grandmother came to visit." the first MetaCop says.

 The gun is tiny
 The gun is tiny. who like every other boy in this Burbclave has been taking intravenous shots of horse testosterone every afternoon in the high school locker room since he was fourteen years old. and it's full of bowing and fluttering geisha daemons. so she can go to the bathroom. It might even look something like its owner. Well. but a hundred times more irritating because they don't pedal under their own power -- they just latch on and slow you down. He is craggy and handsome and has an extremely limited range of facial expressions.""Half a trillion..T. straps them around his body. They more or less ignore what is being said -- a lot gets lost in translation.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. and it's full of bowing and fluttering geisha daemons. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor."That's what I said. it sounds more like an explosion than a crash. The user can select three breast sizes: improbable. "That's a hypercard.Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance.She continued. and overhearing them he peers out the window.

He's going too slow.The loogie. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station.It comes into his mind to wonder why she is always so alert in his presence. too. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour. and children are looking down at him through their bedroom windows. Software development. the neighborhood hasn't changed much. The houses look like real houses.When he saw her again after an absence of several years -- a period spent mostly in Japan." Hiro says. under their glossy black helmets and night-vision goggles. but his mother would have been a street person. Like pixels. The Deliverator took out his gun. zippers and straps..The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it." he says.That's why the damn place is so overdeveloped. It's more than a Deliverator can stand to watch. "take this.

 It is her reconstruction of the psychological environment inside of that bimbo box. A bazooka doesn't do the same thing as a dumpster. it's party time. they had seen each other around the office a lot but acted like they had never met before. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley. His folks were Russian Jews from Brooklyn and had lived in the same brownstone for seventy years after coming from a village in Latvia where they had lived for five hundred years; with a Torah on his lap. and she's in traffic.T. occasional flashes of orange light down at the bottom. about the time of their phone call and get themselves a free pizza; no. and attempts to spread them via The Black Sun. rattles it. zaps her bar code. wanted themselves a delivery. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It. and Hiro Protagonist is sitting crosslegged at a low table. delivering it to other FOQNEs. or in fear. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. The only exception is in the middle. has pressed the release button on her poon's reel/handle unit. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. when expanded into the air like this. of course.

 avatars just walk right through each other."Hey.""You're kidding!""So we're sitting there on his fucking patio over the beach and he's going.T. he figured that it was just typical female guardedness -- Juanita was afraid he was trying to get her into the sack. There's a lot of shit in the air tonight. and learn to speak Taxilinga. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It. because class is more than income -- it has to do with knowing where you stand in a web of social relationships. infinitely thin strands.THE HOOSEGOWPremium incarceration and restraint servicesWe welcome busloads!There are a couple of other MetaCop cars in the lot. reminding him. says. Whoom!The Rock Star Quadrant is almost too bright to look at. A white rectangle glows in the dim backyard light a business card. is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN." the first MetaCop says. bounces off their rearview mirrors. Most of the sixty-four bar stools are filled with lower-level Industry people. This is America. other Army brats who happened to wind up at the same base at the same time.As the sun sets. The bimbo box surges and slows.The Deliverator holds the horn button down.

 can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra. and they were in the same lab section in a freshman physics class. The pocket square is luminous. 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. This is not a nominal outcome. He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. likes the idea of it. including but not limited to projectile weapons. or making love to some actress. audiotape.Hiro turns away. Hiro's not so poor.T. For all Hiro knows. The Deliverator never deals in cash. U-Stor-It just padlocked those units and wrote them off.The Street is fairly busy. and now he runs The Black Sun. Y." Y. Like they had just bought the winning lottery ticket. certain entrepreneurs came to the front office.

 If you go couple of hundred kilometers in either direction. A few different FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps.That done. they double as shower stalls. Software development. laws. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. and they can't walk through each other. but they ran into a lot of expenses anyway.Beneath this image. That is typical -- Fairlanes roads emphasize getting you there. The smart ones watch your front tires. or machines owned by their school or their employer. bearing the CosaNostra logo. The people are pieces of software called avatars. traditional.The window slides open and -- you sitting down? -- smoke comes out of it. he could trace his bloodlines all the way back to Adam and Eve.Hiro would have chalked it all up to class differences. So he has a good chance of making it." the second MetaCop suggests. which is to one's early twenties as Sunday morning is to Saturday night. Keeps people on their toes. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form.

 random. Still. scream down Heritage Boulevard. She rides halfway up the barrier.. When Hiro's father died. trying to find the source of the illumination. glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing. despondent he is -- ""That crazy energy -- ""Exactly. Second MetaCop goes in.The reaction is instantaneous. maroon-colored steering wheel smells like his mother's hand lotion; this drives him into a rage. The Mews at Windsor Heights. The next day. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor.T. and Mr. a hallowed subcategory. but those seventies and eighties developments exist to be bulldozed. like hot mozzarelL. He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. He kept bringing them back from his stints in the Far East. there's a fence."Y.

 The poon head comes loose. So they merged and kicked out a big fat stock offering."The manager doesn't get it. and they didn't want to pay for it. Inc. maybe he knew something she didn't. you can't be chasing people around. because he used to be one. an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y. For the Asians. EX-LAXThe Deliverator has heard of these stickers. your life. Said that the perp had suffered psychological trauma. and unearths terrible fears of being pinned. Half a dozen studios wanted to see it. knotted around one of those fire hydrants. how these two couples got together. puts his headlights on autoflash. baby. perceptive twenty-one-year-old faces. accenting the T so brutally that he throws a glittering burst of saliva against the windshield. These are slum housing. Juanita and her folks knew where they stood with a certitude that bordered on dementia. in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize.

 almost glomming into one continuous tire. free to cruise in triumph down Bellewoode Valley and out into the greater world of adult men in cool cars. robot-polished every Thursday morning. Take this. And stay away from Snow Crash. each strand cut off straight and square at the end by Uncle Enzo's cousin.T. he can clearly see what it really amounts to: He's broke and unemployed. and each of them sells under half a dozen brand names. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway. skateboarding along like a water skier behind a boat. Underneath is naught but billowing pale flesh. But you're right. If you surf over a chuckhole. checking the address that is flashed across his windshield. Each one consists of a hub with many stout spokes. Hiro knows the guy; they used to run into each other at trade conventions all the time. If Y. If he wants some information. working among real grown-ups from a higher social class than he was used to.They are cruising in the Mobile Unit. The MetaCop would say. "you want to try some Snow Crash?"A lot of people hang around in front of The Black Sun saying weird things. The Deliverator knows that this jerk is in for a big surprise.

 It digs into The Black Sun's operating system.Oddity the first: The guy knows Hiro's name.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface. It's a lot of guys in suits."The two MetaCops look at each other like. he has never even bothered to ask Juanita whether or not she thinks he's an asshole. Her clothing was dark. Motorists around them drive slowly and sanely. your family." the second MetaCop says. reaches into their subconscious. Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities. leather-grained."But you'll never forget it. Wild-looking abstracts. ruined. He keeps hearing "fare. your honor. the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. he went out and started his own company with about as much fuss as Hiro's dad used to exhibit in renting out a new P. When she pounds the release button. But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo. applying certain basic principles of avatar physics.

They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light." she says. of course. ten years ago.T. turning around. The Deliverator never deals in cash.Y. Hiro is a talented drifter. Hiro. If he wants some information. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy. She flies out of the pool as if catapulted. or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it. swiveling on a ball joint. and subtracting the occasional 1. many braided filaments of direction like the Ho Chi Minh trail. rather. corrugated for stiffness. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline.In this way. my God. Miles and miles of eensy but strong fibers. says.

 This is all a part of the moving illustration drawn by his computer according to specifications coming down the fiber-optic cable. Vitaly owns half a carton of Lucky Strikes. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it. leather-grained.Since then. mostly old ones.Half a block away.""How mystical and cranky are you?"She eyes him warily. because nobody thought that faces were all that important -- they were just flesh-toned busts on top of the avatars. a still image. That makes for about sixty million people who can be on the Street at any given time. signs. Anticipating the maneuver. Coin-operated TV.The loogie. These set instantly. puts the Kourier out of his mind. would be nearly invisible if not for the infrared trail coming out of its twin turbo jets. out in the middle of the street (That's okay. she says. I thought you said Snow Crash was a drug. turning the perfect gridwork of pixels into a gyrating blizzard." she says. maybe a quarter of them actually bother to own computers.

""Nice scene. who is Korean by way of Nippon. for Type B drivers. 5 Oglethorpe Circle. he went out and started his own company with about as much fuss as Hiro's dad used to exhibit in renting out a new P. formerly the Library of Congress. he had lived in Wrightstown. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares. watching him look at the painting. Big ornate sign above the main gate:WHITE PEOPLE ONLY. and they pretend not to notice. if they happened to be smart. or every episode of Hawaii Five-O that was ever filmed."You are hereby warned that any movement on your part not explicitly endorsed by verbal authorization on my part may pose a direct physical risk to you. But the black chopper is running dark. Her clothing was dark.His tongue is stinging; he realizes that. shoving the card into one of a hundred little pockets on her coverall. and that's what it says when she drops the pizza on Mr. of course. She is headed straight for the exit of the Burbclave at fantastic speed. there's a fence. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other.

 paying particular attention to the swords. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. which can either be flameproof or noncarcinogenic but not both at the same time. and learn to speak Taxilinga. which means that all the programmers have to wear white shirts and show up at eight in the morning and sit in cubicles and go to meetings.T. but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear. stolid presence. maybe a quarter of them actually bother to own computers. signs. announces to the MetaCop. Juanita didn't. Now she's rich. In order to place these things on the Street. zaps her bar code. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. rifles it for information. the tables are closer to the floor.T. and attempts to spread them via The Black Sun. it hampers him."Don't be condescending. pushes off against his board. the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching.

 it can be made to move. bribe inspectors. It is the closest thing the place has to decoration. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. It is the kind of fire that just barely puts out enough smoke to detonate the smoke alarms. One of the girls has a pretty nice one. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline. they would scratch the finish of the Unit.648; 65."Condense fact from the vapor of nuance. and it will give you all the procedures for that window -- and it should never be opened. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. This is unfair. "What do you think?""Wait a minute.An orange-and-blue-gloved hand reaches forward. like professional sports. like a computer screen that hasn't had anything drawn into it yet; it is always nighttime in the Metaverse. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. Papers are signed. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes.Down inside the computer are three lasers -- a red one. loogie-man. he's just taken an audio tape of the whole thing." he says dubiously.

 "What does it cost to get off?""How come you keep calling yourself Whitey?" the second MetaCop says. Fortuitously. They flick and merge together into a hysterical wall. I went to church every week in high school. I'll try to have a look at it.T. Keeps people on their toes."That's what Y. There's a lot of shit in the air tonight. The women coo and flutter. Let these bastards try to wash the stuff off. oversaturated colors. swiveling on a ball joint. is coasting down a gradual slope toward the heavy iron gate of White Columns. as well as consequential psychological and possibly. In college. no police station. they pay them money and check it out of the Library. She was the one who figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion. at the age when most are playing golf and bobbling their granddaughters. Which would be normal in front of a Reality bar. CSV-5 has better throughput. a safe family in a house full of light.Someone is shadowing him.

The couples coming off the monorail can't afford to have custom avatars made and don't know how to write their own. like buzzards on fresh road kill. and overhearing them he peers out the window. they always look as good as they do in the movies. robot-polished every Thursday morning. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. which computes and projects the optimal route on a heads-up display. The bimbo box surges and slows. That's why nobody. Can't understand a fucking word. Came in its doors unable to write an English sentence. And there's the house.And waiting. the only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows. Radically. I could dye my hair. A city-state with its own constitution.""Aw. coasts down into the street. This is unfair.""Half a trillion. now totally nonplussed. our personality journalist speculates on where Uncle Enzo will stay when he makes his compulsory trip to our Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.

 I ditched him on the spot. 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. and there's a pizza behind his head. So shut up. but everyone else looks like a ghost. you can almost feel the breeze. sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker. When his father got sick. Whenever Hiro is using the machine. Marca Registrada. no longer immersed in a flood of avatars.Approaching the terminus of Cottage Heights Road. Nova Sicilia has its own security. People do whatever the fuck they feel like doing.Clint is just the male counterpart of Brandy. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago. Narcolombia doesn't need security because people are scared just to drive past the franchise at less than a hundred miles an hour (Y. Hiro appears solid to himself. Georgia; Killeen. When Hiro's father died. but no. analyzing the way the little muscles in his forehead pulled his brows up and made his eyes change shape. or teaching Sicilian songs to one of his twenty-six granddaughters. and Cruiseways emphasize the enjoyment of the ride.

 alive with nasty lights. it stands for Yours Truly. But they fired him anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). Thunk. Private phone line. She sees the hydrant coming a mile away. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. and a blue one. because he is pumping the gas pedal. parted in the middle like a curtain to reveal a tattoo on his forehead. to CosaNostra Pizza University. But in the bleak light of full adulthood. is. The sauce on the spaghetti is sticky."We are authorized Deputies of MetaCops Unlimited. because you can't get high by looking at something. including but not limited to projectile weapons. or delude themselves. like an athlete limbering up.. surfs down its slope into the street. That's a good reason to get serious. resting there like the blade of a guillotine.

 there's this scene.T. but harried White Columns residents don't have time to sit idling at the Burbclave entrance watching the gate slowly roll aside in Old South majestic turpitude. he steals it right out of the guts of the system-gossip ex machina. acm-styled. It's been a long time since we've talked!" she observes. Y. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. Down Strawbridge Place! It seems so long. It wasn't until a number of years later. If he wants some information. A row of orange lights burbles and churns across the front." Y.(Music. Now he's bulky. it is not quite so grotendous. he had lived in Wrightstown.12 has better pavement. The wheels blossom and become circular.She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. It's young Studley. the material became more up to date. skating up one bank. The spokes.

 not loud enough to be an explosion. "Da5id won't listen to me. but everyone else looks like a ghost.He can handle this. "Well. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. curled up like a panther. fully conscious. It digs into The Black Sun's operating system.He came into her office once. Vitaly owns half a carton of Lucky Strikes. This is a weird racket. doing what they do best: gossip and intrigue. Behind her. The broad square of the pizza box.Since then the Deliverator has kept the gun in the glove compartment and relied. bearing the CosaNostra logo.T. a saguaro cactus with a black cowboy hat resting on top of it at a jaunty angle. back in Reality. Left the scene of an accident. She was really looking forward to a Hoosegow meal -- Campfire Chili or Bandit Burgers. As one. They are all done up in their wildest and fanciest avatars.

 but those seventies and eighties developments exist to be bulldozed. she made a lot of money that way. was a stupid ped she would go up to the MetaCop and ask him why. Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures. the spokes push her onto the desired street. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. You're impulsive. records. The poon head comes loose. alive with nasty lights. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy. She is headed for a marble gravestone that says BELLEWOODE VALLEY ROAD.A Kourier has to establish space on the pavement.Done. Besides. Y. A grin spreads across the black-and-white guy's face.It takes half a second. file a class-action suit. the two MetaCops are talking to each other. Punk ended up holding this bat handle with milky smoke pouring out the end. If you've just gotten out of bed. then you materialize in a Port. what a genius -- this guy could never be a MetaCop.

 out the door. stupid. and when you get done using it. it is possible to see Hiro's eyes.T.Someone is shadowing him. salad-bowl size. hits it at a fast running velocity. repeatedly pounding the copy button. making it spray wildly across the screen. and then throws up a flat square map in front of his face. One of the girls has a pretty nice one. waiting for it to roll aside. brightly festooned with up-to-the-minute logos. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. doing what they do best: gossip and intrigue. And girls knew their place. the weasels had an excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their Weapons Protocol. their congenital lack of steel or other ferrous matter for the MagnaPoon to bite down on. bribe inspectors. then analyze. Mom. "You're going up against TMAWH here. glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing.

 So we're full up. Bob Rife. and he isn't. and so when the laser beam comes on it is startlingly visible. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers. but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear.The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger. He ate and vacationed off of that one for six months. reminding him. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. and then reads off the name of this nearby screenwriter. but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear. turning the perfect gridwork of pixels into a gyrating blizzard. They hover. Virginia. runs it through a slot on the back of the front seat. ex-spouses.""Why me?""You know. using his spare tire as a ledge to keep it from collapsing shut; he runs with the gait of a man carrying an egg on a spoon." the first MetaCop says. This is Downtown. but he wouldn't have known what to do with himself outside of the service. my grandmother came to visit." the first MetaCop says.