As they get ready to "recycle" the Mariner, the Smokers attack. Their leader is the Deacon. He is the "captain" of an old oil tanker, the "Exxon Valdez" ("the 'Deez"). They are looking for a young girl named Enola. She has a map to Dryland tattooed on her back. One of their spies told them that she was there. Enola lives with her guardian, Helen, a woman in her twenties or thirties. Helen and Enola plan to escape with Gregor (the Atoll's astrologer/engineer) in search of Dryland. Like the Mariner, they do not fit in with the other people.