The devices lived in the blood of the human race like viruses and passed 
from one person to the next during sex or any other exchange of bodily fluids; 
they were smart packets of data, just like the ones traversing the media 
network, and by mating with one another in the blood, they formed a vast system 
of communication, parallel to and probably linked with the dry Net of optical 
lines and copper wires. Like the dry Net, the wet Net could be used for doing 
computations—for running programs. And it was now clear that John 
Percival Hackworth was using it for exactly that, running some kind of vast 
distributed program of his own devising. He was designing something.