Berlin, Germany, February, 2078, Saturday…

From the news helicopter Karla Schmidt watched the people march. Her report was being fed live into newsnets all over the world. Millions of pairs of eyes were seeing what she was seeing as she described what was happening. The pilot steered the craft up and down Kurfurstendamm in Berlin.

Two masses of humanity were converging. One was composed of members of the Lutheran Brotherhood, a right-wing religious group. The other was composed of members of Greenpeace. In the last few weeks these two groups had become bitter enemies. A lot of brothers were union members who felt they had lost jobs because of the ecological policies Greenpeace was advancing all over Germany. Such clashes with Greenpeace were common, although this was the first time there were religious overtones as well. The local Greenpeace activist leader, who had a seat in parliament, was a sworn atheist and often mocked Protestants and Catholics alike in his political speeches.

Germany had been skidding economically ever since the EU had broken up. Runaway inflation and markets lost to the lower-priced products of Asia and South America had put the number of unemployed at an all-time high. Everyone was looking for someone to blame.

Karla didn't completely understand it but she could report on it.

"Right now, I can't believe this, guys, but right now there are literally thousands of people converging on Kurfurstendamm, and several riot squads from the Berlin police are right in the middle. It's not clear what's going to happen here but it doesn't look pleasant."