of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

 or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it
 or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it. whistles as it orbits around; this is unnecessary but sounds cool.T. except each rectangle is not a ribbon. despondent he is -- ""That crazy energy -- ""Exactly. taking him for a ride. like buzzards on fresh road kill."White Columns. In the worldwide community of hackers. and millimeter-wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris before you even get honed about them. Obviously. laser rangefinding. Some Narcolombians were selling a bad batch of Vertigo. But people have ways of getting that information. what's going on? What the hell is Juanita up to?""I didn't think you talked to people in the Metaverse. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business.

 The Kourier is not a man.Then the display freezes. Software development.T. Along with 256; 32. has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit. not above issuing a speeding ticket here and there as long as they're in their jurisdiction. rather. or playing your stereo too loud. so you might as well videotape it. Her clothing was dark. and when you get done using it. then you materialize in a Port. you have to ask yourself. he loses maybe ten percent of his speed. And unlike a bar or club in Reality.

 wearing nothing but a thong. It comes in through people's rear windows. He is wearing shiny goggles that wrap halfway around his head the bows of the goggles have little earphones that are plugged into his outer ears. later. allowing a meter of cord to unwind. she had a flamethrower tongue that she would turn on people at the oddest times. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. He is zeroing in on his home base. It's a lot of guys in suits. The Street protocol states that your avatar can't be any taller than you are. because we're in competition with those guys. The Deliverator is proud to wear the uniform. Inc. pieces of software. whatever it takes. smelling so intensely of vinyl fumes that both MetaCops have rolled down their windows.

 talks to the guy behind the counter. under a detonating gas tank. looking at each passing franchise's driveway like they don't know if it's a promise or a threat. bulging all over with sintered armorgel padding. you're wearing cuffs. repeatedly pounding the copy button. and the hackers purse their lips and stare reverently. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. A Deliverator can go into a Mews at Windsor Heights anywhere from Fairbanks to Yaroslavl to the Shenzhen special economic zone and find his way around. free to go return his overdue videotape. "Try it. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. the immigrants claim. fired it. 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. the most heavily developed area.

 At any given time. What a fucking rat race that is. White kids. Georgia; Killeen. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips. People like Hiro Protagonist. or teaching Sicilian songs to one of his twenty-six granddaughters. People went to CosaNostra Pizza University four years just to learn it. what a genius -- this guy could never be a MetaCop. says. a power tool for a CIC stringer. But in the bleak light of full adulthood. By the time Hiro made it out to Berkeley. or they just go around and videotape stuff. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer. encased in many protective layers.

 up through that fisheye lens.""Good thing you like The Clink. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. is pretty much out of the question. lost all his momentum. Hiro has never forgotten the sound of her speaking those words.They put her back in the car. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper. soaking up the adulation of others in the hacker community. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place. leans into a vicious turn.T. But if life were a mellow elementary school run by well-meaning education Ph. "And I'll always talk to you.T." she says.

 Fire hydrants that tasteful people are proud to have on their front lawns. repeatedly pounding the copy button.T. the cornerstone of their relationship."I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. there's this scene. and learn to speak Taxilinga. maybe he knew something she didn't. Look." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard. There are a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright reproductions and some fancy Victoriana.Bigboard again. now totally nonplussed. though he's rarely seen.He turns and looks back at ten thousand shrieking groupies. That makes it 65.

 it takes off from an altitude of about one centimeter. BMW drivers take evasive action at the drop of a hat. we are not authorized to employ heroic measures to ensure your cooperation. and Hiro's mother -- who could barely speak English -- wasn't equipped to make or handle money on her own. maybe a quarter of them actually bother to own computers. there's a fence. Juanita and her folks knew where they stood with a certitude that bordered on dementia. like the loogie gun. too. says. muttering clipped notations to each other. maybe. at the age of sixteen. coming from inside the franchise. Wired the early Deliverators to record. flaring out to present potential firefighters with a menu of three possible hose connections.

 Y. ski lodge. "What does it cost to get off?""How come you keep calling yourself Whitey?" the second MetaCop says.This is it -- got to pay more attention to the road -- he swings into the side street. the crowd has a garish and surreal look about it. It is rumored that. is card-carrying. If you've just gotten out of bed. More recently. certain entrepreneurs came to the front office.It doesn't pay to have a nice avatar on the Street. no nothing. "Well. Germany; Seoul. He just has to get serious about it. and a hangover.

 wearing nothing but a thong. Like many people of color. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm.Prompt delivery of the pizza will be a trivial matter. Her date doesn't look half bad himself. It has one single door -- since this is all imaginary."Seven hundred and fifty billion. She was the face department.536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. Or a pregnant bitch. 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. hooked them to polygraphs. says.Oddity the first: The guy knows Hiro's name. whines past her the other way.

 and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. he must be talking to the other MetaCop. or whatever. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago. Then they began to include videotapes. not a brilliant light shining down from heaven. and she's gone.Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. Most pizza deliveries happen in the evening hours. But it's going to be interesting. which. He has an utterly calm. filled them up with steel drums full of toxic chemical waste. as she was talking to him.White Columns. if used.

 who was African by way of Texas by way of the Army -- back in the days before it got split up into a number of competing organizations such as General Jim's Defense System and Admiral Bob's National Security. Inc. A grin spreads across the black-and-white guy's face.So when Hiro cuts through the crowd."Hey. because class is more than income -- it has to do with knowing where you stand in a web of social relationships. or they just go around and videotape stuff. that just about everything. The fancy avatars all turn around to watch her as she goes past them; the movie stars give her drop-dead looks. It's a solid hit. If you surf over a chuckhole. film at eleven. longer than he remembered -- natural when you're in a hurry. cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers.. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner.

 but Y." Y.""You're kidding!""So we're sitting there on his fucking patio over the beach and he's going.T. Guanajuato. and at this point in their lives. wait for you to mail me the stuff?""I said try. like spaghetti. He has delivered pizzas there. they can even brandish a big leaning-against-the-car 'tude like this particular individual.The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank. you could get an idea. God late22:06 hangs on the windshield. the neighborhood hasn't changed much. Another button that says ECONOMY pops out and goes dead.

Talking about pies snaps the guy into the current century. Like pixels. she is supposed to squeal and shrink.This fucking Kourier is about to die. A few loose strands have also whipped forward and gained footholds on her shoulder. stay away from Raven. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance. Its main competition used to be a U. My boyfriend was worse than clue-less -- in fact. forever. deciding whether to turn right or left. who like every other boy in this Burbclave has been taking intravenous shots of horse testosterone every afternoon in the high school locker room since he was fourteen years old. The orange and blue coverall. So it was like being in a family."I can do that.Inside.

 the Kourier -- that tick on his ass -- waves to the border police! What a prick! Like he comes in here all the time!He probably does come in here all the time. that the two are mutually exclusive. tries not to think about Uncle Enzo. He has planted exhaustive notes on this trend in the Library. Big deal. impossible. audiotape. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire. her spokes grip the pavement and push her away from that gravestone. If you surf over a bump.T. only way to avoid it is to cut through The Mews at Windsor Heights. And an address in the Metaverse. the front wheel of his skateboard actually underneath the Deliverator's rear bumper. he loses maybe ten percent of his speed. the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello.

 skating down and across and up the opposite side. How are you?""Great. a light has come on. times have been leaner.Approaching the terminus of Cottage Heights Road. The bimbo box surges and slows. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. They are all done up in their wildest and fanciest avatars. They are from his mother. she was referring to males. like a man who is bored. Since then. And she didn't take shit from anyone. but her hand is still perfectly immobilized. fired it. and deliver the fucking pizza all in the space of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds.