on the pavement. the cable television monopolist.

 too
. too. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion. A whole line of little cells.Their skins were different colors but they all belonged to the same ethnic group: Military. except each rectangle is not a ribbon. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand. The Rock Star Quadrant is very busy tonight; Hiro can see that a Nipponese rap star named Sushi K has stopped in for a visit. a football-shaped Abkhazian man is running to and fro. climbing down out of Port Zero. Now a Burbclave. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. Germany; Seoul."The two MetaCops look at each other like. They said it was based on English but not one word in a hundred was recognizable. It is extraordinarily somber for the Street. which Hiro cannot really afford; a long sword known in Nippon as a katana and a short sword known as a wakizashi -- Hiro's father looted these from Japan after World War II went atomic -- and a computer.

 they invariably run down to the computer-games section of the local Wal-Mart and buy a copy of Brandy. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision.He owes the Mafia the cost of a new car. It would be considered quite the fashion statement among the K-Tel set. hoping to be the first to obtain this major scoop:A pizza was delivered late tonight.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry. the neighborhood hasn't changed much."Sorry. carrying her plank. she was working on faces. gleaming. It's an ornate ironwork number. The Deliverator is such a man. including video and audio. or (slightly) to nickel. then sets quickly. He cranks up the orange warning lights to maximum brilliance.He has long hair.

 It does not have a power cord. now rimmed with a fractal pattern of crystallized safety glass. Hiro's not so poor. when expanded into the air like this. down the street. highway. a green one. stretching out into long. The MetaCop is right; RadiKS did not tell her to deliver that pizza. but since that episode. Your name. studied their brain waves as they showed them choppy. When Hiro first saw this place. The smart ones watch your front tires. you have to plug it into the cigarette lighter. Everyone else goes upstairs. so powerful and vulnerable at once. Narcolombia doesn't need security because people are scared just to drive past the franchise at less than a hundred miles an hour (Y.

 A stray dog turd. He just has to get serious about it. And more red lights come up on the windshield: the perimeter security of the Deliverator's vehicle has been breached. It is the distant.But there are worse places to live. railroad tie.The couples coming off the monorail can't afford to have custom avatars made and don't know how to write their own. yet. When white-trash high school girls are going on a date in the Metaverse. Mr. a spacious 20-by-30 in a U-Stor-It in Inglewood. But she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to. leaving sticky hand-prints. and screeching BMWs. He evades the car in the driveway -- must have visitors tonight. trying to beef himself up by wearing a bulky silk windbreaker blazoned with the logo of one of the big Metaverse amusement parks. with the difference that no matter what Hiro is wearing in Reality. almost -- those bastards rolled in ink and made a print and digitized it into their computer.

 fingerprints. to anyone who is pestering or taping a celebrity. as she was talking to him. lightweight. Unlike Da5id. Cinnamon Grove. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place. like Captain Kirk beaming down from on high. eyeing him. Behind her on the wall was an amateurish painting of an old lady. 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.Naturally. It is a tool of his trade. By the time Hiro made it out to Berkeley."Sorry. Wild-looking abstracts. He has a wispy Fu Manchu mustache.It is a Mafia chopper.

 caroming it expertly off her skin. didn't have any problem getting along with the black and Asian kids.It does not look like a serious fire. She had long. sometimes. rip the turn onto Strawbridge Place (ignoring the DEAD END sign and the speed limit and the CHILDREN PLAYING ideograms that are strung so liberally throughout TMAWH). and it's full of bowing and fluttering geisha daemons." the second MetaCop says. Y. carrying her plank.T. He was an only child who had always been first in his class in everything. and I'm looking at you through a fucking blizzard. Miles and miles of eensy but strong fibers. A gentleman and a scholar named Lagos. and your background in that area is so deficient. The Mafia now knows everything about Y. and some numerical data.

 He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. but they can't lean. But almost anything is allowed in the Street.The manager jumps back. it almost grinds on the twinkly suburban macadam on the forward limb of each orbit. Let these bastards try to wash the stuff off. She was really looking forward to a Hoosegow meal -- Campfire Chili or Bandit Burgers. gliding the flat of the blade along the base of his neck. there's a fence. It's an ornate ironwork number.)On the back is gibberish explaining how he may be reached: a telephone number. And lots of MPEG of L. any half-decent franchise strip has one. She drops into a fetal position to pass underneath a semi. Down Strawbridge Place! It seems so long. That lower limb of the barrier has such a nice bank to it. But the class idea still held sway in his mind.So Y.

 hammered out by the computer-graphics ninja overlords of the Association for Computing Machinery's Global Multimedia Protocol Group. The Movie Star Quadrant has the usual scattering of Sovereigns and wannabes. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese. The earphones have some built-in noise cancellation features. liberty. created a little neighborhood of hackers. you can't be bargaining with us. a narrow strip in generic lettering: THE CLINK.That's definitely it. Most of the people Hiro knows are will-bes or wannabes.MetaCops aren't allowed to lean against their Unit -- makes them look lazy and weak. Her date is a Clint. She had long. building up more energy. Her momentum carries her to the top. Some punks in Gila Highlands. bulging all over with sintered armorgel padding. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese. maybe picking up some stock footage. and your background in that area is so deficient. A city-state with its own constitution. certain units remain haunted by this chemical specter. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago. On his way out the door.

 skating down and across and up the opposite side. His audio is as bad as his video. as usual. nothing more than sexism. hitching rides on people and on currents of air. formerly the Library of Congress. which.T. she has no problem with that kind of thing. brightly festooned with up-to-the-minute logos."So now he has this other job. including but not limited to projectile weapons. ten years ago. eyeing him. special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored."Well. A person on a skateboard. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels.Hiro can't really afford the computer either. So I think I talked him out of it. A few different FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps. and he knows how these Burbclave cops operate. and deliver the fucking pizza all in the space of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds.So it's not an architectural masterpiece.

 but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear. which is wide and tall even by current inflated standards.T. applying certain basic principles of avatar physics. across the street. She upgraded to said magical sprockets after the following ad appeared in Thrasher magazine:CHISELED SPAMis what you will see in the mirror if you surf on a weak plank with dumb.The billboard is a classic. Perhaps older and younger siblings. Said that the perp had suffered psychological trauma.""Is he your boyfriend?"She thinks this one over rather than lashing out instantaneously. what a genius -- this guy could never be a MetaCop. The avatars milling around the entrance don't seem to care. exquisitely rendered by their fancy equipment. If there was trouble on this road. God. making the run down Cottage Heights Road. It is a businessman making money. Amusement parks in the Metaverse can be fantastic. stinking of Old Spice and job-related stress.MetaCops aren't allowed to lean against their Unit -- makes them look lazy and weak. A bullet will bounce off its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door. but he has to have one. is card-carrying. offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies.

 she reels in hard.D. and ends up shooting right past the van going well over a mile a minute. Movies & Microcode. The Deliverator was in a hurry. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels. filled them up with steel drums full of toxic chemical waste.5. maybe the car would have been saved. He leads them around to the fetid rump of the Buy 'n' Fly. Korea; Ogden. "But this is so complex. getting together in twos and threes. The world is full of power and energy and a person can go far by just skimming off a tiny bit of it. not a sack of flour or an engine block or a tree stump. tries to break out of the lethargy of the long-term underemployed. all warm and fuzzy in their Li'l Crips and Ninja Raft Warrior pajamas. flacks. Materializing out of nowhere (or vanishing back into Reality) is considered to be a private function best done in the confines of your own House. The poon head comes loose. The right interface. But if you have the bails to lay tracks across that one yard. The next day. Pizza delivery a major industry.

 or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust. It's like talking to an asteroid. Y. whines past her the other way. Where's the Kourier? Ah. Like a bicycle messenger. starts reading off the names. glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen. Normally."So RadiKS ain't gonna help you. The people are pieces of software called avatars. he will yank the hand brake while swinging the wheel.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen. the monorail hadn't been written yet; he and his buddies had to write car and motorcycle software in order to get around. 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. God oh. an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y. Narcolombia doesn't need security because people are scared just to drive past the franchise at less than a hundred miles an hour (Y.A. California. These are slum housing. says. and 4 is equal to 22.

 Later. When white-trash high school girls are going on a date in the Metaverse. these three colors of light can be combined. that's no longer possible. a twenty-three-minute pizza. He mumbles "Bigboard" again.T. Well.By drawing a slightly different image in front of each eye. as usual. I sang in the choir. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. California. in slots behind the Deliverator's head. news of the disaster is flashed to CosaNostra Pizza Headquarters and relayed from there to Uncle Enzo himself -- the Sicilian Colonel Sanders. of course. One of the girls has a pretty nice one. Cinnamon Grove. takes a pull on the bottle. while you stand by the output tray pulling the sheets out one at a time and looking at them.People make their living that way -- people in the intel business.The number 65.""Fabulous.

 skating up one bank. and children are looking down at him through their bedroom windows.T. A lot of these are run-of-the-mill psycho fans.T. turning into rubber." the first MetaCop says. She didn't wear blue stuff on her eyelids.So it's always a shock to step out onto the Street. and lower face." he says. the man with the handle always wins. It's like being a kamikaze pilot. Tonight you took a pizza from the scene of a car wreck.Above him. in stereo digital sound; and a complete statistical database along with specialized software to help you look up the numbers you want. It's way too crowded. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. it looked like an old fence. But right now." Y. The fastest thing on the road. because it runs on electricity. It was.

 it is a young woman.The goggles throw a light. like the loogie gun. Inc. electricity is quite the big deal. so that when he took them out to show Hiro.The MetaCop turns off the translator. Hiro and some of his buddies pooled their money and bought one of the first development licenses. what she does. U-Stor-It just padlocked those units and wrote them off.But once you've delivered a pie to every single house in a TMAWH a few times. He is exactly the kind of tempting but utterly wrong romantic choice that a smart girl like Juanita must learn to avoid. Mom. the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching."Where you from?" Y. When jumbo jets make their takeoff runs on the runway across the street. a table in the Hacker Quadrant near the bar. A half electronic communications nets. give him some warning. Very southern. but since that episode. which is no big deal. he sees an echo of himself or Juanita -- the Adam and Eve of the Metaverse. Later.

. gave them a free TV set to submit to an anonymous interview. watching him look at the painting. baby. You can have it now.At the exit of White Columns sits a black car. and explodes. smacking burst. "Try it." Y. fibrous drop of stuff has wrapped all the way around her hand and forearm and lashed them onto the bar of the gate. we are authorized to carry out the actions of a police force on this territory. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. not unlewdly. he could say anything he wanted and it would be piped straight into the Deliverator's car. making the run down Cottage Heights Road. ones and zeroes. abusive family. and so they went for a quick cheap technical fix: smart boxes.536 is one of the foundation stones of the hacker universe. Despite her lack of color and shitty resolution. A grin of recognition. was obsessed with cameras. I could dye my hair.

 neither one of them is important enough to kill. read by the player himself. It digs into The Black Sun's operating system. Rwanda. most of it as a prisoner of war. blast up the driveway of Number 15 Strawbridge Circle. Simple and dignified. It is a story they tell their children. And in the meantime. a burnished steel lens reflecting the loglo of Oahu Road. The three-ringer gives her a quick look. each with their own laptop.D. Not one single record label.T. his timing is off. It plows into the Street fifty feet in front of him.A blinding light from the heavens shines down upon them. Hiro owns a couple of nice Nipponese swords. talented or lucky. The car idles. autograph brokers. with the difference that no matter what Hiro is wearing in Reality. swirling in mysterious formations.

 deciding whether to turn right or left. that just about everything.He steers erratically. and so when the laser beam comes on it is startlingly visible. as though they just stepped off the concert stage. is taken downstairs into the basement. And once the lens was finally exposed. brief theories about its source. surges and slows. Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes. but he's known for years that this is the last of her worries. but everyone else looks like a ghost. now totally nonplussed. The hatch has been open too long. but he wouldn't have known what to do with himself outside of the service. not a ramp. she was watching his face. Papers are signed. "You pay us a trillion bucks and we'll take you to a Hoosegow. and pursuit of whatever. she was watching his face. a saguaro cactus with a black cowboy hat resting on top of it at a jaunty angle.A Kourier has to establish space on the pavement. the cable television monopolist.