None of these people she had met in person but Claudia knew them all, by name, handle or reputation. They were with her now, in this virtual place. Each represented by various avatars or sometimes plain text as they chose. This was Claudia's Paris salon, a location that did not exist except for series of scripted commands and graphics files shared between online machines. To those looking at their display, the salon appeared a real three dimensional place which they could move throughout and manipulate. Quick, as Claudia was called, appeared as a hovering cluster of radiant green letters in languageless font that periodically shifted itself to reveal a coherent string of text.

      Victoria was present as a bright cartoon girl with dark braided hair dressed in a sari, and often word balloons appeared to relay her messages to Quick about art or English literature. Now, a balloon popped up to say that in Cairo she heard rumours come out of Alexandria. Next, it was to say that the latest rumor was that America and Japan were sending representatives to Alexandria to talk with the High Lord about the war.

      Uadjet, a user that had Claudia had watched and allowed to forge permission to cloak itself in her salon, appeared at times as a stylised gold eye that cried letters and hieroglyphics. The letters fell, "t h e y w i l l s e n d a i d n o t t r o o p s." It disappeared again, but on Claudia's machine there was a floating red ankh that showed its continued presence.

      "Uadjet is a troll?" Robot whispered to Claudia, so that only she would see his message, a warrior robot like the sort in anime that leapt about the salon. He was actually a kid, presumeably in Warsaw, and even younger than Claudia.

      "In time," Claudia typed a whisper to Robot. She looked over the salon. Victoria appeared to sit in a chair. Robot was standing with his arm about the virtual copy of Michelangelo's David. Uadjet was in the corner, hidden. An american Secret Service agent pretending not to be appeared from all angles as a still photo of a man in a black suit with the word agent written across his chest. A German hacker of some infamy appeared as a rolling string of numbers that, if studied closely, listed the digits of Pi, and at other times as a busty, redheaded, centerfold girl fully rendered in three dimensions. Another user entered the room.

      Claudia sighed. Another obvious disguise.  This was a animated, white lab rat, scurrying about the floor of the salon, and who sometimes stood up and appeared to dress in trench and fedora before speaking in French. It was her father.

      "L e s t a t t h e R a t," Uadjet cried.

      "This guy again?" Robot whispered.

      Claudia laughed. Her green font shifted into the message, "How's yer father?"

      "L A U G H T E R!" Uadjet cried.

      Her letters stoped again to spell a message, "I know that in Warsaw, and other cities of Russian occupied Poland Darkling are being murdered by Russian soldiers." She continued, "There are people who try to help."

      A message came from CiPi's nude's mouth, "All of you in Poland should watch it! the SCB and Rowan are telling their peeps there will be plenty of DG asses to stake and burn." Again the scrolling numbers but it was binary code this time and meant for Claudia. A date. Again the busty nude. "The true numbers are hidden. Don't delay. Ghetto out! BCG RULES!"

      She wasn't talking about the hidden message, Claudia suspected, but some method the Russians had used to hide their number from Union spy satellites. The scam was to send a small police force to secure the path, and while the Poles were still choosing sides, enter en mass and march straight through to southern Germany to meet up with the Swiss, Spanish and Gauls of the Estates Liberte. They would amass there, then make their move, perhaps into Italy toward Vampire City. But, of course, the military had to be aware of all this.

      Claudia sent a whisper to CiPi, "Danke. Have BCG give me a meeting place. I have a small gifted crew."

      "Get thee to Stettin," CiPi whispered from her rounded mouth.

      Claudia sent a whisper to Robot. "If you are serious about doing something, get your crew and gear out of there now. There is an old peacemaker we put our trust in."

      Robot saluted then faded.

      One more whisper, Claudia thought. She had decided who Uadjet was. "Thanks for your concern, My Lord, but do ask for hiding priveledges or I will blast you from my salon next time!"

      Uadjet appeared, shrank, then became a nicely rendered golden falcon-headed diety holding the eye before his chest. A message appeared about his head like a halo. "The Lord conveys well wishes to all who honor his law, and honors the law of all who wish him well." He faded then.

      Claudia set the salon to destruct. She could recreate it when she wished. She looked up from her machine. It had grown quite late. Karl was visible, through the tiny door within the trailer, sitting on the bed and whispering into his hand held word processor. Merideth looked up for a moment, bent over the stove, pressing the outer casing of the false IDs Claudia had forged for those in the Hospital. Claudia stood slowly. "I'll be back to work on more," she told Merideth. As she walked by, Claudia saw Elzbieta was asleep in Karl and Merideth's bed.

      Outside, John was lying on the patchy grass with on arm behind his head, awake, probably thinking things over. Karina, and a pretty boy Elzbieta had brought, were inside the mini, speaking, but Claudia could not read their lips.

      John turned onto his side when he saw Claudia was near, was propped up on his elbow then. Claudia stooped to his side. "I just talked with some people," she whispered. "We do not have as long as we guesssed. The Russians are up to something. Will begin a march by tommorrow. By then, we will know more, if my contact in Warsaw gets out of there. I asked him to come meet us."

      "You trust this informaton?" John asked.

      Claudia nodded. "they are old friends, the ones who tell me this. We have to make plans. I am almost done with the IDs. If we can help those Darkling out of the area, either into some northern part of Germany, or directly south, then we can remain here ourselves, without anyone knowing. But, I think it would be better for us to move."

      John shook his head. "Where would we go?"

      "Become a nomadic tribe. Stay alive and learn, gather supporters. Then, in the future, who knows? Maybe, we can right things then. But, there's no possible way we can stop the actual advance. Poland will be occupied. I do not think the DG will move over the mountains fast enough to stop the Russians. They have some method of disguising their number. Their army must be massive."

      John nodded his understanding. "First of all we get the hospital out of the city, they need help and no one else is set to give it. When that's done we gather whoever we can together and see what we can do, all right?"

      "Fair," Claudia whispered. "I need to work on the IDs. You should prepare a plan with Jacob, Kit, and Karl. Have the others gather what supplies they can and store everything in the old church. Understand? Just in case we are targeted for who we are. If Efrit remembered you from Zakopane why not the Russians?"

      "I hadn't even thought of that."

      "There should be plenty of time to get them out and to warn your family. They should be perfectly safe, if you are not with them."

      "How much money do you have?" John whispered.

      "What do you need?" Claudia asked.

      "I was thinking, between the money from my father, my own and what Joy gave me I have more than I need. I could buy a trailer, and jeep or something. Some camping gear, a good rifle, just for hunting."

      "That's a good idea. I have plenty. You should tell the others to gather what they can. It's all just in case, but I do have a bad feeling about this. John, maybe we shouldn't tell the others but one of my contacts said the SCB and the Rowan were being told to move into this area. If any of them found out who I was, even you maybe...it would be bad. They are vicious and thorough and we were seen with two rather infamous Vampyres in many cities, in Paris during the riots, even."

      "You don't have to explain. Even being Catholic those groups give me the creeps. They are terrorists, that's all."

      Claudia nodded. She bent further to give John a kiss. He took it, always entirely pleasant. She moved upward and away quickly. She felt cruel sometimes, conflicted at least. But Claudia did not like to dwell on this part of her. But she knew of it. Somehow she had grown into a body that was widely considered attractive and sexy, but inside it she was a logical being that hated the things she felt around pretty boys and found her emotions much too girly and distracting. The whole puberty thing was just so unpleasant.

                      †               †               †

      Claudia seemed to have mastered the process of forging IDs. The original was scanned by the computer for its information. New photos, holos, microprinting in metallic ink, and other anti-forging details were created with a graphics editor. Then a rigged printer with special inks, which Claudia had been sent, printed the physical ID. The face of the card was backed by a special optical coating, with double layer encoding of the personal information, which was burned onto the surface in the format made possible by the circuit card she had also been sent. The cards were sealed in transparent plastic with low heat to protect the optical surface and prevent tampering. It took hours to complete a single forged ID. Without the special card and inks it would have been impossible.

      There were 24 people all together in the hospital. The city may have once housed more Darkling but they had not surfaced for help and so could not be helped. There were 18 IDs completed, those for the most sick or injured had been done first. If things went well enough, the IDs would never have to be used, for Germany was still securely within the Union.

      Claudia was confident these would pass. None of them would register as being Darkling. Where it had seemed believeable, Claudia had made the individuals Czeck or Austrian to further remove them from suspicion of fleeing Poland to escape being discovered after further occupation.

      She had such a false ID for herself and for John. That was his name on his new ID, not Danjel, but John Von Goth. If there was time, Karl and Merideth were to have false IDs. Their best purpose was to draw on legitimate accounts, without triggering flags in systems outside of the bank. Usual checks would not turn up use, but thorough investigations might. Numbered accounts could not easily be traced to any one person. Claudia, of course, had such accounts, many of them, each with a small chunk of her monies.

      Nineteen. Only five more IDs. She needed sleep. Claudia rubbed her eyes. The others were gone. Late as it was, they were gathering what gear they could that did not need to be purchased, and relaying news to Kit. She set up the next automated part of the forging process, and left the machines.

      Claudia crawled into Karl and Merideth's small bed and curled up. She was asleep in an instant and dreaming.

      David was there, forever a gentleman, fanged though he was, but old movie vampires were so. He was wearing nice clothes, he usually did. He had a gray ribbon worn about his neck like a choker. The dream of David smiled and Claudia felt the dream of her was smiling. He kissed her hand then looked up with burning green eyes. He was speaking, but in Claudia's dreams, speech had a way of being multiingual and redundant in its wordiness. Stream of words to say that he wished Claudia to one day be like him. And could he have some blood? He was so thirsty.

      Claudia was saying in the same convoluted language that David could always have her blood. And then, she saw herself, as if in a mirror or on a screen, and she spoke to herself in strange monologue about David being the first man, Human or not, to even touch her. Blushing, Claudia went on and on to herself about how emotional she was over David. She loved him in three languages at once, and a symbol font flashed about her head like a halo, calling her stupid.

      And then, she wasn't her own audience, and she was telling this murky story to John. He was listening, rapt, as if she were one of his statues. Claudia was telling him how it had felt to make love to David. She was sitting rather calmly before John, explaining to him that David was able to make love to her in the manner a human man might. And, in four languages at once, Claudia told John how the blood burned her mind and made everything so clear. 

      And then, John was asleep somewhere, talking in his sleep in one language that Claudia couldn't decipher. It was an impossible dream thing, that Claudia knew John was having a dream about talking to himself, and then he was telling himself about her. And then, she understood his words, and woke.

      It was close to dawn, and Claudia still felt sleepy. Merideth was sleeping at her side. Quietly, she climbed into the next compartment of the trailer. No one was there. The machines were idle. Sleepily, Claudia started the next sequence and left it. It was easily automated by this point, she'd written a program to alter the personal information and created a template for the face of the ID. With luck they would all be ready by the afternoon.