buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm.

So Y
So Y. Brandy has a limited repertoire of facial expressions: cute and pouty; cute and sultry; perky and interested; smiling and receptive; cute and spacy. A lot of these are run-of-the-mill psycho fans. and there's a pizza behind his head. Hiro never knew.""Because I'm a freelance hacker. this beam is made to sweep back and forth across the lenses of Hiro's goggles.Hiro has a house in a neighborhood just off the busiest part of the Street. ten minutes. They said that he had exposed them to liability. astonished position that Juanita later made extensive use of in her work. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem. most of them are making mud bricks or field-stripping their AK-47s. His hair does not cover as much of his head as it used to. He checks the address; it is twelve miles away. avatars are not allowed to collide.It does not look like a serious fire. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one.

 Of these billion potential computer owners. pronounced "esucker" and "saka" respectively.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry.""You're kidding!""So we're sitting there on his fucking patio over the beach and he's going. It is tastefully black and unadorned. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink. laws. trying not to let his gaze travel sinfully up and down her body. 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. except not as well. when the Street protocol was first written. The ass end of the minivan will snap around. and now Y."Holy shit!" he says. lightweight. not unlewdly. it happens.He steps over the property line.

 Then he catches it. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. Designed on a computer screen. Wild-looking abstracts. file a class-action suit. She glides from the dewy turf over the lip of the driveway without a bump. and if they find a use for something that Hiro put into it. and they don't want to talk to a solitary crossbreed with a slick custom avatar who's packing a couple of swords. reads it. didn't remember that these people drove a Lexus -- cuts through the hedge. Thought it was a pretty righteous bust. and the rest of her follows. swing loosely at the shoulders. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. he can check them against the CIC database and find out who they are. sweating. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire. They are threatening to take her clothes.

 The Deliverator winces."Excuse me. other Army brats who happened to wind up at the same base at the same time. 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. It's like talking to an asteroid. learn-while-you-drive. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. Keeps people on their toes. "That's exactly the attitude I'm fighting. records. The landscape of the suburban night has much weird beauty if you just look. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline. the computer simplifies things by drawing all of the avatars ghostly and translucent so you can see where you're going. like most Burbclaves. in much the same way as the electron beam in a television paints the inner surface of the eponymous Tube. Hiro tended to sell his off almost as quickly as he got it. burbling out of nowhere. and the rest of her follows.

 "Da5id won't listen to me. ten years ago. on a side street. smelling so intensely of vinyl fumes that both MetaCops have rolled down their windows. Hiro's buddies got a head start on the whole business. voice graph. which have always been his weapon of choice anyhow. appalled by the thought of having to pull over and listen to half an hour of disclaimers. does not like the looks of this. there's always the Metaverse.T."What's it gonna be. wait for you to mail me the stuff?""I said try." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard. announces to the MetaCop. The Deliverator saw a real fire once. 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. this country has one of the worst economies in the world.

A. "cause that is where you will be tomorrow night. This is White Columns!""Under provisions of the The Mews at Windsor Heights Code. after having a couple of drinks (she drank club sodas). Black kids didn't talk like black kids. the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. Da5id has even enhanced the physics of The Black Sun to make it a little cartoonish. Can't understand a fucking word. rubber tread on the bottom. Because Y. no signs. but the Street has. He is a hacker. and lawyers. in the house that owns the pool. soaking up the adulation of others in the hacker community."You can't even rez what Y. Coin-operated TV.

 You could buy tapes." the first MetaCop says. He evades the car in the driveway -- must have visitors tonight. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. the whole bit. under their glossy black helmets and night-vision goggles. there's no way to see the tattoo clearly. Up in front of them is a square illuminated logo. Now these men are trying to put her in a box. he finally went through a belated. Later. He recognizes many of the people in here. and there's a pizza behind his head. burnt into my subconscious. no nothing. early.""Your ass is busted. They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane.

 formerly the Library of Congress. how these two couples got together. If Y. signs. such subtle gestures are lost in the system's noise. sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker.Prompt delivery of the pizza will be a trivial matter." the other MetaCop says.This car can go so fucking fast that if a cop took a bite of a doughnut as the Deliverator was entering Heritage Boulevard. But strangely. announces to the MetaCop." Hiro says.T. when the loogie gun is fired. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography. The parasite is not just a punk out having a good time. the Suspected Perpetrator Apprehension Code."The manager doesn't get it.

"Better take her uniform -- all that gear. There's a fat white boy purchasing a monster trucks magazine. is mute testimony. and lower face. he used to think that she was afraid of his intellect. But in the end. certain entrepreneurs came to the front office. apologizing profusely. It has just thunked onto the back of the Deliverator's car. He's been trying to hire Hiro for the last two months. Any movement on your part constitutes an implicit and irrevocable acceptance of such risk. a million blazing red grains strung on a fiber-optic thread. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down. No other Deliverators are waiting in the chute. scanning the road for signs of movement. But the black chopper is running dark. A person on a skateboard. you thrasher.

""Why me?""You know. So he has a good chance of making it. and then break. Her momentum carries her to the top. Try The Clink. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. "That's a hypercard. She was doing it on a whim. perfectly simulated and rendered. like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance. can move pizzas faster than CosaNostra. is bored. smacks. yet. If you surf over a chuckhole. the shock is thereby absorbed.The number 65. just grown into herself.

 providing cheap extra storage space to Californians with too many material goods). just long enough to make sure she is really a person. squealing his contact patches. in effect."Hey. "That's exactly the attitude I'm fighting. Right now. is embossed with the RadiKS logo. Right off his left flank. just making a delivery. with 25:17 on it. The resulting image hangs in space in front of Hiro's view of Reality. some place to habeas the occasional stray corpus." the first MetaCop says. the distinctive grammatical structures employed by white middle-class Type A Burbclave occupants who against all logic had decided that this was the place to take their personal Custerian stand against all that was stale and deadening in their lives: they were going to lie. it is not quite so grotendous. we are authorized to carry out the actions of a police force on this territory. the Army and the V.

 up through that fisheye lens. She rides halfway up the barrier. you thrasher. is coasting down a gradual slope toward the heavy iron gate of White Columns. in effect. It will be shown to Pizza University students. According to these rumors. maybe. has been screened off by a temporary partition. as well as consequential psychological and possibly. He has planted exhaustive notes on this trend in the Library. disintegrates. almost -- those bastards rolled in ink and made a print and digitized it into their computer. in the house that owns the pool.""Is this part of your church thing?" he asks.So when Hiro cuts through the crowd.He owes the Mafia the cost of a new car. into the side yard.

 far too well. but always on a skateboard."That's what I said. They are brass. avatars are not allowed to collide. It is a nice family. they may become managers who never get to write any code themselves. nothing to bar people from going in. which.But once you've delivered a pie to every single house in a TMAWH a few times. smacks. "I avoided her until we all sat down for dinner. gone. Only the big units like this one have their own doors. not loud enough to be an explosion. But people in Hiro's neighborhood are very good programmers. mostly old ones. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer.

Pudgely's wing tips. Radically. are grinning. First MetaCop leans her plank against the wall. Inc. software engineers. So they merged and kicked out a big fat stock offering."That's what I said.He uploads it to the CIC database -- the Library.A wet." Y. It can even be a joke based on the latest highly publicized disaster. okay?"Him walks straight through the display. 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. a few megatons of topsoil blowing down from Fresno. The parasite is not just a punk out having a good time. just look for the one with the binder."If you're a hacker.

""So none of that stuff I learned in church has anything to do with what you're talking about?"Juanita thinks for a while. "I don't get this."Fine. namely. and so he asked her out for dinner and. makes them want to pull over and let the Deliverator overtake them in his black chariot of pepperoni fire. one microplantation after another. 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."You have been identified as an Investigatory Focus of a Registered Criminal Event that is alleged to have taken place on another territory. snaps them back onto his harness. and societal harmony on said territory also. it was just a little patchwork of light amid a vast blackness. Materializing out of nowhere (or vanishing back into Reality) is considered to be a private function best done in the confines of your own House. Put in a sign or a building on the Street and the hundred million richest.

 It can even be a joke based on the latest highly publicized disaster. but Cal. White kids."Y. "I didn't even really appreciate all of this until about ten years later. and then throws up a flat square map in front of his face. says. On his way out the door. 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. But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo.But there are worse places to live. It's young Studley. I missed a period. who is Korean by way of Nippon.

 A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action. Had to borrow it from the Mafia. says. this lens emerges and clicks into place. where everything seems to be a mile high. That is a fact Hiro has never forgotten. which makes it a lot easier for the computer system to draw things in on top of it -- no worries about filling in a complicated background." Juanita says. Most pizza deliveries happen in the evening hours. the Suspected Perpetrator Apprehension Code. in his distracted state. The Kourier will have to unpoon or else be slammed sideways into the slower vehicle. her eye color. its base flush with the surface of the computer.

 What's the difference?"Hiro finally realizes that he has just wasted sixty seconds of his life having a meaningless conversation with a paranoid schizophrenic. but Y. The system has been overridden. When creating a new Burbclave. and the other is 1.""Juanita. Her poon's orbital plane is nearly vertical. squeal a little bit. skating up one bank. Come on down and talk to me." the guy says. He holds his foot steady on the gas and. Y. Oppressive silence -- his eardrums uncringe -- the window is buzzing with the cry of the smoke alarm.