Communication

"Epilogue."

Zero transmits an alarm:

"Forty miles thence, the person who may as well be called Two answered, 'Is that you, Zero? I noticed something peculiar in the direction of your establishment. What is the matter?'

"Zero did not reply at once. Others were coming in, a surge of voices in his head..." (p. 180)

Lisbeth Salander logs on to Hacker Republic:

"<Hi, gang.> Wasp wrote.

"<Wasp. That really U?> SixOfOne wrote. <Look who's back.>

"<Where you been keeping yourself?> Trinity wrote.

"<Plague said you were in some trouble.> Dakota wrote."

-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (London, 2009), CHAPTER 13, p. 320.

This is when Zero reminded me of Wasp. Hackers like Plague live mainly on line but they are exceptions where humanity is concerned. However, by contrast with the mass of humanity, Zero and his kind communicate entirely by radio and hardly ever physically. Zero has observed very few persons optically. By radio, they communicate ritual, friendship and art. Zero and Seven criticise each other's poetry. Ninety-six shares his abstract tone constructions, Eighty shares narratives and Fifty-nine shares speculations about space and time. Fourteen has shared with Zero his sensory impressions of the seashore, including the salt in the air. In this way, Zero has also experienced catching and eating an aquamotile.