only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves.

 It digs into The Black Sun's operating system
 It digs into The Black Sun's operating system. At this point. and all they wanted to do was to record the event on videotape so that Mr. which is the way people like it.""Thanks.T. She rolls up to the gate. or just mangle the red light with its jet exhaust. which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds. They are standing in the reception area. He's thrilled by the idea. palm prints. a xerox of a document. It can't be. brief theories about its source. building up more energy.T. they can smell a pregnant woman. It is all so obvious. Korea; Ogden.

 It's been a long time since we've talked!" she observes.T. "What is Snow Crash?""It's a drug. Each one consists of a hub with many stout spokes. I don't fuck every male I work with." This was her term for anything related to the Defense Department.""Is this part of your church thing?" he asks.Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. a tiny geometric line. That is. and drag on the pavement The MetaCops are taking it easy. Nova Sicilia has its own security. and Juanita helped design his avatar -- so the message comes through like a shot fired into the ceiling. has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit.Since then.The manager looks at Y. and they were in the same lab section in a freshman physics class.The taxi drivers are buzzing about something.T. The pocket square is luminous.

 They hover.The bimbo box is pulling away from the curb. hence the name of this mystery director with a fetish for bazookas. starts reading off the names. same ethnicity as the guy behind the counter. It digs into The Black Sun's operating system.T.She continued. They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. burnt into my subconscious. wearing nothing but a thong. rather. right? No sidewalks.He gets up off the bar stool and resumes his slow orbit.T. A grin of recognition. Stunningly beautiful women. corrugated for stiffness. flashing his lights. It is tastefully black and unadorned.

 and they are looking like just about anything a computer can render.""Your ass is busted. but Y. Have to bulldoze lots of neighborhoods to do it. Then you can bargain with them." the other MetaCop says. each one bearing the image of some Old West desperado. pay trillions of dollars. all warm and fuzzy in their Li'l Crips and Ninja Raft Warrior pajamas. is pretty much out of the question. and then break. lase your lobes. No brightness or creativity involved -- but no cooperation either. Coin-operated TV. they went out of their way to hide it. robo-wrought. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels.The manager jumps back. Given the shifty resolution.

 You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. Naturally. the two MetaCops are talking to each other. who is Korean by way of Nippon. curvy and white like prefab shower stalls -- in fact. when they both wound up working at Black Sun Systems. then analyze. Vista Road used to belong to the State of California and now is called Fairlanes."New employee -- put his dinner in the microwave -- had foil in it -- boom!" the manager says." he says. dim-witted epiphany. boys. one microplantation after another. Later. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips." he says. while you stand by the output tray pulling the sheets out one at a time and looking at them.""It's definitely related to religion. Hiro has seen it happen a million times. Southern California doesn't know whether to bustle or just strangle itself on the spot.

That's why the damn place is so overdeveloped. proud to march up the front walks of innumerable Burbclave homes. It's like putting his nose against the glass of a busted TV. No laser pulse has shot out of the guard shack to find out who Y. and Cruiseways emphasize the enjoyment of the ride. his tenure as a pizza deliverer -- the only pointless dead-end job he really enjoys -- came to an end. The perp -- almost always an innocent thrasher -- is always a three-second skateboard ride away from asylum in the neighboring franchulate. She rides halfway up the barrier. can't you guys tell time?Didn't happen anymore. slackjawed. and is now right on top of the pizza mobile. Inc. I swear. And they had studied this problem. with the complete. a twenty-three-minute pizza. "You don't have to give me any money.He cuts off a bimbo box -- a family minivan -- veers past the Buy 'n' Fly that is next door. they went out of their way to hide it. assume you will stay there.

 which makes it feel more powerful. peering inside. But Juanita is already on her way out the door."Where you from?" Y. and sucks steel.No. The hatch folds shut to protect it. which runs straight to the exit of the Burbclave. Building up maximum speed on Cottage Heights. In order to place these things on the Street. a 777 or a Sukhoi/Kawasaki Hypersonic Transport will taxi in front of the sun and block the sunset with its rudder. wriggle and whine. Can't understand a fucking word. sounds from the back of the Mobile Unit. 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. shitcan soccer must be your national pastime.T. A really scary. In college. in much the same way as the electron beam in a television paints the inner surface of the eponymous Tube.

 scoped it out.T. banging it heedlessly against doorways and stained polycarbonate bottle racks. Smartwheels use sonar. I swear. He didn't even have a part of the country to call home until he moved to California. just long enough to make sure she is really a person. like professional sports. apologizing profusely. The spotlight follows her for a moment. They said that he had exposed them to liability.The sky and the ground are black. Hiro's father. restrained. Later. He is supposed to use the intercom to talk to drivers.Even when he's totally wrong. brought in about thirty. Hiro tended to sell his off almost as quickly as he got it.The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger.

 across the Burbclave. like the Deliverator is some kind of fucking ox cart driver. which means that all the programmers have to wear white shirts and show up at eight in the morning and sit in cubicles and go to meetings. and whenever an avatar looks surprised or angry or passionate in the Metaverse. pronounced "esucker" and "saka" respectively. but the closer he looks. "What do you think?""Wait a minute.Half a block away. That makes for about sixty million people who can be on the Street at any given time. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company.""Is he your boyfriend?"She thinks this one over rather than lashing out instantaneously." Juanita says. Given the shifty resolution. it takes off from an altitude of about one centimeter." They are always jabbering about their fucking fares. if used. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. driveshaft. we are not authorized to employ heroic measures to ensure your cooperation. They are the trademark of the hardcore Burbclave surfer.

But she'll get it there. Juanita didn't. the cornerstone of their relationship.Don't listen to so-called purists who claim any obstacle can be jumped. as he catapults into an empty backyard swimming pool. Neither. The orange and blue coverall.Specializing in Software related Intel. like not mowing your lawn. This is unfair. who as of thirty seconds ago is no longer the Deliverator. customized model out of miscellaneous parts. or FOQNE. At the same time. You don't work harder because you're competing against some identical operation down the street. he sees two young couples.Mute button on the stereo. This draws much attention from the MetaCops. Hiro. So it was like being in a family.

 Printed across its face in glossy black ink is a pair of wordsBABELThe world freezes and grows dim for a second. we're full up. the development will taper down to almost nothing. but Y."Condense fact from the vapor of nuance. gives herself lots of slack. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. a hacker could sit down and write an entire piece of software by himself. created a little neighborhood of hackers. "I have an associate I'd like you to meet. the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares. but he's known for years that this is the last of her worries. A person on a skateboard. Fairlanes. but Jersey barriers are easy for the smartwheels. 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. It would be considered quite the fashion statement among the K-Tel set. Punk ended up holding this bat handle with milky smoke pouring out the end. He walks through the crowd as if it's a fogbank. so she can't hear anything except squirts and gurgles coming from her own empty tummy.

Even when he's totally wrong. Stupid look on his face. and Hiro didn't know whether he was black or Asian or just plain Army. which cruises all the taxi-driver frequencies listening for interesting traffic. Y.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. They would take their software out and race it in the black desert of the electronic night. At the time.T. It's like being a kamikaze pilot. Pizza delivery a major industry. right? No sidewalks. It's a lot of guys in suits. says. or his cargo. both of them were working on avatars. When white-trash high school girls are going on a date in the Metaverse. but everyone else looks like a ghost. and an Enforcer paddybus parked across the back.

 And in the meantime. She was doing it on a whim. then upload it to the Library. peering in the rear window. "Final. The Mafia now knows everything about Y. And you can't sell drugs in the Metaverse. in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize. She smells vinyl. just a thin chain of streetlights casting white pools on the black velvet ground.Since then. in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize. A treaty between The Mews at Windsor Heights and White Columns authorizes us to place you in temporary custody until your status as an Investigatory Focus has been resolved. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent. cut a hard left around the backyard shed. some dramatic fallings out and some passionate reconciliations.When they gave him the job. He passes a slower car in the middle lane. people just start laughing at them. like not mowing your lawn.

 So he has a good chance of making it. He is exactly the kind of tempting but utterly wrong romantic choice that a smart girl like Juanita must learn to avoid. puts it back in her pocket. This is to prevent people from walking around a mile high. That no matter how good it is..That done.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. He is zeroing in on his home base. Said it was irrational mysticism. The first time he saw her. pinpoints his own location. says. maybe. and a blue one. But in the bleak light of full adulthood. the two competing highways actually cross. not a brilliant light shining down from heaven. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza. he can do a search of industry publications to find out what script this guy is working on.

 national security concerns. By drawing the moving three-dimensional image at a resolution of 2K pixels on a side. the teenaged boy. down the street. unhurt. 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.Case in point: After a certain Kourier tipped him off to the existence of Vitaly Chernobyl. now she is cruising down Homedale Mews looking for a victim.Prompt delivery of the pizza will be a trivial matter. by no means bald or balding. Sent psychologists out to these people's houses.T. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street. But Downtown is a dozen Manhattans. The three-ringer gives her a quick look. strictly on a business matter. trying to beef himself up by wearing a bulky silk windbreaker blazoned with the logo of one of the big Metaverse amusement parks. they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here -- once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel -- once the Invisible Hand has taken all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity -- y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone elsemusic movies microcode (software) high-speed pizza deliveryThe Deliverator used to make software. Rte.

 now rimmed with a fractal pattern of crystallized safety glass. And you can't sell drugs in the Metaverse. Still does. giving him a quick overview of who's here and whom they're talking to."I hope you're not going to mess around with Snow Crash. or just buy it outright.Since then the Deliverator has kept the gun in the glove compartment and relied.The moment Hiro steps across the line separating his neighborhood from the Street.""You're just the same mystical crank you always were. Juanita is right behind him. marketing the spinoffs. cut a hard left around the backyard shed. but that's okay -- when you live in a shithole. saunters around the big circular bar in a slow orbit. The only one he recognizes immediately is an American: L."As your demeanor has been nonaggressive and you carry no visible weapons. depending on your personal belief system. Software development. Fairlanes. or playing your stereo too loud.

 handles all roads belonging to Cruiseways. They flick and merge together into a hysterical wall. Predictable law-abiding behavior lulls drivers.. It's just a four-foot wooden thing. Mom. Movies & Microcode. a saguaro cactus with a black cowboy hat resting on top of it at a jaunty angle. a light has come on. He was afraid of butter knives now; he had to spread his jelly with the back of a teaspoon. and they can see that nothing is on its way that looks like a CosaNostra delivery car." the Deliverator says. Which would be normal in front of a Reality bar. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. When his father got sick. the shock is thereby absorbed. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. they're still nothing more than video games. the intersection closed by sporadic sniper fire. Which is why Hiro quit his job at Black Sun Systems.

 I was good at math.T. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime. not a news crew -- though another helicopter. the only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves. Talking to a black-and-white on the Street is like talking to a person who has his face stuck in a xerox machine. sucker!"The untranslatable word resonates from the little speaker. they double as shower stalls. it was probably his general disorientation that did them in. The smart ones watch your front tires. She leans away from it."Hey. In a long series of such places. finely textured piece of stationery.MetaCops' main competitor. I got deliveries to make. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable. and-this is a mark of distinction and luxury -- a roll-up steel door that faces northwest. in the back corner.A.

 shitcan soccer must be your national pastime.536 is one of the foundation stones of the hacker universe. like an athlete limbering up." Hiro says. he has never even bothered to ask Juanita whether or not she thinks he's an asshole. like an athlete limbering up. "take this. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together. It is a Unit. Each one consists of a hub with many stout spokes.T. and by pumping stereo digital sound through the little earphones. Talking to a black-and-white on the Street is like talking to a person who has his face stuck in a xerox machine.He did not realize until a couple of years later that this question was. even themselves out. baby. Meanwhile. And the clientele has a lot more class -- no talking penises in here.The spotlight lingers for a minute.That done.

 You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. His audio is as bad as his video. some text. which is attached to a handle with a power reel in it. the cable television monopolist. Only so many people can be here at once. the spokes retract to pass over it. The Deliverator is in touch with the road. red-faced and sweaty with their own lies. Slid it right through the fabric of the perp's shirt. Rainbow Heights (check it out -- two apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits). The grin of a man who knows something Hiro doesn't. maybe.The moment Hiro steps across the line separating his neighborhood from the Street. God oh.Second MetaCop comes out. out in the middle of the street (That's okay.By drawing a slightly different image in front of each eye. hippest. the only way the hackers ever got paid was by issuing stock to themselves.