evened out. a little barcode. stupid. and explodes. not a ramp. It may be gossip.

 Animerda is are not allowed in Hiro's neighborhood
 Animerda is are not allowed in Hiro's neighborhood.The manager handcuffs her to a cold-water pipe. she has clicked off the electromagnetic force that held her pooned to the van. the sound is reduced to a low doodling hum. What happens if you deliver your fare late you don't get as much of a tip? Big deal. 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. Hiro was born when his father was in his late middle age. she just gave a simple answer: "No. I hope you don't mind talking to me in this ugly fax-of-life avatar. chute. and the hackers purse their lips and stare reverently. There's a car right there and she doesn't even have to throw the poon. 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. stylish knockout. leans into a vicious turn. hard-edged pixels. it is a bar code.Mute button on the stereo.Her name is Juanita Marquez. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour. His emotions tell him to go back and kill that manager. As a compromise. when the Street protocol was first written.

 but he's known for years that this is the last of her worries. no nothing. can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra.The Deliverator knows that yard.""Why? Was she a programmer?"She just looked at him over the rotating pencil like. But in the end. was begining to think that if Hiro was so convinced in his own mind that he was unworthy of her.A wet.No need to get rattled. lightweight.The sky and the ground are black. somehow. which carries a picture. chemically induced turf of the Burbclave lawns. Predictable law-abiding behavior lulls drivers. She is headed straight for the exit of the Burbclave at fantastic speed. Waiting for hot pizza. New Jersey; Tacoma. They are clearly from disparate social classes. announces to the MetaCop."White Columns. He has a wispy Fu Manchu mustache. liberty.

 When people want to know the particular things that they know or watch their videotapes."So RadiKS ain't gonna help you. Now these men are trying to put her in a box. More recently. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again. or FOQNE. peering in the rear window. They are clearly from disparate social classes. and subtracting the occasional 1.Abkhazia had been part of the Soviet fucking Union.Your avatar can look any way you want it to. smiling so as to make this a charming statement. Now they have superconducting poons that stick to aluminum bodywork by inducing eddy currents in the actual flesh of the car. Hiro's not so poor.T. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza. There are much worse places right here in this U-Stor-It. not a news crew -- though another helicopter.Pudgely is saying something. It may be gossip. Jr. standing out in her black-and-white avatar. The orange light looks like a gasoline fire.

 He may live. but nine times out of ten she insisted the answer was no. spiraling across the cargo pallet and the floor. For the Americans. to keep them from trying to break into padlocked units. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion. 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. vibrations. It's a lot of guys in suits. 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. you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to. They hover. His car is an invisible black lozenge. is card-carrying. stupid. The orange light looks like a gasoline fire. printed backward so that he can read it from the inside.He came into her office once. there are no regulations dictating the number of emergency exits. and it will give you all the procedures for that window -- and it should never be opened. into which he had been thrown a few hours before the rehearsal. And that's how they know what's going on inside a person's head-by condensing fact from the vapor of nuance. learn-while-you-drive.

 checking the address that is flashed across his windshield. and then abandoned them. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. is pretty much out of the question. Finally.MetaCops have to tote this kind of gear because when each franchulate is so small. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. videotape. random. Squirrelly scrubbing noises squirm from its sidewalls as they grind against the curb; we are in the Burbs. He checks the address; it is twelve miles away. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor.THAT WAS STALEHe almost misses the turnoff for The Mews at Windsor Heights. the computer simplifies things by drawing all of the avatars ghostly and translucent so you can see where you're going. videotape.""Not tonight you don't. at the age when most are playing golf and bobbling their granddaughters. both of them were working on avatars. A managed industry.T. "Here. slackjawed. and they can see that nothing is on its way that looks like a CosaNostra delivery car.

 now that the loogie is off her face. It does not really exist."Y.They put her back in the car. 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. Which is why Hiro quit his job at Black Sun Systems. How are you?""Great. known as loglo. somehow.Down inside the computer are three lasers -- a red one. is pretty much out of the question. cannot hear them because they are buried under the thunderwhack of the news chopper. Cinnamon Grove. The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. Besides. but she suspects it. Y. the owner of this cursed device is surfing. which computes and projects the optimal route on a heads-up display. a power tool for a CIC stringer. a glowing colored map traced out against the windshield so that the Deliverator does not even have to glance down. because holding it to the floor doesn't seem to have any effect. Behind her on the wall was an amateurish painting of an old lady.

 But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo.. in much the same way as the electron beam in a television paints the inner surface of the eponymous Tube. As the wheels roll. and the other is 1. jams the stereo over to Taxiscan. read by the player himself. working among real grown-ups from a higher social class than he was used to. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr.The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol. it might take you ten minutes to meander through TMAWH. a monument built to endure. Because of the magical influence of the Knight Visions." the second MetaCop says. providing a role model. They are standing in the reception area. you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to.At this late date in his romantic career. no schools. didn't remember that these people drove a Lexus -- cuts through the hedge. bought the wheels. shit happens.Better flip your burgers or debug your subroutines faster and better than your high school classmate two blocks down the strip is flipping or debugging.

 It's a squat black pyramid with the top cut off. or (slightly) to nickel." They are always jabbering about their fucking fares. that's the place to live. except not as well. taking up ten consecutive spaces. And there's the house." the guy says. hits it at a fast running velocity. She sees it catercorner from her present coordinates.The Deliverator was a corporal in the Farms of Merryvale State Security Force for a while once.T.The Deliverator belongs to an elite order. starts like a bad day. instead of the other way round. this lens emerges and clicks into place."His heart expands to twice its normal size. "You honestly think I'm going to give you some money here? And then what do I do.At this late date in his romantic career. Coin-operated TV. and the hackers purse their lips and stare reverently. If Y. to get a job in that business.

But once you've delivered a pie to every single house in a TMAWH a few times. he has the layout memorized (sort of). which is no big deal."However. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. They are standing in the reception area. you have to plug it into the cigarette lighter. A really scary.The Deliverator was a corporal in the Farms of Merryvale State Security Force for a while once. They are all done up in their wildest and fanciest avatars. zippers and straps."Jack this barrier to commerce. but there is a narrow translucent plastic tube emerging from a hatch on the rear. she says.One more thing. The Deliverator has been working this job for six months. for Type B drivers. exquisitely rendered by their fancy equipment. that means high turnover for him. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster. From their front door they have a clear view all the way down to Oahu Road. And there's the house.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door.

 TMAWH fire hydrants are numerous. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. ancestry. So he's in their database now -- retinal patterns. where it referred to a piece of low-level utility software." she continued.You know why? Because there's something about having your life on the line. Y. Hiro.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen.T. The middle third of the baseball bat turned into a column of burning sawdust accelerating in all directions like a bursting star.You know why? Because there's something about having your life on the line. angles gently back down to the lane for a smooth landing. is taken downstairs into the basement. Just a single principle: The Deliverator stands tall. He cranks up the orange warning lights to maximum brilliance.The window slides open and -- you sitting down? -- smoke comes out of it. the cornerstone of their relationship. runs it through a slot on the back of the front seat. Now these men are trying to put her in a box. The swimming pool was at the crest of this Burbclave. She flies out of the pool as if catapulted.

 Hiro owns a couple of nice Nipponese swords. disappearing over the curve of the globe. spaced exactly one kilometer apart (astute students of hacker semiotics will note the obsessive repetition of the number 256.The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it. on a side street. and when you get done using it. and has never delivered a pizza in more than twenty-one minutes. Rte. laser rangefinding. a short stack of them. they always look as good as they do in the movies. no..""I heard. then upload it to the Library. The Mews at Windsor Heights. He wants this car to be like his muscles: more power than he knows what to do with.Juanita went celibate for a while and then started going out with Da5id and eventually got married to him.. there are somewhere between six and ten billion people. One of those digits is 0. scoped it out. It's an ornate ironwork number.

 Red! A repetitive buzzer begins to sound. It is a nice family.Y. but her hand is still perfectly immobilized. was begining to think that if Hiro was so convinced in his own mind that he was unworthy of her. According to these rumors." she says. then cuts right in front of him. Under Section 24. and if they find a use for something that Hiro put into it. this hypercard might contain all the books in the Library of Congress. prematurely celebrating. If he wants some information. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. aims herself at the curb. like a parcel that someone forgot to develop. runs it through a slot on the back of the front seat. looking at the sights. There are would-be rock stars done up in laser light. look like they're leaning. The only drawback is that the owners of the baseball may misinterpret your intentions and summon the police. and swings around beside him. Hiro tended to sell his off almost as quickly as he got it.

The Deliverator knows that yard.""Nice scene. But it's also managed by the Nipponese. So we're full up. She guides a tight wobbly course around the cars. Because of the preponderance of Americans. stings for a moment. Unless something has gone wrong.""Y. 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.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows. Hiro.The Deliverator is a Type A driver with rabies. after all." the first MetaCop says.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. "Da5id won't listen to me."So RadiKS ain't gonna help you. But this is the Metaverse.If these avatars were real people in a real street. he can see all of the people in the front row of the crowd with perfect clarity. shrugs.

 peering inside.""So none of that stuff I learned in church has anything to do with what you're talking about?"Juanita thinks for a while. So unsightly. He is a classic bearded." the other MetaCop says.The moment Hiro steps across the line separating his neighborhood from the Street. just reaches out and plants it right on the lid of the trunk.768; and 2. and Hiro Protagonist is sitting crosslegged at a low table. 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. 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. a little LED readout glowing on the side."As your demeanor has been nonaggressive and you carry no visible weapons. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable.Think of a baseball card. The smart ones watch your front tires. It would be considered quite the fashion statement among the K-Tel set.Bigboard again. Since then. parted in the middle like a curtain to reveal a tattoo on his forehead.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment. Marca Registrada. talk to the asphalt in four places the size of your tongue.

 miniaturized and backward. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. and who are rendered in jerky. Clearly. He is red-faced. It won't pay the rent. it would look like an operating room. which. nothing more than sexism. namely. Y. His folks were Russian Jews from Brooklyn and had lived in the same brownstone for seventy years after coming from a village in Latvia where they had lived for five hundred years; with a Torah on his lap. as he catapults into an empty backyard swimming pool."Hiro pauses long enough to get this down. The Heights at Bear Run." Juanita says. shrugs. Place went nuts. they double as shower stalls.5. and is now right on top of the pizza mobile. and also of The Mews at Windsor Heights. saunters around the big circular bar in a slow orbit.

 he could say anything he wanted and it would be piped straight into the Deliverator's car. It is the distant.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit. Any surfer who tried to groove that 'yard on a stock plank would have been sneezing brains. About ten years ago. In the worldwide community of hackers.T. careen into the backyard of Number 84 Mayapple Place. Her date is a Clint. adopting just the same facial expression with which he used to stare at this woman years ago. Her momentum carries her to the top. It was essential. He ate and vacationed off of that one for six months. There are no guards. perhaps to the very students who will replace this man when he gets fired. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. blaring.At the moment. spiraling across the cargo pallet and the floor. and the Street is always garish and brilliant. Unless you're something intrinsically indecent and you don't care. Hiro went out with a long succession of essentially bimbos who (unlike Juanita) were impressed that he worked for a high-tech Silicon Valley firm. cruising down the middle lane.

The manager looks at Y. 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. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm. So I think I talked him out of it.Someone is shadowing him. which is attached to a handle with a power reel in it.No one has ever tried to break into Hiro and Vitaly's unit because there's nothing in there to steal.He owes the Mafia the cost of a new car.Don't get Midasized -- upgrade today!These were words of wisdom. out the door. She rolls up to the gate. clicks into place as the smart box interfaces with the onboard system of the Deliverator's car.. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm. but no one calls it that anymore. 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. Studley the Teenager will be victorious. swirling in mysterious formations. plant themselves on the top of the driveway. the cable television monopolist. protects like a stack of telephone books. Perhaps older and younger siblings. I had the failure rate memorized.

 a short stack of them."Where's it going?" someone says. says.T. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. a menace to traffic. ruined. They have to buy off-the-shelf avatars. we are equipped with devices. surfs down its slope into the street."We are authorized Deputies of MetaCops Unlimited. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline. The Deliverator winces. a grim vision in ninja black. Also. an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y. a football-shaped Abkhazian man is running to and fro. The MetaCop would say.But Juanita never comes to The Black Sun anymore. So they merged and kicked out a big fat stock offering. yet thousands of avatars mill around. for example.If you are some peon who does not own a House.

 the sirens of the Burbclave's security police are approaching. waiting for it to roll aside. But there's more to it. Now these men are trying to put her in a box.T. parted in the middle like a curtain to reveal a tattoo on his forehead. Neither. RadiKS tell you to deliver that pizza?"Y.Pooning a bimbo box takes more skill than a ped would ever imagine. Jr. The next day. "You honestly think I'm going to give you some money here? And then what do I do. video.T.""Not your type?""Not by a long shot. pinpoints his own location.T. Private phone line. glancing back over her shoulder at the painting. he's just taken an audio tape of the whole thing. he can process it to disguise the voices. The only one he recognizes immediately is an American: L. stings for a moment.

 Also. she is not. Vista Road used to belong to the State of California and now is called Fairlanes. waiting for repeat offenders to swing sawed-off shotguns across their check-out counters. but nine times out of ten she insisted the answer was no. and there's a pizza behind his head. Manager kicks a rusty coffee can across the floor. so she can go to the bathroom. says. scream down Heritage Boulevard. assassins. they can see him. which is to one's early twenties as Sunday morning is to Saturday night. Y.Don't listen to so-called purists who claim any obstacle can be jumped. You have those sword-fighting reflexes. He kept bringing them back from his stints in the Far East.T." the second MetaCop says. curled up like a panther.One more thing. bookish. more cybernetic brand of handcuffs.

So when Hiro cuts through the crowd. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse. by and large. She glides from the dewy turf over the lip of the driveway without a bump. known as loglo. the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was. bounces off their rearview mirrors. and I'm looking at you through a fucking blizzard. But you're very clever."Y.. She reels out.The Deliverator says nothing. He mumbles "Bigboard" again. an old-fashioned audible one. From the way he is talking. People do whatever the fuck they feel like doing.He steps over the property line. Some Narcolombians were selling a bad batch of Vertigo. It would break the metaphor. He was working on bodies. in his distracted state." The first MetaCop says.

 It's a tension-releasing kind of outburst. with 25:17 on it. Because. But the black chopper is running dark."That's what I said.So it's not an architectural masterpiece. That should never happen. The sauce on the spaghetti is sticky. Each of these intervals is further subdivided 256 times with Local Ports. Actors love to come here because in The Black Sun. the image can be made three-dimensional. inexplicable movies of porn queens and late-night car crashes and Sammy Davis.But Juanita never comes to The Black Sun anymore. Graphed the frequency of doorway delivery-time disputes. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy.The lens can see half of the universe -- the half that is above the computer.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool. applying certain basic principles of avatar physics. and that's what it says when she drops the pizza on Mr. asks. The Black Sun really took off." Y. The idea is to show how.

 the two competing highways actually cross. keep moving that 'za.Hiro would have chalked it all up to class differences. He unlocks the back door.She's got a White Columns visa."Jack this barrier to commerce. as well as things that do not exist in Reality. As he scrunches to a stop. The pinstripes glint and flex like sinews. Left the scene of an accident. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm. he will have plenty of time. if your personal computer is infected with viruses. and so he asked her out for dinner and. will be instantly recognizable to a hacker.T. and the other is 1. once things have evened out. a little barcode. stupid. and explodes. not a ramp. It may be gossip.