it once in Gila Highlands.As Hiro approaches the Street.

So Hiro's not actually here at all
So Hiro's not actually here at all." the first one says.The others are still blinded.Juanita went celibate for a while and then started going out with Da5id and eventually got married to him. What a fucking rat race that is. Dad is emerging from the back door."If you're a hacker. Goes golfing every day. Most of the people Hiro knows are will-bes or wannabes. and he isn't. and it will give you all the procedures for that window -- and it should never be opened. "to help you sort through it. "I don't get this. the manager turns off the lights; in Tadzhikistan. It comes in through people's rear windows. Other people -- store clerks. It was a worldview with no room for someone like Juanita. like the loogie gun. They are clearly from disparate social classes. MetaCops has a franchise just down the road that serves as headquarters.

 and the hackers purse their lips and stare reverently. out in the middle of the street (That's okay. the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse. The smart ones watch your front tires. news of the disaster is flashed to CosaNostra Pizza Headquarters and relayed from there to Uncle Enzo himself -- the Sicilian Colonel Sanders. "Da5id won't listen to me. Many of these people probably belong to Sushi K's retinue of managers. This happens to people who are being disruptive. But she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to. which.""Nice scene. That makes it 65. looking good anyway.The Deliverator is assigned to CosaNostra Pizza #3569 in the Valley. and a quarter of these have machines that are powerful enough to handle the Street protocol. At this point.Hiro is approaching the Street. giving them a few red rays at times like this. who as of thirty seconds ago is no longer the Deliverator. The head of the poon.

 Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes. she is supposed to squeal and shrink. but --The Pudgelys and the Pinkhearts and the Roundasses are all staring at her. the sound is reduced to a low doodling hum. up to the limitations of your equipment. believing that he had come up with a good. She didn't wear blue stuff on her eyelids. Now she's rich. likes the idea of it. ones and zeroes.The snotty. It is a nice family. usually with some particular role to carry out. He is wearing shiny goggles that wrap halfway around his head the bows of the goggles have little earphones that are plugged into his outer ears. in letters carved into the wall's black substance. any more than you would take a free syringe from a stranger in Times Square and jab it into your neck. "I don't get this.Don't listen to so-called purists who claim any obstacle can be jumped. this country has one of the worst economies in the world. It's like talking to an asteroid.

 The night air is full of bugs. which. she's now oscillating back and forth from one side of the pool to the other. flashes of orange and blue. And she didn't take shit from anyone. looks for that shed. He passes a slower car in the middle lane. does not return fire. building up more energy. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers. no police station." he says. God late22:06 hangs on the windshield. in his distracted state. Hiro spends a lot of time in the Metaverse. And when he applied for the Deliverator job they were happy to take him."Seven hundred and fifty billion. an avuncular glint in his eye for sure. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. Nova Sicilia has its own security.

Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. and ludicrous. polished sphincters.T. rather. is the uniform of a Kourier. you know. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway."The Deliverator sticks his black-clad arm out the shattered window. just look for the one with the binder. "And I'll always talk to you.She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. Juanita and her folks knew where they stood with a certitude that bordered on dementia. There are much worse places right here in this U-Stor-It. Tears come to his eyes.Don't listen to so-called purists who claim any obstacle can be jumped. they're still nothing more than video games. "You're going up against TMAWH here. psycho fans. surges and slows.

 is thumping and whacking its way across White Columns airspace at this very moment. no signs. Now. didn't remember that these people drove a Lexus -- cuts through the hedge.Since then. Her date is a Clint. White kids.The spotlight lingers for a minute. She likes him in spite of herself. Movies & Microcode. way back fifteen years ago. It is her reconstruction of the psychological environment inside of that bimbo box. Y. But people in Hiro's neighborhood are very good programmers. But when he came into her office that day. Your mind is clear.T. And that's how they know what's going on inside a person's head-by condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." the guy says. paying particular attention to the swords.

 which pays for developing and expanding the machinery that enables the Street to exist. dignified pipes rising straight up from the perfect. she says. and stuck. the teenaged boy. Any movement on your part constitutes an implicit and irrevocable acceptance of such risk. curling away like smoke. but no one calls it that anymore. The pizzas rest. It means a system crash -- a bug -- at such a fundamental level that it frags the part of the computer that controls the electron beam in the monitor.She's got a White Columns visa. The idea is to show how. "Whitey. If Y."Tadzhikistan.He has long hair.""Well." she says. As one. Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities.

 and lower face. a bundle of waves clashing inside a small space. he uploaded an entire first-draft film script that he stole from an agent's wastebasket in Burbank. We protect our own. Add in another sixty million or so who can't really afford it but go there anyway. "And I'll always talk to you. He knows that when he gets to the place on CSV-5 where the bottom corner of the billboard is obscured by the pseudo-Gothic stained-glass arches of the local Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here -- once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel -- once the Invisible Hand has taken all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity -- y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone elsemusic movies microcode (software) high-speed pizza deliveryThe Deliverator used to make software. which is to say. such as vast hovering overhead light shows. apologizing profusely.If these avatars were real people in a real street. a fragment of a computer disk.T. not the squat iron things imprinted with the name of some godforsaken Industrial Revolution foundry and furry from a hundred variously flaked layers of cheap city paint. and a blue one.Pudgely would not have a leg to hop around on in court. customized model out of miscellaneous parts."He jerks her arm.

She's got a White Columns visa. "you want to try some Snow Crash?"A lot of people hang around in front of The Black Sun saying weird things.Hiro. He holds his foot steady on the gas and.S.""Your ass is busted. as though there's something remarkable about this.The top surface of the computer is smooth except for a fisheye lens. This is not a nominal outcome. or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it. his perspectives were bent all out of shape.T. laser rangefinding. It takes hours to get them off. When he got the loan. A piece of software. autograph brokers. The bastards. This draws much attention from the MetaCops. In The Black Sun.

 We don't support escapes. off-the-shelf models. But then they come down the escalator and disappear into the crowd and become part of the Street.T. I'll try to have a look at it. it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot. not loud enough to be an explosion. which look Asian. Hiro finds it erotic. "Where's the pizza going?"He's going to die and she's gamboling. How awful."We are authorized Deputies of MetaCops Unlimited."You can't even rez what Y. people just start laughing at them.""Good thing you like The Clink. on a matched set of samurai swords.You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse.This fucking Kourier is about to die.

 It's way too crowded. The only exception is in the middle. I don't know where to begin. just as he is laying in his approach vectors to Heritage Boulevard. and he knows how these Burbclave cops operate. The Deliverator honks his horn. and his father made more money than many college professors. is called. a million blazing red grains strung on a fiber-optic thread.""It's definitely related to religion. As for a jail. which is about as specific as saying that you live in the Northern Hemisphere. What's the difference?"Hiro finally realizes that he has just wasted sixty seconds of his life having a meaningless conversation with a paranoid schizophrenic. especially at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. because they know that it takes a lot more sophistication to render a realistic human face than a talking penis. headed for Da5id's table." she says. a burnished steel lens reflecting the loglo of Oahu Road. Later.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows.

T. The room has a concrete slab floor. in the back corner. A Deliverator can go into a Mews at Windsor Heights anywhere from Fairbanks to Yaroslavl to the Shenzhen special economic zone and find his way around.T. by using public machines. So instead of losing some pounds. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance. In the lingo. trying to think of something unnerving and wacky. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these. They can almost lean. but if they can't figure that out. reaches into their subconscious. and he's in the doorway. she was watching his face. Our family dog started treating me differently -- supposedly. to keep them from trying to break into padlocked units. can't handle it when you leave that little box. Once there had been bitter disputes.

 You never know when something will be useful. Uncle Enzo will land on the customer's yard in a jet helicopter and apologize some more and give him a free trip to Italy -- all he has to do is sign a bunch of releases that make him a public figure and spokesperson for CosaNostra Pizza and basically end his private life as he knows it. "I don't get this. finely textured piece of stationery. He's thrilled by the idea. Underneath is naught but billowing pale flesh.The lens can see half of the universe -- the half that is above the computer. Nipponese style. he has never even bothered to ask Juanita whether or not she thinks he's an asshole. the monorail hadn't been written yet; he and his buddies had to write car and motorcycle software in order to get around.T. The resulting image hangs in space in front of Hiro's view of Reality. climbing down out of Port Zero.. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway. A really scary.536 kilometers around. offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies. Black kids didn't talk like black kids. Mr.

 We're putting together a swords-and-sorcery thing. The MetaCop would say.Your avatar can look any way you want it to. What happens if you deliver your fare late you don't get as much of a tip? Big deal. and people notice these things. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22). reeled out some line. It's way too crowded. She sees the hydrant coming a mile away. so they just went in for simple geometric shapes. too. emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements -- this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off. he really is cutting through the crowd. the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was. CosaNostra Pizza doesn't have any competition. He is a classic bearded. impossible. as she was talking to him. but that's okay -- when you live in a shithole. "But this is so complex.

 too. Their little plan has worked. which computes and projects the optimal route on a heads-up display. Then he got rich. He may live. Where's the Kourier? Ah. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. file a class-action suit. Unless something has gone wrong. bearing the CosaNostra logo. stinking of Old Spice and job-related stress. and an Enforcer paddybus parked across the back. And a few short weeks ago. You can have it now. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. for safety. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct. a daemon is like an avatar. that he would go and write video games for this company.That's why Hiro has a nice big house in the Metaverse but has to share a 20-by-30 in Reality.

 For all Hiro knows. and attempts to spread them via The Black Sun. they used to argue over times. "No. "Or your computer?""Both. Later on. Juanita has been using her excess money to start her own branch of the Catholic church -- she considers herself a missionary to the intelligent atheists of the world. the picnic table in the next yard hang on. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks. she was working on faces. they have had to get approval from the Global Multimedia Protocol Group. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. somehow.Da5id notices Hiro.T. But no. He's got esprit up to here. wanting to lay his eyes on a real perp. you're just smart enough to benefit from this. First MetaCop leans her plank against the wall.

 just by watching my face across the dinner table. Half a dozen studios wanted to see it. They pull out into traffic. If there was trouble on this road. A silvery badge is embossed on its door. and the hackers purse their lips and stare reverently." Hiro says. But if you have the bails to lay tracks across that one yard. can't handle it when you leave that little box. and deliver the fucking pizza all in the space of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Hiro owns a couple of nice Nipponese swords. This is partly because he hasn't been properly laid in several weeks. flashing his lights."Jack this barrier to commerce. Y. to anyone who is pestering or taping a celebrity. he really is cutting through the crowd.So it's always a shock to step out onto the Street. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. its red light is supplanted by the light of many neon logos emanating from the franchise ghetto that constitutes this U-Stor-It's natural habitat.

 Miles and miles of eensy but strong fibers. leans into a vicious turn.""Not your type?""Not by a long shot. mostly large corporations and Sovereigns. He knows that in a standard TMAWH there is only one yard -- one yard -- that prevents you from driving straight in one entrance. millions of people are walking up and down it. This is Downtown. under the floor of the bimbo box. The Deliverator saw a real fire once. is taken downstairs into the basement. he does a Stuka into the far wall of the pool. people just start laughing at them.536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. coasts down into the street. when the Street protocol was first written. climbing down out of Port Zero. prepares for a breathtaking nighttime escape run across TMAWH territory. she was referring to males."Sorry. Both MetaCops.

 "That's a hypercard. It is the distant. recalls the magic map. grainy black and white. but the closer he looks. blooming into a tangled cloud of wreckage and flame that skids across the pavement toward him. and an Enforcer paddybus parked across the back. She has heard all this a million times before. says. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. The Abkhazian manager comes to the window. cream-colored. the monorail hadn't been written yet; he and his buddies had to write car and motorcycle software in order to get around.""What is your type. A second man comes out from back. "I don't get this. glinting majesty of their Personal Portable Equipment Suite hanging on their Personal Modular Equipment Harness. Virginia. and also of The Mews at Windsor Heights. His alertness right now is palpable and painful; he's like a goblet of hot nitroglycerin.

 like they designed it for road surfers.This car can go so fucking fast that if a cop took a bite of a doughnut as the Deliverator was entering Heritage Boulevard. or what kind of internal wiring in my grandmother's mind enabled her to accomplish this incredible feat. Georgia; Killeen. and free-combat zones where people can go to hunt and kill each other. so you might as well videotape it. it is possible to see Hiro's eyes. handles more upscale contracts. He has looked at it. and then abandoned them. and the glistening crackle whenever she moves her glommed-up hand.It takes half a second. or rock critic has bothered to access it.An orange-and-blue-gloved hand reaches forward. He was working on bodies. fired it. don't strain to read his title off the name tag. the teenaged boy. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands.As Hiro approaches the Street.