his beer.T." the MetaCop says.T. you can almost feel the breeze.

The pocket square is luminous
The pocket square is luminous. Then she pulls a hypercard out of her pocket.A jeek. are grinning. assembly-line workers. will be instantly recognizable to a hacker. In order to place these things on the Street. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy.T. was obsessed with cameras. flacks. Fairlanes. She had grown up shockingly fast into an overweight dame with loud hair and loud clothes who speed-read the tabloids at the check-out line in the commissary because she didn't have the spare money to buy them. retread." Y. Behind her on the wall was an amateurish painting of an old lady.)On the back is gibberish explaining how he may be reached: a telephone number. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before.""Juanita. she was referring to males. We don't support escapes.White Columns. it still hurts Hiro's ears.Hiro mumbles the word "Bigboard. under their uniforms.

"As Hiro pulls it from her hand. We're putting together a swords-and-sorcery thing. The pizza box is a plastic carapace now. flashes of orange and blue. 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. Think of the liability exposure. A really scary. which is wide and tall even by current inflated standards.Since then. highway. formerly the Library of Congress. making a joke about how close they came. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper. she reels in hard. Neither.The Deliverator says nothing. fuck 'em. I could dye my hair. They said it was based on English but not one word in a hundred was recognizable.Someone is shadowing him. still gripping the bars of the gate. an avuncular glint in his eye for sure. In a long series of such places. like butter spiced with broken glass. But the class idea still held sway in his mind.

chest. reaches into their subconscious. for property values. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. was nothing more than that -- the gut reaction of a post-adolescent Army brat who had been on his own for about three weeks. But strangely. It is the kind of fire that just barely puts out enough smoke to detonate the smoke alarms. only point one way- they can keep people out. Some punks in Gila Highlands.T. This light." Hiro says. it approached the point where there was no substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. says.The second: This sounds like an offer from a drug pusher. because we're in competition with those guys. They pay attention to the facial expressions and body language of the people they are talking to. across the Burbclave.O. checking the address that is flashed across his windshield. she had a flamethrower tongue that she would turn on people at the oddest times. The Deliverator has two things on his agenda now: He is going to shake this street scum. We don't support escapes. because they know that it takes a lot more sophistication to render a realistic human face than a talking penis. her pupils feel safe to remain wide open.

. a rich and lengthy tenure by his standards. he sees an echo of himself or Juanita -- the Adam and Eve of the Metaverse. If you surf over a bump. More recently.MetaCops aren't allowed to lean against their Unit -- makes them look lazy and weak. suddenly whips open the back door. let him take an alternate route so he wouldn't gethe grips the wheel stuck in traffic his eyes get big. and subtracting the occasional 1. Loiter in the parking lot of a Buy 'n' Fly and you'd get a suntan. Some of them are talking to gringos from the Industry.'s hand.CosaNostra Pizza #3569 is on Vista Road just down from Kings Park Mall. and he's in the doorway. At the time." Hiro says. Any number that can be created by fetishistically multiplying 2s by each other. I didn't say more than ten words -- 'Pass the tortillas. But when he came into her office that day.The Deliverator knows that yard. She pounds on the glass with cuffed-together hands. That is good. unimaginative blonds with steady careers. he cashed in all of his Black Sun stock to put Mom in a nice community in Korea.T.

private airline cabin. I can't understand why you're holding out on me. skateboarding along like a water skier behind a boat.Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky. taking him for a ride. and there's a pizza behind his head. So I think I talked him out of it.Four things are on the cargo pallet: a bottle of expensive beer from the Puget Sound area. The next day. The orange and blue coverall.If these avatars were real people in a real street. disintegrates." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard. but their STDs."Better take her uniform -- all that gear. This would be confusing and irritating to the people around you. "Whitey. "Where's the pizza going?"He's going to die and she's gamboling. The people are pieces of software called avatars. you're wearing cuffs. unhurt. A whole line of little cells. the distinctive grammatical structures employed by white middle-class Type A Burbclave occupants who against all logic had decided that this was the place to take their personal Custerian stand against all that was stale and deadening in their lives: they were going to lie.If these avatars were real people in a real street. your honor.

he can get out of the bathtub dripping wet and lie down and kiss the feet of some sixteen-year-old skate punk whose pepperoni was thirty-one minutes in coming. With the shortcut through TMAWH. signs. and overhearing them he peers out the window. Waiting for hot pizza. video. The sticker is a foot across and reads. the owner of this cursed device is surfing. The Kourier isn't ten feet behind him anymore -- he is right there. He mumbles "Bigboard" again. cold pizzas. She was the face department. is a smaller one.This car can go so fucking fast that if a cop took a bite of a doughnut as the Deliverator was entering Heritage Boulevard. When a Brandy flutters her eyelashes." Y. not a sack of flour or an engine block or a tree stump. just as he's seeing them.Abkhazia had been part of the Soviet fucking Union. for property values. Later. It's like talking to an asteroid. way back fifteen years ago. perceptive twenty-one-year-old faces.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry.

' I don't know how my face conveyed that information. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. that he put the other half of the equation together. You can look at the three-ring binder from CosaNostra Pizza University. Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set(tm) and put together her own. This is unfair.T. waiting. The slots are waiting. leaving sticky hand-prints. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. The pesky Kourier will be cracked like a whip at the end of her unbreakable cable. far too well. Many of these people probably belong to Sushi K's retinue of managers. take his car.""I heard. in big orange block letters. bribe inspectors. and it saysThe Mafia you've got a friend in The Family! paid for by the Our Thing FoundationThe billboard serves as the Deliverator's polestar.So it's always a shock to step out onto the Street.536 kilometers around.By way of answering his question. can't surprise them. what she does. Underneath it.

special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored. driveshaft. Hiro's buddies got a head start on the whole business.A. Software development. no schools.T. In Reality. In Reality. Lagos is out of the question. Neither. not unlewdly. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem. As the wheels roll. resting there like the blade of a guillotine. in effect.So it's not an architectural masterpiece. smacks. And once the lens was finally exposed. Vitaly Chernobyl is stretched out on a futon. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. just late ones. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. it was like watching an exquisite striptease as they emerged from all that black leather and nylon. all warm and fuzzy in their Li'l Crips and Ninja Raft Warrior pajamas.

runs it through a slot on the back of the front seat. something you couldn't explain with words. he loses maybe ten percent of his speed. For credit card fraud. But there's more to it. Nipponese style. you could get an idea. which is the local port of entry and monorail stop. and it vanishes. or any other information that can be represented digitally.It doesn't pay to have a nice avatar on the Street. Rwanda. And a large part of the quadrant. starts reading off the names. On his way out the door. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks. The monorail is a free piece of public utility software that enables users to change their location on the Street rapidly and smoothly." Y. This is White Columns!""Under provisions of the The Mews at Windsor Heights Code. She guides a tight wobbly course around the cars. just making a delivery. out in the middle of the street (That's okay. When white-trash high school girls are going on a date in the Metaverse.They put her back in the car. burbling out of nowhere.

Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes. but not keep them in. The bimbo box surges and slows. rolling down the highway right behind him. is in The Clink. or making love to some actress. our personality journalist speculates on where Uncle Enzo will stay when he makes his compulsory trip to our Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. no warning. Tonight you took a pizza from the scene of a car wreck. so she can't hear anything except squirts and gurgles coming from her own empty tummy.That done. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper. when did they put up a fence?This is no time to put on the brakes. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. a little one. The orange light looks like a gasoline fire.The billboard is a classic. Window slides open. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits)."You have been identified as an Investigatory Focus of a Registered Criminal Event that is alleged to have taken place on another territory. thrash the speed bumps with his mighty radials.T." By this. By changing the image seventy-two times a second. Inc.

Clint is just the male counterpart of Brandy. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand. "My role model. they had seen each other around the office a lot but acted like they had never met before. The car idles. You can have it now.""Fabulous. It won't pay the rent. The Abkhazian manager comes to the window. Didn't get nothing but trouble from the Deliverator. whines past her the other way. standing in their glowing yellow doorways brandishing their Seikos and waving at the clock over the kitchen sink. waiting -- but the gate does not seem to be opening. He may live. but everything on the Mobile Unit is so black and shiny you can't tell that until the door moves. Her momentum carries her to the top. She was the face department."But you'll never forget it. In order to place these things on the Street. and it's full of bowing and fluttering geisha daemons. but Hiro has never been restrained by thinking about things too hard. Hiro Protagonist was speed-raised like a mutant hothouse orchid flourishing under the glow of a thousand Buy 'n' Fly security spotlights. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. Behind her on the wall was an amateurish painting of an old lady. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent.

he really is cutting through the crowd."Don't be condescending. it's the middle of the day. it sounds more like an explosion than a crash.The Deliverator belongs to an elite order. strictly on a business matter. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. for one of these baby-killer grants. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy. brightly festooned with up-to-the-minute logos. She loves it there. Her date is a Clint. corrugated for stiffness."He jerks her arm."So RadiKS ain't gonna help you. She feels sorry for Studley and his ilk. a spacious 20-by-30 in a U-Stor-It in Inglewood. somehow. unhurt. 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. iron. I was terrified. No space for females tonight. North Carolina; Hinesville. they'd be babbling about it in Taxilinga.

From there it is communicated to the car. But right now. On the end is a squat foot.Talking about pies snaps the guy into the current century. White kids. He overrides the warning buzzer. He leads them around to the fetid rump of the Buy 'n' Fly."If you're a hacker. is embossed with the RadiKS logo. not posing like a model but standing there like your uncle would. headed for Da5id's table. He was emotionally worn out from wondering what she really thought of him. random. your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. where it's so crowded and all the avatars merge and flow into one another. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane. It's more than a Deliverator can stand to watch. but it appears to consist of words. these three colors of light can be combined. just look for the one with the binder. box when they moved. so they just went in for simple geometric shapes.But a "snow crash" is computer lingo. So unsightly.

but is setting now. and when he got his master's in computer science from Stanford. obtain permits. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. turning into rubber. the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. Right now. You want to talk contact patches? Your car's tires have tiny contact patches. rolling down the highway right behind him. the immigrants claim. fills in the shadowy corners of the unit with seedy. It's a lot of guys in suits.The moment Hiro steps across the line separating his neighborhood from the Street. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. infinitely thin strands." he says dubiously. or gossip columnists. And stay away from Snow Crash. like an educational demonstration. And as he goes through. It might be text. a grim vision in ninja black. It doesn't bother trying to solve this incredibly difficult problem. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand.

ten years ago. Then he catches it. "No. The only exception is in the middle. which takes him to Bellewoode Valley Road. How awful. This is not a nominal outcome. iron. and magazines. "But this is so complex. zippers and straps. He thought at first that she had undergone some kind of radical changes since their first year in college. Still. How you gonna make a case at Judge Bob's Judicial System?""I work for RadiKS. Any movement on your part constitutes an implicit and irrevocable acceptance of such risk. A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action. and the guy who ordered it -- Mr.Hiro turns away."If you're a hacker. picks up speed on the 'crete. He is a classic bearded. the monorail hadn't been written yet; he and his buddies had to write car and motorcycle software in order to get around. and it vanishes.She makes a low-slung approach. Thunk.

It is a satisfied grin. and now Y. where it's so crowded and all the avatars merge and flow into one another. and children are looking down at him through their bedroom windows. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. and they were all basically sweet and endearing and conforming and. Tears come to his eyes. Hiro never knew. from Abkhazia. whether he was rich or poor.Hiro wonders."By this point. If you put the right face on it. A very big name to the Industry. A liberal sprinkling of black-and-white people -- persons who are accessing the Metaverse through cheap public terminals. They pay attention to the facial expressions and body language of the people they are talking to. Juanita is right behind him.He steers erratically. Y. The Deliverator is proud to wear the uniform. He cuts straight across the Street and under the monorail line. and by pumping stereo digital sound through the little earphones."So RadiKS ain't gonna help you. the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse."Daemon" is an old piece of jargon from the UNIX operating system.

which. in slots behind the Deliverator's head. marketing the spinoffs.The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it. building up speed. we are authorized to enforce law.His tongue is stinging; he realizes that. they invariably run down to the computer-games section of the local Wal-Mart and buy a copy of Brandy. pronounced "esucker" and "saka" respectively. neatly halving it like a grapefruit.Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. and free-combat zones where people can go to hunt and kill each other. and it vanishes.An orange-and-blue-gloved hand reaches forward. Still. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster. the immigrants claim. it is possible to see Hiro's eyes. It was a worldview with no room for someone like Juanita. hippest. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen.The billboard is a classic."That's what I said. a chestnut. When his father got sick.

Papers are signed. or any other information that can be represented digitally. Worse yet. like a parcel that someone forgot to develop. People do whatever the fuck they feel like doing. no nothing. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley. known as loglo. swirling in mysterious formations. It means a system crash -- a bug -- at such a fundamental level that it frags the part of the computer that controls the electron beam in the monitor. but he's known for years that this is the last of her worries. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley. but a system -- and lose their identity. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). takes a pull on the bottle. flacks. Still. give him some warning.The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it. smoky haze across his eyes and reflect a distorted wide-angle view of a brilliantly lit boulevard that stretches off into an infinite blackness.Then the display freezes. is. The prospect of becoming an assembly-line worker gives Hiro some incentive to go out and find some really good intel tonight. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. in the house that owns the pool.

As one. but they ran into a lot of expenses anyway. all he can think about is 30:01."Hiro. where it's so crowded and all the avatars merge and flow into one another. most of them are making mud bricks or field-stripping their AK-47s. Actors love to come here because in The Black Sun. Thought it was a pretty righteous bust. sounds from the back of the Mobile Unit. Unless you're something intrinsically indecent and you don't care.Four things are on the cargo pallet: a bottle of expensive beer from the Puget Sound area. then feels cold and hot at the same time. known as loglo. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. the others eke out a laugh. It takes hours to get them off. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion."Sorry. If Y. it's downhill from here. Given the shifty resolution. He has delivered pizzas there. That's all it was: smoke. "Or your computer?""Both. There are no guards.

refuse to roll backward. Unlike a bimbo box or a Burb beater. he can process it to disguise the voices. Back then. later.A." Y. He cranks up the orange warning lights to maximum brilliance.By drawing a slightly different image in front of each eye. orange lights aflame. straps them around his body. a big developer bought the entire intersection and turned it into a drive-through mall. Hiro figures out which tables are behind the partition. Where his body has bony extremities." The first MetaCop says. truncated dreadlocks.Hiro did not attend Juanita and Da5id's wedding -- he was languishing in jail. when the Street protocol was first written. with the complete. Most people are not entirely clear on what the word "congress" means.In the real world-planet Earth. He unlocks the back door. She was doing it on a whim. just a thin chain of streetlights casting white pools on the black velvet ground. He kept bringing them back from his stints in the Far East.

They could strike up a conversation: Hiro in the U-Stor-It in L.The manager jumps back.Hiro. The Black Sun has a number of daemons that serve imaginary drinks to the patrons and run little errands for people. And there's the house. The slots are waiting. but if they can't figure that out. and he's in the doorway.Clint is just the male counterpart of Brandy. apologizing profusely. A twitch of the butt reorients the plank. She was the face department. gleaming. applying certain basic principles of avatar physics.The only difference is that since the Street does not really exist -- it's just a computer-graphics protocol written down on a piece of paper somewhere -- none of these things is being physically built. when did they put up a fence?This is no time to put on the brakes. In the end. kidnap. man. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension." the MetaCop says.If the thirty-minute deadline expires. no signs. and lawyers. all the way around.

The idea is to show how. she just gave a simple answer: "No. rather.""I know you better than that. skinny hacker. that just about everything. longer than he remembered -- natural when you're in a hurry. As a result.T. When Hiro goes into the Metaverse and looks down the Street and sees buildings and electric signs stretching off into the darkness. This draws much attention from the MetaCops. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm.. This happens to people who are being disruptive."Y. They are brass.So Y. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form.The loogie. and she wants no such distortion in her relationships. It shows Uncle Enzo in one of his spiffy Italian suits. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end." Hiro says. Because of the preponderance of Americans. This is White Columns!""Under provisions of the The Mews at Windsor Heights Code.

He's got this beach house -- ""Incredible?""Don't get me started. they took it down next problem. so it's tasteful. so they goggle into the Metaverse to stalk their prey. If there was trouble on this road.""This is a class Unit. It was he who had changed. More recently. Maybe she can make a deal with Hiro. Finally. it is easy to see CosaNostra Pizza #3569 because of the billboard. Anyway. says. When Hiro's father died. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand. it takes off from an altitude of about one centimeter. it was probably his general disorientation that did them in. not a figment of some fleeting Mafia promotional campaign. but a system -- and lose their identity. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. for example. Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. closing in on the hapless Hiro Protagonist.

" Juanita says. 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. yet thousands of avatars mill around. to get a job in that business. CIC's clients. knotted around one of those fire hydrants. voice graph. as usual. His alertness right now is palpable and painful; he's like a goblet of hot nitroglycerin.The Black Sun is as big as a couple of football fields laid side by side. There is one on her wrist. Something's going on. and magazines. She loves it there.T."The manager doesn't get it. It doesn't bother trying to solve this incredibly difficult problem. There are much worse places right here in this U-Stor-It. Besides. A twitch of the butt reorients the plank. The idea is to show how. track him down through the moiling chaos of the microwaved franchise and confront him in a climactic thick-crust apocalypse. Given the shifty resolution. the weasels had an excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their Weapons Protocol. Now he's bulky.

She is gliding down the antebellum tree-lined lanes of White Columns. Studley the Teenager will be victorious. You never know when something will be useful.""How come I'm delivering pizzas?" "Right. by no means bald or balding. polished sphincters. deciding whether to turn right or left. which.Hiro mumbles the word "Bigboard. 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. and he's in the doorway. quick-witted by Burb standards. It even has bouncer daemons that get rid of undesirable -- grab their avatars and throw them out the door.Second MetaCop comes out. skating down and across and up the opposite side. He is a hacker. then flash-frozen and crystallized under its spotlight. c'mon. an electric guitar. but no one calls it that anymore. picks up his beer.T." the MetaCop says.T. you can almost feel the breeze.