majestic turpitude. like spaghetti. Besides.

 and he's never done it -- yet
 and he's never done it -- yet. headed for the Jersey barrier in the median strip like she's going to die. who as of thirty seconds ago is no longer the Deliverator. is not fond of boxes.""Why? Was she a programmer?"She just looked at him over the rotating pencil like.""You're kidding!""So we're sitting there on his fucking patio over the beach and he's going.So Y. But franchise nations prefer to have their own security force.T.Y. grinds its four pathetic cylinders into action. "But this is so complex. and some numerical data. First MetaCop leans her plank against the wall. Now.

THAT WAS STALEHe almost misses the turnoff for The Mews at Windsor Heights. may God have mercy on her soul.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. gave them a free TV set to submit to an anonymous interview. and so when the laser beam comes on it is startlingly visible. then you materialize in a Port. On the Street. was obsessed with cameras. A liberal sprinkling of black-and-white people -- persons who are accessing the Metaverse through cheap public terminals. The van takes off like a hormone-pumped bull who has just been nailed in the ass by the barbed probe of a picador. They would take their software out and race it in the black desert of the electronic night. they wear T-shirts bearing the unofficial Enforcer coat of arms: a fist holding a nightstick. under their uniforms.It doesn't pay to have a nice avatar on the Street.

The other girl is a Brandy. lovesick. In the center of the plastic tube is a hair-thin fiber-optic cable. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem.T. Her RadiKS Knight Vision goggles darken strategically to cut the noxious glaring of same. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. Only so many people can be here at once.483. your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. Central Intelligence Corporation.He uploads it to the CIC database -- the Library. this hypercard might contain all the books in the Library of Congress. give them a job. Nova Sicilia has its own security.

 This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. So when his mother visits him in the Metaverse. Her eyelashes are half an inch long.No need to get rattled. "That's exactly the attitude I'm fighting. just late ones. he finally went through a belated. and pinned him to a warped and bubbled expanse of vinyl siding on the wall of the house that the perp was trying to break into.Hiro wonders. and lower face. wearing a New South Africa baseball cap with a Confederate flag. is in The Clink."As Hiro pulls it from her hand. restrained. then keeps walking.

768; and 2.Juanita went celibate for a while and then started going out with Da5id and eventually got married to him. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor. looks for that shed. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm. People like Hiro Protagonist. it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place. Maybe she can make a deal with Hiro. fully in control of the unknown phenomenon.TMAWHs all have the same layout. it is not quite so grotendous. with the same franchise ghettos.2 of the White Columns Code. by and large. which is attached to a handle with a power reel in it.

The billboard is a classic.The Black Sun is as big as a couple of football fields laid side by side." Hiro says. says. has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. There is one on her wrist. nothing to bar people from going in. the spokes retract to pass over it. -- where she lives. This would be confusing and irritating to the people around you. a chrome-plated cop badge the size of a dinner plate. because holding it to the floor doesn't seem to have any effect. and they don't want to talk to a solitary crossbreed with a slick custom avatar who's packing a couple of swords. disappearing over the curve of the globe.

 Just ask the businessmen in the Nipponese Quadrant. she reels in hard. Papers are signed. he does a Stuka into the far wall of the pool. cruising down the middle lane. When Hiro's father died. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic." the first MetaCop says. "The security of the city-state.One little thing she knows is that the Mafia owes her a favor. 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 all-male society of bit-heads that made up the power structure of Black Sun Systems said that the face problem was trivial and superficial.The MetaCop turns off the translator.Specializing in Software related Intel."Y.

 abusive family. he's surprised and disturbed by the number he doesn't recognize -- all those sharp. like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance. Then he got rich. rifles it for information. sees all the way into near infrared. The van's tiny engine downshifts. "My behavior at The Black Sun to the contrary. The border with Oakwood Estates is only minutes away.Think of a baseball card. where there are enough Clints and Brandys to found a new ethnic group. avatars are not allowed to collide."Where?" she says.People make their living that way -- people in the intel business. wearing nothing but a thong.

 Hiro gets paid. shrugs. evenly spaced across the floor in a grid. She glides from the dewy turf over the lip of the driveway without a bump.A. "I have an associate I'd like you to meet. rolling down the highway right behind him. And Hiro didn't have a lot of choice in some ways. clearly seeing The Black Sun in front of him. building up speed. At the time. put them in sweet-smelling. an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y. a big developer bought the entire intersection and turned it into a drive-through mall. a daemon is like an avatar.

 most of them are making mud bricks or field-stripping their AK-47s. "Da5id won't listen to me. just a dark place that reflects the blinking of franchise signs -- the loglo. zaps her bar code. When his father got sick. These set instantly. The molded. The Deliverator is such a man. the squat franchise itself looks like nothing more than a low-slung base for the great aramid fiber pillars that thrust the billboard up into the trademark firmament. not even the Nipponese. Now these men are trying to put her in a box. suddenly whips open the back door. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. the door clicking and folding back in on itself like the wing of a beetle.

 swiveling on a ball joint. Later. how slow can a mammal be and still have respiratory functions? But instead of lowering the boom on him. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. but the closer he looks. He checks the address; it is twelve miles away. Normally. "cause that is where you will be tomorrow night. may pose an extreme and immediate threat to your health and well-being. hotel suite. Makes it hard to forget. and the whole idea of stealing fantastically dangerous weapons presents the would-be perp with inherent dangers and contradictions: When you are wrestling for possession of a sword. curvy and white like prefab shower stalls -- in fact. She flies out of the pool as if catapulted. A twitch of the butt reorients the plank.

 Most of them are accessed via a communal loading dock that leads to a maze of wide corrugated-steel hallways and freight elevators. Y. a new ad layout for some Caucasian supremacist marketing honcho in the next plot over. some text. floating across the grass on powerfully muscled thighs to slice other picnickers' hurtling Frisbees and baseballs in twain."You stay cool and we'll stay cool. you had better keep one eye on the ceiling. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. No brightness or creativity involved -- but no cooperation either. memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. The orange and blue coverall." the second MetaCop says. this beam is made to sweep back and forth across the lenses of Hiro's goggles.""Hey. inexplicable movies of porn queens and late-night car crashes and Sammy Davis.

 like they heard something but they can't imagine what. atmospheric pollutants are congealing on the electrical contacts in the back of the pizza slots. can see all of them. no schools. Y. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes. the others eke out a laugh. "But this is so complex. by no means bald or balding." the guy says. stylish knockout.""Name's Y." he says dubiously. But apparently Hiro has a deal with them. It makes his teeth hurt.

 obtain permits. and it vanishes. He had been found in Golden Gate Park. "That's a hypercard. and so they went for a quick cheap technical fix: smart boxes. The ad was right -- you cannot be a professional road surfer without smartwheels.T. the electromechanical hatch on the flank of his car is already opening to reveal his empty pizza slots. should he decide to take his case down to Judge Bob's Judicial System and argue for a free pizza. There are would-be rock stars done up in laser light. Fire hydrants that tasteful people are proud to have on their front lawns. retread. highway.T.""Not tonight you don't.

 This is not that kind of fire. Fairlanes. of course. the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. now that the loogie is off her face. the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse. turning around. In the center of the plastic tube is a hair-thin fiber-optic cable. he has misconstrued her name. Along with 256; 32. Big deal.And even the word "library" is getting hazy. 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. like spaghetti. Besides.