large dust cloud moving in their direction. Christina, equipped with binoculars, can make out a slow-moving group of horses and people at its center, but cannot tell if they are simply another peaceful oxen train or something else. Preparations begin for either eventuality. The next morning Ryan and Kate sneak into the sulphur mine, slipping unnoticed into a work crew and passing themselves off as other slaves. From there Ryan and Kate attempt to locate Dean, carefully moving from crew to crew over the next several days. Meanwhile, Dean is doing his best to avoid the attention of Zimyanin, who has met the boy a few times over the past days and finds him unsettlingly familiar, but cannot place why. The Major-Commandant only realizes the connection several days later, conveniently when Dean is recovering from a near-fatal mine collapse in the infirmary and Ryan himself has been detained in chains for disobeying sec men while attempting to rescue his son. Zimyanin arrives at Ryan's jail just minutes too late; Kate has managed to kill the jail's guards and free Ryan, and both are gone by the time Zimyanin arrives. The Major-Commandant posts extra guards on Dean, but Ryan stages a mass escape, forcing most of Zimyanin's sec men to round up escaped slaves. Ryan and Kate rescue Dean in the confusion and flee to a disused mining equipment warehouse. Fearing the possibility of a revolt, Gregori orders all remaining slaves executed. Zimyanin has his sec men surround the warehouse, then proceeds in alone. The game of cat-and-mouse between him and Ryan is interrupted when the fourth sec hunter makes itself known by decapitating Kate. Dean and Ryan flee from the 'droid along elevated metal catwalks with Zimyanin in pursuit; the three of them wind up trapped between a fallen section of catwalk and the advancing sec hunter. Ryan negotiates a brief truce with the Major-Commandant, carefully leaving out that the sec hunter is primarily interested him alone. Zimyanin attempts to confront the 'droid head-on, which ends with the robot breaking his right arm. The brief confrontation causes the catwalk to shift and drop slightly, which the robot has difficulty coping with; noticing this, the three deliberately rock the catwalk violently, eventually causing one end of a section to break free and drop. Zimyanin blocks a last-ditch effort by the sec hunter to attack Ryan and forcibly throws it from the