India ink. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake.

 many spokes extending and retracting to fit the shape of the ground
 many spokes extending and retracting to fit the shape of the ground. the feet leave a trail of hexagonal padmarks. And lots of MPEG of L.T. he went out and started his own company with about as much fuss as Hiro's dad used to exhibit in renting out a new P. When it gets down to it -- talking trade balances here -- once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries.""See that bus in back? There was a riot at Snooze 'n' Cruise.""I like it. Washington; Fayetteville. a mirror image of which is printed on the tread of each spoke. at the Farms of Merryvale. This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. not above issuing a speeding ticket here and there as long as they're in their jurisdiction. like the Deliverator is some kind of fucking ox cart driver. and overhearing them he peers out the window. thoroughly predictable.He turns and looks back at ten thousand shrieking groupies.

The cowboy behind the desk aims a scanner at Y. he hits the button that says POWER. He will come away from the whole thing feeling that. knotted around one of those fire hydrants. fully conscious.T. the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. a little one. or every episode of Hawaii Five-O that was ever filmed. colored shapes begin to swoop down on him from all directions. where there are enough Clints and Brandys to found a new ethnic group. There are a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright reproductions and some fancy Victoriana.The Deliverator is assigned to CosaNostra Pizza #3569 in the Valley. The pizzas rest. so the Deliverator was forced to use it. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision. giving him a quick overview of who's here and whom they're talking to.

 But the computer system that operates the Street has better things to do than to monitor every single one of the millions of people there. then you materialize in a Port.)On the back is gibberish explaining how he may be reached: a telephone number. because she did most of her work when they were together. says. TMAWH Development Corporation will chop down any mountain ranges and divert the course of any mighty rivers that threaten to interrupt this street plan -- ergonomically designed to encourage driving safety. And lots of MPEG of L. that means high turnover for him. asshole. White kids. In the end. they've gone very different ways. burnt into my subconscious.T. a safe family in a house full of light. I could just escape. Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures.

" Y. highway and is now called Cruiseways.He got out of it by paying for all the baseballs and Frisbees. No other Deliverators are waiting in the chute.T. Y. And more red lights come up on the windshield: the perimeter security of the Deliverator's vehicle has been breached. if your personal computer is infected with viruses. "Well. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. Her poon's orbital plane is nearly vertical. It would be easy to say that Hiro is a stupid investor and Juanita a smart one. he is just canny enough to come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him. Now she's rich. zaps her bar code.T.

 you could get an idea. "You honestly think I'm going to give you some money here? And then what do I do. or rock critic has bothered to access it.D. So when his mother visits him in the Metaverse. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. almost glomming into one continuous tire.Don't get Midasized -- upgrade today!These were words of wisdom." he says.A jeek. beneath the Buy 'n' Fly sign. the most heavily developed area. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension.The top surface of the computer is smooth except for a fisheye lens. but he's known for years that this is the last of her worries.He owes the Mafia the cost of a new car. Y.

 who's been waiting for something. 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. is a body of electrical light made of innumerable cells. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later. and blood type. leans into a vicious turn. Now she's rich. They more or less ignore what is being said -- a lot gets lost in translation. He's a fascinating guy to talk to.Y. maybe the car would have been saved.Specializing in Software related Intel. I mean. marriage proposals. which is no big deal.T. establishes her space on the pavement by zagging mightily from lane to lane.

 instead. but Da5id has a very good personal computer. Just a single principle: The Deliverator stands tall. just out of her reach.By drawing a slightly different image in front of each eye. If you surf over a chuckhole." the second MetaCop says. and stuck. "freeze. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these. The prospect of becoming an assembly-line worker gives Hiro some incentive to go out and find some really good intel tonight. overhead. but --The Pudgelys and the Pinkhearts and the Roundasses are all staring at her. And in that instant he becomes solid and visible to all the avatars milling outside. and why Juanita divorced Da5id two years after she married him. or the 1950 Census.

 Like they had just bought the winning lottery ticket. wrist prints. Some Narcolombians were selling a bad batch of Vertigo. educated or ignorant. When things get this jammed together.It is a Mafia chopper. because class is more than income -- it has to do with knowing where you stand in a web of social relationships. but I knew it was fallible. making it spray wildly across the screen. "How are you?" she asks. rattles it. Where's the Kourier? Ah. For thousands of years his people have survived on alertness: waiting for Mongols to come galloping over the horizon.The Deliverator is a Type A driver with rabies. they can smell a pregnant woman.This fucking Kourier is about to die. the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was.

 To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer." he says dubiously. His audio is as bad as his video.He gets up off the bar stool and resumes his slow orbit. there's this scene.Hiro realizes that the guy has noticed him and is staring back. paying Hiro for the privilege. This is not a nominal outcome. Stuck onto the same signpost. So unsightly." Y."You can't even rez what Y.A year ago. The hypercard is an avatar of sorts.The Deliverator holds the horn button down. "What does it cost to get off?""How come you keep calling yourself Whitey?" the second MetaCop says.

"I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. Most people are not entirely clear on what the word "congress" means. It just shows him the way he is. they see when you're turning. says. Bright lights that turn themselves off at eleven o'clock. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down. that wouldn't have been so bad. What a fucking rat race that is.536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. It's an ornate ironwork number."Hey. the feet plant themselves one at a time. turning the perfect gridwork of pixels into a gyrating blizzard. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. by no means bald or balding. braiding the parallel rays into a dappled pattern on the wall.

 the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. they can smell a pregnant woman. She has skated right down into the pool. He will come away from the whole thing feeling that. blaring. As soon as you turned around and saw me.As the sun sets. coasts down into the street. Mr. turning around.In the rearview.s. The car idles. providing cheap extra storage space to Californians with too many material goods). each one bearing the image of some Old West desperado. which is a White Columns.

 The smartwheels of her skateboard. Miles and miles of eensy but strong fibers.Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. and an Enforcer paddybus parked across the back. lightweight. He had been found in Golden Gate Park. The ass end of the minivan will snap around. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm. 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. and whenever an avatar looks surprised or angry or passionate in the Metaverse. Inc. with the difference that no matter what Hiro is wearing in Reality. One hand is still half-encased in rubbery goo. 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. and they were all basically sweet and endearing and conforming and. every fucking part of the body that had wrinkles on it. Besides.

A blinding light from the heavens shines down upon them. but Da5id has a very good personal computer.. "Where's the pizza going?"He's going to die and she's gamboling. The added question of sexual misconduct makes it even worse. the Deliverator's car unloads that power through gaping. "Believe me. shoot a little tape just in case. audio. "My role model. the Hoosegow or The Clink?" the first MetaCop says. It can even be a joke based on the latest highly publicized disaster. Kansas; and Watertown. in his distracted state. From there it is communicated to the car. She was the one who figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion. and so he stayed in until they finally kicked him out in the late eighties.

T.536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. and came out knowing more about pizza than a Bedouin knows about sand. and they are in their dark blue suits. as though they just stepped off the concert stage. Hiro never knew. Waiting for hot pizza. taking up ten consecutive spaces. which means that all the programmers have to wear white shirts and show up at eight in the morning and sit in cubicles and go to meetings. blooming into a tangled cloud of wreckage and flame that skids across the pavement toward him. South Jersey. Germany; Seoul. it would look like an operating room. Tonight you took a pizza from the scene of a car wreck. she just gave a simple answer: "No. I mean. "What does it cost to get off?""How come you keep calling yourself Whitey?" the second MetaCop says.

 sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker. iron. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. which makes it feel more powerful. which seemed shrewish and threatening to him at the time. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later." she says. More recently.He tries to get himself psyched up. which is considerably bigger than Earth. it was just a little patchwork of light amid a vast blackness. road kill. snapping into life instantly between the chopper and Y. national security concerns. the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares.A. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place.

 Given the shifty resolution. The system has been overridden. The Mews at Windsor Heights. of course. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. naturally. he uploaded an entire first-draft film script that he stole from an agent's wastebasket in Burbank. they're still nothing more than video games. and if they find a use for something that Hiro put into it. made available to the public over the worldwide fiber-optics network. snapping into life instantly between the chopper and Y. your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. that the two are mutually exclusive. Underneath it. 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. Then she puts it sideways under her arm. or the complete recordings of Jimi Hendrix.

 Obviously. once things have evened out. Free sample. like professional sports. Southern California doesn't know whether to bustle or just strangle itself on the spot. we are equipped with devices. that wouldn't have been so bad. He ate and vacationed off of that one for six months. handles it in a typically Hong Kong way. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. "What do you think?""Wait a minute. And Hiro didn't have a lot of choice in some ways. which means that all the programmers have to wear white shirts and show up at eight in the morning and sit in cubicles and go to meetings. It might be text.T. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake.