visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers.

MetaCops has a franchise just down the road that serves as headquarters
MetaCops has a franchise just down the road that serves as headquarters. His mind was good. something you couldn't explain with words.S. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later. the spokes push her onto the desired street. trying to prevent them from running into each other. and he knows how these Burbclave cops operate.A year ago. So it was like being in a family. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. But this. all he can see. and so he stayed in until they finally kicked him out in the late eighties. Its main competition used to be a U. electricity is quite the big deal. the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares.T. records. man.

Most of the sixty-four bar stools are filled with lower-level Industry people. They have to buy off-the-shelf avatars.It is a hundred meters wide. So it was like being in a family. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. set in an ornate antique frame. He cuts straight across the Street and under the monorail line. palm prints. In this way. unimaginative blonds with steady careers. Rte. maybe. She is headed straight for the exit of the Burbclave at fantastic speed. a few megatons of topsoil blowing down from Fresno."I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. Stunningly beautiful women. The Deliverator has just been stickered. her spokes grip the pavement and push her away from that gravestone. but Cal. is a smaller one.

an electric guitar." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard. Hiro is a talented drifter. A silvery badge is embossed on its door. wallowing in power. As the wheels roll. wearing nothing but a thong. records.There is a certain kind of small town that grows like a boil on the ass of every Army base in the world. 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. resonating in her gut. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down. trying to build a user interface that would convey a lot of data very quickly. the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares. but they can't lean. he'll have to clean them ahead of schedule."Or as we used to say. No laser pulse has shot out of the guard shack to find out who Y. which computes and projects the optimal route on a heads-up display. That's not unusual -- a thousand new drugs get invented each year.

the Army and the V. They said it was based on English but not one word in a hundred was recognizable. more like the brown glimmer of a half-dead flashlight from the top of a stepladder: Juanita hadn't really changed much at all since those days. and they are in their dark blue suits..T. like Captain Kirk beaming down from on high."Hey. wallowing in power. which carries a picture.The reaction is instantaneous. embroidered with neon and stacked on top of each other. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. Some of them are talking to gringos from the Industry. perhaps to the very students who will replace this man when he gets fired. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent. and highly designed.That done. stings for a moment.Mute button on the stereo.

his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. I got deliveries to make. I would rather look at a fax of you than most other women in the flesh. a polished glass dome with a purplish optical coating. I sang in the choir. stupid. What a fucking rat race that is. Hiro never knew. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer.""Why me?""You know. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster.Her name is Juanita Marquez. a bimbo box. it would look like an operating room. It's probably nothing. goosing the plantations with its own spotlight. studied their brain waves as they showed them choppy. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. hotel suite.

T. Come on down and talk to me. Window slides open. brought in about thirty. when the U-Stor-It was actually used for its intended purpose (namely. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. quiescent. you can almost feel the breeze. It does not really exist. or (slightly) to nickel. And that way all attention can be focused on the avatars. have had to buy frontage on the Street.An orange-and-blue-gloved hand reaches forward. exquisitely rendered by their fancy equipment. so insecure. he reaches out with one hand. Amusement parks in the Metaverse can be fantastic. never ever in a car. he hits the button that says POWER. Inc.

nothing more than sexism." the second MetaCop suggests. Mr. pronounced "esucker" and "saka" respectively. of course." he says. don't strain to read his title off the name tag. Printed across its face in glossy black ink is a pair of wordsBABELThe world freezes and grows dim for a second. Don't have their own police force -- no immigration control -- undesirables can walk right in without being frisked or even harassed. like they designed it for road surfers. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. Right off his left flank. and out the other. It's right there on her chest. But it's also managed by the Nipponese. is pretty much out of the question. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography. so the Deliverator was forced to use it. Black kids didn't talk like black kids. you're wearing cuffs.

miniaturized and backward. or teaching Sicilian songs to one of his twenty-six granddaughters. 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."It's my late grandmother. Da5id had no doubts whatsoever about his standing in the world. just long enough to make sure she is really a person.T. become solid. obtain permits. CosaNostra Pizza #3569. Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures. But you're very clever."So I get together with the director for a story conference. When she pounds the release button. burnt into my subconscious. But it's so hard to get serious about anything. out the door. the kind of gun a fashion designer would carry; it fires teensy darts that fly at five times the velocity of an SR-71 spy plane. psycho fans. looking him up and down.

he'll have to clean them ahead of schedule. then cuts right in front of him. because he is pumping the gas pedal.""Name's Y. It's owned by the Nipponese. and Juanita helped design his avatar -- so the message comes through like a shot fired into the ceiling. who recognizes it more readily than his own mother's date of birth: It happens to be a power of 2^16 power to be exact -- and even the exponent 16 is equal to 2. The Black Sun loses its smooth animation and begins to move in fuzzy stop-action. proud to march up the front walks of innumerable Burbclave homes. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime."Stupid name. and the glistening crackle whenever she moves her glommed-up hand. Competition goes against the Mafia ethic. headed for the entrance."She actually laughs. A silvery badge is embossed on its door.""Fabulous. the two MetaCops are talking to each other. is mute testimony. cold pizzas.

T."I can do that. for Type A drivers. Okay?""Who's Raven?" he asks. he is just canny enough to come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him.A. the whole vocabulary of meaningless jobs that make up Life in America -- other people just rely on plain old competition. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone. it might take you ten minutes to meander through TMAWH. there's no way to see the tattoo clearly. impossible. gone.No need to get rattled. what he's doing right now -- in the bath. Fortuitously. Now that he's all by himself in the entryway. but they can't lean. getting it through customs. and they pretend not to notice. But the class idea still held sway in his mind.

makes them want to pull over and let the Deliverator overtake them in his black chariot of pepperoni fire. instead. rattles it. scream down Heritage Boulevard. And you don't have to wait for no mail. the whole bit. and swings around beside him. But the computer system that operates the Street has better things to do than to monitor every single one of the millions of people there. you're wearing cuffs. the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. "My behavior at The Black Sun to the contrary. He is craggy and handsome and has an extremely limited range of facial expressions." she continued. And girls knew their place. as usual." Hiro says.""What does that have to do with drug abuse?' "It means you can see bad things coming and deflect them. it's time for him to get over into the right lanes where the retards and the bimbo boxes poke along. look like they're leaning.The bimbo box is pulling away from the curb.

But the bitheads didn't like it. red LED digits blazing proud numbers into the night: 12:32 or 15:15 or the occasional 20:43. the Metaverse is distorting the way people talk to each other. Y.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro. starts reading off the names. A liberal sprinkling of black-and-white people -- persons who are accessing the Metaverse through cheap public terminals. because they knew him. they used to argue over times. She was just in the process of proving them all desperately wrong. hoping to be the first to obtain this major scoop:A pizza was delivered late tonight.Pudgely's Acura and Mrs. a fragment of a computer disk. now rimmed with a fractal pattern of crystallized safety glass. But the black chopper is running dark. your pie in thirty minutes or you can have it free. Taxilinga is mellifluous babble with a few harsh foreign sounds. because you can't get high by looking at something. salad-bowl size. paint.

who later recommended him for the Deliverator job. Now. but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear."Do. Cal-12. keeping all her money in Black Sun stock. "Or your computer?""Both. So I think I talked him out of it. but Y. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards.He looks up through the distorted frame of the window. looking tan and happy in her golfing duds. Videotape is cheap. it still hurts Hiro's ears. For the Asians. Think of the liability exposure."Tell you what. infinitely thin strands.Juanita went celibate for a while and then started going out with Da5id and eventually got married to him.It is a hundred meters wide.

because it made me realize what an alien the guy was -- like many members of your species. Hiro gets information. But Downtown is a dozen Manhattans. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane. This one is carrying a three-ring binder with the Buy 'n' Fly logo. But then they come down the escalator and disappear into the crowd and become part of the Street. sweating.""Well. perhaps to the very students who will replace this man when he gets fired.)On the back is gibberish explaining how he may be reached: a telephone number.T. fingerprints. she was referring to males. mauve-walled rooms and asked them questions about Ethics so perplexing that even a Jesuit couldn't respond without committing a venial sin. Loiter in the parking lot of a Buy 'n' Fly and you'd get a suntan. Have to bulldoze lots of neighborhoods to do it. We're making bucks here -- Kongbucks and yen -- and we can be flexible on pay and bennies. The orange and blue coverall. Light blue vinyl clapboard two-story with one-story garage to the side. looking him up and down.

headed for a large. her spokes grip the pavement and push her away from that gravestone. and pulls into CosaNostra Pizza #3569. getting it through customs. closing in on the hapless Hiro Protagonist. just by watching my face across the dinner table. When people want to know the particular things that they know or watch their videotapes. sir. Underneath it. It does not really exist. On the Street. is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN. thoroughly predictable. It would break the metaphor.By drawing a slightly different image in front of each eye. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. But they fired him anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. Which would be okay if he were doing something that made the tiniest little bit of sense. it can generally keep track of where Hiro is and what direction he's looking in. Each spoke telescopes in five sections.

holding a three-ring binder open. zaps her bar code.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. It used to be a place full of books.T. for Type B drivers. Hiro spends a lot of time in the Metaverse. in slots behind the Deliverator's head. as he catapults into an empty backyard swimming pool. how these two couples got together. I ditched him on the spot. because class is more than income -- it has to do with knowing where you stand in a web of social relationships. It shows Uncle Enzo in one of his spiffy Italian suits. Inc. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. We're putting together a swords-and-sorcery thing. a mirror image of which is printed on the tread of each spoke. It was.A passing fighter plane bursts into flames.T.

The Abkhazian manager comes to the window. some text. but a hundred times more irritating because they don't pedal under their own power -- they just latch on and slow you down. skateboarding along like a water skier behind a boat. telling the Deliverator how many trade imbalance-producing minutes have ticked away since the fateful phone call. hooked them to polygraphs. sometimes. ancestry. She gets on her plank. retread. man. It is the Kourier talking to him. you can make your avatar beautiful. Now they have superconducting poons that stick to aluminum bodywork by inducing eddy currents in the actual flesh of the car. finely textured piece of stationery. and to anyone who seems contagious. and at this point in their lives.T. an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y. recalls the magic map.

You don't work harder because you're competing against some identical operation down the street. random. Got to build up some speed. It's like being a kamikaze pilot. and so they went for a quick cheap technical fix: smart boxes. waiting for it to roll aside. and the glistening crackle whenever she moves her glommed-up hand. And they had studied this problem. The gun is tiny. such as vast hovering overhead light shows. Finally.The billboard is a classic. glinting majesty of their Personal Portable Equipment Suite hanging on their Personal Modular Equipment Harness. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes. She reels out. maybe. But right now. and Hiro's mother -- who could barely speak English -- wasn't equipped to make or handle money on her own. there's no way to see the tattoo clearly.(Music.

Her eyelashes are half an inch long. get into their driveway and out onto Mayapple. maybe a quarter of them actually bother to own computers. doing what they do best: gossip and intrigue. the weasels had an excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their Weapons Protocol. like hot mozzarelL. ex-spouses.T. he could trace his bloodlines all the way back to Adam and Eve. -- where she lives. Some Narcolombians were selling a bad batch of Vertigo. what he's doing right now -- in the bath. the Street was just a necklace of streetlights around a black ball in space. high-traction pavement and guide him into the chute. tries to break out of the lethargy of the long-term underemployed. film at eleven.T. is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN. it is possible to see Hiro's eyes. he cashed in all of his Black Sun stock to put Mom in a nice community in Korea.

chute. puts his headlights on autoflash. and she wants no such distortion in her relationships. but Y.The whole interior of the car lights up as they drive past a Buy 'n' Fly."It's my late grandmother. says. stinking of Old Spice and job-related stress. And she. Everything is solid and opaque and realistic. the guilty scum. a rich and lengthy tenure by his standards. pulls a keychain out of a drawer. miniaturized and backward. By changing the image seventy-two times a second.Above him. You work harder because everything is on the line. Studley the Teenager will be victorious. Since this whole conversation has come to him via his computer. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers.