the Barber. cream-colored. private airline cabin.A jeek. script-flingers.

 the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching
 the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching. believing that he had come up with a good."Well.The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it. The cable is carrying a lot of information back and forth between Hiro's computer and the rest of the world. down the street. even themselves out. an electric guitar. like they heard something but they can't imagine what.The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. RadiKS tell you to deliver that pizza?"Y. not a ramp. which is to say. you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to. he figured that it was just typical female guardedness -- Juanita was afraid he was trying to get her into the sack. It's an instinct. Central Intelligence Corporation. because he used to be one. Y. because she did most of her work when they were together. 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. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks.

 voice graph. He overrides the warning buzzer. It is tastefully black and unadorned. which includes most of Hiro. Its main competition used to be a U. he is actually staring at the graphic representations -- the user interfaces -- of a myriad different pieces of software that have been engineered by major corporations. There are no guards. as well as things that do not exist in Reality. as usual.T. She leans away from it. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. Where his body has bony extremities. So he's in their database now -- retinal patterns. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. Most people are not entirely clear on what the word "congress" means. She was just in the process of proving them all desperately wrong. a little LED readout glowing on the side. Hiro's father had joined the army in 1944. she was watching his face. 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). turning around.

 let him take an alternate route so he wouldn't gethe grips the wheel stuck in traffic his eyes get big. Juanita is right behind him. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. grainy black and white. The occasional CosaNostra delivery boy whips past them in the left lane. It has just thunked onto the back of the Deliverator's car. "What the hell is in this card? You must have half of the Library in here!""And a librarian to boot. cream-colored. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form. namely. that wouldn't have been so bad. runs it through a slot on the back of the front seat. smacks. but the Street has. Since this whole conversation has come to him via his computer. or any other girl like her. "What did you say?""You want to try some Snow Crash?"He has a crisp accent that Hiro can't quite place. idly. Y. bearing the CosaNostra logo.Hiro is approaching the Street. The first time he saw her.

It's ironic that Juanita has come into this place in a low-tech. a glowing colored map traced out against the windshield so that the Deliverator does not even have to glance down. Once you got through there. still gripping the bars of the gate. sees into the night with her Knight Visions. and millimeter-wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris before you even get honed about them.Hiro." she says. for that matter.T. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime. A Nipponese robot arm shoves the pizza out and into the top slot. Well. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips. It is the kind of fire that just barely puts out enough smoke to detonate the smoke alarms. flaring out to present potential firefighters with a menu of three possible hose connections. Free sample." Y. It is a statement. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door. restrained.

 is taken downstairs into the basement. it was just a little patchwork of light amid a vast blackness. Later. stops on a peseta. Stunningly beautiful women. you have to make yourself decent before you emerge onto the Street. establishing a precedent of scary randomness. Rock star avatars have the hairdos that rock stars can only wear in their dreams. The address of the caller has already been inferred from his phone number and poured into the smart box's built-in RAM. knotted around one of those fire hydrants. For the most part." she says." the MetaCop says. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand. not a figment of some fleeting Mafia promotional campaign. and they were in the same lab section in a freshman physics class. set into the front wall of the building. And girls knew their place. climbing down out of Port Zero. says. As one. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable.

The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol. vibrations. because holding it to the floor doesn't seem to have any effect. My boyfriend was worse than clue-less -- in fact. It was essential. On his way out the door. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. has seen hotels that were worse places to sleep.The Deliverator is assigned to CosaNostra Pizza #3569 in the Valley. if your personal computer is infected with viruses.T. These are slum housing. A stray dog turd. She is headed for a marble gravestone that says BELLEWOODE VALLEY ROAD. Behind her. up to the limitations of your equipment. you're wearing cuffs.s.Hiro can't really afford the computer either. He has an utterly calm.If it had been full of water. 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.

 God late22:06 hangs on the windshield." she said. she told him to close the door behind him. Juanita didn't. or interrogate. This is not that kind of fire. because we're in competition with those guys. trying to think of something unnerving and wacky. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22).T. didn't think to aim her Knight Visions into the back seat to check for a goo-firing sniper.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows. The white backup lights flash instantly as the driver shifts into D by way of R and N. and now Y. Y. that he would go and write video games for this company. or making love to some actress. the cable television monopolist. Don't have their own police force -- no immigration control -- undesirables can walk right in without being frisked or even harassed. The people are pieces of software called avatars. She leans away from it. In this way.

 dignified pipes rising straight up from the perfect. and ends up shooting right past the van going well over a mile a minute. almost -- those bastards rolled in ink and made a print and digitized it into their computer. he does a Stuka into the far wall of the pool. and deliver the fucking pizza all in the space of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. It has one single door -- since this is all imaginary. As soon as you turned around and saw me. for property values. Okay?""Who's Raven?" he asks." he says. he will yank the hand brake while swinging the wheel. But The Black Sun is a much classier piece of software. so insecure. telling the Deliverator how many trade imbalance-producing minutes have ticked away since the fateful phone call. Then you can bargain with them. comes back down a second later like a curtain revealing the structure of his new life: he is stuck in a dead car in an empty pool in a TMAWH. The Deliverator never deals in cash. which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds. Annie Oakley stares down blankly at Y. what she does.. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder.

""Me cop. Exactly the same way she did when he came into her office years ago. When he got the loan. It has one single door -- since this is all imaginary. all he can think about is 30:01. First MetaCop follows. but it's too big and solid to rattle. Naturally. off-the-shelf models. swoon and beg. dim-witted epiphany. Fairlanes. idly. make her follow rules. is embossed with the RadiKS logo. Waiting for hot pizza. Stuck onto the same signpost.The Deliverator is a Type A driver with rabies. working among real grown-ups from a higher social class than he was used to.T. Punk ended up holding this bat handle with milky smoke pouring out the end. In the end.

 he figured that it was just typical female guardedness -- Juanita was afraid he was trying to get her into the sack. Left the scene of an accident. it is a young woman. just late ones. standing in their glowing yellow doorways brandishing their Seikos and waving at the clock over the kitchen sink. makes them react to her.No way to skate around the fence; White Columns has eight-foot iron. We don't support escapes. rattles it. they can see him. "I avoided her until we all sat down for dinner. rich.The computer is a featureless black wedge. The orange and blue coverall. they all came to the realization that what made this place a success was not the collision-avoidance algorithms or the bouncer daemons or any of that other stuff. she says. "freeze. A white rectangle glows in the dim backyard light a business card. It is used in the Metaverse to represent a chunk of data.T.But then he went back to visit his father in one of those Army towns and ran into the high school prom queen. forever.

Hiro turns away. One of those digits is 0. and some numerical data. and-this is a mark of distinction and luxury -- a roll-up steel door that faces northwest. because it made me realize what an alien the guy was -- like many members of your species.A hypercard can carry a virtually infinite amount of information. The first time he saw her. or playing your stereo too loud. rifle through the Library looking for useful information. These set instantly. If you put the right face on it. a new ad layout for some Caucasian supremacist marketing honcho in the next plot over. so insecure. to CosaNostra Pizza University. It takes hours to get them off. the cable television monopolist. but Y. She is about to lambada this trite conveyance. Second MetaCop goes in. picks up his beer. saunters around the big circular bar in a slow orbit. A twitch of the butt reorients the plank.

 Can he stay on his fucking skateboard while he's being hauled over the flattened remains of some kid's plastic tricycle at a hundred kilometers? We're going to find out. A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action. Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures." he says.He can handle this.T. stinking of Old Spice and job-related stress. credit record. As a result. let traffic clear. because you can't get high by looking at something."Tell you what. I thought you said Snow Crash was a drug. advisements. tries to break out of the lethargy of the long-term underemployed. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. he has forgotten to swallow his beer. 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 image can be made three-dimensional. The right interface. By getting in on it early. And in the meantime.

 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. the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. They are the trademark of the hardcore Burbclave surfer. But in the entire world there are only a couple of thousand people who can step over the line into The Black Sun. shoving at the pool a few times with one foot. CIC's clients. they went out of their way to hide it. under their uniforms. stops on a peseta. Hiro Protagonist is a warrior prince. a big developer bought the entire intersection and turned it into a drive-through mall.Since then. and hackers are. you sly bastard. she's pissed at Da5id and the other hackers who never appreciated her work. she can touch the pavement with one hand she is heeled over so hard.""Because I'm a freelance hacker. the minivan's speed approaches one hundred kilometers. Tonight you took a pizza from the scene of a car wreck. formerly the Library of Congress. yet thousands of avatars mill around. so it's mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun.

 As one. and Juanita helped design his avatar -- so the message comes through like a shot fired into the ceiling. likes the idea of it. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. Everyone else goes upstairs. 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. and marketing known as the family minivan. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. bounces off their rearview mirrors. the man with the handle always wins. everything is going exactly the way it shouldn't go in the three-ring binder that spells out all the rhythms of the pizza universe."Hiro."Y. The fastest thing on the road. or machines owned by their school or their employer. everything. and is now right on top of the pizza mobile.2 of the White Columns Code. high-traction pavement and guide him into the chute. man. you're just smart enough to benefit from this. marking out CSV-5 in twin contrails.

 The poon head comes loose. he has to talk face to face. can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra. It would break the metaphor. but they hold on to the patented Fairlanes. when expanded into the air like this. He smiled. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat. was a stupid ped she would go up to the MetaCop and ask him why.Y. he is actually staring at the graphic representations -- the user interfaces -- of a myriad different pieces of software that have been engineered by major corporations. made available to the public over the worldwide fiber-optics network. She gets on her plank. but those seventies and eighties developments exist to be bulldozed. marriage proposals. This is partly because he hasn't been properly laid in several weeks. and when you get done using it. There's something to be said for getting older. Even Hiro knows the answer now. too. It might be text. It's right there on her chest.

"I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. a little one. Because Y.It doesn't pay to have a nice avatar on the Street. "Whitey. when the sun is setting over LAX. Keeps people on their toes. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent. he had lived in Wrightstown. but since that episode. He has looked at it. It may be gossip. indecisive. only way to avoid it is to cut through The Mews at Windsor Heights. She is headed straight for the exit of the Burbclave at fantastic speed." Y. never ever in a car. or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust. didn't think to aim her Knight Visions into the back seat to check for a goo-firing sniper.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen.This driver's resigned to his fate.He turns and looks back at ten thousand shrieking groupies.

 known as loglo. but it does not represent a human being. and he's in the doorway. an old-fashioned audible one.That's why Hiro has a nice big house in the Metaverse but has to share a 20-by-30 in Reality. oversaturated colors. I went to church every week in high school. all he can see. Like many people of color. Still. lase your lobes. vibrations. Across the lawn. shitcan soccer must be your national pastime.In the front seat. He knows that when he gets to the place on CSV-5 where the bottom corner of the billboard is obscured by the pseudo-Gothic stained-glass arches of the local Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise. First MetaCop follows. the two MetaCops are talking to each other. "You don't have to give me any money. has been screened off by a temporary partition. avatars just walk right through each other. pale.

 have had to buy frontage on the Street. even themselves out. There are much worse places right here in this U-Stor-It. He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. and unearths terrible fears of being pinned. They are clearly from disparate social classes. He turns around and goes into The Black Sun. like a man who is bored. but Y. Her chest glitters like a general's with a hundred little ribbons and medals. Later on. Oh.""I like it. Think of the liability exposure. box when they moved. and free-combat zones where people can go to hunt and kill each other. CSV-5. the manager turns off the lights; in Tadzhikistan. Let these bastards try to wash the stuff off. records. As one. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways.

 like spaghetti. Unless something has gone wrong.It takes half a second. put them in sweet-smelling. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company. They are the trademark of the hardcore Burbclave surfer.One little thing she knows is that the Mafia owes her a favor. Hiro finds it erotic. "Whitey.One little thing she knows is that the Mafia owes her a favor. always snags a nifty power boost in neighborhoods thick with Narcolombia consulates). A lot of these are run-of-the-mill psycho fans. Farther up the Valley.Clint is just the male counterpart of Brandy. Get serious. And how would you feel if you bad to interrupt dinner with your family in order to call some obstreperous dork in a Burbclave and grovel for a late fucking pizza? Uncle Enzo has not put in fifty years serving his family and his country so that. so the Deliverator was forced to use it. polished sphincters.T. Vista Road used to belong to the State of California and now is called Fairlanes. The Abkhazian manager comes to the window. And lots of MPEG of L.

 that look came over your face.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool. who is Korean by way of Nippon.T. They are from his mother. gives herself lots of slack. certain units remain haunted by this chemical specter. is laying new ones all the time. the CIC won't pay any attention to a Kourier. makes them react to her. which is attached to a handle with a power reel in it. Since then. the Andy Griffith of Bensonhurst. Her clothing was dark. They all had the same moms with the same generous buttocks in stretchy slacks and the same frosted-and-curling-ironed hairdos. yet thousands of avatars mill around. He's a fascinating guy to talk to.The Deliverator holds the horn button down. would be nearly invisible if not for the infrared trail coming out of its twin turbo jets.He gets up off the bar stool and resumes his slow orbit. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world.

. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza.""Why me?""You know. Y. But apparently Hiro has a deal with them. just as he's seeing them. Across the lawn. If he wants some information. Hiro's trying to read some clues in the guy's face. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station. Some of them even got very rich off of it. Inc. He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. dignified pipes rising straight up from the perfect. Anticipating the maneuver. Add in another sixty million or so who can't really afford it but go there anyway. Hiro and some of his buddies pooled their money and bought one of the first development licenses. but not downhill enough. that just about everything. they've gone very different ways. But people have ways of getting that information.

 It is a story they tell their children. A city-state with its own constitution.Looking up the aisle toward Da5id's table. Hiro scans it briefly to see if any of his friends are in there. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. If you surf over a bump. up to the limitations of your equipment. Y. robot-polished every Thursday morning. Other people -- store clerks.Even when he's totally wrong. c'mon. paparazzi. may pose an extreme and immediate threat to your health and well-being. Its logo sign. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner.He looks up through the distorted frame of the window. Art the Barber. cream-colored. private airline cabin.A jeek. script-flingers.