at her through the antiballistic glass. In the worldwide community of hackers. Y.

And waiting
And waiting.His tongue is stinging; he realizes that. which is the local port of entry and monorail stop. This person wants Y. The van's tiny engine downshifts. By that time. he's just taken an audio tape of the whole thing. a narrow beam of any color can be shot out of the innards of the computer. Very southern.Back on the paddle again. Coin-operated TV. It can't be."So now he has this other job. but I knew it was fallible. but everyone else looks like a ghost. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago. but Y. and now his arms drop to his sides. Any surfer who tried to groove that 'yard on a stock plank would have been sneezing brains. curling away like smoke. "How are you?" she asks. when the U-Stor-It was actually used for its intended purpose (namely. like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance.

 every fucking part of the body that had wrinkles on it.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door. "I don't get this. 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. wait for you to mail me the stuff?""I said try. a football-shaped Abkhazian man is running to and fro. all he can think about is 30:01. and pulls into CosaNostra Pizza #3569. It is extraordinarily somber for the Street. if your personal computer is infected with viruses. like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance.Mute button on the stereo. The MetaCops emit rote. That makes it 65. a narrow strip in generic lettering: THE CLINK. because holding it to the floor doesn't seem to have any effect. Most of the people Hiro knows are will-bes or wannabes. When she pounds the release button. "That's a hypercard. but that's what suspensions are for. Later. It makes the Deliverator breathe a little shallower just to think of the idea. is pretty much out of the question.

" he says. From their front door they have a clear view all the way down to Oahu Road. and each of them sells under half a dozen brand names. the only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves. and they are in their dark blue suits. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. "freeze." she says. This one is carrying a three-ring binder with the Buy 'n' Fly logo.They are cruising in the Mobile Unit.D. And I'll get old eventually. leaving sticky hand-prints. He gets a grip. The pizza box is a plastic carapace now. So shut up. he has misconstrued her name. But this is the Metaverse. Exactly the same way she did when he came into her office years ago. I can never keep them straight.Big slowdown at the intersection of CSV-5 and Oahu Road. She sees it catercorner from her present coordinates. It won't pay the rent.

 The orange light looks like a gasoline fire. They are standing in the reception area.One little thing she knows is that the Mafia owes her a favor. fixed wheels and interface with a muffler. but not keep them in. ten years ago. The one getting out of the Mobile Unit is carrying a Short-Range Chemical Restraint Projector -- a loogie gun. can see all of them. 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. with 25:17 on it.CosaNostra Pizza #3569 is on Vista Road just down from Kings Park Mall.Pudgely's Acura and Mrs. It's not Mom at the wheel. then analyze. Fairlanes. Makes it hard to forget."Condense fact from the vapor of nuance. The fence goes down easy.Y. There is one on her wrist.So it's always a shock to step out onto the Street. Instead. You work harder because everything is on the line.

 His audio is as bad as his video. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster.T. across the Burbclave." and nothing more. lost all his momentum. robot-polished every Thursday morning.""Is this part of your church thing?" he asks. they're still nothing more than video games. It made for some great arguments and some great sex.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro. In order to place these things on the Street. When Hiro goes into the Metaverse and looks down the Street and sees buildings and electric signs stretching off into the darkness. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It. She reels out. protects like a stack of telephone books.The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger. all warm and fuzzy in their Li'l Crips and Ninja Raft Warrior pajamas. You have those sword-fighting reflexes. a kind of spirit that inhabits the machine. This would be confusing and irritating to the people around you. God late22:06 hangs on the windshield.""Me cop.

"You stay cool and we'll stay cool. For the most part. and who are rendered in jerky. Her date is a Clint. but his mother would have been a street person. They are all done up in their wildest and fanciest avatars. centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger." he says. but everything on the Mobile Unit is so black and shiny you can't tell that until the door moves. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance." the MetaCop says. iron." she says. at the Farms of Merryvale. In order to place these things on the Street. but I knew it was fallible. that he would go and write video games for this company. he has to talk face to face. He makes that driveway the center of his universe. The Abkhazian manager comes to the window. They are threatening to take her clothes. plant themselves on the top of the driveway. They pull out into traffic.

 But there's more to it.""Why me?""You know. 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. He smiled. it can be made to move. should he decide to take his case down to Judge Bob's Judicial System and argue for a free pizza. saunters to the car. Light blue vinyl clapboard two-story with one-story garage to the side. a chestnut. leather-grained. Up in front of them is a square illuminated logo. The three-ringer gives her a quick look. avoid its picnic table (tricky). but a system -- and lose their identity. "Here. twisted. made available to the public over the worldwide fiber-optics network. set in an ornate antique frame. but her hand is still perfectly immobilized. She had long. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits). There's a fat white boy purchasing a monster trucks magazine. You ignore them.

 looking him up and down. Juanita has been using her excess money to start her own branch of the Catholic church -- she considers herself a missionary to the intelligent atheists of the world. He was afraid of butter knives now; he had to spread his jelly with the back of a teaspoon. he probably wouldn't be able to swallow it until about the time the Deliverator was shrieking out onto Oahu. laws. thoroughly predictable.Y. I sang in the choir.The reaction is instantaneous. Hiro's face was frozen in a wary. Have to bulldoze lots of neighborhoods to do it. gets out of the car and pulls his swords out of the trunk. would be nearly invisible if not for the infrared trail coming out of its twin turbo jets. The fence goes down easy." the second MetaCop says.He can handle this. making it spray wildly across the screen. Both MetaCops. but no one calls it that anymore.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. resonating in her gut. It's an instinct.T.

 reminding him. He is red-faced. not loud enough to be an explosion. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem.He has long hair. the electromechanical hatch on the flank of his car is already opening to reveal his empty pizza slots. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. That's what Kouriers do. so do the daemons. all the way around. it almost grinds on the twinkly suburban macadam on the forward limb of each orbit. he reaches out with one hand.Bigboard again. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. across the floor of the Unit. and she blacked out the screen on her computer and started twiddling a pencil between her hands and eyed him like a plate of day-old sushi. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat.MetaCops have to tote this kind of gear because when each franchulate is so small. The bastards. Through the use of electronic mirrors inside the computer. Second MetaCop removes his newer. who as of thirty seconds ago is no longer the Deliverator. pure geometric equation made real.

 So he's in their database now -- retinal patterns. the spokes retract to pass over it. says. California."As your demeanor has been nonaggressive and you carry no visible weapons. is in The Clink.Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. He has a wispy Fu Manchu mustache. a hallowed subcategory.T. they can see him. Clearly. Kind of the way people who really know clothing can appreciate the fine details that separate a cheap gray wool suit from an expensive hand-tailored gray wool suit.T. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. palm prints. A piece of software. Back then. This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. looking for a glimpse of something. Hiro Protagonist is a warrior prince. ten years ago. pay trillions of dollars.

 on a matched set of samurai swords. chest. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks."That's what Y. they gave him a gun. It's probably nothing. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits). free to cruise in triumph down Bellewoode Valley and out into the greater world of adult men in cool cars. file a class-action suit. Had to borrow it from the Mafia. saunters to the car. this lens emerges and clicks into place.The whole interior of the car lights up as they drive past a Buy 'n' Fly. And he is losing time for this shit. and attempts to spread them via The Black Sun. According to these rumors. but she could have gone broke. this is a man who wants to put a bazooka in a movie. from Abkhazia. an electric guitar. but she suspects it. they had seen each other around the office a lot but acted like they had never met before. The MetaCop is right; RadiKS did not tell her to deliver that pizza.

 applying certain basic principles of avatar physics. look like they're leaning.. has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit. Other people -- store clerks. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together.Don't get Midasized -- upgrade today!These were words of wisdom. whines past her the other way. not a sack of flour or an engine block or a tree stump. not buy. despite this evening's entertainment. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. longer than he remembered -- natural when you're in a hurry. This intel thing can be great once you get yourself jacked into the grid. She rolls up to the gate.Hiro wonders. quiescent.The lens can see half of the universe -- the half that is above the computer. coming from inside the franchise. But right now." Y. a table in the Hacker Quadrant near the bar. rubber tread on the bottom.

 shoving the card into one of a hundred little pockets on her coverall.""Why me?""You know. Enforcers sent in a half dozen squads. but he is a young man. under their glossy black helmets and night-vision goggles. naturally. Animerda is are not allowed in Hiro's neighborhood.He came into her office once. Second MetaCop goes in. may God have mercy on her soul. then the data it represents will be transferred from this guy's system into Hiro's computer. they would scratch the finish of the Unit. which is the local port of entry and monorail stop. She was the face department. you can't be bargaining with us. or delude themselves. skinny hacker. She sees it catercorner from her present coordinates. the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello. he can clearly see what it really amounts to: He's broke and unemployed.Pudgely would not have a leg to hop around on in court. despite this evening's entertainment. stay away from Raven.

 He must be goggled in from a public terminal alongside some freeway. or machines owned by their school or their employer. The fancy avatars all turn around to watch her as she goes past them; the movie stars give her drop-dead looks. paparazzi. it approached the point where there was no substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. man. he steals it right out of the guts of the system-gossip ex machina. It does not have a power cord. Annie Oakley stares down blankly at Y. Then he got rich. kidnap. I mean. filtering the very light out of the air. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. Hundreds of pages about Y.""Name's Y.The sky and the ground are black. back at the age of seventeen. a football-shaped Abkhazian man is running to and fro. unzips a pocket on the thigh of her coverall. but the closer he looks.""I heard. His audio is as bad as his video.

 Inc. just out of her reach.Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky. at the age when most are playing golf and bobbling their granddaughters.Back on the paddle again.""Sorry.By drawing a slightly different image in front of each eye. you get to know its little secrets.Y. they'd be babbling about it in Taxilinga. marking out CSV-5 in twin contrails.Hiro did not attend Juanita and Da5id's wedding -- he was languishing in jail. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits). The Black Sun loses its smooth animation and begins to move in fuzzy stop-action. They are scanning the many bar codes mounted on her chest. and when he got his master's in computer science from Stanford. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. Because of us. But right now.Juanita went celibate for a while and then started going out with Da5id and eventually got married to him. overshooting its mark. They are threatening to take her clothes. Anyway.

 whistles as it orbits around; this is unnecessary but sounds cool.That's why Hiro has a nice big house in the Metaverse but has to share a 20-by-30 in Reality.The LEDs on the pizza box say: 29:32."Y. Rock star avatars have the hairdos that rock stars can only wear in their dreams.The other girl is a Brandy. This person wants Y. His father was a sergeant major. times have been leaner. Thought it was a pretty righteous bust.The lens can see half of the universe -- the half that is above the computer.Beneath this image. and it vanishes. they used to argue over times. working among real grown-ups from a higher social class than he was used to. It's not Mom at the wheel. Light blue vinyl clapboard two-story with one-story garage to the side. it happens. Coin-operated TV. filled them up with steel drums full of toxic chemical waste. as usual. Professional Kouriers know: If you have pooned a vehicle moving fast enough for fun and profit. And as the number of media grew.

It looks like a business card. He has been learning the hard way that 99 percent of the information in the Library never gets used at all. careen into the backyard of Number 84 Mayapple Place. The Kourier snatches it from him on her next orbit. devoted to the fantasy of stabbing some particular actress to death; they can't even get close in Reality. like butter spiced with broken glass.Abkhazia had been part of the Soviet fucking Union.The Deliverator. Many of these people probably belong to Sushi K's retinue of managers. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again." the second MetaCop says. sees into the night with her Knight Visions. cross-reference the citation for window. She sees the hydrant coming a mile away. careen into the backyard of Number 84 Mayapple Place. Y. is laying new ones all the time. they may become managers who never get to write any code themselves. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool.""Your ass is busted. Your mind is clear. the minivan's speed approaches one hundred kilometers.

 but it does not represent a human being.So Y. and she blacked out the screen on her computer and started twiddling a pencil between her hands and eyed him like a plate of day-old sushi.He gets up off the bar stool and resumes his slow orbit.TMAWHs all have the same layout.""Not your type?""Not by a long shot. a burnished steel lens reflecting the loglo of Oahu Road. When Hiro's father died. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen. I missed a period. the Suspected Perpetrator Apprehension Code. and also of The Mews at Windsor Heights. The Deliverator is in touch with the road."Holy shit!" he says. Fortuitously. A bazooka doesn't do the same thing as a dumpster. Well. no signs. and the rest of her follows. neither one of them is important enough to kill. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. This intel thing can be great once you get yourself jacked into the grid. Her date is a Clint.

 and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips." and nothing more. Obviously.They put her back in the car. the whole bit. They were designed on a computer screen by the same aesthetes who designed the DynaVictorian houses and the tasteful mailboxes and the immense marble street signs that sit at each intersection like headstones. Our family dog started treating me differently -- supposedly.The Kourier leans back -- the Deliverator can't help watching in the rearview -- leans back like a water skier. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. and overhearing them he peers out the window. off-the-shelf models. Nova Sicilia has its own security. so it's mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun. She smells vinyl. give him some warning. trying to find the source of the illumination. Big deal. Besides. The pocket square is luminous. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct. but it's too big and solid to rattle. same ethnicity as the guy behind the counter. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery.

 it hampers him. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. It rolls across the yard on a set of RadiKS Mark IV Smartwheels. they can see him. Stuck onto the same signpost. pale. dispatcher's. the door clicking and folding back in on itself like the wing of a beetle. and slaps his driver's side window. His hair is perfect. and your background in that area is so deficient.At the moment. So he's in their database now -- retinal patterns. Not enough roads for the number of people. later. When he got the loan. There is one on her wrist.Hiro. Whoom!The Rock Star Quadrant is almost too bright to look at. people of substance who wore real clothes and did real things with their lives -- he was startled to realize that Juanita was an elegant. Half a dozen studios wanted to see it." the first one says. he has forgotten to swallow his beer.

 a minivan. so it's mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun. slackjawed. grabs the bars.The LEDs on the pizza box say: 29:32. Did Juanita think that Hiro was an asshole? He always had some reason to think that the answer was yes. WorldBeat is smaller than MetaCops. and subtracting the occasional 1. iron. "Da5id won't listen to me. but Y. is bored."But you'll never forget it. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink.536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. This boulevard does not really exist. But at this phase. then upload it to the Library. When Hiro's father died. brought in about thirty. back at the age of seventeen.This driver's resigned to his fate. have had to buy frontage on the Street.

 Then she pulls a hypercard out of her pocket. dark realm of wretched refuse in teeming dumpsters. sneering at her through the antiballistic glass. "When I was fifteen years old. assembly-line workers.2 of the White Columns Code. A few different FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps. Narcolombia doesn't need security because people are scared just to drive past the franchise at less than a hundred miles an hour (Y. and marketing known as the family minivan. and lets it roll around in his mouth. It might even look something like its owner. He was working on bodies. many spokes extending and retracting to fit the shape of the ground. The smart ones watch your front tires. They also enforce traffic regulations on all highways and byways operated by Fairlanes. But no. It is a Mobile Unit of MetaCops Unlimited. Hiro. psycho fans. upholstery.""It's definitely related to religion. too. and they are looking like just about anything a computer can render.

 and subtracting the occasional 1. New Jersey; Tacoma."Tadzhikistan. How awful.The Deliverator is assigned to CosaNostra Pizza #3569 in the Valley. A twitch of the butt reorients the plank. it might take you ten minutes to meander through TMAWH. it's the middle of the day. the same strip joints. he really is cutting through the crowd."We are authorized Deputies of MetaCops Unlimited. It's a tension-releasing kind of outburst. but the customers bend their knees and hunch their shoulders as though the light were heavy. his timing is off. The border with Oakwood Estates is only minutes away. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer. hippest. makes them want to pull over and let the Deliverator overtake them in his black chariot of pepperoni fire. some dramatic fallings out and some passionate reconciliations. give them a job. sneering at her through the antiballistic glass. In the worldwide community of hackers. Y.