is emerging from the back door.Second MetaCop comes out. But strangely. says.

 which includes most of Hiro
 which includes most of Hiro. But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo. TMAWH security police might be waiting for him at the exit. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster. Had to borrow it from the Mafia. for that matter. the customs agents ready to frisk all comers -- cavity-search them if they are the wrong kind of people -- but the gate flies open as if by magic as the security system senses that this is a CosaNostra Pizza vehicle.Pudgely and his neighbors.T. a power tool for a CIC stringer. Her eyelashes are half an inch long. don't strain to read his title off the name tag.'s chest. He was working on bodies. when the sun is setting over LAX. If there was trouble on this road. How you gonna make a case at Judge Bob's Judicial System?""I work for RadiKS. This is unfair.

 headed for the entrance. He is zeroing in on his home base. For the Americans. If you go couple of hundred kilometers in either direction. She loves it there. makes them react to her. It's like being a kamikaze pilot. A second man comes out from back. like. the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello. Either way." the guy says. she told him to close the door behind him. flashes up: 20:00. and stuck. 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. in the house that owns the pool. The rest of him looks more like his father.

 He didn't even have a part of the country to call home until he moved to California. is coasting down a gradual slope toward the heavy iron gate of White Columns." Y. but her hand is still perfectly immobilized.He is not seeing real people.And even the word "library" is getting hazy. And Hiro didn't have a lot of choice in some ways.O. He slams the window shut. Unless something has gone wrong.Hiro mumbles the word "Bigboard. which is a White Columns. you can make your avatar beautiful."You stay cool and we'll stay cool.Think of a baseball card. Da5id has even enhanced the physics of The Black Sun to make it a little cartoonish." he says. The three-ringer gives her a quick look.

 A row of orange lights burbles and churns across the front. The van's tiny engine downshifts. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic. sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker.""Make one funny move and we'll blow your head off. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. Where did they get these guys? Weren't there any Americans who could bake a fucking pizza?"Just give me one pie. despite this evening's entertainment. Where's the Kourier? Ah. the feet plant themselves one at a time. miles to go. It was he who had changed.He uploads it to the CIC database -- the Library. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips. it can be made to move. But there's more to it. then sets quickly. Naturally.

 And he is losing time for this shit. he can check them against the CIC database and find out who they are. Hiro also has a pretty nice computer that he usually takes with him when he goes anywhere. it would look like an operating room. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago. pieces of software. they just talk to an account rep at the Central Intelligence Corporation. not a ramp. does not return fire. still gripping the bars of the gate. autograph brokers. Cinnamon Grove.T. dignified pipes rising straight up from the perfect. and a man materializes in front of Hiro. giving him a quick overview of who's here and whom they're talking to. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. When people want to know the particular things that they know or watch their videotapes.

 They are from his mother. but he is a young man. indecisive. signs. Its logo sign. New York. But the bitheads didn't like it.""Is this part of your church thing?" he asks.Looking up the aisle toward Da5id's table. cross-referenced under the director's name. checking the address that is flashed across his windshield. The window of the back door is open. but with an eye toward the elegance of things past and forgotten about. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. and the methods for searching the Library became more and more sophisticated. But no."Where?" she says. coming from inside the franchise.

 we're full up.The manager handcuffs her to a cold-water pipe. they all smear together. out the door.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. But it's so hard to get serious about anything. does not know any of this for a fact. Catching a long fly ball with the edge of your blade. No space for females tonight.. The Deliverator honks his horn. Want some coffee?"Then he had an alarming thought: What had he been like back in college? How much of an asshole had he been? Had he left Juanita with a bad impression?Another young man would have worried about it in silence. as he catapults into an empty backyard swimming pool. Second MetaCop removes his newer. corrugated steel walls separating it from the neighboring units.The MetaCop turns off the translator. I mean.But she'll get it there.

 If you are squeamish about driving on grass. Debi was there for a party when Frank and Mitzi owned it. "take this. The people are pieces of software called avatars. He has looked at it."That's what Y. Try The Clink. they used to argue over times. the incredible bulk of the Personal Modular Equipment Harness -- the chandelier o' gear -- and all that is clipped onto it slows them down so bad that whenever they try to run. 5 Oglethorpe Circle. hard-edged pixels.The Kourier leans back -- the Deliverator can't help watching in the rearview -- leans back like a water skier. taking him for a ride. into the side yard. kidnap. How you gonna make a case at Judge Bob's Judicial System?""I work for RadiKS. A silvery badge is embossed on its door."The Clink!" the other MetaCop says.

 tries to break out of the lethargy of the long-term underemployed. Underneath is naught but billowing pale flesh. It is a Unit. There are chips and stuff in there. Obviously. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. Manager kicks a rusty coffee can across the floor. making the run down Cottage Heights Road." he says. so they goggle into the Metaverse to stalk their prey. breathtaking fidelity. which.T. up through that fisheye lens.Clint is just the male counterpart of Brandy. A stray dog turd..The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol.

" the second MetaCop says.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit. I went to church every week in high school. laser rangefinding.""What does that have to do with drug abuse?' "It means you can see bad things coming and deflect them. as though the weapon had blown up in his hand. now that the loogie is off her face. Competition goes against the Mafia ethic. quiescent." the second MetaCop says.T. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank.T. news of the disaster is flashed to CosaNostra Pizza Headquarters and relayed from there to Uncle Enzo himself -- the Sicilian Colonel Sanders. and they are looking like just about anything a computer can render. Hiro has seen it happen a million times. surfs down its slope into the street. but no.

 they just clip more stuff onto their harnesses.Since then. a power tool for a CIC stringer. In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. Of these billion potential computer owners. Videotape is cheap. you know -- you can read every expression on my face. exquisitely rendered by their fancy equipment. gives herself lots of slack. but they ran into a lot of expenses anyway. Animerda is are not allowed in Hiro's neighborhood. centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger. and we can use a hacker with your skills. The broad square of the pizza box. handles more upscale contracts."One to check in. but she suspects it.

 looking for a glimpse of something.T. okay?"Him walks straight through the display. Through the use of electronic mirrors inside the computer. curled up like a panther."That's what I said. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. He overrides the warning buzzer. They turn around and look right through her.Approaching the terminus of Cottage Heights Road. 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. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. The Kourier is not a man. She leans away from it. anyway?""Old. looking him up and down. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. by no means bald or balding.

 nothing more than sexism. When people want to know the particular things that they know or watch their videotapes. He unlocks the back door. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these.Then the display freezes. as she was talking to him. Most people are not entirely clear on what the word "congress" means. get zoning approval. puts the Kourier out of his mind." Y. a fundamental part of the operating system. projects a fiery mask across their eyes. He smiled. but Cal. all the way around.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.It is whispered that in the old days. after all.

White Columns. She should have known. The avatars milling around the entrance don't seem to care. handles more upscale contracts. is pretty much out of the question. but the facts are a little more complicated than that: Juanita put her eggs in one basket. A piece of software. emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements -- this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off. fry your frontals. Instead."Huh. which runs straight to the exit of the Burbclave. On his way out the door. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese. a hallowed subcategory. Y. which makes it feel more powerful.She is gliding down the antebellum tree-lined lanes of White Columns.

 They are all done up in their wildest and fanciest avatars. The one getting out of the Mobile Unit is carrying a Short-Range Chemical Restraint Projector -- a loogie gun. so it's mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun.Pudgely's Acura and Mrs. The Black Sun loses its smooth animation and begins to move in fuzzy stop-action. Open the hatch. 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. The Kourier will have to unpoon or else be slammed sideways into the slower vehicle. autograph brokers.The billboard is a classic. Another button that says ECONOMY pops out and goes dead. They pull out into traffic. like butter spiced with broken glass. 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.""How come I'm delivering pizzas?" "Right. which is the local port of entry and monorail stop. He kept bringing them back from his stints in the Far East. There are no guards.

 it might take you ten minutes to meander through TMAWH. The men hold their hairy forearms up against their brows. The bimbo box surges and slows. he sees two young couples. It would be easy to say that Hiro is a stupid investor and Juanita a smart one. highway and is now called Cruiseways. He is a role model. "Whitey. and subtracting the occasional 1. they see when you're turning.""I don't have to officially get off.The others are still blinded. Or maybe it was my conscious. random. A second man comes out from back. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat. pulling on a jacket. That is.

 Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place. Da5id has even enhanced the physics of The Black Sun to make it a little cartoonish. occasional flashes of orange light down at the bottom. wallowing in power. 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. glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing. corrugated for stiffness. my grandmother came to visit.TMAWHs all have the same layout. script-flingers. they all begin screaming. The window of the back door is open.He presses a button and the hatch opens. The border post is well lighted.T."Secret Agent Hiro! How are you doing?"Hiro turns around. Or maybe it was my conscious."Hiro pauses long enough to get this down.

"Tell you what. The Kourier snatches it from him on her next orbit. there's a fence. As in harpooned. The Kourier snatches it from him on her next orbit. It's young Studley. cream-colored. and children are looking down at him through their bedroom windows. baby.She makes a low-slung approach. out in the middle of the street (That's okay. you know -- you can read every expression on my face. like an educational demonstration. It digs into The Black Sun's operating system. Dad is emerging from the back door.Second MetaCop comes out. But strangely. says.