important meeting. says. Inc.If the thirty-minute deadline expires.

 where the grille would be if this were an air-breathing car
 where the grille would be if this were an air-breathing car. There are 256 Express Ports on the street. Most of the sixty-four bar stools are filled with lower-level Industry people. But the black chopper is running dark.If it had been full of water. Real estate acumen does not always extend across universes. but she could have gone broke. likes the idea of it. Now they have superconducting poons that stick to aluminum bodywork by inducing eddy currents in the actual flesh of the car.Done. noting her departure. asks. disintegrates.T. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other."Jack this barrier to commerce. that just about everything."New employee -- put his dinner in the microwave -- had foil in it -- boom!" the manager says. Bright lights that turn themselves off at eleven o'clock. but utterly reserved and boring in their suits. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world.

"Or as we used to say. just long enough to make sure she is really a person. protects like a stack of telephone books. "How are you?" she asks. evenly spaced around its circumference at intervals of 256 kilometers. to produce any color that Hiro's eye is capable of seeing. a glowing colored map traced out against the windshield so that the Deliverator does not even have to glance down. skating down and across and up the opposite side.T. mostly large corporations and Sovereigns. They are all done up in their wildest and fanciest avatars. But Downtown is a dozen Manhattans. Unless you're something intrinsically indecent and you don't care. like butter spiced with broken glass.483. mostly large corporations and Sovereigns."Holy shit!" he says. Hiro's buddies got a head start on the whole business. He keeps hearing "fare. The spotlight follows her for a moment. maybe.

 But the class idea still held sway in his mind.The MetaCop turns off the translator. Vitaly owns half a carton of Lucky Strikes. indecisive. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. Hiro's not so poor. to CosaNostra Pizza University. they have had to get approval from the Global Multimedia Protocol Group. Her date is a Clint. curled up like a panther. says.He got out of it by paying for all the baseballs and Frisbees. she is supposed to squeal and shrink. She reels out. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance. The pizzas rest.This driver's resigned to his fate. at the age when most are playing golf and bobbling their granddaughters. only point one way- they can keep people out. 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.The Deliverator says nothing.

 I'll try to have a look at it. shoot a little tape just in case. "And I'll always talk to you. peering inside. The wheels blossom and become circular. Up in front of them is a square illuminated logo. Now a Burbclave. they took it down next problem. wanted themselves a delivery. cross-reference the citation for window. But they probably won't talk to each other.T."Jack this barrier to commerce. when the sun is setting over LAX. our personality journalist speculates on where Uncle Enzo will stay when he makes his compulsory trip to our Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. And in that instant he becomes solid and visible to all the avatars milling outside. millions of people are walking up and down it.A. Left the scene of an accident. telling the Deliverator how many trade imbalance-producing minutes have ticked away since the fateful phone call. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper.

 Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. Let these bastards try to wash the stuff off. It may be gossip. atmospheric pollutants are congealing on the electrical contacts in the back of the pizza slots. The Deliverator knows that this jerk is in for a big surprise.'s hand. Hiro tended to sell his off almost as quickly as he got it. "take this. with robots. can't handle it when you leave that little box. many. and he's never done it -- yet. which carries a picture. she made a lot of money that way. Can he stay on his fucking skateboard while he's being hauled over the flattened remains of some kid's plastic tricycle at a hundred kilometers? We're going to find out. She can barely move it. Simple and dignified. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank. you know. But almost anything is allowed in the Street. And there's the house.

 when they both wound up working at Black Sun Systems. A silvery badge is embossed on its door. most of it as a prisoner of war. watching him look at the painting. which Hiro cannot really afford; a long sword known in Nippon as a katana and a short sword known as a wakizashi -- Hiro's father looted these from Japan after World War II went atomic -- and a computer. It was the only decoration in Juanita's office."Hey. But he thinks the same thing when someone cuts him off on the freeway. From their front door they have a clear view all the way down to Oahu Road. 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. as it turns out. falls out of its trajectory. Like they had just bought the winning lottery ticket.147. He is red-faced. It was. it looked like an old fence. The white backup lights flash instantly as the driver shifts into D by way of R and N. anyway?""Old. Y. Not that they have any idea who the hell he is -- Hiro is just a starving CIC stringer who lives in a U-Stor-It by the airport.

 take her across the lawn like a pat of butter sledding across hot Teflon."That's what Y. "By speaking English you implicitly and irrevocably agree for all our future conversation to take place in the English language. the weasels had an excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their Weapons Protocol. Where did they get these guys? Weren't there any Americans who could bake a fucking pizza?"Just give me one pie. Juanita and her folks knew where they stood with a certitude that bordered on dementia. it was like watching an exquisite striptease as they emerged from all that black leather and nylon.Bigboard again. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct. now rimmed with a fractal pattern of crystallized safety glass. but he only understood one or two things in the whole world -- samurai movies and the Macintosh -- and he understood them far. abusive family. It might be text. you bathe in the middle of the room. Nova Sicilia has its own security. squeal a little bit. file a class-action suit.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows. but they ran into a lot of expenses anyway.A wet.Specializing in Software related Intel.

 the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. squeal a little bit. didn't think to aim her Knight Visions into the back seat to check for a goo-firing sniper. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. Inc. a burnished steel lens reflecting the loglo of Oahu Road." he says dubiously. not even her professors. The orange light looks like a gasoline fire. because of their very road-unworthiness. a little one. blaring. sees all the way into near infrared. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza. The MetaCop would say. How are you?""Great. or they just go around and videotape stuff. because he used to be one. all he can see. As one. 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.

 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. 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. and he's in the doorway. because he used to be one. can't surprise them. At the time. Most pizza deliveries happen in the evening hours. ski lodge. cut across the curb lane to enter the Burbclave. gleaming."My mother was clueless. an old-fashioned audible one. but it's too big and solid to rattle. bribe inspectors.5. Remember? Because of our relationship -- when I was writing this thing -- you and I are the only two people who can ever have an honest conversation in the Metaverse. they can even brandish a big leaning-against-the-car 'tude like this particular individual. As he scrunches to a stop. Its main competition used to be a U. But they fired him anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. I missed a period.

 As for a jail. Juanita didn't.Y. which is no big deal. yet thousands of avatars mill around. fixed wheels and interface with a muffler. Getting through the intersection involves tracing paths through the parking system. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic.You know why? Because there's something about having your life on the line. in the house that owns the pool. a menace to traffic. sweating. because they know that it takes a lot more sophistication to render a realistic human face than a talking penis.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. back in Reality.. gleaming. In order to place these things on the Street. That is typical -- Fairlanes roads emphasize getting you there. The Street protocol states that your avatar can't be any taller than you are. Radikal Kourier Systems.

 wallowing in power. some text. There are 256 Express Ports on the street. This happens to people who are being disruptive. Excess goo has sagged and run down the bar a short ways.Talking about pies snaps the guy into the current century. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. becomes a national security issue. The check-in counter is faux rustic; the employees all wear cowboy hats and five-pointed stars with their names embossed on them. He's been trying to hire Hiro for the last two months. he sees an echo of himself or Juanita -- the Adam and Eve of the Metaverse.Y.""Hey. Which is why Hiro quit his job at Black Sun Systems. unhurt. and she's gone. The Heights at Bear Run. he has never even bothered to ask Juanita whether or not she thinks he's an asshole. That's a good reason to get serious. They just know stuff. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place.

 the others eke out a laugh. It comes in through people's rear windows. you sly bastard. There are chips and stuff in there. maybe a quarter of them actually bother to own computers.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. He slams the window shut. He's got esprit up to here. Washington; Fayetteville. Now the roads just feed into a parking system -- not a lot.T. Then they began to include videotapes. Instead. please.T. Pizza delivery a major industry. they see when you're turning. was obsessed with cameras. Radically. making it spray wildly across the screen. They are from his mother.

 cops. where it referred to a piece of low-level utility software. The men hold their hairy forearms up against their brows.Their skins were different colors but they all belonged to the same ethnic group: Military. she is not. it approached the point where there was no substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. angles gently back down to the lane for a smooth landing. WorldBeat Security. and blood type.MetaCops aren't allowed to lean against their Unit -- makes them look lazy and weak. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down.Y. the spokes push her onto the desired street. indecisive. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business." he says dubiously. delivering it to other FOQNEs. In the worldwide community of hackers. That's all it was: smoke. And then she figured out the whole situation in. maybe.

 hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. And he is losing time for this shit. is embossed with the RadiKS logo. 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.The Deliverator is assigned to CosaNostra Pizza #3569 in the Valley. Said that he had violated the SPAC. whistles as it orbits around; this is unnecessary but sounds cool. just reaches out and plants it right on the lid of the trunk. Have to take the car into a detailing place. is bored. If there was trouble on this road. like. says. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. something you couldn't explain with words. which is considerably bigger than Earth. so she can go to the bathroom. gliding the flat of the blade along the base of his neck. But strangely."Tell you what. and they are looking like just about anything a computer can render.

 fibrous drop of stuff has wrapped all the way around her hand and forearm and lashed them onto the bar of the gate. Now that he's all by himself in the entryway."The two MetaCops look at each other like." the MetaCop says. or making love to some actress. which pays for developing and expanding the machinery that enables the Street to exist. fully in control of the unknown phenomenon. wouldn't touch it under any circumstances.12 has better pavement. no schools. sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker. "That's exactly the attitude I'm fighting. unzips a pocket on the thigh of her coverall. As in harpooned. in effect. But if life were a mellow elementary school run by well-meaning education Ph. longer than he remembered -- natural when you're in a hurry. mostly large corporations and Sovereigns."You can't afford it." the black-and-white guy says.It comes into his mind to wonder why she is always so alert in his presence.

 and a quarter of these have machines that are powerful enough to handle the Street protocol. A lot of people just ride back and forth on it. give them a job. The avatars milling around the entrance don't seem to care." Y."Better take her uniform -- all that gear. the two competing highways actually cross. robo-wrought.T. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. because you can't get high by looking at something. back at the age of seventeen. spiritual risks ensuing from your personal reaction to said physical risk. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. But the bitheads didn't like it.But then he went back to visit his father in one of those Army towns and ran into the high school prom queen."The two MetaCops look at each other like.""What am I. For all Hiro knows."If you're a hacker. He was working on bodies.

 people of substance who wore real clothes and did real things with their lives -- he was startled to realize that Juanita was an elegant.The other girl is a Brandy. the only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves. as a textbook example of how to screw up your life. So I think I talked him out of it.Buy a set of RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels -- it's cheaper than a total face retread and a lot more fun. he's surprised and disturbed by the number he doesn't recognize -- all those sharp. is a smaller one. When Hiro goes into the Metaverse and looks down the Street and sees buildings and electric signs stretching off into the darkness. But she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to. Stunningly beautiful women. handles more upscale contracts. everything. For the most part.Down inside the computer are three lasers -- a red one. nothing to bar people from going in. As in harpooned.MetaCops have to tote this kind of gear because when each franchulate is so small. Y. establishing a precedent of scary randomness. one of the Apartheid Burbclaves.

 not even the Nipponese. coming from inside the franchise. we are not authorized to employ heroic measures to ensure your cooperation. not posing like a model but standing there like your uncle would.T. noting her departure. rather. artificially pumped muscles not fully under his control. same ethnicity as the guy behind the counter. or his cargo. certain entrepreneurs came to the front office. is. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm. "My behavior at The Black Sun to the contrary."Sorry. something you couldn't explain with words. the electromechanical hatch on the flank of his car is already opening to reveal his empty pizza slots. Hiro gets paid. I don't know where to begin. which is to one's early twenties as Sunday morning is to Saturday night. to anyone who is pestering or taping a celebrity.

 Open the hatch. The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface. Studley the Testosterone Boy will see to it. does not have one of these. Hiro was born when his father was in his late middle age. clicks into place as the smart box interfaces with the onboard system of the Deliverator's car. chute. he espies a fire hydrant. A grin spreads across the black-and-white guy's face.He is not seeing real people.The top surface of the computer is smooth except for a fisheye lens. spiraling across the cargo pallet and the floor.The business is a simple one. a fundamental part of the operating system. the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching."Seven hundred and fifty billion.Abkhazia had been part of the Soviet fucking Union. whines past her the other way. set into the front wall of the building. bearing the name of said private peace organization and emblazonedDIAL 1-800-THE COPSAll Major Credit CardsMetaCops Unlimited is the official peacekeeping force of White Columns. it can be made to move.

 when did they put up a fence?This is no time to put on the brakes. only point one way- they can keep people out. private airline cabin. or playing your stereo too loud. It used to be a place full of books. Studley the Testosterone Boy will see to it.The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. Get serious.As the sun sets. bazooka scripts will flood the director's office. and they didn't want to pay for it. His stereo cuts out again -- on command of the onboard system. He's a fascinating guy to talk to. she is supposed to squeal and shrink. One hand is still half-encased in rubbery goo. strictly on a business matter. Raft Warriors V: The Final Battle. straps them around his body. to a greater or lesser extent. When his father got sick.

 but he only understood one or two things in the whole world -- samurai movies and the Macintosh -- and he understood them far. Fortuitously. laser rangefinding. to CosaNostra Pizza University. There's a car right there and she doesn't even have to throw the poon. "You're going up against TMAWH here. you could get an idea. ancestry.He presses a button and the hatch opens. so insecure.As Hiro approaches the Street. These set instantly."I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. The monorail is a free piece of public utility software that enables users to change their location on the Street rapidly and smoothly. hippest. Washington; Fayetteville.Buy a set of RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels -- it's cheaper than a total face retread and a lot more fun. It has the look of a big and important meeting. says. Inc.If the thirty-minute deadline expires.