you?"

"Yeah, he's driving."

Nell sighed. "Listen. We'll open the gate for you. But the guards will kill you when you come through the door. OK?"

"Um, OK. Nell says she can open the gate but the guards will kill us."

"How many guards are there?" asked Geoffrey.

2:40 A.M.

Nell heard his question. "How many guards are there, Sasha?"

"Two outside the gate and two on the stairs. I kicked the others out of the palace."

"Is that all?"

"I think so.... There might be more. I don't know," Sasha sighed, waiting with two fingers poised over the keyboard.

2:40 A.M.

"Two at the gate and two on the stairs, maybe more," Otto relayed.

"Where are Nell and Sasha?" Geoffrey said.

2:41 A.M.

Nell heard him and answered, "We're in Maxim's conservatory. Can you lock the gate from the inside, Sasha, after they get through?"

"All the doors lock from the inside around the palace so Stalin could keep everybody out. I can change the entry code so nobody can come in. Want me to?"

"Yes! Good!"

2:41 A.M.

"They're in Maxim's conservatory," Otto said. "They can lock the gate."

"Get the sprayer ready in case anything is chasing us. And hand me that machine gun. See if you can figure out how to take the safety off without shooting me, OK? Let's see if we can get through without a fight first."

"Right." Otto shrank down under the dash as Geoffrey approached the guards before the steel door marked SEKTOP 1 in tall red letters. He whispered in the phone: "We're at the gate now."

The two guards strode forward leisurely with Kalashnikovs. Apparently they had not been warned yet by the others. The man who approached the driver's side waved to lower the window.

Geoffrey rolled down the window ten inches and stuck his hand out, waving twice as he imitated what he had seen Maxim do. He raised the window again. That's when he realized his mistake. Maxim had waved from the backseat, of course. He had waved from the driver's seat.

The man knocked on the window hard as the other guard lifted a walkie-talkie from his belt.

2:42 A.M.

"Come on, Sasha," Nell said.

"Um, I'm trying to figure it out!" Sasha yelled. "Wait!"

"We don't have time, honey."

"I know, I know!"

2:42 A.M.

The guard proceeded to the window behind Geoffrey and knocked on the window.

"Shit," whispered Geoffrey.

"Uh," Otto whispered into the phone. "We're fucked...."

The other guard moved in front of the limousine and pointed his weapon at them.

Geoffrey reached for the machine gun, hoping the glass was truly one-way.

"Watch this!" Otto heard Sasha shout in the phone.

The gate behind the men started sliding open, surprising the guards. The men shrugged and stepped aside as Geoffrey surged forward through the opening gate. They must have assumed it was OK since the gates could only be controlled remotely by Maxim or Galia. The men answered their walkie-talkies as Sasha was closing the gate behind the limo. Geoffrey noticed them suddenly wave their arms as the doorway narrowed. They shouted at them to stop. In the rearview mirror, Geoffrey saw them point and fire their machine guns through the closing crack, scarring the bulletproof rear window as the door slid into the rock wall and sealed them off.

2:43 A.M.

"Lock the gate, Sasha!" Nell shouted.

"OK, OK! I'm trying! There it is. I need Papa's password."

"Do you know it?"

"Sure." She typed out the letters with one finger as she said them aloud. "A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R-G-R-eight. That's after my brother, Alexei," she said. "Wait, where's the eight again?"

Nell saw the men outside the gate running toward the switch to open it. "Hurry, honey!"

"There it is!" She poked a dimpled finger.

2:43 A.M.

One guard ran down the steps in front of the palace as he fired a Kalashnikov across the courtyard at them. The bullets raked the windshield.

"Ram him!" Otto shouted.

As the bullets sprayed in front of his face, adrenaline exploded through Geoffrey's body and tears streamed from his eyes as he steered the heavy vehicle toward the guard, whose body slammed with grisly smacks into the hood, windshield, and roof, each sound impacting on Geoffrey's soul.

2:43 A.M.

"Got it!" Sasha squealed. "It's locked."

"So they can't open it?"

"Duh. Yeah!" Sasha said.

"Awesome, Sasha. Good job!" Nell hugged her, hiding Sasha's eyes from what she saw Geoffrey doing on the screen.

2:43 A.M.

Flooring the gas pedal of the monster limo up the cascade of steps, Geoffrey spotted another guard rushing down the stairs and firing a high caliber handgun right at Geoffrey that cracked spiderwebs into the windshield. The sparks of the rounds blinded Geoffrey for a moment.

"Kill him!" shouted Otto.

Geoffrey accelerated, ducking behind the dash, feeling the slight thud; he pulled his foot off the gas and saw the guard's body fly backwards into a marble pillar, tumbling to the ground. Geoffrey sobbed as he drove past the man's broken body directly into the palace foyer, the tires stamping bloody tracks on the inlaid marble floor.

He stopped and turned off the limo's engine, hanging his head as he gripped the steering wheel, breathing hard and nausea welling in his throat.

"You did good, man." Otto slapped his arm. "You got us through. That was freaking awesome! They were trying to kill us, dude. They would have killed us! It's OK. Don't worry about it!"

Geoffrey shook his head. "Man," he breathed. "Is that ever easy for you to say."

"We'd be dead now if you didn't do it!" Tears streamed from Otto's eyes, too, now, in the aftermath.

"It's not a fucking video game," Geoffrey said.

"I know," Otto gripped his shoulder. "OK. Let's just wait here. We'll watch and listen for a while before we do anything. Right? This car is the safest place we can be right now, right?"

"Yeah." Geoffrey nodded. "Are they still on the phone?"

Otto checked the line. "Hello?"

2:45 A.M.

"Hello?" Nell asked. "They're not there, Sash!"

"Yeah, the phone doesn't work inside, because the palace is lined with lead or something."

"How does it reach outside, then?"

"Transponders?" Sasha shrugged dramatically.