Both of them I could call at almost any time of the day or night. I remember calling Bruce at some point to ask him what color secret service agents' vans were. You like to get these things right. Zach uses the Net, and he uses strange codes in local newspapers to communicate with this friends. But there's also alot of psychic stuff going on.
Pirate radio is an important part of the story.
The character with full-blown AIDS has a pirate radio show. His on-air na me is Lush Rimbaud. As far as obscure means of communication go, psychic and paranormal phenomena are things that I've always been very interested in. New Orleans is not at the forefront of the cyber revolution, let's just say. I was kind of curious, you said you were talking to Sterling.