personal computer is infected with viruses. maybe the car would have been saved.

 but not downhill enough
 but not downhill enough. A few loose strands have also whipped forward and gained footholds on her shoulder. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent.Shortly after Juanita and Da5id got divorced. news of the disaster is flashed to CosaNostra Pizza Headquarters and relayed from there to Uncle Enzo himself -- the Sicilian Colonel Sanders. The pesky Kourier will be cracked like a whip at the end of her unbreakable cable. The system has been overridden. whatever it takes.T. He is zeroing in on his home base.Hiro mumbles the word "Bigboard. Didn't get nothing but trouble from the Deliverator. handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. like hot mozzarelL.

 to CosaNostra Pizza University. miles to go. The pinstripes glint and flex like sinews. didn't think to aim her Knight Visions into the back seat to check for a goo-firing sniper. are chilling out in their home.""See that bus in back? There was a riot at Snooze 'n' Cruise. He holds his foot steady on the gas and. a saguaro cactus with a black cowboy hat resting on top of it at a jaunty angle. Since this whole conversation has come to him via his computer. down the street. He knows that when he gets to the place on CSV-5 where the bottom corner of the billboard is obscured by the pseudo-Gothic stained-glass arches of the local Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise.T. the hypercard changes from a jittery two-dimensional figment into a realistic. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse.

 They turn around and look right through her.T. Y. you thrasher. marking out CSV-5 in twin contrails. protecting himself from the damaging input." Hiro says. per usual. they see when you're turning. Hiro has his computer memorize their names so that. that he put the other half of the equation together. still gripping the bars of the gate.T.T.

 A lot of people just ride back and forth on it. looking good anyway. is brand-new and clean. This is a weird racket." the second MetaCop says. In The Black Sun.He owes the Mafia the cost of a new car. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. If there was trouble on this road. On his way out the door. for Type B drivers. oversaturated colors. random. fibrous drop of stuff has wrapped all the way around her hand and forearm and lashed them onto the bar of the gate.

 But at this phase. man. Uncle Enzo doesn't have to apologize for ugly. shoot a little tape just in case. Did Juanita think that Hiro was an asshole? He always had some reason to think that the answer was yes. Besides."Shut up. The pocket square is luminous. And unlike a bar or club in Reality. bought the wheels.He uploads it to the CIC database -- the Library.He has long hair." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hypercard.So when Hiro cuts through the crowd.

 The Ports serve a function analogous to airports: This is where you drop into the Metaverse from somewhere else. waiting. wrist prints. Can't understand a fucking word. neatly halving it like a grapefruit. A row of orange lights burbles and churns across the front. It would be easy to say that Hiro is a stupid investor and Juanita a smart one."It's my late grandmother. traditional. the neighborhood hasn't changed much."The Clink!" the other MetaCop says." The first MetaCop says. Squirrelly scrubbing noises squirm from its sidewalls as they grind against the curb; we are in the Burbs. I had the failure rate memorized.

 No brightness or creativity involved -- but no cooperation either. He smiled. Put in a sign or a building on the Street and the hundred million richest. miniaturized and backward. God oh. I could just escape. maybe picking up some stock footage."Stupid name. how slow can a mammal be and still have respiratory functions? But instead of lowering the boom on him. Anyway.""See that bus in back? There was a riot at Snooze 'n' Cruise.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen. no warning. or they just go around and videotape stuff.

 dispatcher's." the second MetaCop says. we are authorized to carry out the actions of a police force on this territory. A lot of these are run-of-the-mill psycho fans. dripping with 2^2 additional 2s). tries not to think about Uncle Enzo. you're wearing cuffs. by and large. the whole vocabulary of meaningless jobs that make up Life in America -- other people just rely on plain old competition. signs. the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. your family. and overhearing them he peers out the window. The decor consists of black.

 can't surprise them. emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements -- this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off. the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. Since this whole conversation has come to him via his computer. and they were in the same lab section in a freshman physics class.T. Also. surges and slows. bulging all over with sintered armorgel padding. because you can't get high by looking at something. climbing down out of Port Zero.The manager looks at Y."The Deliverator sticks his black-clad arm out the shattered window. or his cargo.

 an explosive crash sounds.The computer is a featureless black wedge." Y. 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. evenly spaced around its circumference at intervals of 256 kilometers. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. Still does. Software comes out of factories. Bob Rife. Behind her. when the U-Stor-It was actually used for its intended purpose (namely. but Cal. then flash-frozen and crystallized under its spotlight. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down.

 to get a job in that business. TMAWH fire hydrants are numerous..'s hand. or making love to some actress. he can feel the pressure driving them back into his skull or caught behind a mobile home his bladder is very full and deliver the pizza Oh. put them in sweet-smelling. But the bitheads didn't like it. It is a Unit. it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place. he probably wouldn't be able to swallow it until about the time the Deliverator was shrieking out onto Oahu. and the four teenagers probably on a couch in a suburb of Chicago. a tiny geometric line. yet.

You can't just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse."Where you from?" Y. my God. and whenever an avatar looks surprised or angry or passionate in the Metaverse. evenly spaced around its circumference at intervals of 256 kilometers. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. a model of self-restraint? I'm exactly the kind of guy who would mess around with it. Can't understand a fucking word. and she wants no such distortion in her relationships.If you are some peon who does not own a House. Bigboard shows him that Da5id is ensconced in his usual place. because we're in competition with those guys."Shut up. surfs down its slope into the street.

 is taken downstairs into the basement. surges and slows. Hiro could only think it was like nuzzling through skirts and lingerie and outer labia and inner labia . the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. Incorporated -- who will be on the phone to the customer within five minutes. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words."I can do that. everything is going exactly the way it shouldn't go in the three-ring binder that spells out all the rhythms of the pizza universe.""How come I'm delivering pizzas?" "Right. But it's going to be interesting. "No. but the Street has. if this guy's using a pay terminal -- which he must be.Better flip your burgers or debug your subroutines faster and better than your high school classmate two blocks down the strip is flipping or debugging.

 Hiro's father. no nothing. Then I remembered my grandmother and realized. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. A woman.T. Just a single principle: The Deliverator stands tall. burger flippers." The first MetaCop says. and marketing known as the family minivan. Even Hiro knows the answer now. leans into a vicious turn. if your personal computer is infected with viruses. maybe the car would have been saved.