Sienna returned Avery's wave, trying for a smile as well. Returning his hands to his pockets, Avery waited until he had crossed to the porch before speaking. "I am sorry I couldn't be here to see you arrive. It was estate business, and had to come first, unfortunately. Did Lucille settle you in?"

Sienna nodded. "I was waiting to thank you. Staying with Gregory was not fun for me. Lucille is like a breath of fresh air."

Avery drew in to himself, hesitating. The residents of Avon were sensitive about their privacy, and what he was about to do amounted to prying, a social offense among his peers. "I would like to ask you some questions about Gregory. Did you know he was intending to settle on Avon?"

Sienna laughed, shaking her head. "Gregory? Settle here? He told you that? Gregory is here to finish some project of his involving my father's research. He doesn't tell me anything about anything, but I know the man well enough to tell you that settling anywhere is not his style. Why would you think that?"

"Gregory - at the landholders meeting, he made a speech, a proposal. He talked of civil matters, made an offer to provide some services and a civil defense program. The council got behind the idea very quickly. He sounded very sincere in his interest in our community."

Sienna looked perplexed."Mr. St. Croix? He must be after something. Is that what all the activity over there is about?"

Avery glanced at the dome and pursed his lips.

"I hope not."

Avery rubbed at his arms."You should get a jacket; it will be cooler soon. I will take you up to the promenade on the wall. You can see the whole estate from there."

"I would like that. Wait and I will be right back."

Sienna retraced her steps back to her room and pulled out a denim jacket. Her eyes settled on the small puzzle box on the dresser. It was not an expensive item.The box was made of lacquered wood, cunningly inlayed with light and dark strips of veneer. She picked it up and shook it. Something rattled inside. She manipulated the box open, and retrieved something enfolded in a scrap of white paper. Sienna removed the paper, and turned the small switch box over on her palm. Then she read the note.

#

Sienna,

Gregory has used us to build a terrible

weapon and has no intention of letting us go. You must

find a way to escape. The switch will turn it off, but

must be used close to the device. Get this switch to

someone who can use it.

Keep safe.

All my love,

Dad.

#

Sienna ran downstairs and out onto the veranda, the note and box clutched in her hands. Avery immediately saw something was wrong. The girl's face was white, her eyes looking out at him as if from some trapped animal. She thrust one hand out, forcing the letter and switch box on Avery, who read the note with increasing alarm.

He glanced reflexively at the dome of the St Croix facility. A closing trail of dust was rising through the forested expanse that separated his hold from St. Croix, and just then a fast moving transport cut the air overhead, moving west. Likely Gregory wasn't interested in civil defense, Avery realized, he was involving them somehow in his own personal ambitions!

There was a sudden clatter at the front gate, and the dusty tonsured form of Father Abrams stumbled through it at a broken run.

Avery listened tensely to the priest's report, Sienna's note in his tightening hand. Then Father Abrams quickly read the note, as he listened in summary to Avery's account of the council meeting, and suspicions, all the while shaking his head. "St. Croix isn't sending out repair crews, I saw Military troops on the road coming here. He intends to secure all the estates against their aiding the Terran and new Vatican military. My lighter is west of here, in a depression just beyond your last field, down in a thicket out of sight - perhaps we should try to get back to it," said Father Abrams.

"You would never make it," said Avery, watching the last-approaching dust trail. "I know where you are talking about. It is too close to the roadway." Avery sent Lucille and Gilda to warn the other estate residents to scatter and to gather up her son.

"Meet us back on the veranda, now hurry!"

Meanwhile he took Father Abrams in the house to grab up some supplies and his hunting bag. He picked up his father's bag, weighed it hesitantly, and then tossed it to the priest. "Take care of this, it's important to me."Then he opened the seal on the rifle cabinet, pulled out the two carbines and handed one to father Abrams. "For protection - we are going into the wild."

They were returning to the foyer when everything fell apart. Avery could see Sienna, Lucille and his young nephew through the veranda doors. There was a commotion at the front gate, a shrill screech of braking tires, and a cadre of St. Croix mercenaries burst past the open gate. Avery cried out and tried to pick up his pace, but Father Abrams pulled him back.

"No! They can already see them! We must stay free if we are to help them now!"

Avery's lips drew into a tight line. He nodded in frustrated resignation and angrily changed direction toward the dining patio doors. Once on the patio, Avery threw the hunting bag over the retaining wall, climbed up one of the hops trellises and followed the bag. The priest duplicated Avery's example. Avery picked up the bag and ran across the open sward towards the surrounding forest, not looking back to see if the priest had followed until well under the dense cover of the closest verdure.

From their vantage point they could see the transport parked outside the front gate. Two men reappeared, posting themselves there, rifles un-slung.

"It doesn't look like they are taking anyone off the estate," offered Father Abrams. "If Sienna's father is important to St Croix's plans, I don't think she will be in any immediate danger. I doubt they are interested in anyone else. We must get that controller into safe hands."

Yes, Avery thought, Gregory doesn't care that Sienna, or anyone else, is at large on the planet surface, since we are all are stuck here like marooned mariners on a deserted Isle.

Almost forgotten, Avery felt the small, square lump of the device pressing against his leg through the pants pocket. Sienna, at least, would not have anything suspect on her. The appearance of Gregory's mercenaries was doubtless just a general part of his plan to secure the ground. His charge was as secure where she was as anywhere else on the planet, after all. Avery anguished over abandoning his sister and her son, but realized his instinctive reaction to Father Abram's warning had been the correct one. It would take more than one man waving a hunting rifle to set things right

"There is somewhere we can go. My father and I hunted this area when he was alive. We have a shelter of sorts deep in the wild lands, about a day's travel from here. Some of the other Landholders nearby know of it also. There is an emergency transmitter, other things. Come."

The two men pulled back further beneath the trees and set out to the north.