Zero History

18. 140
The Neo rang while he was still trying to grasp Twitter. He was registered, now, as
GAYDOLPHIN2. No followers, following no one. Whatever that meant. And his updates,
whatever those were, were protected.
The harsh faux-mechanical ring tone had attracted the attention of the girl at the desk.
He smiled anxiously, apologetically, from his seat on the leather-padded laptop-tethering
bench, and answered it, the Neo awkward against his ear. “Yes?”
“Milgrim?”
“Speaking.”
“Hollis. How are you?”
“Well,” said Milgrim, automatically. “How are you?”
“Wondering if you’re up for Paris tomorrow. We’d take an early Eurostar.”
“What’s that?”
“The train,” she said. “Chunnel. It’s quicker.”
“What for?” Sounding, he thought, like a suspicious child.
“I’ve found someone we need to try to speak with. She’s there tomorrow, and the day
after. After that, I don’t know.”
“Will we be gone long?”
“Overnight, if we’re lucky. Seven-thirty out of St. Pancras. I’ll arrange for someone
from Blue Ant to pick you up at the hotel.”
“Does Hubertus know?”
“Yes. I just ran into him.”
“All right,” he said. “Thank you.”
“I’ll have the car phone your room.”
“Thank you.”
Milgrim put the Neo away and went back to webmail and Twitter. He’d just heard from
Twitter, asking whether he was willing to have GAYDOLPHIN1 follow him. He was.
And now he’d have to tell her about Paris. In bursts of a hundred and forty character
spaces, apparently.
As he was finishing this, someone called CyndiBrown32 asked whether he was willing
to have her follow him.
Remembering Winnie’s instructions, he wasn’t. He closed Twitter and logged out of
webmail. Closed the MacBook.
“Good night, Mr. Milgrim,” said the girl at the desk as he went to the elevator.
He felt as though something new and entirely too large was attempting to fit within him.
He’d shifted allegiances, or acquired a new one. Or was he simply more afraid of Winnie
than he was of Bigend? Or was it that he was afraid of the possibility of the absence of