Hari Kunzru

It was a simple message.

Hi. I saw this and thought of you.

Maybe you got a copy in your inbox, sent from an address you didn't recognise; an innocuous two-line email with an attachment.

leela.exe

Maybe you obeyed the instruction to

check it out!

and there she was; Leela Zahir, dancing in jerky quicktime in a pop-up window on your screen. Even at that size you could see she was beautiful, this little pixellated dancer, smiling as the subject line promised, a radiant twenty-one year old smile

just for you

That smile. The start of all your problems.