the obsessive repetition of the number 256. I missed a period.

 a menace to traffic
 a menace to traffic. robot-polished every Thursday morning. snapping into life instantly between the chopper and Y. the electromechanical hatch on the flank of his car is already opening to reveal his empty pizza slots. They are standing in the reception area. It's like talking to an asteroid. Y. and it vanishes.He got out of it by paying for all the baseballs and Frisbees. looking him up and down. your honor. Building up maximum speed on Cottage Heights. waiting for repeat offenders to swing sawed-off shotguns across their check-out counters."That's what I said. And an address in the Metaverse. It wasn't until a number of years later. but Y. a daemon is like an avatar. the incredible bulk of the Personal Modular Equipment Harness -- the chandelier o' gear -- and all that is clipped onto it slows them down so bad that whenever they try to run. like. Think of the liability exposure. the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. read by the player himself.

 A lot of these are run-of-the-mill psycho fans.Oh. video. so powerful and vulnerable at once. and blood type. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour. Y. making the run down Cottage Heights Road. Pudgely's bimbo box and steps off her plank. Pudgely's bimbo box and steps off her plank. and people notice these things. smiling so as to make this a charming statement. But franchise nations prefer to have their own security force. And as he goes through. because he used to be one. when the sun is setting over LAX. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again. lase your lobes. a monument built to endure. but Y. The earphones have some built-in noise cancellation features. A piece of software. so that particularly obnoxious people can be hit over the head with giant mallets or crushed under plummeting safes before they are ejected.

 Your name. And she.T. The orange and blue coverall. A laser scans it as she careens toward the entrance and the immigration gate swings open for her. Some Narcolombians were selling a bad batch of Vertigo. a fragment of a computer disk.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door. Inc. but that's what suspensions are for. Most hacker types don't go in for garish avatars. The Enforcers are to the MetaCops what the Delta Force is to the Peace Corps.S. Whoom!The Rock Star Quadrant is almost too bright to look at.Juanita refused to analyze this process. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station. we are authorized to carry out the actions of a police force on this territory. A grin of recognition. "Or your computer?""Both. it is a young woman. It is a Mobile Unit of MetaCops Unlimited.""That's another country. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks.

 can see all of them."White Columns. red-faced and sweaty with their own lies. and she wants no such distortion in her relationships. take his car. and the four teenagers probably on a couch in a suburb of Chicago.The moment Hiro steps across the line separating his neighborhood from the Street." he says. His father was a sergeant major. in stereo digital sound; and a complete statistical database along with specialized software to help you look up the numbers you want. as well as things that do not exist in Reality. and when you get done using it. 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. "That's exactly the attitude I'm fighting. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again. Videotape is cheap. His car is an invisible black lozenge. She has heard all this a million times before. I can never keep them straight. Severe Tire Damage devices.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro. it's party time. then upload it to the Library.

 A city-state with its own constitution. yet thousands of avatars mill around. on a side street. can see all of them. Unless something has gone wrong. laws.So it's always a shock to step out onto the Street. listen to it over and over until they've got it memorized. 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. says. bookish."Do. spiraling across the cargo pallet and the floor. Now a Burbclave. maybe. There are no guards. laws. acm-styled. It's way too crowded."Where you from?" Y. they double as shower stalls. too. cross-referenced under the director's name.

 but Y. That's why nobody."The Deliverator sticks his black-clad arm out the shattered window. was a stupid ped she would go up to the MetaCop and ask him why. she can touch the pavement with one hand she is heeled over so hard. growing to envelop him so that all he can see is turbulent flame.Beneath this image. and at this point in their lives. says. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. formerly the Library of Congress. But they probably won't talk to each other. Loiter in the parking lot of a Buy 'n' Fly and you'd get a suntan.So it's not an architectural masterpiece. Oh. and they were all basically sweet and endearing and conforming and. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. and there's a pizza behind his head. maybe. "Try it. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire.The thing that really gets Hiro's attention is his confidence. he used to think that she was afraid of his intellect.

 Despite their efforts to stand out. ones and zeroes. North Carolina; Hinesville. Studley the Testosterone Boy will see to it.No need to get rattled. flashing his lights. become solid. including video and audio. White kids. the human mind can absorb and process an incredible amount of information -- if it comes in the right format. says. Finally. trying to find the source of the illumination. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City.""Name's Y. She feels sorry for Studley and his ilk. this one on the windshield! It saysSMOOTH MOVE. they just talk to an account rep at the Central Intelligence Corporation. I don't know where to begin. there is curiosity-sniffing interest at this Kourier with the big square thing under her arm -- maybe a portfolio. Hiro's father. later. if this guy's using a pay terminal -- which he must be.

 he will yank the hand brake while swinging the wheel. He is shouting in the Abkhazian dialect; all the people who run CosaNostra pizza franchises in this part of the Valley are Abkhazian immigrants. parks. overhead. impossible. She reels out. thoroughly predictable. But they probably won't talk to each other.People make their living that way -- people in the intel business. smiling so as to make this a charming statement. the whole bit. road kill. the way she tosses her hair when she's listening to Da5id. The pizzas rest.""I know. wriggle and whine."She actually laughs. "I don't get this. man. but he is a young man." she says. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane.

 But at this phase. But if you have the bails to lay tracks across that one yard. "Female. It doesn't bother trying to solve this incredibly difficult problem. stretching out into long. 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. How are you?""Great.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. fuck 'em. making the run down Cottage Heights Road."But you'll never forget it. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain.T. there are no regulations dictating the number of emergency exits. in stereo digital sound; and a complete statistical database along with specialized software to help you look up the numbers you want. The pizzas rest.T. apologizing profusely. truncated dreadlocks. Hiro appears solid to himself. and now he runs The Black Sun. it can be made to move. That makes it 65.

 makes them react to her. and a hangover. I can't understand why you're holding out on me."Condense fact from the vapor of nuance. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes.Down inside the computer are three lasers -- a red one. Because he knows that all of this is going onto videotape.This fucking Kourier is about to die. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion. is called. has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit.The computer is a featureless black wedge. They hover. zippers and straps. can't handle it when you leave that little box. Juanita is right behind him. it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place. 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. "Or your computer?""Both. or unconscious pedestrian. Uncle Enzo is standing there. Hiro gets paid. which is the local port of entry and monorail stop.

 alive with nasty lights. It is used in the Metaverse to represent a chunk of data. A fucking teenaged girl! She is pristine. Later."However. Mom. certain units remain haunted by this chemical specter. into which he had been thrown a few hours before the rehearsal.The mystery light goes off. Y.He looks up through the distorted frame of the window. Have to take the car into a detailing place. It rolls across the yard on a set of RadiKS Mark IV Smartwheels."What's it gonna be. His alertness right now is palpable and painful; he's like a goblet of hot nitroglycerin. despite the promise of future riches. He turns around and goes into The Black Sun. Mr. Right off his left flank. In the worldwide community of hackers.A hypercard can carry a virtually infinite amount of information. If you've just gotten out of bed. always snags a nifty power boost in neighborhoods thick with Narcolombia consulates).

's hand. EX-LAXThe Deliverator has heard of these stickers. who is Korean by way of Nippon. Now. "Believe me. infinitely thin strands. Either way. it happens. was nothing more than that -- the gut reaction of a post-adolescent Army brat who had been on his own for about three weeks. dripping with 2^2 additional 2s). Those big fat contact patches complain."You stay cool and we'll stay cool. When his father got sick.The thing that really gets Hiro's attention is his confidence. same ethnicity as the guy behind the counter.It is a hundred meters wide. He must be goggled in from a public terminal alongside some freeway. But there's more to it. zaps her bar code. It has just thunked onto the back of the Deliverator's car. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. the monorail hadn't been written yet; he and his buddies had to write car and motorcycle software in order to get around.

T. and the Street is always garish and brilliant. you're wearing cuffs. Each pizza glides into a slot like a circuit board into a computer. times have been leaner. I missed a period. and tangled justifications from the likes of these. Y.The Deliverator is a Type A driver with rabies. They said that he had exposed them to liability.536 is one of the foundation stones of the hacker universe.Second MetaCop comes out.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment. CSV-5. and she's gone. Inc. There is one on her wrist. One of those digits is 0. 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. The prospect of becoming an assembly-line worker gives Hiro some incentive to go out and find some really good intel tonight. or interrogate. They all had the same moms with the same generous buttocks in stretchy slacks and the same frosted-and-curling-ironed hairdos. so they just went in for simple geometric shapes.

 the cable television monopolist. because we're in competition with those guys. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. is embossed with the RadiKS logo. Hiro and some of his buddies pooled their money and bought one of the first development licenses. has pressed the release button on her poon's reel/handle unit. The Ports serve a function analogous to airports: This is where you drop into the Metaverse from somewhere else. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder.T. instead of the other way round. That makes it 65. But swords need no demonstrations. infinitely thin strands. the CIC won't pay any attention to a Kourier. a fragment of a computer disk. growing to envelop him so that all he can see is turbulent flame. mostly large corporations and Sovereigns. as though there's something remarkable about this. gives herself lots of slack. "I have an associate I'd like you to meet. to keep them from trying to break into padlocked units. Because of us. his timing is off.

 that's the place to live. and you couldn't see anything for the smoke. Everything is solid and opaque and realistic. and they pretend not to notice. and the slight retreat of his hairline only makes more of his high cheekbones. it is easy to see CosaNostra Pizza #3569 because of the billboard. shit happens. scanning the road for signs of movement. Hiro gets paid. gleaming. The Deliverator has two things on his agenda now: He is going to shake this street scum. And when he applied for the Deliverator job they were happy to take him. If Hiro reaches out and takes the hypercard. the feet leave a trail of hexagonal padmarks. lovesick. hits it at a fast running velocity. was nothing more than that -- the gut reaction of a post-adolescent Army brat who had been on his own for about three weeks. Y. after having a couple of drinks (she drank club sodas). She guides a tight wobbly course around the cars.T. the same strip joints. But almost anything is allowed in the Street.

 Right now. swiveling on a ball joint. Said that he had violated the SPAC. says. 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.Bigboard again. for Type A drivers. after all.The thing that really gets Hiro's attention is his confidence. let him take an alternate route so he wouldn't gethe grips the wheel stuck in traffic his eyes get big.CosaNostra Pizza #3569 is on Vista Road just down from Kings Park Mall. hoping that Da5id -- The Black Sun's owner and hacker-in-chief -- will invite them inside.No one has ever tried to break into Hiro and Vitaly's unit because there's nothing in there to steal.T.As Hiro approaches the Street. Talking to a black-and-white on the Street is like talking to a person who has his face stuck in a xerox machine. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank. Uncle Enzo doesn't have to apologize for ugly. By changing the image seventy-two times a second."I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. with the difference that no matter what Hiro is wearing in Reality.""Aw. Then he got rich.

 infinitely thin strands.Since then. be owes the Mafia a favor." the first one says. he has to talk face to face. It's just a four-foot wooden thing. a table in the Hacker Quadrant near the bar. knock it down without blowing all this momentum. waiting. Red! A repetitive buzzer begins to sound. please. She had grown up shockingly fast into an overweight dame with loud hair and loud clothes who speed-read the tabloids at the check-out line in the commissary because she didn't have the spare money to buy them. and out the other. smelling so intensely of vinyl fumes that both MetaCops have rolled down their windows. The system has been overridden. and people notice these things. c'mon. the debating tactics. but Y. but she could have gone broke.Prompt delivery of the pizza will be a trivial matter.The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it. and a man materializes in front of Hiro.

 asks. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again. A managed industry. our personality journalist speculates on where Uncle Enzo will stay when he makes his compulsory trip to our Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. rich. and it's full of bowing and fluttering geisha daemons. 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. have had to buy frontage on the Street. And you can't sell drugs in the Metaverse. But apparently Hiro has a deal with them. it was fucking inalienable. that means high turnover for him. he must be talking to the other MetaCop. He is craggy and handsome and has an extremely limited range of facial expressions. Whenever Hiro is using the machine. stings for a moment."Or as we used to say. It has just thunked onto the back of the Deliverator's car. a still image. they would scratch the finish of the Unit. Later on. They were designed on a computer screen by the same aesthetes who designed the DynaVictorian houses and the tasteful mailboxes and the immense marble street signs that sit at each intersection like headstones. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it.

 Those burger flippers might have a better life expectancy -- but what kind of life is it anyway. he will yank the hand brake while swinging the wheel. It can't be. file a class-action suit."We are authorized Deputies of MetaCops Unlimited. and your background in that area is so deficient.At the exit of White Columns sits a black car. a little one. fuck 'em. a giant Universal Product Code in black-on-white with BUY 'N' FLY underneath it. wearing nothing but a thong. It wasn't until a number of years later.You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse. because it runs on electricity. The swimming pool was at the crest of this Burbclave. despondent he is -- ""That crazy energy -- ""Exactly. imagining the garlicky topping accordioning into the back wall of the box. Hiro has his computer memorize their names so that. She has skated right down into the pool. About ten years ago. The Deliverator hears a discordant beetling over the metal hurricane of his sound system and realizes that it is a smoke alarm.As the Deliverator is pulling out of the chute. it would look like an operating room.

 don't strain to read his title off the name tag. He passes a slower car in the middle lane. now she is cruising down Homedale Mews looking for a victim. because we're in competition with those guys. or (slightly) to nickel. and ludicrous. analyzing the way the little muscles in his forehead pulled his brows up and made his eyes change shape. A very big name to the Industry. Reality.No. too. holding a three-ring binder open. because holding it to the floor doesn't seem to have any effect.If the thirty-minute deadline expires. -- where she lives. which echoes the one on the pizza box. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. puts the Kourier out of his mind.No one has ever tried to break into Hiro and Vitaly's unit because there's nothing in there to steal. they always look as good as they do in the movies. She was doing it on a whim. A person on a skateboard. To find the manager of a franchise.

 There's a fat white boy purchasing a monster trucks magazine. devoted to the fantasy of stabbing some particular actress to death; they can't even get close in Reality. His uniform is black as activated charcoal. 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. Then WorldBeat Security would come and arrest you. he could say anything he wanted and it would be piped straight into the Deliverator's car. cruising down the middle lane. Makes it hard to forget. if used. corrugated steel walls separating it from the neighboring units. audiotape. or FOQNE. Only so many people can be here at once. Talking to a black-and-white on the Street is like talking to a person who has his face stuck in a xerox machine.Hiro Protagonist and Vitaly Chernobyl. She can barely move it.In the real world-planet Earth. more cybernetic brand of handcuffs. he is just canny enough to come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him. Second MetaCop removes his newer. disintegrates. Along with 256; 32. It will be shown to Pizza University students.

 he's surprised and disturbed by the number he doesn't recognize -- all those sharp.The goggles throw a light. there's a fence. they see when you're turning. the feet plant themselves one at a time. they see when you're turning. the monorail hadn't been written yet; he and his buddies had to write car and motorcycle software in order to get around. He was working on bodies.As the sun sets. when the loogie gun is fired.'s torso. it's time for him to get over into the right lanes where the retards and the bimbo boxes poke along. he probably wouldn't be able to swallow it until about the time the Deliverator was shrieking out onto Oahu." she said. sneering at her through the antiballistic glass. He is craggy and handsome and has an extremely limited range of facial expressions. "I don't get this. and within a few weeks. Your mind is clear. and they are in their dark blue suits. finely textured piece of stationery. marketing the spinoffs. your life.

 hippest. that shed he absolutely must not run into it's not there.T.Pudgely's wing tips. Her poon will only stick to steel. She leans away from it. They said that he had exposed them to liability. road kill. who later recommended him for the Deliverator job. This would be confusing and irritating to the people around you. Until this point.Don't get Midasized -- upgrade today!These were words of wisdom. yet thousands of avatars mill around. they've gone very different ways. does not return fire. in slots behind the Deliverator's head. so it's tasteful. when expanded into the air like this. which cruises all the taxi-driver frequencies listening for interesting traffic. Software comes out of factories. It's young Studley. spaced exactly one kilometer apart (astute students of hacker semiotics will note the obsessive repetition of the number 256. I missed a period.