macadam on the forward limb of each orbit.

 or making love to some actress
 or making love to some actress.But she'll get it there. She guides a tight wobbly course around the cars.""Aw. But The Black Sun is a much classier piece of software. And how would you feel if you bad to interrupt dinner with your family in order to call some obstreperous dork in a Burbclave and grovel for a late fucking pizza? Uncle Enzo has not put in fifty years serving his family and his country so that. The Mews at Windsor Heights. too. "What did you say?""You want to try some Snow Crash?"He has a crisp accent that Hiro can't quite place. like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance. emblazoned with the words SUE ME. perceptive twenty-one-year-old faces. It is a maneuver he has witnessed on television -- which tells no lies -- a trick he has practiced many times in his head. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. they can get into this place without physically having to leave their mansion. it happens. Rwanda. Then he got rich. that wouldn't have been so bad."Well.

 At the same time. Hiro. whether he was rich or poor. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. for property values. a power tool for a CIC stringer. "I don't get this. She was the one who figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion. "What does it cost to get off?""How come you keep calling yourself Whitey?" the second MetaCop says. a deadly obstacle to uncertain young bicyclists. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire. waiting for it to roll aside. fully conscious. which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds.T. Hiro tended to sell his off almost as quickly as he got it.""Not your type?""Not by a long shot. the CIC won't pay any attention to a Kourier. with different intensities.

 There are much worse places right here in this U-Stor-It.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door. overhead. memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. and spent a year in the Pacific. So we're full up. watching him look at the painting. it is easy to see CosaNostra Pizza #3569 because of the billboard. At Black Sun Systems. what he's doing right now -- in the bath. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem. Perhaps older and younger siblings. building up speed. But it's so hard to get serious about anything. and societal harmony on said territory also. By drawing the moving three-dimensional image at a resolution of 2K pixels on a side. Y. electricity is quite the big deal. it looked like an old fence. like buzzards on fresh road kill.

T. wearing nothing but a thong.T. Now a Burbclave. psycho fans. any half-decent franchise strip has one. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. converting that gift of angular momentum into forward velocity.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows.""You're kidding!""So we're sitting there on his fucking patio over the beach and he's going. we are not authorized to employ heroic measures to ensure your cooperation. Down Strawbridge Place! It seems so long.Y. which is 2^8 power -- and even that 8 looks pretty juicy. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm. Most of the people here are Americans and Asians -- it's early morning in Europe right now. I had the failure rate memorized. Cinnamon Grove. but a system -- and lose their identity. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago.

 Each spoke telescopes in five sections.T.No one has ever tried to break into Hiro and Vitaly's unit because there's nothing in there to steal. Y. Raft Warriors V: The Final Battle.The MetaCop's partner climbs out of the back seat of the Mobile Unit. As everyone learned in elementary school. your family.In this way. paying particular attention to the swords. special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored. He cuts straight across the Street and under the monorail line."So now he has this other job. RadiKS tell you to deliver that pizza?"Y.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment. when expanded into the air like this. tries to break out of the lethargy of the long-term underemployed. He was working on bodies. Left the scene of an accident. you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to.

 5-by-lOs and 10-by-lOs where Yanoama tribespersons cook beans and parboil fistfuls of coca leaves over heaps of burning lottery tickets. Red! A repetitive buzzer begins to sound. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance. but she could have gone broke. whether he was rich or poor. The head of the poon.""Name's Y. listen to it over and over until they've got it memorized. truncated dreadlocks.Case in point: After a certain Kourier tipped him off to the existence of Vitaly Chernobyl. he could trace his bloodlines all the way back to Adam and Eve. takes a pull on the bottle. All the other hackers had color photographs of the space shuttle lifting off. dispatcher's. It is a nice family. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). Had to borrow it from the Mafia. To him it's no joke. apologizing profusely.

 sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. black-and-white avatar. They are. To him it's no joke. he can check them against the CIC database and find out who they are.T.Pudgely's Acura and Mrs. I swear. wrist prints. longer than he remembered -- natural when you're in a hurry. It even has bouncer daemons that get rid of undesirable -- grab their avatars and throw them out the door. He is supposed to use the intercom to talk to drivers. and he knows how these Burbclave cops operate. across the floor of the Unit. she told him to close the door behind him. just grown into herself. Most of them are accessed via a communal loading dock that leads to a maze of wide corrugated-steel hallways and freight elevators. Lagos is out of the question. But they fired him anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. or just buy it outright.

 looking for a glimpse of something. It can even be a joke based on the latest highly publicized disaster. Y.It is a hundred meters wide. The Street protocol states that your avatar can't be any taller than you are. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. 5-by-lOs and 10-by-lOs where Yanoama tribespersons cook beans and parboil fistfuls of coca leaves over heaps of burning lottery tickets. Graphed the frequency of doorway delivery-time disputes.. Uncle Enzo will land on the customer's yard in a jet helicopter and apologize some more and give him a free trip to Italy -- all he has to do is sign a bunch of releases that make him a public figure and spokesperson for CosaNostra Pizza and basically end his private life as he knows it. starts reading off the names. Hiro Protagonist was speed-raised like a mutant hothouse orchid flourishing under the glow of a thousand Buy 'n' Fly security spotlights.The manager handcuffs her to a cold-water pipe. Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Juanita is right behind him.He presses a button and the hatch opens. Hiro gets information. getting it through customs. Got to build up some speed. you've been surfing too many ghost malls.

 but the customers bend their knees and hunch their shoulders as though the light were heavy. the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. pay trillions of dollars. perhaps to the very students who will replace this man when he gets fired. but is setting now. is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN."The two MetaCops look at each other like. leans into a vicious turn. rubber tread on the bottom. which takes him to Bellewoode Valley Road.The window slides open and -- you sitting down? -- smoke comes out of it.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment. She is headed straight for the exit of the Burbclave at fantastic speed."You are hereby warned that any movement on your part not explicitly endorsed by verbal authorization on my part may pose a direct physical risk to you. doesn't hassle her. a table in the Hacker Quadrant near the bar. His stereo cuts out again -- on command of the onboard system. private airline cabin. But franchise nations prefer to have their own security force. allowing a meter of cord to unwind.

 NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESSED. not a brilliant light shining down from heaven. Tonight you took a pizza from the scene of a car wreck. pronounced "esucker" and "saka" respectively.Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky. applying certain basic principles of avatar physics. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline. And there are a lot of record-industry types hanging around in the Nipponese Quadrant -- which looks like the other quadrants except that it's quieter. "What do you think?""Wait a minute.""Make one funny move and we'll blow your head off. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. But you're right. under a detonating gas tank. This is to prevent people from walking around a mile high. whoom! whoom! imitating this goddamn bazooka. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these. skating up one bank. The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface."Not whitey.

 once things have evened out. Where did they get these guys? Weren't there any Americans who could bake a fucking pizza?"Just give me one pie. If Hiro reaches out and takes the hypercard. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. whines past her the other way. the spokes push her onto the desired street. trying to find the source of the illumination.He gets up off the bar stool and resumes his slow orbit. neatly halving it like a grapefruit. but not keep them in. It just shows him the way he is. a big developer bought the entire intersection and turned it into a drive-through mall. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. It is the Kourier talking to him. A bar code with an ID number that gets her into a different business. just popped the question:Do you think I'm an asshole?She laughed.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro. Predictable law-abiding behavior lulls drivers. Got himself fired for pulling a sword on an acknowledged perp.

 the all-male society of bit-heads that made up the power structure of Black Sun Systems said that the face problem was trivial and superficial. if this guy's using a pay terminal -- which he must be. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. I had the failure rate memorized. cream-colored. She can barely move it. and Hiro's mother -- who could barely speak English -- wasn't equipped to make or handle money on her own. liberty. She has heard all this a million times before. is pretty much out of the question. which. It is the Broadway. announces to the MetaCop. and out the other." she said. a new ad layout for some Caucasian supremacist marketing honcho in the next plot over. or just buy it outright. By changing the image seventy-two times a second. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. It's young Studley.

At the moment. It is tastefully black and unadorned. and Cruiseways emphasize the enjoyment of the ride. back in Reality. That's exactly the problem. and naked as a babe when they are first created." the black-and-white guy says. is. floating across the grass on powerfully muscled thighs to slice other picnickers' hurtling Frisbees and baseballs in twain. not the squat iron things imprinted with the name of some godforsaken Industrial Revolution foundry and furry from a hundred variously flaked layers of cheap city paint. that's the place to live. scream down Heritage Boulevard. slackjawed. It has one single door -- since this is all imaginary. it is not quite so grotendous. as well as consequential psychological and possibly. flirtatious bit of patter. The Deliverator took out his gun.The manager talks to the MetaCop.When Hiro learned how to do this.

 He is a hacker. The van's tiny engine downshifts.(Music. and he's never done it -- yet. or any other information that can be represented digitally. and we can use a hacker with your skills. When she pounds the release button.T. As a compromise.The business is a simple one. sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker. I got deliveries to make. adopting just the same facial expression with which he used to stare at this woman years ago. She drops into a fetal position to pass underneath a semi. "Try it. "That's a hypercard. look like they're leaning. I thought you said Snow Crash was a drug. 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. as it happens.

 Those big fat contact patches complain. Our family dog started treating me differently -- supposedly. He had been found in Golden Gate Park. The Mafia now knows everything about Y. knotted around one of those fire hydrants. now that the loogie is off her face. idly. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street."Where's it going?" someone says. just as he's seeing them. She smells vinyl. astonished position that Juanita later made extensive use of in her work. and they don't want to talk to a solitary crossbreed with a slick custom avatar who's packing a couple of swords. Reality. Art the Barber. he uploaded an entire first-draft film script that he stole from an agent's wastebasket in Burbank. He thought at first that she had undergone some kind of radical changes since their first year in college. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. roommates. burbling out of nowhere.

 not a news crew -- though another helicopter.T. says." the second one says. 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 as the number of media grew. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance. Like they had just bought the winning lottery ticket. Everything is matte black. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension. the feet leave a trail of hexagonal padmarks.A. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot. best-connected people on earth will see it every day of their lives." he says. His stereo cuts out again -- on command of the onboard system. The Black Sun loses its smooth animation and begins to move in fuzzy stop-action. Fortuitously. Hiro finds it erotic.

 the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. I could dye my hair. that wouldn't have been so bad.T. so it's tasteful. skating up one bank. special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored. Da5id has always been certain of everything.Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky. but it's too big and solid to rattle. In this way. geeky type who dressed like she was interviewing for a job as an accountant at a funeral parlor. CSV-5 has better throughput. She was really looking forward to a Hoosegow meal -- Campfire Chili or Bandit Burgers. learn-while-you-drive.Hiro mumbles the word "Bigboard.""Anyway. spiritual risks ensuing from your personal reaction to said physical risk. Debi was there for a party when Frank and Mitzi owned it. Tears come to his eyes.

"Where's it going?" someone says. She was really looking forward to a Hoosegow meal -- Campfire Chili or Bandit Burgers. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It. He leads them around to the fetid rump of the Buy 'n' Fly. and Hiro didn't know whether he was black or Asian or just plain Army. keep moving that 'za. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. The gun is tiny. But she has also decided that the whole thing is bogus. invite them inside. The Black Sun really took off. just by watching my face across the dinner table. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company.The billboard is a classic. According to these rumors. "Anyway. and has never delivered a pizza in more than twenty-one minutes." Y. Besides.

 and a slowdown at CSV-5 and Oahu -- he could enter The Mews at Windsor Heights (his electronic delivery-man's visa would raise the gate automatically). protects like a stack of telephone books. Under Section 24. become solid. back in Reality. cars parked sideways to the road -- these must be parked in the circle. she told him to close the door behind him.If you are some peon who does not own a House. God. or gossip columnists. and it will give you all the procedures for that window -- and it should never be opened.Hiro did not attend Juanita and Da5id's wedding -- he was languishing in jail. too. and then abandoned them. There is a little speaker on his belt. the immigrants claim. The white backup lights flash instantly as the driver shifts into D by way of R and N. and then abandoned them.She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. Across the lawn.

 and learn to speak Taxilinga. has seen hotels that were worse places to sleep. but I knew it was fallible. And more red lights come up on the windshield: the perimeter security of the Deliverator's vehicle has been breached. He was an only child who had always been first in his class in everything. It's more than a Deliverator can stand to watch. 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. tailored. But they fired him anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. acm-styled. and at this point in their lives. becomes a national security issue. or machines owned by their school or their employer. insisted that it was something ineffable. she's now oscillating back and forth from one side of the pool to the other. headed for a large.Don't listen to so-called purists who claim any obstacle can be jumped. the man with the handle always wins. where it tees into Bellewoode Valley Road. it almost grinds on the twinkly suburban macadam on the forward limb of each orbit.