Trepidation | Trepidation Trilogy | The Empty World Sequence

Thirty

Their plan was to travel south in well stocked trailers and RVs that moved quickly, follow the Rhine into the Schwartzwald, almost to the Swiss border, and then cut sharply west and enter France in the southern part of French-Gaul disputed Alsace. The first week had passed in September, and the smaller group of travelling Goth were in the Schwartzwald, the Black Forest. They moved with a slight more caution and less speed that they had over the last six days, knowing well that ownership of the region was being contested.

The Goth considered this part of their state of Germany, but both Gaul and Switzerland claimed it on various days of the week, when small armies pushed east or north. And now it was known they were abroad, the news having been leaked, all the nomadic Goth thought it best to stay hidden as long as possible from their own soldiers as well as from those of other nations.

Claudia and John still shared a trailer with four others, those of Alaric's family. Behind them came other vehicles, best known perhaps the crew trailer and large van towing it which Miko and Marek now shared with Ceci and Joyce as well as fellow young Peacekeepers Hansel and Rory. Sascha retained her own RV, Jayne and Eric still sleeping in their loft, while their bedroom had been given to Patrick, Adelle, and Maureen, and Sascha made use of the sofabed. Justin and Elzbieta had likewise taken on others. Besides ever-present Sammy, who Elzbieta had also found on the Danube Valley Battlefield, and little Rozz, they housed Aaron and Austin of the Peacekeepers. Others had traded vehicles with those staying behind, like Karina, who kept a trailer with Vivanne, now pulled along by her old Mini still full of plants. Elonwey's RV now towed a small trailer shared by Gloria and Jeanette, both now the most prominent clothing makers of the tribe. Quentin still had his work truck with portable furnace, and cot for sleeping, just as Gerhard and his crew lived out of their large news van. Others trailed behind making their number roughly one hundred persons, quite few compared to what they had grown used to.

They moved along an old road, in the outer parts of forest, which had fallen into disrepair in past decades, like so many things in Europe. Claudia was most definitely well within the third or fourth month of pregnancy, or as definitely as she could figure. She was still going about her own daily chores, and corresponding with people in Frankfurt am Main regarding work there, asw well as considering the intercepted comminiques or stolen data. She wore what dresses she owned with high waistline and wouldn't let John or anyone else fawn over her too much.

Only recently had Claudia and Sascha found a means of getting into the military parts of the Alexandria mainframe, past the backdoor passwords and sexigesimal code. The main security feature had been rotating file locations coupled with passwording. Finally, modifying a program Leonore had originally written for use in capturing mobile data, Claudia had broken in. Now she and Sascha studied the contents. In addition to all the previous security measures, they wrote or spoke their messages with codewords, and one message did not seem to match the next in code. Still, they could often get an idea of action being taken, from a group of messages, and sometimes piece together the information.

Usually their codewords used logic, as they would have to be understood by a number of people to receive said message. The pale man named Jack from the factory town was code for an agent of the Manchester School, and in same message the black haired youth was any of the VC. Sometimes, verbs were transferred from dating or sex related vocabulary. What seemed like gossip written between girlfriends could be General Angel's reports of troop movements and conflicts. Claudia expected the most secure messages might be sent via telepathy,

Claudia realized, however, that even telepathy could be captured or provide metadata. Since her time as David's lover, Claudia had possessed a weak sort of telepathy. It was only moderately reliable in reading John's thoughts in close range, but ocassionally she sensed vague images or feelings that truly seemed just beyond range or out of frequency. David was always in her head, and he was getting stronger; David was physically moving toward her.