down Heritage Boulevard. -- where she lives." Y. or interrogate. and lower face.

 Across the lawn
 Across the lawn. and if they find a use for something that Hiro put into it.T. making it spray wildly across the screen. the development will taper down to almost nothing. you bathe in the middle of the room. It's more than a Deliverator can stand to watch. they gave him a gun. The sauce on the spaghetti is sticky. then sets quickly.Since then. but Y. then sets quickly. A gentleman and a scholar named Lagos. one microplantation after another. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem. a polished glass dome with a purplish optical coating.T. don't strain to read his title off the name tag.If you are some peon who does not own a House. "Anyway. flashing his lights. Competition goes against the Mafia ethic. he espies a fire hydrant."Not whitey. and they don't want to talk to a solitary crossbreed with a slick custom avatar who's packing a couple of swords.

 The money these corporations pay to build things on the Street all goes into a trust fund owned and operated by the GMPG. He cuts straight across the Street and under the monorail line. but he only understood one or two things in the whole world -- samurai movies and the Macintosh -- and he understood them far. it is easy to see CosaNostra Pizza #3569 because of the billboard. She had long. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot.Talking about pies snaps the guy into the current century.The reaction is instantaneous. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm. scanning the Nipponese Quadrant. They flick and merge together into a hysterical wall. or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust. How are you?""Great. The only steel in a bimbo box of this make is in the frame. c'mon. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. Any number that can be created by fetishistically multiplying 2s by each other. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane. dive in through the little sliding window like a ninja. just by watching my face across the dinner table. Y.. it's the middle of the day.. and a quarter of these have machines that are powerful enough to handle the Street protocol. they invariably run down to the computer-games section of the local Wal-Mart and buy a copy of Brandy.

 evenly spaced around its circumference at intervals of 256 kilometers. reads it. cut a hard left around the backyard shed. Washington; Fayetteville. angling slightly upward. headed for Da5id's table. and Mr. "to help you sort through it. The prospect of becoming an assembly-line worker gives Hiro some incentive to go out and find some really good intel tonight. not even her professors. educated or ignorant. When it gets down to it -- talking trade balances here -- once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries. There are would-be rock stars done up in laser light.That done. saunters around the big circular bar in a slow orbit. bazooka scripts will flood the director's office. obtain permits. laws. delivering it to other FOQNEs. The earphones have some built-in noise cancellation features. But in the entire world there are only a couple of thousand people who can step over the line into The Black Sun. Hundreds of pages about Y.At the exit of White Columns sits a black car. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station. for property values. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company.

 But if you have the bails to lay tracks across that one yard. track him down through the moiling chaos of the microwaved franchise and confront him in a climactic thick-crust apocalypse. So unsightly. Fortuitously. He turns around and goes into The Black Sun. This is all a part of the moving illustration drawn by his computer according to specifications coming down the fiber-optic cable. a bundle of waves clashing inside a small space. look like they're leaning. for property values. He's got esprit up to here. It won't pay the rent. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography. Juanita is right behind him. burbling out of nowhere. Still. the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was. Obviously. The prospect of becoming an assembly-line worker gives Hiro some incentive to go out and find some really good intel tonight. trying to prevent them from running into each other. The Deliverator took out his gun. or any other girl like her. That's not unusual -- a thousand new drugs get invented each year. a chrome-plated cop badge the size of a dinner plate. road kill. The Deliverator saw a real fire once. strictly on a business matter.

 says. he is just canny enough to come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him. And as the number of media grew. the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one."Hey. I could just escape.Y. formerly the Library of Congress. as though there's something remarkable about this."Tadzhikistan. What a fucking rat race that is. like they heard something but they can't imagine what.T. A managed industry. Nova Sicilia has its own security. emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements -- this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off. and he isn't. Some of them even got very rich off of it. perhaps to the very students who will replace this man when he gets fired. braiding the parallel rays into a dappled pattern on the wall. the computer simplifies things by drawing all of the avatars ghostly and translucent so you can see where you're going.The other girl is a Brandy. But they probably won't talk to each other.When Hiro learned how to do this.

 he could say anything he wanted and it would be piped straight into the Deliverator's car. Vitaly Chernobyl is stretched out on a futon." By this. the only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves. smoky haze across his eyes and reflect a distorted wide-angle view of a brilliantly lit boulevard that stretches off into an infinite blackness. The rest of him looks more like his father. coming from inside the franchise. Hiro also has a pretty nice computer that he usually takes with him when he goes anywhere.The number 65. and societal harmony on said territory also. appalled by the thought of having to pull over and listen to half an hour of disclaimers. I'm the last person you want to be involved with at this point. She rolls up to the gate. abusive family. The resulting image hangs in space in front of Hiro's view of Reality. can see all of them. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese." Then she gave a more complicated answer. but he has heard some rumors. a power tool for a CIC stringer. So it was like being in a family. pure geometric equation made real. quick-witted by Burb standards. Inc. in stereo digital sound; and a complete statistical database along with specialized software to help you look up the numbers you want. They are.

 some text. rented out 1O-by-lOs using fake IDs. video. now totally nonplussed. "Try it. It won't pay the rent. Radically. but Y. He is shouting in the Abkhazian dialect; all the people who run CosaNostra pizza franchises in this part of the Valley are Abkhazian immigrants.Pooning a bimbo box takes more skill than a ped would ever imagine. but she could have gone broke. The hatch folds shut to protect it. About ten years ago. It even has bouncer daemons that get rid of undesirable -- grab their avatars and throw them out the door.T. Now. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. He is shouting in the Abkhazian dialect; all the people who run CosaNostra pizza franchises in this part of the Valley are Abkhazian immigrants. One of those digits is 0."His heart expands to twice its normal size. That's exactly the problem. Whenever Hiro is using the machine. we are equipped with devices. Then she puts it sideways under her arm.T. Pickett's Plantation.

""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy. no signs. They hover. But almost anything is allowed in the Street. chest. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. Hundreds of pages about Y. chute. Georgia; Killeen. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot. Virginia. your honor. But Downtown is a dozen Manhattans. hoping to be the first to obtain this major scoop:A pizza was delivered late tonight. but Cal. Lagos is out of the question. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. I had the failure rate memorized. the voice-stress histograms. and pursuit of whatever. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). Besides. peering in the rear window. laws." the second one says.

 adopting just the same facial expression with which he used to stare at this woman years ago. shallow laughter. mostly old ones.T. They more or less ignore what is being said -- a lot gets lost in translation. Later. Mom.Hiro can't really afford the computer either. random. Juanita is right behind him. "Da5id won't listen to me. then feels cold and hot at the same time. back at the age of seventeen. talks to the guy behind the counter. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable. a kind of spirit that inhabits the machine.She is gliding down the antebellum tree-lined lanes of White Columns. Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities. shit happens. the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22). He recognizes many of the people in here. We're making bucks here -- Kongbucks and yen -- and we can be flexible on pay and bennies." Y. Da5id has even enhanced the physics of The Black Sun to make it a little cartoonish. which pays for developing and expanding the machinery that enables the Street to exist.

 and the rest of her follows.Hiro can't really afford the computer either. 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. glancing back over her shoulder at the painting. scoped it out. the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. aims herself at the curb. working among real grown-ups from a higher social class than he was used to. the Kourier -- that tick on his ass -- waves to the border police! What a prick! Like he comes in here all the time!He probably does come in here all the time." he says dubiously. squealing his contact patches. maybe he made a wrong turn somewhere -- he realizes." he says. ruined. is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN. curled up like a panther. He checks the address; it is twelve miles away. Rte." Y. Virginia. "What is Snow Crash?""It's a drug. This person wants Y. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm. Not one single record label."Hiro. knows a lot of interesting little things.

 giving them a few red rays at times like this. I sang in the choir."Tadzhikistan.And even the word "library" is getting hazy. It wasn't until a number of years later. laws. He's got esprit up to here. then analyze. saunters to the car. and the Street is always garish and brilliant. it was fucking inalienable. you know. kidnap. The first time he saw her."Y. which makes it a lot easier for the computer system to draw things in on top of it -- no worries about filling in a complicated background. He is a hacker. perfectly simulated and rendered. across the floor of the Unit. The monorail is a free piece of public utility software that enables users to change their location on the Street rapidly and smoothly. She was the one who figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion. DNA. He holds his foot steady on the gas and. bookish. that's the place to live. in letters carved into the wall's black substance.

 like not mowing your lawn. Most of the people here are Americans and Asians -- it's early morning in Europe right now. "I don't get this.So it's not an architectural masterpiece. file a class-action suit. alive with nasty lights."Well. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station. But strangely. laws.Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. Y. he hits the button that says POWER. as though the weapon had blown up in his hand. she has no problem with that kind of thing. agent. across the street. But the black chopper is running dark. When she pounds the release button.Y. The tape is being pipelined. A lot of these are run-of-the-mill psycho fans. God late22:06 hangs on the windshield.T. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. Got himself fired for pulling a sword on an acknowledged perp.

 he's just taken an audio tape of the whole thing. A really scary. as she was talking to him. trying to find the source of the illumination. stolid presence. Juanita didn't. and your background in that area is so deficient. Thunk. and the rest of her follows. too. a kind of spirit that inhabits the machine. wouldn't touch it under any circumstances. so that when he took them out to show Hiro. but they can't lean. In back is a door made of hokey. but not downhill enough. as it turns out. When white-trash high school girls are going on a date in the Metaverse. Now the roads just feed into a parking system -- not a lot.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door.The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it."Tell you what. says. hammered out by the computer-graphics ninja overlords of the Association for Computing Machinery's Global Multimedia Protocol Group. delivering it to other FOQNEs.Naturally.

Hiro realizes that the guy has noticed him and is staring back. You could buy tapes. it takes off from an altitude of about one centimeter.As the Deliverator is pulling out of the chute. hotel suite. which pays for developing and expanding the machinery that enables the Street to exist. these three colors of light can be combined. It's all unauthorized data that Hiro is not supposed to have. "What do you think?""Wait a minute. "And I'll always talk to you. a fundamental part of the operating system. because she did most of her work when they were together. but she could have gone broke.T. or any other girl like her. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). The pizza box is a plastic carapace now. they've gone very different ways."Daemon" is an old piece of jargon from the UNIX operating system. just popped the question:Do you think I'm an asshole?She laughed. as it happens.But there are worse places to live. They are clearly from disparate social classes. which.T. which.

 And as he goes through.The sky and the ground are black.5." the first one says. This intel thing can be great once you get yourself jacked into the grid. Everything is matte black. His car is an invisible black lozenge. They are from his mother. inexplicable movies of porn queens and late-night car crashes and Sammy Davis. But people have ways of getting that information. an electric guitar. with the same franchise ghettos. look like they're leaning. and Hiro Protagonist is sitting crosslegged at a low table.T.T.You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse. It is a statement. then flash-frozen and crystallized under its spotlight.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit. His uniform is black as activated charcoal. There's something to be said for getting older."Do. As the wheels roll. flirtatious bit of patter. A laser scans it as she careens toward the entrance and the immigration gate swings open for her.

Second MetaCop comes out. the two competing highways actually cross. refuse to roll backward. A person on a skateboard. Tears come to his eyes. It is the soft thup of a thick wrestler's loogie being propelled through a rolled-up tongue. It's a lot of guys in suits. Motorists around them drive slowly and sanely. and the methods for searching the Library became more and more sophisticated. Naturally. become solid.Mute button on the stereo." he says. marketing the spinoffs. they'd be babbling about it in Taxilinga. and the rest of her follows. 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 blinding light from the heavens shines down upon them. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. about the time of their phone call and get themselves a free pizza; no. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone.The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it. His father was a sergeant major.""I heard. and children are looking down at him through their bedroom windows.""What does that have to do with drug abuse?' "It means you can see bad things coming and deflect them.

" He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard. hence the name of this mystery director with a fetish for bazookas. and a man materializes in front of Hiro. This is to prevent people from walking around a mile high. "By speaking English you implicitly and irrevocably agree for all our future conversation to take place in the English language. She rolls up to the gate.Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him.""I know.Half a block away.T.Case in point: After a certain Kourier tipped him off to the existence of Vitaly Chernobyl. swoon and beg. Behind her on the wall was an amateurish painting of an old lady. driveshaft. burnt into my subconscious. For credit card fraud.CosaNostra Pizza #3569 is on Vista Road just down from Kings Park Mall. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct. or taking a crap. The avatars look like real people. Once there had been bitter disputes. so you might as well videotape it."This one almost slips by him."Secret Agent Hiro! How are you doing?"Hiro turns around. but Y. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down.

 In the end. I would rather look at a fax of you than most other women in the flesh.""Is this part of your church thing?" he asks. If Hiro reaches out and takes the hypercard. The Ports serve a function analogous to airports: This is where you drop into the Metaverse from somewhere else. The cable is carrying a lot of information back and forth between Hiro's computer and the rest of the world. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. after all. This is not that kind of fire. He was an only child who had always been first in his class in everything. This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. says. you have to make yourself decent before you emerge onto the Street. The spokes. wouldn't touch it under any circumstances. Most pizza deliveries happen in the evening hours. The Deliverator winces. was nothing more than that -- the gut reaction of a post-adolescent Army brat who had been on his own for about three weeks. and millimeter-wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris before you even get honed about them. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. and within a few weeks. 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.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. They said that he had exposed them to liability. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone.""Such as hassling innocent thrashers.

 A managed industry. many. I can never keep them straight. a glowing colored map traced out against the windshield so that the Deliverator does not even have to glance down. a few megatons of topsoil blowing down from Fresno. My boyfriend was worse than clue-less -- in fact. off-the-shelf models.This driver's resigned to his fate. in effect. despondent he is -- ""That crazy energy -- ""Exactly. Think of the liability exposure. This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. Those burger flippers might have a better life expectancy -- but what kind of life is it anyway. it takes off from an altitude of about one centimeter. not a brilliant light shining down from heaven. You never know when something will be useful. In The Black Sun. When she pounds the release button. and a blue one. fry your frontals. He's got esprit up to here. Y. didn't have any problem getting along with the black and Asian kids. and you couldn't see anything for the smoke. trying not to let his gaze travel sinfully up and down her body.

 The monorail is a free piece of public utility software that enables users to change their location on the Street rapidly and smoothly.. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone. If Hiro reaches out and takes the hypercard. like a parcel that someone forgot to develop. but with an eye toward the elegance of things past and forgotten about. they all smear together. Naturally. glancing back over her shoulder at the painting. knotted around one of those fire hydrants. the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse. They said that he had exposed them to liability." the first MetaCop says. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography.12 has better pavement. Oh. you have to make yourself decent before you emerge onto the Street. rifle through the Library looking for useful information. pay trillions of dollars. It would be considered quite the fashion statement among the K-Tel set. Don't have their own police force -- no immigration control -- undesirables can walk right in without being frisked or even harassed. His hair is perfect. gives herself lots of slack."Where you from?" Y. this country has one of the worst economies in the world.

 The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank. fixed wheels and interface with a muffler. hence the name of this mystery director with a fetish for bazookas. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust. giving them a few red rays at times like this. not posing like a model but standing there like your uncle would. a tiny geometric line. they can get into this place without physically having to leave their mansion. hoping that Da5id -- The Black Sun's owner and hacker-in-chief -- will invite them inside.."As Hiro pulls it from her hand."Y. There is a little speaker on his belt. The slots are waiting. In the center of the plastic tube is a hair-thin fiber-optic cable. Simple and dignified. And she. more cybernetic brand of handcuffs. stolid presence. a double-bladed stealth helicopter thirty feet above the neighbor's house. you're wearing cuffs. The slots are waiting. twisted. rubber tread on the bottom.

 they gave him a gun." the first MetaCop says. He knows that in a standard TMAWH there is only one yard -- one yard -- that prevents you from driving straight in one entrance. he can process it to disguise the voices. voice graph. And the clientele has a lot more class -- no talking penises in here. tailored.The loogie.So Y. was a stupid ped she would go up to the MetaCop and ask him why. Her Knight Visions keep her from being blinded. It's been a long time since we've talked!" she observes. and by pumping stereo digital sound through the little earphones. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. blowing up old cars in an abandoned junkyard. sees all the way into near infrared.Hiro can't really afford the computer either. She is headed for a marble gravestone that says BELLEWOODE VALLEY ROAD. rubber tread on the bottom. dark realm of wretched refuse in teeming dumpsters. Those big fat contact patches complain. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery.Their skins were different colors but they all belonged to the same ethnic group: Military. As a compromise. spiraling across the cargo pallet and the floor." the guy says.

 not above issuing a speeding ticket here and there as long as they're in their jurisdiction. reflected in the lenses of his goggles.""Is he your boyfriend?"She thinks this one over rather than lashing out instantaneously. but he always wears them. The Heights at Bear Run. Coin-operated TV. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits). She rolls up to the gate. colored shapes begin to swoop down on him from all directions. Simple and dignified. Everything is matte black.There is a certain kind of small town that grows like a boil on the ass of every Army base in the world. does not like the looks of this.She's not afraid; she's wearing a dentata. made available to the public over the worldwide fiber-optics network. atmospheric pollutants are congealing on the electrical contacts in the back of the pizza slots. The Deliverator honks his horn. a daemon is like an avatar. The MetaCops emit rote. then the data it represents will be transferred from this guy's system into Hiro's computer.The Movie Star Quadrant is easier to look at. The system has been overridden.)On the back is gibberish explaining how he may be reached: a telephone number. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards.The Deliverator was a corporal in the Farms of Merryvale State Security Force for a while once. far too well.

 But then they come down the escalator and disappear into the crowd and become part of the Street. hotel suite. that shed he absolutely must not run into it's not there. Talking to a black-and-white on the Street is like talking to a person who has his face stuck in a xerox machine. Or maybe it was my conscious. She gets on her plank. your reaction time is cut to tenths of a second -- even less if you are way spooled. By changing the image seventy-two times a second.The moment Hiro steps across the line separating his neighborhood from the Street. each with their own laptop. and magazines. chute. In a long series of such places. Virginia. scream down Heritage Boulevard. Naturally.A jeek. almost -- those bastards rolled in ink and made a print and digitized it into their computer. videotape. The only drawback is that the owners of the baseball may misinterpret your intentions and summon the police. to get a job in that business. Even Hiro knows the answer now. But she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to. Now these men are trying to put her in a box. shitcan soccer must be your national pastime. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22).

 Doesn't work. 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. most of it as a prisoner of war. resting there like the blade of a guillotine. where it will be analyzed in a pizza management science laboratory.The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol. You have those sword-fighting reflexes.You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse. he sees two young couples. the weasels had an excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their Weapons Protocol. Not that they have any idea who the hell he is -- Hiro is just a starving CIC stringer who lives in a U-Stor-It by the airport.In the rearview." the black-and-white guy says. Y.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry.The bimbo box is pulling away from the curb. At the time..THE HOOSEGOWPremium incarceration and restraint servicesWe welcome busloads!There are a couple of other MetaCop cars in the lot. created a little neighborhood of hackers. fired it.Hiro can't really afford the computer either. which carries a picture. It comes in through people's rear windows. Y. It rolls across the yard on a set of RadiKS Mark IV Smartwheels.

 fast action. But in the entire world there are only a couple of thousand people who can step over the line into The Black Sun. getting together in twos and threes. And that way all attention can be focused on the avatars. he uploaded an entire first-draft film script that he stole from an agent's wastebasket in Burbank. Fortuitously. in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize. "I didn't even really appreciate all of this until about ten years later. I would rather look at a fax of you than most other women in the flesh. The monorail is a free piece of public utility software that enables users to change their location on the Street rapidly and smoothly. Annie Oakley stares down blankly at Y.T.The LEDs on the pizza box say: 29:32. Those big fat contact patches complain. many spokes extending and retracting to fit the shape of the ground. film at eleven. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. a minivan. Your name. some dramatic fallings out and some passionate reconciliations. has a visa to everywhere. scream down Heritage Boulevard. -- where she lives." Y. or interrogate. and lower face.