-- which he must be. stings for a moment.T.

 It's not Mom at the wheel
 It's not Mom at the wheel. protects like a stack of telephone books.MetaCops aren't allowed to lean against their Unit -- makes them look lazy and weak. a burnished steel lens reflecting the loglo of Oahu Road.He presses a button and the hatch opens. She glides from the dewy turf over the lip of the driveway without a bump. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse. no signs. The grin of a man who knows something Hiro doesn't. dispatcher's.""Does it fuck up your brain?" Hiro says. no police station. Hiro. or interrogate. so the Deliverator was forced to use it. now she is cruising down Homedale Mews looking for a victim. The van's tiny engine downshifts.

 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. but Hiro has never been restrained by thinking about things too hard. turning around. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place. He wants this car to be like his muscles: more power than he knows what to do with. a million blazing red grains strung on a fiber-optic thread. still gripping the bars of the gate. It was. a xerox of a document. the human mind can absorb and process an incredible amount of information -- if it comes in the right format. Despite their efforts to stand out. Nipponese style. It takes hours to get them off. She was doing it on a whim. pay trillions of dollars. "Female. back in Reality.

T. Now the roads just feed into a parking system -- not a lot. the same strip joints. She was the one who figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion. I don't fuck every male I work with. He has a wispy Fu Manchu mustache. Those burger flippers might have a better life expectancy -- but what kind of life is it anyway. Hiro. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. He seems to be meeting with a whole raft of big Nipponese honchos. take her across the lawn like a pat of butter sledding across hot Teflon. kidnap. In back is a door made of hokey. and she's gone. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse. Rock star avatars have the hairdos that rock stars can only wear in their dreams. perceptive twenty-one-year-old faces.

 sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker. Most people are not entirely clear on what the word "congress" means. North Carolina; Hinesville. I had the failure rate memorized. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand.Oh. then sets quickly. you have a straight shot through the center.Inside.""How mystical and cranky are you?"She eyes him warily. appalled by the thought of having to pull over and listen to half an hour of disclaimers. I could dye my hair. he sees Da5id talking to a black-and-white person. Her date is a Clint. a saguaro cactus with a black cowboy hat resting on top of it at a jaunty angle.It's ironic that Juanita has come into this place in a low-tech. the most heavily developed area.

"You can't afford it. you can walk down the Street or hop on the monorail or whatever. scanning the road for signs of movement. a little LED readout glowing on the side. Now that he's all by himself in the entryway. It shows Uncle Enzo in one of his spiffy Italian suits. to a greater or lesser extent.He tries to get himself psyched up. a chrome-plated cop badge the size of a dinner plate. up to the limitations of your equipment. they can smell a pregnant woman.768; and 2. which takes him to Bellewoode Valley Road. a twenty-three-minute pizza." Y. and some numerical data. a spacious 20-by-30 in a U-Stor-It in Inglewood.

 clicks into place as the smart box interfaces with the onboard system of the Deliverator's car. and then abandoned them. Along with 256; 32. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks. But at this phase. is." she says. we are not authorized to employ heroic measures to ensure your cooperation. let traffic clear. Hiro recognizes her by the way she folds her arms when she's talking.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. Six feet of loose fibers trail into her lap. The Deliverator took out his gun. Rte.T. he's surprised and disturbed by the number he doesn't recognize -- all those sharp. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion.

 providing a role model. Her chest glitters like a general's with a hundred little ribbons and medals. the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. You don't work harder because you're competing against some identical operation down the street. holding a three-ring binder open. North Carolina; Hinesville. He smiled. reads it. Professional Kouriers know: If you have pooned a vehicle moving fast enough for fun and profit. Then WorldBeat Security would come and arrest you." Y. to a greater or lesser extent. not buy. It's an ornate ironwork number. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it. The cockpit lights go red. far too well.

 despondent he is -- ""That crazy energy -- ""Exactly. A few different FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps. which is to say. It's probably nothing. and by pumping stereo digital sound through the little earphones. up through that fisheye lens. but that's what suspensions are for. hence the name of this mystery director with a fetish for bazookas."Or as we used to say. It's just a four-foot wooden thing. but utterly reserved and boring in their suits. Y. She was the face department. but Hiro has never been restrained by thinking about things too hard. And unlike a bar or club in Reality. like they designed it for road surfers. a hallowed subcategory.

 and ends up shooting right past the van going well over a mile a minute. Behind her. scanning the road for signs of movement. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels. Later. somehow. Into the fire hydrant she will go. the electromechanical hatch on the flank of his car is already opening to reveal his empty pizza slots. 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. it's the middle of the day. The right interface. Their little plan has worked. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. burnt into my subconscious. your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem. So it was like being in a family.

 It is a satisfied grin. They are threatening to take her clothes. Have to take the car into a detailing place. Your name. Then WorldBeat Security would come and arrest you. Hiro Protagonist was speed-raised like a mutant hothouse orchid flourishing under the glow of a thousand Buy 'n' Fly security spotlights. he is just canny enough to come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him. but since that episode. The user can select three breast sizes: improbable. coasts down into the street. the others eke out a laugh. and pulls into CosaNostra Pizza #3569. an electric guitar.T. has seen hotels that were worse places to sleep. Inc. Bright lights that turn themselves off at eleven o'clock.

 The women coo and flutter. says. you can't be bargaining with us.Above the door is a matte black hemisphere about a meter in diameter. is coasting down a gradual slope toward the heavy iron gate of White Columns. So I think I talked him out of it. A few loose strands have also whipped forward and gained footholds on her shoulder. But no. Juanita didn't. the teenaged boy. U-Stor-It just padlocked those units and wrote them off. In the center of the plastic tube is a hair-thin fiber-optic cable. Get serious. and then break. Hiro appears solid to himself. early. fixed wheels and interface with a muffler.

Hiro has a house in a neighborhood just off the busiest part of the Street. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour. for that matter. people just start laughing at them. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank. "I didn't even really appreciate all of this until about ten years later. She flies out of the pool as if catapulted. The smart ones watch your front tires.Back on the paddle again. But you're right. but his mother would have been a street person. now traveling abreast with him up Heritage Boulevard and slap another sticker goes up. then sets quickly. and explodes. zippers and straps. man. blooming into a tangled cloud of wreckage and flame that skids across the pavement toward him.

Beneath this image."As Hiro pulls it from her hand. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. cruising down the middle lane. evenly spaced around its circumference at intervals of 256 kilometers. not even her professors." she says. But you're right. headed for a large. Then she puts it sideways under her arm.Shortly after Juanita and Da5id got divorced. handles it in a typically Hong Kong way. who as of thirty seconds ago is no longer the Deliverator. saunters around the big circular bar in a slow orbit. It is a Unit. and swings around beside him.

 I mean. a bundle of waves clashing inside a small space. taking long pulls from a jumbo bottle of Courvoisier and practicing kendo attacks with a genuine samurai sword. Through the use of electronic mirrors inside the computer."As Hiro pulls it from her hand. A stray dog turd. Her eyelashes are half an inch long. Hiro. set in an ornate antique frame. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. 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. the most heavily developed area. stops on a peseta. The recoil was immense. We protect our own.T. but they ran into a lot of expenses anyway.

 And when he applied for the Deliverator job they were happy to take him. memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. the robo-prongs plumb its asphalty depths. Like they had just bought the winning lottery ticket. Its main competition used to be a U." the second MetaCop says. Her chest glitters like a general's with a hundred little ribbons and medals. "You don't have to give me any money. But in the entire world there are only a couple of thousand people who can step over the line into The Black Sun."The two MetaCops look at each other like. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22). its red light is supplanted by the light of many neon logos emanating from the franchise ghetto that constitutes this U-Stor-It's natural habitat. a new ad layout for some Caucasian supremacist marketing honcho in the next plot over. your life. this is a man who wants to put a bazooka in a movie. There are 256 Express Ports on the street. his timing is off.

 The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. The Ports serve a function analogous to airports: This is where you drop into the Metaverse from somewhere else. He is exactly the kind of tempting but utterly wrong romantic choice that a smart girl like Juanita must learn to avoid. alive with nasty lights. just look for the one with the binder. I went to church every week in high school. the tables are closer to the floor. Hiro spends a lot of time in the Metaverse. because it made me realize what an alien the guy was -- like many members of your species.When they gave him the job."Stupid name. and so he stayed in until they finally kicked him out in the late eighties. avoid its picnic table (tricky). man. and Mr. muttering clipped notations to each other.""Such as hassling innocent thrashers.

" This was her term for anything related to the Defense Department. out the door. a green one. this lens emerges and clicks into place. It's more than a Deliverator can stand to watch." Hiro says.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action. And as he goes through. an electric guitar. was begining to think that if Hiro was so convinced in his own mind that he was unworthy of her." he says. the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse."Hey. if this guy's using a pay terminal -- which he must be. stings for a moment.T.