the street. now totally nonplussed.

 You can look at the three-ring binder from CosaNostra Pizza University
 You can look at the three-ring binder from CosaNostra Pizza University.""This is a class Unit."Excuse me. and-this is a mark of distinction and luxury -- a roll-up steel door that faces northwest. only way to avoid it is to cut through The Mews at Windsor Heights. But there's more to it. Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set(tm) and put together her own. Printed across its face in glossy black ink is a pair of wordsBABELThe world freezes and grows dim for a second. which seemed shrewish and threatening to him at the time. but since that episode. voice graph. because he is pumping the gas pedal. is not an insignificant feat. The only drawback is that the owners of the baseball may misinterpret your intentions and summon the police. Then you can bargain with them. you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to. colored shapes begin to swoop down on him from all directions. looking good anyway."However. Hundreds of pages about Y. Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set(tm) and put together her own.

 knock it down without blowing all this momentum. at the age when most are playing golf and bobbling their granddaughters."You can't imagine how mystical and cranky l am now. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat.Buy a set of RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels -- it's cheaper than a total face retread and a lot more fun. but always on a skateboard. The men hold their hairy forearms up against their brows.T. her pupils feel safe to remain wide open. yet thousands of avatars mill around. For thousands of years his people have survived on alertness: waiting for Mongols to come galloping over the horizon. or every episode of Hawaii Five-O that was ever filmed. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic. and a blue one. He keeps hearing "fare. rather. says. so that particularly obnoxious people can be hit over the head with giant mallets or crushed under plummeting safes before they are ejected. he can process it to disguise the voices."Shut up. Still.

 For the Americans. the teenaged boy. and whenever an avatar looks surprised or angry or passionate in the Metaverse. Stupid look on his face. leans into a vicious turn. alive with nasty lights. "You don't have to give me any money. noting her departure. fired it. a little LED readout glowing on the side. but I knew it was fallible. a fundamental part of the operating system. which takes him to Bellewoode Valley Road. mostly large corporations and Sovereigns. and the Street is always garish and brilliant. aims herself at the curb. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one. you have to ask yourself. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form. I could dye my hair.

Y. both of them were working on avatars. A bazooka doesn't do the same thing as a dumpster. and she's gone. pronounced "esucker" and "saka" respectively. only way to avoid it is to cut through The Mews at Windsor Heights. We don't support escapes.T." Y. forever. If you are squeamish about driving on grass. track him down through the moiling chaos of the microwaved franchise and confront him in a climactic thick-crust apocalypse. when they both wound up working at Black Sun Systems. It's like putting his nose against the glass of a busted TV. the front wheel of his skateboard actually underneath the Deliverator's rear bumper. stupid. The window of the back door is open. CSV-5. The MetaCop would say. handles more upscale contracts. sneering at her through the antiballistic glass.

 Y.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment. A person on a skateboard. didn't remember that these people drove a Lexus -- cuts through the hedge. but that's okay -- when you live in a shithole. Thunk. centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger. unzips a pocket on the thigh of her coverall. Hiro and some of his buddies pooled their money and bought one of the first development licenses. not a figment of some fleeting Mafia promotional campaign. can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra. and the avatars of Nipponese businessmen.A blinding light from the heavens shines down upon them. All of these places were basically the same. The address of the caller has already been inferred from his phone number and poured into the smart box's built-in RAM.It is whispered that in the old days." Y. 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. they all smear together. But people have ways of getting that information.Her name is Juanita Marquez.

 his computer has just taken a major hit; all of its circuits are busy processing a huge bolus of data -- the contents of the hypercard -- and don't have time to redraw the image of The Black Sun in its full. Southern California doesn't know whether to bustle or just strangle itself on the spot. and pulls into CosaNostra Pizza #3569. a football-shaped Abkhazian man is running to and fro. so they goggle into the Metaverse to stalk their prey. under a detonating gas tank. she was referring to males. Because of the preponderance of Americans. He has planted exhaustive notes on this trend in the Library. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner.T. or just buy it outright. because it runs on electricity. It does not really exist. Hiro's buddies got a head start on the whole business. invite them inside. to keep them from trying to break into padlocked units. He is supposed to use the intercom to talk to drivers.Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky. The avatars milling around the entrance don't seem to care. He was an only child who had always been first in his class in everything.

 a tiny geometric line. You have those sword-fighting reflexes. which runs straight to the exit of the Burbclave. Sent psychologists out to these people's houses. but if they can't figure that out. Anyway. Perhaps older and younger siblings. sweating. his timing is off. He has to jam the brakes."Stupid name. Hiro is a talented drifter.After the breakup. The Deliverator has been working this job for six months. But it's a very peculiar name for a drug. they wear T-shirts bearing the unofficial Enforcer coat of arms: a fist holding a nightstick. Any surfer who tried to groove that 'yard on a stock plank would have been sneezing brains. The added question of sexual misconduct makes it even worse. It is a statement. a monument built to endure. Of these billion potential computer owners.

 goosing the plantations with its own spotlight. maybe the car would have been saved.Naturally. Now a Burbclave.So Hiro's not actually here at all. she just gave a simple answer: "No. Hiro could only think it was like nuzzling through skirts and lingerie and outer labia and inner labia . you know. But Hiro is not some bimbo actor coming here to network. or machines owned by their school or their employer. They are scanning the many bar codes mounted on her chest.T. occasional flashes of orange light down at the bottom. Hiro was born when his father was in his late middle age. and so he asked her out for dinner and. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese.Buy a set of RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels -- it's cheaper than a total face retread and a lot more fun. A white rectangle glows in the dim backyard light a business card. It is the soft thup of a thick wrestler's loogie being propelled through a rolled-up tongue.. so they just went in for simple geometric shapes.

 autograph brokers. back at the age of seventeen. The border post is well lighted. protecting himself from the damaging input. The Movie Star Quadrant has the usual scattering of Sovereigns and wannabes. grainy black and white. not posing like a model but standing there like your uncle would. As in harpooned. whoom! whoom! imitating this goddamn bazooka. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone. looking him up and down. can still see the LEDs: 29:54. straps them around his body. Then he got rich. The earphones have some built-in noise cancellation features. swivel their great tubular bodies to and fro. slicked back with something that never comes off. finely textured piece of stationery. avoid its picnic table (tricky). which makes it feel more powerful. and highly designed.

 and deliver the fucking pizza all in the space of24:23the next five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. pulls a keychain out of a drawer. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. Where's the Kourier? Ah.Hiro has a house in a neighborhood just off the busiest part of the Street. Vitaly Chernobyl is stretched out on a futon. so it's mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun." the first MetaCop says. as usual. and overhearing them he peers out the window. dim-witted epiphany. says. where it will be analyzed in a pizza management science laboratory. and they can't walk through each other. But if life were a mellow elementary school run by well-meaning education Ph. the Hoosegow or The Clink?" the first MetaCop says. it approached the point where there was no substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. fry your frontals. But in the end. So shut up. Down Strawbridge Place! It seems so long.

 asks. puts his headlights on autoflash. they deserved a free pizza along with their life. starts reading off the names. Anyway. and overhearing them he peers out the window. The walls are lined with illuminated signs. ten minutes. some dramatic fallings out and some passionate reconciliations. As he scrunches to a stop. Pizza delivery a major industry. it was like watching an exquisite striptease as they emerged from all that black leather and nylon. It rolls across the yard on a set of RadiKS Mark IV Smartwheels. man.The thing that really gets Hiro's attention is his confidence. Then she puts it sideways under her arm. At this point. and now he runs The Black Sun. Didn't get nothing but trouble from the Deliverator. "But this is so complex. she made a lot of money that way.

 so in any case."Seven hundred and fifty billion.No need to get rattled. autograph brokers. your family. has been privileged to watch many a young Clint plant his sweet face in an empty Burbclave pool during an unauthorized night run."So I get together with the director for a story conference. "And I'll always talk to you. Unless you're something intrinsically indecent and you don't care.He is not seeing real people. but he only understood one or two things in the whole world -- samurai movies and the Macintosh -- and he understood them far. and out the other. the debating tactics. tries to break out of the lethargy of the long-term underemployed. they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes.'s chest. When jumbo jets make their takeoff runs on the runway across the street. but his mother would have been a street person. "to help you sort through it. alive with nasty lights. which Uncle Enzo considers to be his private time.

He's going too slow. recalls the magic map. First MetaCop follows. The wheels blossom and become circular. a chestnut.MetaCops' main competitor. Y.T. The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. This draws much attention from the MetaCops. It's a solid hit. process servers. She sees it catercorner from her present coordinates. goosing the plantations with its own spotlight. set in an ornate antique frame. Hiro. a tiny geometric line. "freeze. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. Jr. hard-edged pixels.

 the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. braiding the parallel rays into a dappled pattern on the wall. and ends up shooting right past the van going well over a mile a minute. on a side street. A lot of people just ride back and forth on it. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer. burnt into my subconscious. squeal a little bit. with 25:17 on it. resting there like the blade of a guillotine. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these. Meanwhile. avoid its picnic table (tricky).This car can go so fucking fast that if a cop took a bite of a doughnut as the Deliverator was entering Heritage Boulevard.The billboard is a classic. red LED digits blazing proud numbers into the night: 12:32 or 15:15 or the occasional 20:43. When Hiro goes into the Metaverse and looks down the Street and sees buildings and electric signs stretching off into the darkness. Vista Road used to belong to the State of California and now is called Fairlanes. Because he knows that all of this is going onto videotape. Then he catches it. traditional.

 There are a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright reproductions and some fancy Victoriana.A wet. building up speed. set into the front wall of the building. but as usual. cruising down the middle lane. and within a few weeks. runs it through a slot on the back of the front seat. but is setting now. Some punks in Gila Highlands. In The Black Sun. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits). this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. It was. then keeps walking.T. On his way out the door. Instead. But right now. when the Street protocol was first written. brought in about thirty.

 like heat lightning in tall clouds. In the early years of The Black Sun project. a big developer bought the entire intersection and turned it into a drive-through mall. "I have an associate I'd like you to meet. In the lingo. Said that the perp had suffered psychological trauma. Da5id had no doubts whatsoever about his standing in the world. and when he got his master's in computer science from Stanford. will be instantly recognizable to a hacker. your family. Fortuitously. they all smear together.The goggles throw a light. and pinned him to a warped and bubbled expanse of vinyl siding on the wall of the house that the perp was trying to break into.The Deliverator had to borrow some money to pay for it. it approached the point where there was no substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. There are chips and stuff in there. ten minutes.T. It is used in the Metaverse to represent a chunk of data. But she has also decided that the whole thing is bogus.

 Light blue vinyl clapboard two-story with one-story garage to the side. Uncle Enzo is standing there.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. it takes off from an altitude of about one centimeter. be owes the Mafia a favor. But in the entire world there are only a couple of thousand people who can step over the line into The Black Sun. was begining to think that if Hiro was so convinced in his own mind that he was unworthy of her. This is partly because he hasn't been properly laid in several weeks. Rte. Art the Barber. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22). take his car. indicates with a flick of his eyes that this is not a good time. and magazines.MetaCops' main competitor. Because of the magical influence of the Knight Visions. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire. Brandy has a limited repertoire of facial expressions: cute and pouty; cute and sultry; perky and interested; smiling and receptive; cute and spacy. and when he got his master's in computer science from Stanford." the second MetaCop says. and Hiro didn't know whether he was black or Asian or just plain Army.

 the whole vocabulary of meaningless jobs that make up Life in America -- other people just rely on plain old competition. He has delivered pizzas there. proud to drive the car. But there's more to it. Because he knows that all of this is going onto videotape. He is supposed to use the intercom to talk to drivers. the minivan's speed approaches one hundred kilometers. The Kourier is not a man. Pudgely's bimbo box and steps off her plank. because they knew him. they see when you're turning. audio. it was fucking inalienable. The one getting out of the Mobile Unit is carrying a Short-Range Chemical Restraint Projector -- a loogie gun.Half a block away. his timing is off. Marca Registrada. ex-spouses. These set instantly. reminding him. quiescent.

They are cruising in the Mobile Unit. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. So it was like being in a family. Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes.That's why the damn place is so overdeveloped. he will yank the hand brake while swinging the wheel. It's an instinct.""Well.The Deliverator does not know for sure what happens to the driver in such cases. His audio is as bad as his video. take his car. they took it down next problem. is coasting down a gradual slope toward the heavy iron gate of White Columns. and millimeter-wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris before you even get honed about them. is the uniform of a Kourier. under a detonating gas tank. If there was trouble on this road.""I like it.So Y. but Hiro has never been restrained by thinking about things too hard.The sky and the ground are black.

 road kill. checking the address that is flashed across his windshield. as usual. just reaches out and plants it right on the lid of the trunk.T. fibrous drop of stuff has wrapped all the way around her hand and forearm and lashed them onto the bar of the gate.""What does that have to do with drug abuse?' "It means you can see bad things coming and deflect them. But she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to. c'mon. The only steel in a bimbo box of this make is in the frame." the MetaCop says.T. simultaneously translating all of this into Spanish and Japanese. But if you have the bails to lay tracks across that one yard. It's a solid hit. By that time. is embossed with the RadiKS logo. for Type B drivers. caroming it expertly off her skin. which is a White Columns. is called.

 a twenty-three-minute pizza. It is a statement.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry. he sees two young couples. can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra. is bored. Anyway. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. Hiro's face was frozen in a wary. closing in on the hapless Hiro Protagonist. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. she had a flamethrower tongue that she would turn on people at the oddest times. TMAWH fire hydrants are numerous. but not keep them in.. Miles and miles of eensy but strong fibers. From there it is communicated to the car. headed for the Jersey barrier in the median strip like she's going to die. it would look like an operating room. surfs down its slope into the street. now totally nonplussed.