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wooden houses gave it a look like a backdrop straight from a western. With great displeasure I noticed many armed man leaving the settlement towards the tower. The sirens obviously had been audible the whole distance.
    However they took the direct way, this offered me the chance to circle the settlement in a large arch, a plan I instantly put into action.
    After I put enough distance between me and the closing in soldiers while keeping at the forests edge I moved closer to the settlement, now and then when I felt I might be too visible I crouched and had Marple perform infrared scans of the area.
    Everything went well until about the height of the settlement.
    It looked like a former soldiers camp, which had evolved to a farmers village, the remains of a rampart were visible as fragments and farming equipment was visible at some houses sides.
    One wisecrack actually had painted “Saloon” on one of the houses, so the old westerns had apparently not been completely forgotten.
    I wondered if any of the entertainment electronics aboard was still functional.
    Marples voice draws me away from my wandering thoughts.
    “ Helen, I detect a large crowd of humans moving towards our position.” “Coming from the village? Have I been seen Marple?” “Negative, they move towards the village, its probably a coincidence, but you have to find a hiding spot fast.”  
    Well with this my luck seemed to end, there was no place to hide between here and the village.
    My sight fell on a small barn, much too close to the other houses, but I had no other option.
    Carefully I approached the village, until the backside of the barn stood between me and the other houses, then I approached the wooden wall of the barn.
    High above was a small window, after I made sure that the approaching people still were sufficiently far away, I used my hauling rope to draw myself up to the window.
    I heard a frightened breathing and saw a the face of a boy frozen on the spot looking at me with large scared eyes.
    Reassuringly I put my forefinger on my mouth and hoped he would not scream while I moved through the window.
    “ Sch sch” I noised and was relieved that he kept quiet.  
    For the moment I was considering my options, should I draw my guns he would surely scream, but maybe I could keep it short enough to draw any attention, he breached these thoughts with the childishly naive question “Who are you?”
    So he wasn’t afraid, this was a good thing.
    “ Hello, I am Helen and who are you?”  
    “ I am Mark, but I am only telling you because you ain’t one of his soldiers!”  
    “ Oh you mean the Benefactor? You are a very smart boy Mark!”  
    He beams at my compliment and then looks at me curiously.
    “ You have weird glasses, I never saw something like these. Are you with the resistance?”  
    I smiled “I am not allowed to tell, you do understand that do you?”
    “ Sure… oh the soldiers are here, we have to be quiet now.”  
    Why he was hiding up here I did not know, but it was obvious that he wanted to kept hidden as much as I was. It tremendously relieved me not to have to stun a child.
    The nearing soldiers wore the same uniform as the soldiers camping around the waking area.
    So this were the Benefactors soldiers.
    However the armed man moving to the tower did not wear any kind of uniform. Maybe this had been all happenstance, or an event the alarm sirens triggered?
    I whisper “Mark. Tell me, what do the soldiers do here in your village?”
    “ They take everything they want, they call it tax, my father called it theft.”  
    Some things would never change.
    “ And why are you hiding?” “My ma doesn’t want them to take me, I am too old. She told them I died at an accident. It is very funny to have a grave and being alive!”  
    This boy was pretty brave and the offhand way he told all this had me grinning.
    “ Earlier a lot of armed people left the village, do you know why?”  
    “ This is something I mustn’t