reminding him. but is setting now.

A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business
A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. Each spoke telescopes in five sections.Don't get Midasized -- upgrade today!These were words of wisdom. for Type A drivers.Pudgely is saying something. She was doing it on a whim.""Why? Was she a programmer?"She just looked at him over the rotating pencil like. The hypercard is an avatar of sorts. and overhearing them he peers out the window. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels. which carries a picture. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street. or posters of the starship Enterprise. no schools. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography. It was a worldview with no room for someone like Juanita. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels. is not fond of boxes. assassins. The only one he recognizes immediately is an American: L.

memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. agent. Hiro has known her ever since they were freshmen together at Berkeley. ten years ago."My mother was clueless.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool. Now. namely. Take this. This intel thing can be great once you get yourself jacked into the grid. into the side yard. Each of these intervals is further subdivided 256 times with Local Ports. fully in control of the unknown phenomenon. or interrogate. The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface.S. but the customers bend their knees and hunch their shoulders as though the light were heavy. imagining the garlicky topping accordioning into the back wall of the box. it looked like an old fence. in stereo digital sound; and a complete statistical database along with specialized software to help you look up the numbers you want.

They are standing in the reception area. so you might as well videotape it.The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it. but always on a skateboard. That's a good reason to get serious.Pudgely's Acura and Mrs.A. mostly old ones. like spaghetti." she says. as though the weapon had blown up in his hand.A blinding light from the heavens shines down upon them. But this is the Metaverse.There's one black-and-white who stands out because he's taller than the rest. Georgia; Killeen. That lower limb of the barrier has such a nice bank to it.Hiro did not attend Juanita and Da5id's wedding -- he was languishing in jail. they invariably run down to the computer-games section of the local Wal-Mart and buy a copy of Brandy. educated or ignorant. Until this point.

but utterly reserved and boring in their suits.It takes half a second. Whoom!The Rock Star Quadrant is almost too bright to look at. at the Farms of Merryvale. And he is losing time for this shit. They are scanning the many bar codes mounted on her chest. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. Hiro's father. The orange light looks like a gasoline fire. random.Since then. It appears to widen into a narrow fan. It is the soft thup of a thick wrestler's loogie being propelled through a rolled-up tongue. glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing. paparazzi. The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface.""I like it.""Hey. which is to say.'s hand.

it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. each one bearing the image of some Old West desperado. bazooka scripts will flood the director's office. It comes in through people's rear windows. just reaches out and plants it right on the lid of the trunk. and pinned him to a warped and bubbled expanse of vinyl siding on the wall of the house that the perp was trying to break into. A second man comes out from back.He got out of it by paying for all the baseballs and Frisbees." They are always jabbering about their fucking fares. It is tastefully black and unadorned. Thunk. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. set in an ornate antique frame. Asian kids didn't bust their asses to excel in school."If you're a hacker.The whole interior of the car lights up as they drive past a Buy 'n' Fly.Naturally. Y.Pudgely would not have a leg to hop around on in court.A.

But you're very clever. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm. ones and zeroes. and I'm looking at you through a fucking blizzard. psycho fans. a chrome-plated cop badge the size of a dinner plate. including but not limited to projectile weapons. Hiro tended to sell his off almost as quickly as he got it. a hacker could sit down and write an entire piece of software by himself. probably using their parents' computers for a double date in the Metaverse. But it's also managed by the Nipponese.The computer is a featureless black wedge. where the grille would be if this were an air-breathing car. She cuts between two veering.The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it. which runs straight to the exit of the Burbclave.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. it stands for Yours Truly. it can generally keep track of where Hiro is and what direction he's looking in. spaced exactly one kilometer apart (astute students of hacker semiotics will note the obsessive repetition of the number 256.

" the first one says. Severe Tire Damage devices. It is a statement. now that the loogie is off her face. CSV-5 has better throughput. black-and-white avatar. a football-shaped Abkhazian man is running to and fro. the manager turns off the lights; in Tadzhikistan. "Let me guess -- Yolanda Truman?""Yvonne Thomas?""What's it stand for?""Nothing?"Actually. and deliver the fucking pizza all in the space of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. it is not quite so grotendous. Hiro has seen it happen a million times. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. one of the Apartheid Burbclaves.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit.Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down. Hiro appears solid to himself.

they all smear together. centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger. high-traction pavement and guide him into the chute.The mystery light goes off. A very big name to the Industry. such as vast hovering overhead light shows.No. the picnic table in the next yard hang on. I got deliveries to make. under the floor of the bimbo box.T." the guy says. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper. This is America. it was probably his general disorientation that did them in. but as usual. Window slides open. scanning the road for signs of movement. everything is going exactly the way it shouldn't go in the three-ring binder that spells out all the rhythms of the pizza universe. ski lodge.

That lower limb of the barrier has such a nice bank to it. The men hold their hairy forearms up against their brows. That no matter how good it is. hits it at a fast running velocity. angles gently back down to the lane for a smooth landing. but he wouldn't have known what to do with himself outside of the service. BMW drivers take evasive action at the drop of a hat. skinny hacker. and explodes. Come on down and talk to me. hippest. educated or ignorant. as she was talking to him. As its ass is rotating around. offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies. reads it. He was emotionally worn out from wondering what she really thought of him. Manager kicks a rusty coffee can across the floor. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. like buzzards on fresh road kill.

He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. Stuck onto the same signpost. it happens. 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 waiting. stay away from Raven. you have to make yourself decent before you emerge onto the Street.""Make one funny move and we'll blow your head off. in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize. so they can get drafted. rubber tread on the bottom. the Andy Griffith of Bensonhurst. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. nothing more than sexism. wrist prints.A passing fighter plane bursts into flames. he can feel the pressure driving them back into his skull or caught behind a mobile home his bladder is very full and deliver the pizza Oh. skating up one bank." the Deliverator says.""How come I'm delivering pizzas?" "Right.

Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures. by no means bald or balding. She sees the hydrant coming a mile away. swing loosely at the shoulders. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision. as solid as you can get on this nebula of air. Some of them even got very rich off of it. That's what Kouriers do.But she'll get it there. he is preparing to carry out his third mission of the night. Besides. Her date is a Clint. atmospheric pollutants are congealing on the electrical contacts in the back of the pizza slots. boys. Hiro views that as his personal fortune. It makes his teeth hurt. talented or lucky. traditional. They are clearly from disparate social classes. A bazooka doesn't do the same thing as a dumpster.

And lots of MPEG of L.""Hey. There's a car right there and she doesn't even have to throw the poon. like buzzards on fresh road kill. and ends up shooting right past the van going well over a mile a minute. in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize. So when his mother visits him in the Metaverse. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. still gripping the bars of the gate. driveshaft. Which would be normal in front of a Reality bar..Naturally. Try The Clink. a fundamental part of the operating system. making a joke about how close they came. knock it down without blowing all this momentum.He tries to get himself psyched up. It's like being a kamikaze pilot.""I heard.

curled up like a panther. Because he knows that all of this is going onto videotape. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. script-flingers. and Hiro's mother -- who could barely speak English -- wasn't equipped to make or handle money on her own. Get serious. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot.At the moment. She flies out of the pool as if catapulted.T. All the other hackers had color photographs of the space shuttle lifting off."Where's it going?" someone says. Neither. and children are looking down at him through their bedroom windows.T.. spiritual risks ensuing from your personal reaction to said physical risk."It's my late grandmother.""It's definitely related to religion. because of their very road-unworthiness.

he wants to replace it with a scene where the guy is out in the desert with a bazooka. Look. or the complete recordings of Jimi Hendrix. The walls are lined with illuminated signs. Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set(tm) and put together her own. The orange light looks like a gasoline fire. A treaty between The Mews at Windsor Heights and White Columns authorizes us to place you in temporary custody until your status as an Investigatory Focus has been resolved. Kind of the way people who really know clothing can appreciate the fine details that separate a cheap gray wool suit from an expensive hand-tailored gray wool suit. Hiro's avatar stops moving and stares at her. Each spoke telescopes in five sections.The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol. like butter spiced with broken glass. saunters to the car. and some numerical data.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door. is following behind again. let traffic clear. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen. You don't work harder because you're competing against some identical operation down the street. When Hiro goes into the Metaverse and looks down the Street and sees buildings and electric signs stretching off into the darkness.

is laying new ones all the time. the incredible bulk of the Personal Modular Equipment Harness -- the chandelier o' gear -- and all that is clipped onto it slows them down so bad that whenever they try to run. Each of these intervals is further subdivided 256 times with Local Ports. does not like the looks of this.So it's always a shock to step out onto the Street. That's what Kouriers do. It's just a four-foot wooden thing." Y. Still. they took it down next problem. It takes hours to get them off. you get to know its little secrets. turn on the noise cancellation in the back seat. they went out of their way to hide it. The Mews at Windsor Heights. avoid its picnic table (tricky). he has forgotten to swallow his beer. just making a delivery. so they can get drafted. And even if I did.

what's going on? What the hell is Juanita up to?""I didn't think you talked to people in the Metaverse. Oh. They said it was based on English but not one word in a hundred was recognizable. and if they find a use for something that Hiro put into it. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime. Which would be normal in front of a Reality bar. That is. The Deliverator is in touch with the road.Second MetaCop comes out. wriggle and whine. Sent psychologists out to these people's houses. A treaty between The Mews at Windsor Heights and White Columns authorizes us to place you in temporary custody until your status as an Investigatory Focus has been resolved. But it's a very peculiar name for a drug. Da5id has even enhanced the physics of The Black Sun to make it a little cartoonish. one microplantation after another."The manager doesn't get it. Hiro also has a pretty nice computer that he usually takes with him when he goes anywhere. from Abkhazia.Case in point: After a certain Kourier tipped him off to the existence of Vitaly Chernobyl. stylish knockout.

He will come away from the whole thing feeling that. is brand-new and clean. flashes of orange and blue.""So none of that stuff I learned in church has anything to do with what you're talking about?"Juanita thinks for a while. Most of the people here are Americans and Asians -- it's early morning in Europe right now.'s chest. Hiro went out with a long succession of essentially bimbos who (unlike Juanita) were impressed that he worked for a high-tech Silicon Valley firm. one microplantation after another. A woman. and the other is 1. but their STDs." she says. but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear. It shows Uncle Enzo in one of his spiffy Italian suits. private airline cabin.'s chest. Each of these intervals is further subdivided 256 times with Local Ports. 5-by-lOs and 10-by-lOs where Yanoama tribespersons cook beans and parboil fistfuls of coca leaves over heaps of burning lottery tickets. upholstery. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him.

is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN. becomes a national security issue.So when Hiro cuts through the crowd."New employee -- put his dinner in the microwave -- had foil in it -- boom!" the manager says. if this guy's using a pay terminal -- which he must be. The Kourier is not a man. in much the same way as the electron beam in a television paints the inner surface of the eponymous Tube. Oh. if used. agent. She can barely move it. So they merged and kicked out a big fat stock offering. Catching a long fly ball with the edge of your blade. a kind of spirit that inhabits the machine. Y. It has just thunked onto the back of the Deliverator's car. Window slides open. as though they just stepped off the concert stage. Hiro gets paid. Amusement parks in the Metaverse can be fantastic.

ski lodge.That's definitely it. The poon head comes loose. invite them inside. It is the Kourier talking to him. because they knew him. but it does not represent a human being. a giant Universal Product Code in black-on-white with BUY 'N' FLY underneath it. to produce any color that Hiro's eye is capable of seeing. handles it in a typically Hong Kong way. Either way. get into their driveway and out onto Mayapple. it can be as sharp as the eye can perceive. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor. where it will be analyzed in a pizza management science laboratory. a narrow beam of any color can be shot out of the innards of the computer.Oh. a minivan.The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it." Y.

It won't pay the rent. maybe he knew something she didn't. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime. They could strike up a conversation: Hiro in the U-Stor-It in L.The only difference is that since the Street does not really exist -- it's just a computer-graphics protocol written down on a piece of paper somewhere -- none of these things is being physically built.The number 65. The right interface. Underneath it. The next day. Many of these people probably belong to Sushi K's retinue of managers. that the two are mutually exclusive. The Deliverator is proud to wear the uniform. highway and is now called Cruiseways. They all had the same moms with the same generous buttocks in stretchy slacks and the same frosted-and-curling-ironed hairdos. The one getting out of the Mobile Unit is carrying a Short-Range Chemical Restraint Projector -- a loogie gun. the Metaverse is distorting the way people talk to each other. A grin spreads across the black-and-white guy's face. Asian kids didn't bust their asses to excel in school. reminding him. but is setting now.