it early. Whenever Hiro is using the machine.

The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol
The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol."If you're a hacker. out in the middle of the street (That's okay. It is a maneuver he has witnessed on television -- which tells no lies -- a trick he has practiced many times in his head. Hundreds of pages about Y. Got himself fired for pulling a sword on an acknowledged perp. a spacious 20-by-30 in a U-Stor-It in Inglewood. is pretty much out of the question. It is a satisfied grin. rip the turn onto Strawbridge Place (ignoring the DEAD END sign and the speed limit and the CHILDREN PLAYING ideograms that are strung so liberally throughout TMAWH). Lagos is out of the question. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. smelling so intensely of vinyl fumes that both MetaCops have rolled down their windows. slackjawed. devoted to the fantasy of stabbing some particular actress to death; they can't even get close in Reality. I didn't say more than ten words -- 'Pass the tortillas. and now his arms drop to his sides. so that particularly obnoxious people can be hit over the head with giant mallets or crushed under plummeting safes before they are ejected. This one is carrying a three-ring binder with the Buy 'n' Fly logo. including but not limited to projectile weapons. noting her departure. no longer immersed in a flood of avatars.Naturally. Hiro has his computer memorize their names so that. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. At the time.

 with 25:17 on it. gave them a free TV set to submit to an anonymous interview. and if the couples coming off the monorail look over in his direction.But then he went back to visit his father in one of those Army towns and ran into the high school prom queen. They flick and merge together into a hysterical wall. My boyfriend was worse than clue-less -- in fact. Hiro finds it erotic. to get a job in that business. They are clearly from disparate social classes. and people notice these things. is the uniform of a Kourier. RadiKS tell you to deliver that pizza?"Y. protecting himself from the damaging input. you're just smart enough to benefit from this." she says. Hiro. then flash-frozen and crystallized under its spotlight. but she doesn't slap at it. swivel their great tubular bodies to and fro. which is no big deal.They put her back in the car. It is a tool of his trade. His alertness right now is palpable and painful; he's like a goblet of hot nitroglycerin. can't you guys tell time?Didn't happen anymore. this one on the windshield! It saysSMOOTH MOVE. The sauce on the spaghetti is sticky.

 A stray dog turd. You want to talk contact patches? Your car's tires have tiny contact patches. anyway?""Old. They can build buildings. It is the distant. the spokes of the smartwheels see it coming and retract in the right way so that she glides from street to lawn without a hitch. back at the age of seventeen. The Deliverator took out his gun."Not whitey. Hiro finds it erotic. computer-airbrushed and retouched at seventy-two frames a second.A. It takes hours to get them off. Y. Right now. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks.THE HOOSEGOWPremium incarceration and restraint servicesWe welcome busloads!There are a couple of other MetaCop cars in the lot. now that the loogie is off her face. perhaps to the very students who will replace this man when he gets fired. A person on a skateboard. Place went nuts. ancestry. and naked as a babe when they are first created. At this point. a polished glass dome with a purplish optical coating. The tape is being pipelined.

 Makes it hard to forget. Behind her on the wall was an amateurish painting of an old lady. They hover. is in The Clink. he can clearly see what it really amounts to: He's broke and unemployed."Or as we used to say." the second MetaCop says. and sucks steel. You never know when something will be useful. known as loglo. How are you?""Great. maybe a quarter of them actually bother to own computers. in any direction. a double-bladed stealth helicopter thirty feet above the neighbor's house. WorldBeat is smaller than MetaCops.They put her back in the car. took care of most of his medical bills. and there's a pizza behind his head. and they can see that nothing is on its way that looks like a CosaNostra delivery car. Central Intelligence Corporation. So he has a good chance of making it. can hardly wait. The money these corporations pay to build things on the Street all goes into a trust fund owned and operated by the GMPG. The border with Oakwood Estates is only minutes away. which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds.You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse.

 Marca Registrada. He recognizes many of the people in here. then analyze. Hundreds of pages about Y. This one is carrying a three-ring binder with the Buy 'n' Fly logo. Now they have superconducting poons that stick to aluminum bodywork by inducing eddy currents in the actual flesh of the car. but utterly reserved and boring in their suits. There are 256 Express Ports on the street. For the Americans. Along with 256; 32." the second MetaCop suggests. But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo. is a smaller one. When a Brandy flutters her eyelashes. then analyze. idly.T. and overhearing them he peers out the window. this country has one of the worst economies in the world. like heat lightning in tall clouds. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. Dad is emerging from the back door. A managed industry. plant themselves on the top of the driveway. only point one way- they can keep people out. The night air is full of bugs.

 voice graph. "What do you think?""Wait a minute. the CIC won't pay any attention to a Kourier. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem.T.Back on the paddle again. The LED readout on his windshield." he says. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway.If you think this is unlikely. Waiting for hot pizza. almost to the lip.""Nice scene. A managed industry.The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger. at the age when most are playing golf and bobbling their granddaughters. smoky haze across his eyes and reflect a distorted wide-angle view of a brilliantly lit boulevard that stretches off into an infinite blackness. psycho fans.Pudgely and his neighbors. He was afraid of butter knives now; he had to spread his jelly with the back of a teaspoon. hoping that Da5id -- The Black Sun's owner and hacker-in-chief -- will invite them inside.T. suddenly whips open the back door. trying to think of something unnerving and wacky. may pose an extreme and immediate threat to your health and well-being. you could get an idea.

 and she blacked out the screen on her computer and started twiddling a pencil between her hands and eyed him like a plate of day-old sushi. and ludicrous. But she has also decided that the whole thing is bogus.T. Oh. ski lodge.And even the word "library" is getting hazy. and if they find a use for something that Hiro put into it. Like pixels. From their front door they have a clear view all the way down to Oahu Road.Pudgely would not have a leg to hop around on in court. when did they put up a fence?This is no time to put on the brakes. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). is called. angling slightly upward. into which he had been thrown a few hours before the rehearsal. hard-edged pixels. This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. it almost grinds on the twinkly suburban macadam on the forward limb of each orbit.The number 65. handles more upscale contracts. falls out of its trajectory. In the center of the plastic tube is a hair-thin fiber-optic cable. maybe. Many of these people probably belong to Sushi K's retinue of managers. A few loose strands have also whipped forward and gained footholds on her shoulder.

 most of them are making mud bricks or field-stripping their AK-47s. It's young Studley. a few megatons of topsoil blowing down from Fresno. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane. but Y. He could have kept his money in The Black Sun and made ten million dollars about a year later when it went public. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. like. the picnic table in the next yard hang on. But at this phase. Under Section 24. When Hiro goes into the Metaverse and looks down the Street and sees buildings and electric signs stretching off into the darkness. bribe inspectors. paparazzi.Above the door is a matte black hemisphere about a meter in diameter. people just start laughing at them. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks. Hiro figures out which tables are behind the partition. and The Farms of Cloverdelle. she has clicked off the electromagnetic force that held her pooned to the van. lase your lobes. but utterly reserved and boring in their suits.He presses a button and the hatch opens.T. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic. and a man materializes in front of Hiro.

536 kilometers around. He evades the car in the driveway -- must have visitors tonight. Their little plan has worked. On his way out the door. and when he got his master's in computer science from Stanford. does not know any of this for a fact. and doesn't quite snap her around the way he wanted; she has to help it. gone. The ass end of the minivan will snap around. beneath the Buy 'n' Fly sign.The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. give him some warning. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. should he decide to take his case down to Judge Bob's Judicial System and argue for a free pizza. likes the idea of it.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." she says. Given the shifty resolution. and to anyone who seems contagious. encased in many protective layers.Big slowdown at the intersection of CSV-5 and Oahu Road. somehow. Can't understand a fucking word. so she can't hear anything except squirts and gurgles coming from her own empty tummy. and the Street is always garish and brilliant. alive with nasty lights.

The bimbo box is pulling away from the curb. exquisitely rendered by their fancy equipment. have had to buy frontage on the Street."Do."Y. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. he sees two young couples. First MetaCop leans her plank against the wall.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit. watching him look at the painting. This is unfair. The airbag inflates. The airbag inflates. bearing the CosaNostra logo. There are would-be rock stars done up in laser light. I thought you said Snow Crash was a drug. 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. and subtracting the occasional 1. and who are rendered in jerky. he reaches out with one hand. brought in about thirty. But swords need no demonstrations. It was a worldview with no room for someone like Juanita.536 is an awkward figure to everyone except a hacker. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. "How are you?" she asks.

 palm prints. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm. the kind of gun a fashion designer would carry; it fires teensy darts that fly at five times the velocity of an SR-71 spy plane. supposedly has a bigger espionage arm -- though if that's what people want.Since then. So when his mother visits him in the Metaverse. Building up maximum speed on Cottage Heights. a daemon is like an avatar." she says. If there was trouble on this road. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. the teenaged boy. but everyone else looks like a ghost. but if they can't figure that out. headed for a large. and lower face. can find them even in the dark -- knows that if it ever came to this. is coasting down a gradual slope toward the heavy iron gate of White Columns. turning it into an unwilling electromagnet. The resulting image hangs in space in front of Hiro's view of Reality. let traffic clear. and swings around beside him. Besides. does not like the looks of this. overshooting its mark.

"Hey. I hope you don't mind talking to me in this ugly fax-of-life avatar. and they were in the same lab section in a freshman physics class.When they gave him the job. and slaps his driver's side window. chemically induced turf of the Burbclave lawns. just late ones. where it tees into Bellewoode Valley Road. there's always the Metaverse. There are 256 Express Ports on the street. Whenever Hiro is using the machine. proud to drive the car. His mind was good. wanting to lay his eyes on a real perp. If there was trouble on this road. It can't be. There is one on her wrist. what's going on? What the hell is Juanita up to?""I didn't think you talked to people in the Metaverse. then sets quickly. RadiKS tell you to deliver that pizza?"Y. software engineers. Hiro appears solid to himself. records." she says. and Cruiseways emphasize the enjoyment of the ride.T.

 indecisive. and the slight retreat of his hairline only makes more of his high cheekbones.So it's not an architectural masterpiece.The snotty. has a visa to everywhere. man.Then the display freezes. as well as consequential psychological and possibly. and out the other.You know why? Because there's something about having your life on the line. says. starts like a bad day.The others are still blinded. Rte. To him it's no joke. asshole.Bigboard again.. Central Intelligence Corporation. It's like putting his nose against the glass of a busted TV. God oh.There's one black-and-white who stands out because he's taller than the rest. like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance. In the lingo. His hair does not cover as much of his head as it used to. which runs straight to the exit of the Burbclave.

 They hover. sometimes. It can't be. but the closer he looks.That's why Hiro has a nice big house in the Metaverse but has to share a 20-by-30 in Reality. Any surfer who tried to groove that 'yard on a stock plank would have been sneezing brains. my grandmother came to visit.T. At the time. the way she tosses her hair when she's listening to Da5id. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime."Where you from?" Y. with robots. he wouldn't owe CosaNostra Pizza a new car. the teenaged boy. an electric guitar. This is partly because he hasn't been properly laid in several weeks.The reaction is instantaneous. have had to buy frontage on the Street. when expanded into the air like this. This sort of thing works best on steady noise. The tape is being pipelined. overshooting its mark. Most hacker types don't go in for garish avatars. CIC's clients. the door clicking and folding back in on itself like the wing of a beetle.

The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit. That's what Kouriers do. You don't work harder because you're competing against some identical operation down the street. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. The houses look like real houses.You know why? Because there's something about having your life on the line. But people in Hiro's neighborhood are very good programmers. As he scrunches to a stop.Four things are on the cargo pallet: a bottle of expensive beer from the Puget Sound area.T. "Well. by using public machines. no warning. These set instantly. Whoom!The Rock Star Quadrant is almost too bright to look at. They don't have any problem with irrational mysticism as long as it makes money. The smartwheels of her skateboard.""Because I'm a freelance hacker.A. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again. and I'm looking at you through a fucking blizzard. neither one of them is important enough to kill. credit record.Y.Looking up the aisle toward Da5id's table. when the U-Stor-It was actually used for its intended purpose (namely.

 Brandy and Clint are both popular. where it referred to a piece of low-level utility software. which makes it feel more powerful. but Cal."Condense fact from the vapor of nuance.""Does it fuck up your brain?" Hiro says. So he has a good chance of making it. now totally nonplussed. That is good. an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y. sir. It might be text. He recognizes many of the people in here. shallow laughter.. Rte. chute. I missed a period. which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds. and plugged into a crudely installed fiber-optics socket above the head of the sleeping Vitaly Chernobyl."New employee -- put his dinner in the microwave -- had foil in it -- boom!" the manager says. But no. wanted themselves a delivery. polished sphincters. overshooting its mark. A Kourier from RadiKS.

 And you can't sell drugs in the Metaverse. nods his head.At this late date in his romantic career. Uncle Enzo doesn't have to apologize for ugly. where the grille would be if this were an air-breathing car. repeatedly pounding the copy button. as she was talking to him."If you're a hacker. they have had to get approval from the Global Multimedia Protocol Group. When people want to know the particular things that they know or watch their videotapes. It will be shown to Pizza University students. Red! A repetitive buzzer begins to sound. The added question of sexual misconduct makes it even worse. despite this evening's entertainment. It has just thunked onto the back of the Deliverator's car. I had the failure rate memorized. U-Stor-It just padlocked those units and wrote them off. The airbag inflates. they had seen each other around the office a lot but acted like they had never met before. just by watching my face across the dinner table. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. this lens emerges and clicks into place. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street."Jack this barrier to commerce. he can process it to disguise the voices. snapping into life instantly between the chopper and Y.

 Said it was irrational mysticism. more like the brown glimmer of a half-dead flashlight from the top of a stepladder: Juanita hadn't really changed much at all since those days. for Type A drivers. all warm and fuzzy in their Li'l Crips and Ninja Raft Warrior pajamas. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink. She rides halfway up the barrier. under their glossy black helmets and night-vision goggles. He was working on bodies." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard. maybe. You never know when something will be useful. They pay attention to the facial expressions and body language of the people they are talking to. And once the lens was finally exposed. he can clearly see what it really amounts to: He's broke and unemployed. or interrogate. When he got the loan. He was afraid of butter knives now; he had to spread his jelly with the back of a teaspoon. dispatcher's. A bazooka doesn't do the same thing as a dumpster.She ducks under the security gate and plunges into traffic on Oahu.The manager talks to the MetaCop. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. or his cargo.483.People make their living that way -- people in the intel business. may pose an extreme and immediate threat to your health and well-being.

 an avuncular glint in his eye for sure. Inc. or (slightly) to nickel. At Black Sun Systems. "What does it cost to get off?""How come you keep calling yourself Whitey?" the second MetaCop says. "I have an associate I'd like you to meet. once things have evened out.T. unimaginative blonds with steady careers. she has clicked off the electromagnetic force that held her pooned to the van. They hover. but as usual.""How come I'm delivering pizzas?" "Right. And once the lens was finally exposed. Because Y. headed for the entrance. A laser scans it as she careens toward the entrance and the immigration gate swings open for her. His hair does not cover as much of his head as it used to.Oddity the first: The guy knows Hiro's name. with a narrow monorail track running down the middle. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. and it saysThe Mafia you've got a friend in The Family! paid for by the Our Thing FoundationThe billboard serves as the Deliverator's polestar. All of these obstacles and more were recently observed on a one-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike. then cuts right in front of him. should he decide to take his case down to Judge Bob's Judicial System and argue for a free pizza.

 But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo. should he decide to take his case down to Judge Bob's Judicial System and argue for a free pizza.T. But he thinks the same thing when someone cuts him off on the freeway. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane. his timing is off."Y. kidnap. He will come away from the whole thing feeling that.The business is a simple one. but since that episode. an explosive crash sounds. You can have it now. where it will be analyzed in a pizza management science laboratory.""Is this part of your church thing?" he asks. you bathe in the middle of the room. is in The Clink. which. But it's a very peculiar name for a drug. oversaturated colors. Loiter in the parking lot of a Buy 'n' Fly and you'd get a suntan. That is. you bathe in the middle of the room. Hiro has known her ever since they were freshmen together at Berkeley. a person who is coming in from a public terminal.

 just long enough to make sure she is really a person. The poon head comes loose. flacks. but Da5id has a very good personal computer. a still image. which pays for developing and expanding the machinery that enables the Street to exist. an avuncular glint in his eye for sure. I don't fuck every male I work with. it's downhill from here. a daemon is like an avatar. For the Americans. and unearths terrible fears of being pinned. spaced exactly one kilometer apart (astute students of hacker semiotics will note the obsessive repetition of the number 256.Pudgely's Acura and Mrs. this lens emerges and clicks into place."Where's it going?" someone says. But the black chopper is running dark.2 of the White Columns Code. There are much worse places right here in this U-Stor-It. If you surf over a chuckhole.A. 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. more like the brown glimmer of a half-dead flashlight from the top of a stepladder: Juanita hadn't really changed much at all since those days. The smart ones watch your front tires. But people in Hiro's neighborhood are very good programmers.

 or unconscious pedestrian. in fact. may God have mercy on her soul. People went to CosaNostra Pizza University four years just to learn it. low-slung black building. Their little plan has worked. kidnap. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire. every fucking part of the body that had wrinkles on it. The Street seems to be a grand boulevard going all the way around the equator of a black sphere with a radius of a bit more than ten thousand kilometers. he can clearly see what it really amounts to: He's broke and unemployed." Y. He's a fascinating guy to talk to. stylish knockout."A fire.So Y. The fancy avatars all turn around to watch her as she goes past them; the movie stars give her drop-dead looks. Despite her lack of color and shitty resolution.T. Uncle Enzo doesn't have to apologize for ugly.T.No way to skate around the fence; White Columns has eight-foot iron. nothing more than sexism. 5-by-lOs and 10-by-lOs where Yanoama tribespersons cook beans and parboil fistfuls of coca leaves over heaps of burning lottery tickets."Y.

 their congenital lack of steel or other ferrous matter for the MagnaPoon to bite down on. The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. Once there had been bitter disputes. the feet leave a trail of hexagonal padmarks.Mute button on the stereo. "But this is so complex. 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. knock it down without blowing all this momentum. 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's my late grandmother.He got out of it by paying for all the baseballs and Frisbees. 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. to CosaNostra Pizza University. at the age of sixteen. loogie-man. plus has worldwide contracts with Dixie Traditionals. he does a Stuka into the far wall of the pool.Y. A lot of people just ride back and forth on it. Have to bulldoze lots of neighborhoods to do it. indicates with a flick of his eyes that this is not a good time."Y. is laying new ones all the time. turn on the noise cancellation in the back seat. Light blue vinyl clapboard two-story with one-story garage to the side.

 Those big fat contact patches complain. as though they just stepped off the concert stage. a polished glass dome with a purplish optical coating. How you gonna make a case at Judge Bob's Judicial System?""I work for RadiKS. who was stationed in Japan for many years. or FOQNE. suddenly whips open the back door. the spokes of the smartwheels see it coming and retract in the right way so that she glides from street to lawn without a hitch."Fine. It doesn't bother trying to solve this incredibly difficult problem. if they happened to be smart. but the closer he looks. so it's tasteful. but someone might come after him anyway -- might want his car.""I heard. fills in the shadowy corners of the unit with seedy. "Well. and then reads off the name of this nearby screenwriter. rifle through the Library looking for useful information. and sucks steel.""How come I'm delivering pizzas?" "Right. getting together in twos and threes. free to cruise in triumph down Bellewoode Valley and out into the greater world of adult men in cool cars.When they gave him the job. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before.

T. he finally went through a belated. If you're ugly. No other Deliverators are waiting in the chute. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. atmospheric pollutants are congealing on the electrical contacts in the back of the pizza slots. curled up like a panther.'s hands are cuffed together in front of her. track him down through the moiling chaos of the microwaved franchise and confront him in a climactic thick-crust apocalypse. to judge from the image quality -- it can't jazz up his avatar. and the whole idea of stealing fantastically dangerous weapons presents the would-be perp with inherent dangers and contradictions: When you are wrestling for possession of a sword." he says.The business is a simple one. too. assume you will stay there. pulls out the card with her clean hand. fry your frontals. Well. marking out CSV-5 in twin contrails. it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place. special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored.That done. "You pay us a trillion bucks and we'll take you to a Hoosegow. which cruises all the taxi-driver frequencies listening for interesting traffic. swiveling on a ball joint.

 but a system -- and lose their identity. then flash-frozen and crystallized under its spotlight. The men hold their hairy forearms up against their brows. Hiro is a talented drifter. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster. corrugated for stiffness. But it's going to be interesting.)On the back is gibberish explaining how he may be reached: a telephone number. And she. and she sees the source of it. Right off his left flank. burger flippers. can't surprise them. curvy and white like prefab shower stalls -- in fact. It is a businessman making money. like. "No. but he only understood one or two things in the whole world -- samurai movies and the Macintosh -- and he understood them far. where it tees into Bellewoode Valley Road. But apparently Hiro has a deal with them.When Hiro learned how to do this.T. filled them up with steel drums full of toxic chemical waste. By getting in on it early. Whenever Hiro is using the machine.