They reached Szczecin, called Stettin across the border in Germany, where the Oder river broke into Stettin Lagoon along the Baltic Sea, within few days of leaving Choszczno. There, they found a formal camping site and were allotted space not far from the lagoon. Seeing the place, the group decided they would settle down for at least a few days.

      It was lovely, evergreen forests thinned out by use, but still tall and fresh smelling. Combined with the sea air, it was cool and invigorating. Delicious, Danjel thought, waking up in either tent or trailer, to breathe the crisp air and stretch in cleaned sheets. Everything had been washed in the river and hung from trees to dry. Karina had found more plants to collect. Alaric had found a designated hunting area within short ride, so that they had venison or hossenfeffer spiced with fresh herbs.

      Elaborate renovation of Merideth and Alaric's old trailer was underway. Most of the large appliances had been ripped out, and a new generator installed behind cabinetry Patrick had helped Marek to build. Danjel had visited Claudia during her part in the work and seen the interior. There was a sleeping area just as there had been before, but the storage area above was more easily accessible, without doors of fake wood to cover anything. So many interior panels had been ripped out to make way for compact cabinetry of real wood and many draperies that had formerly been a bundle in Robbie's car. It seemed they had packed much of their former bedroom decorations, and so now had strings of colored lights rather than the old plastic fixtures built into the walls.

      They had only sink, refrigerator, microwave oven, and tiny trailer toilet remaining from either cramped bathroom or kitchen; these were exposed to the larger interior space, though a single curtain could be pulled about the toilet if desired. Leonore had insisted.

      Now, where Merideth and Alaric had kept all manner of office supplies, food, and clothing in disarray, there were neat stacks of electronic components screwed into wooden shelving that covered nearly the entire interior, making room for rows of discs and old books, which had strings across the them to secure the items while in motion. They had even converted an awkward sitting area into a second bed room hidden by draperies.

      Danjel liked it. It was Goth, he decided. The plastic made to simulate wood and the very compartmentalization had been rather soulless.

      Afterward, Leonore and Marek had come to the new trailer to help Claudia and Merideth make it Goth. Adelle and Patrick came to help too, sitting their daughter Maureen on the ground as they worked. Elzbieta might look after her, while cooking lunch or dinner. Elzbieta was a real doll, doing so much work and seeming to give without regret or complaint. Danjel liked her very much.

      Claudia had purposely bought a stripped-down trailer, and one of the larger models. Danjel knew it had cost quite a lot, but it was home to four of them and so it was worth it. The stove along with the under counter refrigerator had been left and where there had been a primitive sort of bathroom was left a toilet, sink, and modified shower basin.

      As with the other trailer, all functionless panels and trim were ripped out, and where desired, more beautifully crafted objects stood in their stead. Merideth coated their dining table in a decoupaged photo collage. They could sit here to work, eat, or play cards, and were able to look out the curtains and the front window to the jeep and beyond.

      At the opposite end, in the back, there was a wide bed that could be converted, with the folding of a center section, to two smaller beds. Above, reached by a ladder, there was a sleeping loft that held another wide bed. The rest of the long interior was largely devoted to functional appliances and sections of cabinetry. Claudia and Merideth had put many cushions and large pillows along the floor for resting and hooked up several machines to make news available.

      Danjel had designated a shallow bit of cabinetry to be built on one wall for the figures Kit and the priests had gifted him with. Others of the tribe sometimes brought pretty rocks or feathers as offerings, but they did this to the shrine in Karina's new wagon as well.

      She usually kept everyone out. There was no doubt she wanted to be with the tribe, but Karina needed some amount of personal space to feel sane. She grew plants in the mini and worked on her formulas in her wagon, which appeared taken by drying plants and scraps of paper everywhere when Danjel looked into it. She had a bed: narrow and elevated, purely functional. Helena was now often asking her about her spells.

      They had been in Szczecin for two days when a mad rush seized Claudia and all her hacker crew. "The BCG are on their way!" they screamed.

      "What is this?" Danjel asked, opened the door to their trailer. It was dim and lit by computer monitors and strings of lights. They were all crowded inside staring at floating heads on a screen.

      "The Blaek Clath Gangan!" Robbie said as if it should be obvious to Danjel.

      "German crew led by the mysterious Cherry Pi," Claudia explained in monotone. "They are coming here, to join us."

                      †               †               †

      Claudia felt a sort of giddy power. Cherry Pi was bringing the BCG to join the Goth. Things were going so well. Of course Cipi had long known of Claudia, or of Quick at least, but she had a similar reputation, and Claudia had sometimes felt they were in competition. Then, CiPi had warned them about the Russians, had somehow known about that.

      Claudia swatted at the strands of hair that always fell to her face. The virtual area had worked. Each of the crew had created one room. Claudia's had been the grande hall of a Gothic style castle modeled from that in an old vampire movie, with scripts that played music files from an old soundtrack. Merideth had created a collage of images as walls floor and ceiling and programmed a simple bot that appeared as a braided warrior maiden. Leonore had created a virtual replica of the trailer's interior, and Robbie a black backdrop scripted to play certain music and populated by a bot named Eldritch.

      Cipi had shown up, and realized that they had already traveled as far as Szczecin from the recent modifications to the virtual campsite. She had promised to bring her crew to meet them, had been waiting to hear from them again. She was most interested in meeting them now that Robot and Quick had met in real life.

      They pulled slowly into the camp about dinnertime, in a graffiti-covered RV with tinted windows. The vehicle pulled to put its larger passenger door toward the fire and parked. The first to exit was a tall girl with whispy blonde hair, dressed in black leggings and leather motorcycle jacket. A boy who looked very much like her exited next, pushed his hair over his shoulder.

      Claudia moved closer to them and saw that they were helping the next person down. It was a young woman, Claudia gathered then, not healthy looking, but incredibly thin. She stood on her own when she reached the ground, looked up at the crowd as if to spot a familiar face. She had fine red hair in a single braid, and where her clothes bared skin there were lengths of silvery metal hugging the flesh.

      She wore a frame, Claudia realized. This girl was in some way paralyzed or disabled and had been fitted with an exoskeletal frame that did the work of her weakened muscles while giving her support along her exterior to relieve any pressures to her bones. Claudia had not seen one used in person, but understood the availability and use of such things.

      Two more figures exited the RV. There was a young woman with spiky black hair, and a man with short, nearly-black hair, and a patchy goatee on his chin.

 The red haired girl picked Claudia from the crowd and approached with mechanical stiffness. "You are Quick," she said.

      "I am, you can call me Claudia now."

      She smiled, head seeming large on her frail body. "My name is Sascha."

      "It's nice to meet you finally. Shall I introduce you?"

      "Allow me first, we already know a little bit about you," Sascha said. She did not appear to be feeling any weakness as she straightened further and smiled to the gathered tribe. With permissive nod from Claudia she introduced her crew. The two twins, who were not twins but boyfriend and girlfriend, were named Jayne and Erik, and were the youngest of their number as well as the newest to the crew. "Noobs," Sascha said. The young woman with dark, wild hair was Sascha's close friend, Melitta, an operator often going by the handle Dose, which Claudia knew to be a play on the Spanish pronunciation of the numeral two, as she was second-in-command of Cherry's crew. The older boy growing in a goatee was introduced as Marcus, who usually used the name neGATEiveONE on the net.

      Claudia introduced the tribe, beginning with John and ending with little Maureen. She gave their names, and brief information, including where they had originally come from, and in some cases what their duties were. After the introductions, Claudia invited the five newcomers to join them for dinner.

      As they sat around the fire eating venison and stew, Claudia watched the others as slyly as she could. Robbie was watching Sascha and her crew like a jail warden would prisoners. Sascha seemed unaffected, but her crew disdainful toward the others. Claudia would have to do something.

      John brought out an electronic keyboard to play for them that night, was better with it than the guitar, and must have learned to play on a piano as a child. Claudia sighed and opened her machine to select from her files a reading for the night. She chose a passage from Caesars writing on the Gauls to demonstrate how they were viewed by the Roman world in ancient times.

      "You must see," she said, "That the fighting between tribes left them weak against the Romans." Somehow she did not feel her words inspired. She needed John, but he did not understand her particular concern over the BCG.

      Claudia bowed away from the group and went to whisper at John's ear. She stooped behind him, held her hands on his waist for balance. "I need your help," she said.

      John was toying with a bit of thorned branch, curling it into a precisely measured circular shape and tying it down in this form to prevent movement. He had his father's knife and a tape measure borrowed perhaps from Karina or Adelle. He spoke without looking up. "What do you need?"

      "John, I need the Robot Dan and the BCG to make friendly."

      "You think I can help?" John laughed quietly. Alaric was beside him and listening in best he could. "You recruited them. I really can't pretend to understand them. You know I don't understand half the things you can do."

      "They can help us, John, to spread the word, if you can inspire them to make peace."

      He seemed to glance to Alaric. Claudia dropped her forehead to John's shoulder in defeat. A long moment and then John lifted her face in his fingers and she saw him look over his shoulder at her. "Why can I do this?"

      "You have passion."

      John lifted one leg over the log he sat upon so that he faced Claudia fully, held a hand firmly to her shoulder. "Claudy, you have just as much passion, only you purposely squelch it down and try not to show. I am doing my best, trust me, in my own way, the way I know how. It would be easier, on me at least, if you did not kill your feelings."

      "Kill my?" Claudia began. John was close to her again, they held each other. She had dreamt not long ago that he came to her in some watery place wearing a crown and she had loved him very much. John was right. Claudia did keep some things in.

      John kissed her, just a tiny press of lips to lips but it made her feel warm.  "Scrolling numbers?" he asked. Again a kiss, minute brush of tongue to tongue. "How about now?" Claudia's knees touched the dirt.

      "I can't," she cried, didn't know quite how to convey this. She wanted and yet she didn't. There were no digits, just heartbeats and skin and, "Never let me go."

      Soft whisper at her ear, "Tell me how I am a fool to love God when I cannot prove that he exists. Tell me I am stupid for thinking I can make a difference in the world. Tell me the calculated odds of falling in love more than once in a lifetime."

      Claudia laughed, almost fell back to the ground but John caught her with a hand under each her arms and drew her up again. He was too beautiful to be a man. It was not that he looked feminine either, only too pure to be anything but saint or angel such as he was always conversing with in churches.

      Claudia sighed and lost her happiness. John still looked beautiful but it didn't matter. "It makes me weak," she said in her lowest voice, "I can't bear to be weak, defenseless."

      John nodded, perhaps actually understanding. "When you have love, real love, of God, of all people, all things, of life, it's beautiful. I cannot feel it myself all the time, but I have felt it. Complete love. That is my entire secret. I have experienced ecstasy, Claudia. I wish I could pass it to you in a kiss but it doesn't work like that. There is surrender involved, and unless you open yourself to it, create a sort of unsecured net link, or however you understand it, you will never share it."

      "You want me to?" Claudia asked, felt bad that she could not do this just for him.

      "I wish it for you, because I love you," John said. Claudia realized he was serious, really loved her in some passionate pure way beyond her understanding. "I know you have been very hurt by people who claim to act for God or Christ, but I still believe in him. The real message of Jesus has nothing to do with those things they say, his message was love. Entirely love, for everyone and everything. So much love that you would take punishment and pain, even die to prevent another feeling the pain. Can you even understand?"

      "I know what you mean, I just don't feel it like you do," Claudia frowned. She imagined she was hurting John by not being able to believe. She knew it was a good thing to attempt to make a difference, to help their people. But she doubted she could have that strange passion that made people follow John.

      "I care," Claudia offered.

      John nodded. "I didn't mean to put you down, I was only hoping you could feel this thing I have felt. It isn't a fault really, not the way you seem to think. I still love you. It's unconditional."

      Claudia smiled a little. "You'll do everything you can to help them understand?" she asked.

      "Of course," he said and it seemed a promise. "Why don't you go rest? I have things to do."

      Claudia nodded. He was sending her away, but she did require rest daily and no further discussion would bring the crews together overnight. She went into the trailer and climbed up into the higher bed. She curled up as she often did in sleep and dreamt there were wolves all about.