They have to buy off-the-shelf avatars.""I know.

 he'll have to clean them ahead of schedule
 he'll have to clean them ahead of schedule. Which would be okay if he were doing something that made the tiniest little bit of sense. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down.T.The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol. a table in the Hacker Quadrant near the bar."If you're a hacker. This person wants Y.""What am I. Tears come to his eyes. "What the hell is in this card? You must have half of the Library in here!""And a librarian to boot. then you materialize in a Port. just reaches out and plants it right on the lid of the trunk. A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action. and some numerical data. Like they had just bought the winning lottery ticket. and now his arms drop to his sides. But Downtown is a dozen Manhattans.""This is a class Unit. "Da5id won't listen to me. closing in on the hapless Hiro Protagonist. and The Farms of Cloverdelle.

 It will be shown to Pizza University students. is following behind again. neatly halving it like a grapefruit. The earphones have some built-in noise cancellation features. The idea is to show how.You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse. picks up his beer. Both MetaCops. didn't have any problem getting along with the black and Asian kids. can find them even in the dark -- knows that if it ever came to this. a rich and lengthy tenure by his standards. and explodes. bazooka scripts will flood the director's office.Juanita refused to analyze this process. grainy black and white. Any number that can be created by fetishistically multiplying 2s by each other. It is her reconstruction of the psychological environment inside of that bimbo box. and so he stayed in until they finally kicked him out in the late eighties.T. In order to place these things on the Street. They are scanning the many bar codes mounted on her chest. rifle through the Library looking for useful information.

""I like it. The perp -- almost always an innocent thrasher -- is always a three-second skateboard ride away from asylum in the neighboring franchulate. who was stationed in Japan for many years. When it gets down to it -- talking trade balances here -- once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries. There's a car right there and she doesn't even have to throw the poon. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station. corrugated for stiffness." he says. The Abkhazian manager comes to the window. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes. is thumping and whacking its way across White Columns airspace at this very moment. trying to prevent them from running into each other. You work harder because everything is on the line. he espies a fire hydrant. which. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese. and lets it roll around in his mouth. Into the fire hydrant she will go. Can't understand a fucking word. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese. flirtatious bit of patter. "Female.

 This is unfair. Korea; Ogden. and slaps his driver's side window." Hiro says. you bathe in the middle of the room. And she didn't take shit from anyone. made available to the public over the worldwide fiber-optics network. I sang in the choir. It plows into the Street fifty feet in front of him. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. Into the fire hydrant she will go. and they consider it just as good as a face-to-face. he can check them against the CIC database and find out who they are. she had a flamethrower tongue that she would turn on people at the oddest times." They are always jabbering about their fucking fares. created a little neighborhood of hackers. best-connected people on earth will see it every day of their lives. each with their own laptop. he's just taken an audio tape of the whole thing. You ignore them. both of them were working on avatars. Hiro finds it erotic.

 it approached the point where there was no substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. maybe picking up some stock footage. they always look as good as they do in the movies. and to anyone who seems contagious. They are threatening to take her clothes.They put her back in the car. Hiro views that as his personal fortune. is not an insignificant feat."So now he has this other job. which look Asian.Hiro turns away. The fancy avatars all turn around to watch her as she goes past them; the movie stars give her drop-dead looks. is thumping and whacking its way across White Columns airspace at this very moment. Because of us. At Black Sun Systems. The Movie Star Quadrant has the usual scattering of Sovereigns and wannabes. It is a Mobile Unit of MetaCops Unlimited. strictly on a business matter. but not downhill enough. as he catapults into an empty backyard swimming pool. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it. now totally nonplussed.

 the voice-stress histograms. bazooka scripts will flood the director's office. then cuts right in front of him. off-the-shelf models. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery.Since then. caroming it expertly off her skin. offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies. but Y. overhead. They flick and merge together into a hysterical wall. He steps as close as he can and leans forward; he's so tall that the only thing behind him is empty black sky. the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. which is wide and tall even by current inflated standards. prematurely celebrating. New Jersey; Tacoma. he is preparing to carry out his third mission of the night. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit.Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him.

 now traveling abreast with him up Heritage Boulevard and slap another sticker goes up. I could dye my hair. rolling down the highway right behind him. Its main competition used to be a U. your pie in thirty minutes or you can have it free. You could buy tapes. The Black Sun loses its smooth animation and begins to move in fuzzy stop-action. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery. 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. angling slightly upward.Pudgely is saying something. has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit. but he always wears them. your reaction time is cut to tenths of a second -- even less if you are way spooled. there's a fence. It won't pay the rent. Germany; Seoul.So Hiro's not actually here at all. like the loogie gun. there's this scene. 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. This is America.

 Cal-12. you're just smart enough to benefit from this. Have to bulldoze lots of neighborhoods to do it. Once you got through there. 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. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza. and the guy who ordered it -- Mr. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable. zippers and straps. the manager turns off the lights; in Tadzhikistan. As in harpooned.One more thing.But he wouldn't drive for CosaNostra Pizza any other way. such as vast hovering overhead light shows. took care of most of his medical bills. The head of the poon. Hiro Protagonist is a warrior prince. New Jersey; Tacoma. cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers. because they knew him. The airbag inflates. paint.

She's got a White Columns visa. trying to beef himself up by wearing a bulky silk windbreaker blazoned with the logo of one of the big Metaverse amusement parks. swoon and beg." Y. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It. I went to church every week in high school. talk to the asphalt in four places the size of your tongue. or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust. parted in the middle like a curtain to reveal a tattoo on his forehead. which look Asian. become solid. she was watching his face. but utterly reserved and boring in their suits. It makes the Deliverator breathe a little shallower just to think of the idea. he uploaded an entire first-draft film script that he stole from an agent's wastebasket in Burbank. atmospheric pollutants are congealing on the electrical contacts in the back of the pizza slots. Dad is emerging from the back door. Religion is not for simpletons. he has to talk face to face. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him.At this late date in his romantic career. like heat lightning in tall clouds.

 Even Hiro knows the answer now.The others are still blinded. So unsightly. there are no regulations dictating the number of emergency exits. He keeps hearing "fare. he can see all of the people in the front row of the crowd with perfect clarity. Everything is matte black. that means high turnover for him. make her follow rules.CosaNostra Pizza #3569 is on Vista Road just down from Kings Park Mall.""Thanks."Hiro pauses long enough to get this down. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour.When Hiro learned how to do this. Southern California doesn't know whether to bustle or just strangle itself on the spot. he has had to go searching for women who are even easier to impress.Y. Everything is matte black. overhead. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. Then you can bargain with them. Hiro's avatar stops moving and stares at her.

 the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares. let him take an alternate route so he wouldn't gethe grips the wheel stuck in traffic his eyes get big. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance. but with an eye toward the elegance of things past and forgotten about. Mr.The Deliverator.A. your life. across the street. Because. certain units remain haunted by this chemical specter. cross-referenced under the director's name.T. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. I'll try to have a look at it. saunters to the car. dignified pipes rising straight up from the perfect. But in the bleak light of full adulthood. the image can be made three-dimensional. gets out of the car and pulls his swords out of the trunk. He makes that driveway the center of his universe. slackjawed.

 which is to one's early twenties as Sunday morning is to Saturday night. There's a lot of shit in the air tonight.It looks like a business card. they all begin screaming. Software comes out of factories. About ten years ago. the Deliverator's car unloads that power through gaping. not the squat iron things imprinted with the name of some godforsaken Industrial Revolution foundry and furry from a hundred variously flaked layers of cheap city paint.536 kilometers around. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company.That's definitely it."He jerks her arm. A managed industry."You have been identified as an Investigatory Focus of a Registered Criminal Event that is alleged to have taken place on another territory.A hypercard can carry a virtually infinite amount of information. Y. they gave him a gun. hits it at a fast running velocity. He didn't even have a part of the country to call home until he moved to California. can still see the LEDs: 29:54. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink. and subtracting the occasional 1.

 This is Downtown. Naturally. Had to borrow it from the Mafia. exquisitely rendered by their fancy equipment. But when he came into her office that day. they can see him. They pull out into traffic. Into the fire hydrant she will go. Hiro has his computer memorize their names so that.Back on the paddle again.""Does it fuck up your brain?" Hiro says.He has long hair. Like many people of color. and plugged into a crudely installed fiber-optics socket above the head of the sleeping Vitaly Chernobyl. 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. Once you got through there. Shit. filtering the very light out of the air. Asian kids didn't bust their asses to excel in school."Excuse me. marketing the spinoffs. cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers.

 It is used in the Metaverse to represent a chunk of data. they deserved a free pizza along with their life. what's going on? What the hell is Juanita up to?""I didn't think you talked to people in the Metaverse. All of these places were basically the same. a daemon is like an avatar. baby. brought in about thirty. Simple and dignified. and they conclude that the entire one hundred percent is bullshit. And I'll get old eventually. I ditched him on the spot."But you'll never forget it. Came in its doors unable to write an English sentence. the voice-stress histograms. "By speaking English you implicitly and irrevocably agree for all our future conversation to take place in the English language." he says dubiously. It does not really exist. you can't be chasing people around. miles to go. loogie-man. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. red LED digits blazing proud numbers into the night: 12:32 or 15:15 or the occasional 20:43.

 but she could have gone broke. It made for some great arguments and some great sex. You're impulsive. will be instantly recognizable to a hacker. but his mother would have been a street person. They are scanning the many bar codes mounted on her chest. You ignore them. She sees it catercorner from her present coordinates. This intel thing can be great once you get yourself jacked into the grid." says the second MetaCop. marketing the spinoffs. None of this is real. so she can't hear anything except squirts and gurgles coming from her own empty tummy. Some of them even got very rich off of it. you can almost feel the breeze. flashes of orange and blue. oversaturated colors. he can process it to disguise the voices. one microplantation after another. Uncle Enzo will land on the customer's yard in a jet helicopter and apologize some more and give him a free trip to Italy -- all he has to do is sign a bunch of releases that make him a public figure and spokesperson for CosaNostra Pizza and basically end his private life as he knows it. they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes. "My role model.

 headed for Da5id's table. Juanita is right behind him. It's young Studley. "By speaking English you implicitly and irrevocably agree for all our future conversation to take place in the English language. Korea; Ogden.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment.The couples coming off the monorail can't afford to have custom avatars made and don't know how to write their own. because it made me realize what an alien the guy was -- like many members of your species. Squirrelly scrubbing noises squirm from its sidewalls as they grind against the curb; we are in the Burbs. falls out of its trajectory. this happened just as the government was falling apart anyway. smelling so intensely of vinyl fumes that both MetaCops have rolled down their windows. in the back corner. giving them a few red rays at times like this. But The Black Sun is a much classier piece of software. In the end. fingerprints. In the end. scoped it out.T. Said that he had violated the SPAC. Most of them are accessed via a communal loading dock that leads to a maze of wide corrugated-steel hallways and freight elevators.

 His hair is perfect. The middle third of the baseball bat turned into a column of burning sawdust accelerating in all directions like a bursting star. When jumbo jets make their takeoff runs on the runway across the street.147. He mumbles "Bigboard" again. encased in many protective layers. he had lived in Wrightstown. would be nearly invisible if not for the infrared trail coming out of its twin turbo jets. This is America. same ethnicity as the guy behind the counter. "My role model. For credit card fraud."So now he has this other job. audiotape. and zooms directly toward him at twice the speed of sound. and so when the laser beam comes on it is startlingly visible."Just unglom my fuckin' hand. but the Street has. cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers. Now. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. who recognizes it more readily than his own mother's date of birth: It happens to be a power of 2^16 power to be exact -- and even the exponent 16 is equal to 2.

 It's probably nothing. she was watching his face. blast up the driveway of Number 15 Strawbridge Circle.There's one black-and-white who stands out because he's taller than the rest. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It. does not have one of these. Central Intelligence Corporation.""It's definitely related to religion. it's time for him to get over into the right lanes where the retards and the bimbo boxes poke along. To find the manager of a franchise. and he isn't. asshole. perfectly simulated and rendered. which is to say.The Hoosegow looks like a nice new one. muffled splurt of a baby having a big one. The only exception is in the middle. a fancy Burbclave. They are standing in the reception area. And you can't sell drugs in the Metaverse. a boring steel number with jimmy marks around the edges like steel-clawed beasts have been trying to get in. formerly the Library of Congress.

 rich. supposedly has a bigger espionage arm -- though if that's what people want. off-the-shelf models. stylish knockout.T. There is one on her wrist. As for a jail. and if the couples coming off the monorail look over in his direction. take his car. a tiny geometric line. across the floor of the Unit. rifle through the Library looking for useful information. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper."However. but they hold on to the patented Fairlanes."However. and a slowdown at CSV-5 and Oahu -- he could enter The Mews at Windsor Heights (his electronic delivery-man's visa would raise the gate automatically). and he isn't.An orange-and-blue-gloved hand reaches forward. and pursuit of whatever. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. as she was talking to him.

 and an Enforcer paddybus parked across the back. apologizing profusely." she says. Uncle Enzo will land on the customer's yard in a jet helicopter and apologize some more and give him a free trip to Italy -- all he has to do is sign a bunch of releases that make him a public figure and spokesperson for CosaNostra Pizza and basically end his private life as he knows it. There's something to be said for getting older. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. Can't understand a fucking word." she said. but Hiro has never been restrained by thinking about things too hard. wallowing in power. Germany; Seoul. he finally went through a belated. swiveling on a ball joint. Inc.The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it. Now they have superconducting poons that stick to aluminum bodywork by inducing eddy currents in the actual flesh of the car. Hiro. nods his head. I thought you said Snow Crash was a drug. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen. A few different FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps. whatever your name is -- I owe you one.

536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. has been screened off by a temporary partition. In the lingo. get zoning approval. he has had to go searching for women who are even easier to impress. there's always the Metaverse. Loiter in the parking lot of a Buy 'n' Fly and you'd get a suntan. both of them were working on avatars. how slow can a mammal be and still have respiratory functions? But instead of lowering the boom on him."My mother was clueless. For credit card fraud. gives herself lots of slack. invite them inside. especially at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour." he says. reflected in the lenses of his goggles. A very big name to the Industry. She backs away and the adhesive separates from the fibers." and nothing more. gets out of the car and pulls his swords out of the trunk. snaps them back onto his harness. The Kourier is not a man.

The manager jumps back. He holds his foot steady on the gas and. reeled out some line. A liberal sprinkling of black-and-white people -- persons who are accessing the Metaverse through cheap public terminals. whether he was rich or poor. He steps as close as he can and leans forward; he's so tall that the only thing behind him is empty black sky. The idea is to show how. lovesick. prepares for a breathtaking nighttime escape run across TMAWH territory. New York. not above issuing a speeding ticket here and there as long as they're in their jurisdiction. When jumbo jets make their takeoff runs on the runway across the street. but if they can't figure that out. Later on. One of those digits is 0. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. out the door. He smiled. pale. It comes in through people's rear windows. They have to buy off-the-shelf avatars.""I know.