" He is Null Achtzehn. He is not called anything except that, Zero Eighteen, the last three figures of his entry number; as if everyone was aware that only a man is worthy of a name, and that Null Achtzehn is no longer a man. I think that even he has forgotten his name, certainly he acts as if this was so. When he speaks, when he looks around, he gives the impression of being empty inside, nothing more than an involucre* like the slough* of certain insects which one finds on the banks of swamps, held by a thread to the stones and shaken by the wind."
* one or more whorls of bracts situated below and close to a flower, flower cluster, or fruit
* the exoskeleton left behind when an insect grows
