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to the estate and an enormous lawn suitable for hosting big parties. The swamp surrounded the compound on all sides. It was lightest towards the south where the road came through, and thickest to the east where the fauna climbed up the outer walls and spilled on top of it.
                  The walls were all ten feet high and two feet thick. They were meant to be bombproof. As Ramon looked at the front gate, he wondered why the hell they bothered with almost one mile of reinforced concrete wall when the gate could have been overwhelmed by a guy with a pair of bolt cutters. That would have to be near the top of the list of improvements to make right away.
                  The rest of the perimeter looked good. Ramon noted a few places where the brush on the far side needed to be cut back, but otherwise, everything was in good order. It was on his way back to the house that he noticed Zeus standing at the inadequate gate talking to two men in a car. The man in the passenger seat had a bandage over the left side of his face. It was Damien. Ramon watched the men as they carried on in easy, friendly conversation, slipping inside before Zeus turned around to come back to the house.
                  That night, Zeus called Ramon into his office, not to scold him, but to inform him that his services would only be needed for another two weeks. The old man handed him a check for one week’s pay with a promise that the second would be delivered on his final day of employment in the Buldova house. In addition, he was not to inform Lena of this information.
                  Ramon was crushed. He had just settled into his new position and was taking a liking to his work, and to his client. But that’s not what kept him awake that night. What bothered him most was why?
                  Why would Lena only need protection for another two weeks?
     

Lena
                  After Zeus’s conversation at the gates of the house, but before he informed Ramon of his impending termination, the old man went to his daughter’s room to speak to her. He was pleased to tell her that two weeks from now, he would be taking Lena and her step-brothers on vacation to Cuba.
                  The family had taken many vacations before. They were always high points in her life. It was standard policy that the children could bring friends as guests. Lena was shocked and disappointed to learn that she would not be allowed to bring anyone on this trip. Her father gave a vague excuse pertaining to customs and border patrol, and made his leave.
                  Lena was not sure what to make of the change, but she was not terribly alarmed and saw no reason to be suspicious of her father. While she lay in bed recovering from her injuries, Ramon kept her constant company. He taught her card games that he had learned as a child and as a soldier. In turn, she taught him the songs that she learned as a girl from her mother and from Tia and Michaela. Ramon was surprised at how colorful the songs were, and frequently found himself blushing at the words.
                  The sight of the big strong man turning beet red at children's’ songs was almost too much for Lena to take. She laughed until she hurt, which only made Ramon blush harder.
                  Lena’s trips out of bed were few and far between. It was not out of any sort of obedience that she remained in bed, but because it was too painful for her to walk on her own, even heavily medicated, even a week after she had broken the glass over Damien’s face.
                  Ramon offered to carry her wherever she wanted to go, and twice, Lena took up his offer and had her carry him to the pool. Other times, finding herself bored while she was laid up in bed, she lamented the lack of a television in her room. Ramon took a ladder from the landscaping shed and hauled the flat screen TV that hung