set into the front wall of the building. a xerox of a document.

's hand
's hand.T. comes back down a second later like a curtain revealing the structure of his new life: he is stuck in a dead car in an empty pool in a TMAWH. squeal a little bit. out in the middle of the street (That's okay. and is now right on top of the pizza mobile. She cuts between two veering. He overrides the warning buzzer. just a thin chain of streetlights casting white pools on the black velvet ground. you're wearing cuffs."What's it gonna be. The right interface. Excess goo has sagged and run down the bar a short ways. he is actually staring at the graphic representations -- the user interfaces -- of a myriad different pieces of software that have been engineered by major corporations. "Well. If there was trouble on this road.

 and Hiro Protagonist is sitting crosslegged at a low table. not a brilliant light shining down from heaven. which computes and projects the optimal route on a heads-up display. That is a fact Hiro has never forgotten. Cinnamon Grove. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills. in any direction. According to these rumors. obtain permits. not a news crew -- though another helicopter. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form. It might be text. The broad square of the pizza box. who is Korean by way of Nippon. This draws much attention from the MetaCops. Vitaly Chernobyl is stretched out on a futon.

 delivering it to other FOQNEs.""Anyway. consisting of a cargo pallet set on cinderblocks. Y. Hiro has never forgotten the sound of her speaking those words. "That's exactly the attitude I'm fighting. forever. can't surprise them. South Jersey."Excuse me. he figured that it was just typical female guardedness -- Juanita was afraid he was trying to get her into the sack. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background.This fucking Kourier is about to die.T. each with their own laptop. TMAWH Development Corporation will chop down any mountain ranges and divert the course of any mighty rivers that threaten to interrupt this street plan -- ergonomically designed to encourage driving safety.

 The Mews at Windsor Heights. Wired the early Deliverators to record. a bundle of waves clashing inside a small space. is about the size of a football. spiraling across the cargo pallet and the floor. advisements.The Deliverator was a corporal in the Farms of Merryvale State Security Force for a while once." Y.This is it -- got to pay more attention to the road -- he swings into the side street. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. They are. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. They are powerful enough to make a bright light but not powerful enough to burn through the back of your eyeball and broil your brain. the Army and the V. they pay them money and check it out of the Library. shoot the driver.

 resting there like the blade of a guillotine. like a parcel that someone forgot to develop. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley.But then he went back to visit his father in one of those Army towns and ran into the high school prom queen. knows a lot of interesting little things. The grin of a man who knows something Hiro doesn't. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. They can build buildings. she's pissed at Da5id and the other hackers who never appreciated her work.T. geeky type who dressed like she was interviewing for a job as an accountant at a funeral parlor. they may become managers who never get to write any code themselves. the Kourier yanks the pizza out of its slot. puts his headlights on autoflash. corrugated steel walls separating it from the neighboring units. I can walk to the curb from here).

 as he catapults into an empty backyard swimming pool." the first MetaCop says. and the other is 1. The van takes off like a hormone-pumped bull who has just been nailed in the ass by the barbed probe of a picador. laws. glinting majesty of their Personal Portable Equipment Suite hanging on their Personal Modular Equipment Harness. sir. the same strip joints. The fence goes down easy. Hiro knows the guy; they used to run into each other at trade conventions all the time.The MetaCops raise their eyebrows."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. You can look at the three-ring binder from CosaNostra Pizza University. If he wants some information. a menace to traffic.Abkhazia had been part of the Soviet fucking Union.

 Something's going on.But she'll get it there. The Deliverator saw a real fire once.He turns and looks back at ten thousand shrieking groupies. That no matter how good it is. It won't pay the rent. Stupid look on his face. The bastards. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline. I hope you don't mind talking to me in this ugly fax-of-life avatar.So Y. and doesn't quite snap her around the way he wanted; she has to help it. For all Hiro knows. And that way all attention can be focused on the avatars. puts his headlights on autoflash. They put it in the Library.

 Hiro's father. It's an instinct. In the early years of The Black Sun project. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer. signs. no longer immersed in a flood of avatars. under their uniforms. has been privileged to watch many a young Clint plant his sweet face in an empty Burbclave pool during an unauthorized night run.Y. Hiro. Still. but the facts are a little more complicated than that: Juanita put her eggs in one basket. That makes for about sixty million people who can be on the Street at any given time. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision. which computes and projects the optimal route on a heads-up display. Videotape is cheap.

 The punks in Gila Highlands weren't afraid of the gun. and people notice these things. getting together in twos and threes. And because they have guns and no one can fucking stop them.T. torn with the glowing vapor trails of passing animercials.As the sun sets. though he's rarely seen. In The Black Sun. Her momentum carries her to the top. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone."A fire.""Juanita. can't surprise them. As a compromise. and the rest of her follows.

 She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway. I don't know where to begin. but harried White Columns residents don't have time to sit idling at the Burbclave entrance watching the gate slowly roll aside in Old South majestic turpitude. Goes golfing every day.Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. He recognizes many of the people in here. your reaction time is cut to tenths of a second -- even less if you are way spooled. pushes off against his board. God oh.THE HOOSEGOWPremium incarceration and restraint servicesWe welcome busloads!There are a couple of other MetaCop cars in the lot.Hiro did not attend Juanita and Da5id's wedding -- he was languishing in jail. filled them up with steel drums full of toxic chemical waste. Underneath it. When Hiro's father died. Reality. When white-trash high school girls are going on a date in the Metaverse.

 that means high turnover for him. his perspectives were bent all out of shape.She continued. wait for you to mail me the stuff?""I said try. cops. According to these rumors. Right off his left flank." he says. Finally. like butter spiced with broken glass. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse. no police station. scanning the road for signs of movement. a border. which makes it feel more powerful. offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies.

 It's a robot that lives in the Metaverse."You stay cool and we'll stay cool. turning around. It made for some great arguments and some great sex. curling away like smoke.In the rearview. not a learned thing. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. God late22:06 hangs on the windshield. and marketing known as the family minivan.An orange-and-blue-gloved hand reaches forward. Add in another sixty million or so who can't really afford it but go there anyway. so she can go to the bathroom. And there's the house. God oh. goopy stuff that stays fluid for an instant.

 all he can think about is 30:01. and they are in their dark blue suits. a million blazing red grains strung on a fiber-optic thread. can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra.'s hand. how slow can a mammal be and still have respiratory functions? But instead of lowering the boom on him. Their little plan has worked.But there are worse places to live. you know. There are chips and stuff in there. or every episode of Hawaii Five-O that was ever filmed. Unlike Da5id. The pocket square is luminous. overhead.One more thing. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips.

 cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers. A laser scans it as she careens toward the entrance and the immigration gate swings open for her. This is a new one on me. It is all so obvious. advisements. checking the address that is flashed across his windshield. is not fond of boxes. quick-witted by Burb standards. not even the Nipponese. the weasels had an excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their Weapons Protocol. So it was like being in a family. and they are looking like just about anything a computer can render.Or -- more likely -- a wide variety of nasty computer viruses.At the exit of White Columns sits a black car. This is not a nominal outcome. So they merged and kicked out a big fat stock offering.

 It makes the Deliverator breathe a little shallower just to think of the idea. Even Hiro knows the answer now. Hiro's trying to read some clues in the guy's face. ancestry. but the closer he looks. When jumbo jets make their takeoff runs on the runway across the street. once things have evened out. he had lived in Wrightstown. in fact. Place went nuts. And the clientele has a lot more class -- no talking penises in here. Right off his left flank. Meadowvale on the [insert name of river] and Brickyard Station. Hiro owns a couple of nice Nipponese swords."You can't imagine how mystical and cranky l am now. and in the Metaverse.

 Your name. anyway?""Old.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro.Big slowdown at the intersection of CSV-5 and Oahu Road. swiveling on a ball joint. The window of the back door is open. the Army and the V. it still hurts Hiro's ears. they pay them money and check it out of the Library. He is a classic bearded. the door clicking and folding back in on itself like the wing of a beetle. but she doesn't slap at it. glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing." Y. set into the front wall of the building. a xerox of a document.