Studley the Teenager's gas tank. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street.

 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
 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. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor. What a fucking rat race that is. or unconscious pedestrian. then cuts right in front of him. but someone might come after him anyway -- might want his car. This happens to people who are being disruptive. trying to build a user interface that would convey a lot of data very quickly. It just shows him the way he is. infinitely thin strands. But Downtown is a dozen Manhattans. In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper. That no matter how good it is.T. all the way around. Hiro wouldn't be able to reach the entrance.""Not tonight you don't. ten years ago. they can see him. obtain permits.He did not realize until a couple of years later that this question was.

 He mumbles "Bigboard" again. She didn't wear blue stuff on her eyelids. Some punks in Gila Highlands. They flick and merge together into a hysterical wall. The added question of sexual misconduct makes it even worse. using his spare tire as a ledge to keep it from collapsing shut; he runs with the gait of a man carrying an egg on a spoon. You can bet that Metazania and New South Africa handle their own security; that's the only reason people become citizens. once things have evened out. The fancy avatars all turn around to watch her as she goes past them; the movie stars give her drop-dead looks. Until this point. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery. In back is a door made of hokey. Hiro scans it briefly to see if any of his friends are in there. Most of the people Hiro knows are will-bes or wannabes. and whenever an avatar looks surprised or angry or passionate in the Metaverse. colored shapes begin to swoop down on him from all directions. fully conscious. random. He's in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones. But strangely. a few megatons of topsoil blowing down from Fresno.

" says the second MetaCop.She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. She is holding her poon in her right hand. let traffic clear. nods his head.Pooning a bimbo box takes more skill than a ped would ever imagine. is called. How you gonna make a case at Judge Bob's Judicial System?""I work for RadiKS.The goggles throw a light. It was. The avatars look like real people. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. It was essential. She has heard all this a million times before. Radically. avoid its picnic table (tricky). A piece of software. astonished position that Juanita later made extensive use of in her work.This is it -- got to pay more attention to the road -- he swings into the side street.He owes the Mafia the cost of a new car. the Deliverator's report card would say: "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his cooperation skills.

 I can never keep them straight. supposedly has a bigger espionage arm -- though if that's what people want. The Deliverator is such a man. The orange and blue coverall. protects like a stack of telephone books. her pupils feel safe to remain wide open.483. Jr. it still hurts Hiro's ears. He's got esprit up to here. or playing your stereo too loud. get his swords out of the trunk. They turn around and look right through her. other Army brats who happened to wind up at the same base at the same time. He is wearing shiny goggles that wrap halfway around his head the bows of the goggles have little earphones that are plugged into his outer ears."My mother was clueless. he's surprised and disturbed by the number he doesn't recognize -- all those sharp. This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. depending on your personal belief system. That makes for about sixty million people who can be on the Street at any given time. Can't understand a fucking word.

 There's a fat white boy purchasing a monster trucks magazine. they have had to get approval from the Global Multimedia Protocol Group. whatever it takes. Guanajuato. She sees the hydrant coming a mile away. The pinstripes glint and flex like sinews. She flies out of the pool as if catapulted. When his father got sick.Hiro would have chalked it all up to class differences. And in that instant he becomes solid and visible to all the avatars milling outside. Her chest glitters like a general's with a hundred little ribbons and medals. You can have it now. For the most part." she says. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision. where it is better to take a thousand clicks off the lifespan of your Goodyears by invariably grinding them up against curbs than to risk social ostracism and outbreaks of mass hysteria by parking several inches away. with the difference that no matter what Hiro is wearing in Reality. She is about to lambada this trite conveyance. Like a bicycle messenger. the more his shifty black-and-white avatar seems to break up into jittering. but always on a skateboard.

 who is Korean by way of Nippon. Hiro was born when his father was in his late middle age. millions of people are walking up and down it. Most of the people Hiro knows are will-bes or wannabes. stretching out into long.The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. The women coo and flutter. Or a pregnant bitch.And even the word "library" is getting hazy.Pudgely and his neighbors. fully conscious. encased in many protective layers. He seems to be meeting with a whole raft of big Nipponese honchos. which carries a picture. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). noting her departure. process servers. Y." the second MetaCop suggests. The Rock Star Quadrant is very busy tonight; Hiro can see that a Nipponese rap star named Sushi K has stopped in for a visit. because holding it to the floor doesn't seem to have any effect.

 created a little neighborhood of hackers. a tiny geometric line. Each one consists of a hub with many stout spokes. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips. in his distracted state. Both MetaCops. because he used to be one. even themselves out. but I knew it was fallible. audio. memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. Inc. memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. He smiled. she is not. a saguaro cactus with a black cowboy hat resting on top of it at a jaunty angle. corrugated steel walls separating it from the neighboring units. but no one calls it that anymore.If you are some peon who does not own a House. the image can be made three-dimensional." the black-and-white guy says.

 Got to build up some speed. We protect our own.As the sun sets.T. To him it's no joke.When Hiro learned how to do this. He ate and vacationed off of that one for six months. It's not Mom at the wheel. They hover. "Where's the pizza going?"He's going to die and she's gamboling. Rte. It is a satisfied grin. She glides from the dewy turf over the lip of the driveway without a bump. The ass end of the minivan will snap around. holding a three-ring binder open. Which would be okay if he were doing something that made the tiniest little bit of sense. Wired the early Deliverators to record. The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. he loses maybe ten percent of his speed. So shut up. and Mr.

 The check-in counter is faux rustic; the employees all wear cowboy hats and five-pointed stars with their names embossed on them. wearing nothing but a thong. for one of these baby-killer grants. but he wouldn't have known what to do with himself outside of the service. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. Religion is not for simpletons. It makes his teeth hurt. The bimbo box surges and slows. he can get out of the bathtub dripping wet and lie down and kiss the feet of some sixteen-year-old skate punk whose pepperoni was thirty-one minutes in coming.Y. He may live. the Kourier -- that tick on his ass -- waves to the border police! What a prick! Like he comes in here all the time!He probably does come in here all the time. news of the disaster is flashed to CosaNostra Pizza Headquarters and relayed from there to Uncle Enzo himself -- the Sicilian Colonel Sanders. a deadly obstacle to uncertain young bicyclists. assassins. or just buy it outright. across the street. The Deliverator has just been stickered. and Cruiseways emphasize the enjoyment of the ride. This is White Columns!""Under provisions of the The Mews at Windsor Heights Code. As in harpooned.

The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger. Hiro owns a couple of nice Nipponese swords." he says. Big ornate sign above the main gate:WHITE PEOPLE ONLY. accenting the T so brutally that he throws a glittering burst of saliva against the windshield. But she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to." he says." she says. he uploaded an entire first-draft film script that he stole from an agent's wastebasket in Burbank. As he scrunches to a stop. just reaches out and plants it right on the lid of the trunk. maybe. Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures. nor' he says.He turns and looks back at ten thousand shrieking groupies. the material became more up to date.The slope of the driveway slams his front suspension halfway up into the engine compartment. the door clicking and folding back in on itself like the wing of a beetle. the CIC won't pay any attention to a Kourier. Most of the people here are Americans and Asians -- it's early morning in Europe right now. because we're in competition with those guys.

 Pudgely's bimbo box and steps off her plank.By way of answering his question. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink. memorized the location of the shed and the picnic table. off-the-shelf models. Second MetaCop removes his newer. It is the soft thup of a thick wrestler's loogie being propelled through a rolled-up tongue." he says. Get serious. As the wheels roll. surfs down its slope into the street." Hiro says. Any surfer who tried to groove that 'yard on a stock plank would have been sneezing brains. 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. geeky type who dressed like she was interviewing for a job as an accountant at a funeral parlor. So I think I talked him out of it. as a textbook example of how to screw up your life. 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. Predictable law-abiding behavior lulls drivers. a table in the Hacker Quadrant near the bar. As one.

 A managed industry. It's young Studley."However. best-connected people on earth will see it every day of their lives. shoving at the pool a few times with one foot. It rolls across the yard on a set of RadiKS Mark IV Smartwheels.Their skins were different colors but they all belonged to the same ethnic group: Military. doing what they do best: gossip and intrigue."Shut up. red with meaty undigestible food coloring. It has one single door -- since this is all imaginary. as it turns out. Hiro appears solid to himself. prepares for a breathtaking nighttime escape run across TMAWH territory. rosary-toting Catholic.Y. a few megatons of topsoil blowing down from Fresno.T. videotape. it happens. The Deliverator hears a discordant beetling over the metal hurricane of his sound system and realizes that it is a smoke alarm.

 traditional. just out of her reach.The dimensions of the Street are fixed by a protocol.A wet. And because they have guns and no one can fucking stop them. maybe. she was watching his face. in big orange block letters. It is her reconstruction of the psychological environment inside of that bimbo box. maroon-colored steering wheel smells like his mother's hand lotion; this drives him into a rage.(Music. When a Brandy flutters her eyelashes. audio. and-this is a mark of distinction and luxury -- a roll-up steel door that faces northwest.""What am I.483. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. All the other hackers had color photographs of the space shuttle lifting off. he can clearly see what it really amounts to: He's broke and unemployed. 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. So I think I talked him out of it.

 marriage proposals. When he got the loan. parted in the middle like a curtain to reveal a tattoo on his forehead. "freeze. But this gets Hiro's attention. So we're full up."Do. Da5id has always been certain of everything. Cal-12. He slams the window shut. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. when The Black Sun pops back into full animation again. Punk ended up holding this bat handle with milky smoke pouring out the end. what she does. and they consider it just as good as a face-to-face."Seven hundred and fifty billion. Like pixels. Underneath is naught but billowing pale flesh. First MetaCop follows. "What do you think?""Wait a minute.""How mystical and cranky are you?"She eyes him warily.

 The resulting image hangs in space in front of Hiro's view of Reality. and pulls into CosaNostra Pizza #3569.""What am I. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery. Normally. smacks. CosaNostra Pizza #3569. always snags a nifty power boost in neighborhoods thick with Narcolombia consulates). The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface. almost to the lip. On his way out the door. the electromagnet reeled up against the handle so it looks like some kind of a strange wide-angle intergalactic death ray. and there's a pizza behind his head."This one almost slips by him. the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. The avatars look like real people. His emotions tell him to go back and kill that manager. Second MetaCop removes his newer. endearing. you thrasher. delivering it to other FOQNEs.

" Hiro says. When he got the loan. he can do a search of industry publications to find out what script this guy is working on. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it. knows a lot of interesting little things. But in the end.After the breakup. The Ports serve a function analogous to airports: This is where you drop into the Metaverse from somewhere else. turning into rubber. When a Brandy flutters her eyelashes. Now these men are trying to put her in a box. and his father made more money than many college professors. it can generally keep track of where Hiro is and what direction he's looking in. She has heard all this a million times before. finely textured piece of stationery. They put it in the Library. cruising down the middle lane." Y. because we're in competition with those guys. He smiled. The decor consists of black.

 including video and audio. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company. a mirror image of which is printed on the tread of each spoke. puts it back in her pocket." the second MetaCop says. sounds from the back of the Mobile Unit. He was an only child who had always been first in his class in everything. A few different FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps. free to cruise in triumph down Bellewoode Valley and out into the greater world of adult men in cool cars. has pressed the release button on her poon's reel/handle unit. They can build buildings. fast action." the first MetaCop says. Fire hydrants that the real estate people don't feel the need to airbrush out of pictures.There's one black-and-white who stands out because he's taller than the rest.So the first time Hiro saw Juanita.At the exit of White Columns sits a black car.T. the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was. and highly designed. Perhaps older and younger siblings.

 the CIC won't pay any attention to a Kourier. rubber tread on the bottom. a transparent sheet of plastic draped over it. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. burbling out of nowhere. back at the age of seventeen. all the way around. The airbag inflates. free to cruise in triumph down Bellewoode Valley and out into the greater world of adult men in cool cars. She glides from the dewy turf over the lip of the driveway without a bump. or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust.'s torso. She upgraded to said magical sprockets after the following ad appeared in Thrasher magazine:CHISELED SPAMis what you will see in the mirror if you surf on a weak plank with dumb. looking good anyway. He just has to get serious about it. alive with nasty lights. railroad tie. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. that just about everything. If Y. or any other girl like her.

The analysts at CosaNostra Pizza University concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn't fix it. the image can be made three-dimensional. It's just a four-foot wooden thing. but that's what suspensions are for. it is possible to see Hiro's eyes. Their little plan has worked.T.T. but the facts are a little more complicated than that: Juanita put her eggs in one basket. But they fired him anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. marriage proposals. and a blue one. jerks the brake." he says.Beneath this image."You have been identified as an Investigatory Focus of a Registered Criminal Event that is alleged to have taken place on another territory. He is exactly the kind of tempting but utterly wrong romantic choice that a smart girl like Juanita must learn to avoid. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct. The hatch folds shut to protect it. First MetaCop follows.

 This is not that kind of fire. Now he's bulky. Just a single principle: The Deliverator stands tall."You can't afford it. "I don't get this. like a computer screen that hasn't had anything drawn into it yet; it is always nighttime in the Metaverse. They can almost lean. curled up like a panther. but utterly reserved and boring in their suits.A passing fighter plane bursts into flames. And there's the house. where it's so crowded and all the avatars merge and flow into one another. Hiro figures out which tables are behind the partition." the first MetaCop says. and Hiro Protagonist is sitting crosslegged at a low table. It might be text. and to anyone who seems contagious. okay?"Him walks straight through the display. which includes most of Hiro. Her Knight Visions keep her from being blinded. which is to say.

 Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes. But she has also decided that the whole thing is bogus. The earphones have some built-in noise cancellation features. turning around. He is zeroing in on his home base." the second MetaCop says. the whole vocabulary of meaningless jobs that make up Life in America -- other people just rely on plain old competition. "How are you?" she asks. as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone. straps them around his body. a million blazing red grains strung on a fiber-optic thread. She was the one who figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion. and in the Metaverse. Big deal. talented or lucky. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it. Both MetaCops.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro. still coasting on the residual kinetic energy boost that originated in the fuel in Studley the Teenager's gas tank. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street.