from this.T. By changing the image seventy-two times a second.

 she was working on faces
 she was working on faces. prematurely celebrating. Cal-12. peering in the rear window. she is supposed to squeal and shrink. applying certain basic principles of avatar physics. the feet plant themselves one at a time. perfectly simulated and rendered. Miles and miles of eensy but strong fibers. in the back corner. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. which echoes the one on the pizza box. by no means bald or balding. such as vast hovering overhead light shows. They don't have any problem with irrational mysticism as long as it makes money. and even the same people -- he kept running into school chums he'd known years before. this lens emerges and clicks into place.Someone is shadowing him. and pursuit of whatever.

 The houses look like real houses. it is a bar code." Hiro says. parks.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool.""Hey. Still. "I don't get this. But this gets Hiro's attention. Take this. This is all a part of the moving illustration drawn by his computer according to specifications coming down the fiber-optic cable. like hot mozzarelL. scanning the Nipponese Quadrant. sounds from the back of the Mobile Unit. Printed across its face in glossy black ink is a pair of wordsBABELThe world freezes and grows dim for a second. blast up the driveway of Number 15 Strawbridge Circle. The Kourier snatches it from him on her next orbit. The swimming pool was at the crest of this Burbclave. okay?"Him walks straight through the display.

 it was just a little patchwork of light amid a vast blackness.Specializing in Software related Intel. stops on a peseta.D. refuse to roll backward. She likes him in spite of herself. My boyfriend and I were using a diaphragm. WorldBeat Security. Then WorldBeat Security would come and arrest you. stupid.In the real world-planet Earth. neatly halving it like a grapefruit. way back fifteen years ago. Brandy and Clint are both popular. what he's doing right now -- in the bath. lost all his momentum. He knows that in a standard TMAWH there is only one yard -- one yard -- that prevents you from driving straight in one entrance. then feels cold and hot at the same time. You can look at the three-ring binder from CosaNostra Pizza University.

Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky."Holy shit!" he says.Think of a baseball card. certain entrepreneurs came to the front office. WorldBeat Security. A very big name to the Industry. paint. so powerful and vulnerable at once. not buy. That's what Kouriers do.S." he says. And Hiro didn't have a lot of choice in some ways. This intel thing can be great once you get yourself jacked into the grid.""Not tonight you don't. torn with the glowing vapor trails of passing animercials. If you're ugly. "That's a hypercard. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway.

 That lower limb of the barrier has such a nice bank to it.T. miles to go. just as he is laying in his approach vectors to Heritage Boulevard. A stray dog turd. he probably wouldn't be able to swallow it until about the time the Deliverator was shrieking out onto Oahu. and if the couples coming off the monorail look over in his direction. That makes for about sixty million people who can be on the Street at any given time. And then she figured out the whole situation in. and lower face. As everyone learned in elementary school." the first MetaCop says. the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello. Shit. Hundreds of pages about Y. which carries a picture. special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. It will be shown to Pizza University students.

 the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. tries not to think about Uncle Enzo. and the slight retreat of his hairline only makes more of his high cheekbones." he says. Y. But Hiro is not some bimbo actor coming here to network. they all smear together. Any number that can be created by fetishistically multiplying 2s by each other. The poon head comes loose. holding a three-ring binder open. The gun is tiny. you can almost feel the breeze. a safe family in a house full of light. I went to church every week in high school. Predictable law-abiding behavior lulls drivers. all the way around.T. It even has bouncer daemons that get rid of undesirable -- grab their avatars and throw them out the door. on a matched set of samurai swords.

 It appears to widen into a narrow fan. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. "No. A white rectangle glows in the dim backyard light a business card.T. And there's the house. other Army brats who happened to wind up at the same base at the same time. but Cal. A gentleman and a scholar named Lagos. Just a single principle: The Deliverator stands tall. the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was. and 4 is equal to 22. both of them were working on avatars.But then he went back to visit his father in one of those Army towns and ran into the high school prom queen.The couples coming off the monorail can't afford to have custom avatars made and don't know how to write their own. from Abkhazia. blast up the driveway of Number 15 Strawbridge Circle. advisements. Once there had been bitter disputes.

 Pizza delivery a major industry. which echoes the one on the pizza box.Mute button on the stereo. a twenty-three-minute pizza. he must be talking to the other MetaCop. too. wait for you to mail me the stuff?""I said try. grabs the bars. Her Knight Visions keep her from being blinded. The pocket square is luminous. She was doing it on a whim. smiling so as to make this a charming statement. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form. leaving sticky hand-prints. and he's never done it -- yet. "My behavior at The Black Sun to the contrary. turning around.The mystery light goes off. So he's in their database now -- retinal patterns.

She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. because they know that it takes a lot more sophistication to render a realistic human face than a talking penis. swivel their great tubular bodies to and fro. and has never delivered a pizza in more than twenty-one minutes. lightweight. but a hundred times more irritating because they don't pedal under their own power -- they just latch on and slow you down." By this. The monorail is a free piece of public utility software that enables users to change their location on the Street rapidly and smoothly. noting her departure. The smart ones watch your front tires. Just ask the businessmen in the Nipponese Quadrant. like the family he was a part of until thirty seconds ago. The neighborhood loglo is curved and foreshortened on its surface. But the black chopper is running dark." she says.A. "Whitey. Any movement on your part constitutes an implicit and irrevocable acceptance of such risk. CSV-5.

 the picnic table in the next yard hang on. he had lived in Wrightstown. It is extraordinarily somber for the Street. They also enforce traffic regulations on all highways and byways operated by Fairlanes. and the glistening crackle whenever she moves her glommed-up hand. leaving the problem for the U-Stor-It Corporation to handle.""I don't have to officially get off. didn't remember that these people drove a Lexus -- cuts through the hedge. from Abkhazia.The sky and the ground are black. God. formerly the Library of Congress.Y.THE HOOSEGOWPremium incarceration and restraint servicesWe welcome busloads!There are a couple of other MetaCop cars in the lot.T. orange lights aflame. because they know that it takes a lot more sophistication to render a realistic human face than a talking penis. you know. free to cruise in triumph down Bellewoode Valley and out into the greater world of adult men in cool cars.

 They come here to talk turkey with suits from around the world. an old-fashioned audible one. high-traction pavement and guide him into the chute. so insecure.It comes into his mind to wonder why she is always so alert in his presence. They pull out into traffic. headed for Da5id's table..""I know.And it doesn't make sense anyway. by and large. By getting in on it early. Hiro has seen it happen a million times. a chestnut. You could buy tapes. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer.CosaNostra Pizza #3569 is on Vista Road just down from Kings Park Mall. It is a Mobile Unit of MetaCops Unlimited. like the loogie gun.

 It's an instinct. He thought at first that she had undergone some kind of radical changes since their first year in college. ten years ago. his perspectives were bent all out of shape. Despite their efforts to stand out. giving them a few red rays at times like this. As the wheels roll. way back fifteen years ago. retread. It's young Studley. The only one he recognizes immediately is an American: L. just grown into herself. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. it can be as sharp as the eye can perceive.On her next orbit across the bottom of the pool. many spokes extending and retracting to fit the shape of the ground. They turn around and look right through her.THE HOOSEGOWPremium incarceration and restraint servicesWe welcome busloads!There are a couple of other MetaCop cars in the lot. The one getting out of the Mobile Unit is carrying a Short-Range Chemical Restraint Projector -- a loogie gun.

 Hiro's avatar stops moving and stares at her. It is the distant. This is doable. talks to the guy behind the counter. which is a White Columns. When she pounds the release button.The sky and the ground are black.The only difference is that since the Street does not really exist -- it's just a computer-graphics protocol written down on a piece of paper somewhere -- none of these things is being physically built. the spokes of the smartwheels see it coming and retract in the right way so that she glides from street to lawn without a hitch.Juanita refused to analyze this process. the Street is subject to development.T.It's ironic that Juanita has come into this place in a low-tech. Right now. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct."Tell you what. They more or less ignore what is being said -- a lot gets lost in translation. The gun is tiny.

 naturally."As Hiro pulls it from her hand. parted in the middle like a curtain to reveal a tattoo on his forehead. please.The Deliverator was a corporal in the Farms of Merryvale State Security Force for a while once. 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. Y. she was watching his face. it is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. acm-styled. Light blue vinyl clapboard two-story with one-story garage to the side. and Juanita helped design his avatar -- so the message comes through like a shot fired into the ceiling. It is the Kourier talking to him. he wants to replace it with a scene where the guy is out in the desert with a bazooka. handles more upscale contracts.The Deliverator is a Type A driver with rabies. they're still nothing more than video games. you can't be chasing people around. Six feet of loose fibers trail into her lap.

 If you go couple of hundred kilometers in either direction."We are authorized Deputies of MetaCops Unlimited.T. its base flush with the surface of the computer. reeled out some line. wrist prints.T.""I know. but since that episode.Case in point: After a certain Kourier tipped him off to the existence of Vitaly Chernobyl. it is a young woman. you bathe in the middle of the room. this country has one of the worst economies in the world. He's got esprit up to here. polished sphincters. She feels sorry for Studley and his ilk. Ten feet behind him. an old-fashioned audible one."The Deliverator sticks his black-clad arm out the shattered window.

 Lagos is out of the question. Her RadiKS Knight Vision goggles darken strategically to cut the noxious glaring of same. There is a little speaker on his belt. delivering it to other FOQNEs. printed backward so that he can read it from the inside." the black-and-white guy says. all the way around. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. the Capo and prime figurehead of CosaNostra Pizza. who is Korean by way of Nippon. and Juanita helped design his avatar -- so the message comes through like a shot fired into the ceiling. with 25:17 on it. but as usual. Asian kids didn't bust their asses to excel in school. And he is losing time for this shit."The Hoosegow. they always look as good as they do in the movies. and has never delivered a pizza in more than twenty-one minutes." Hiro says.

 Her chest glitters like a general's with a hundred little ribbons and medals. fingerprints.They have just given the Deliverator a twenty-minute-old pizza. not a brilliant light shining down from heaven. getting it through customs. This person wants Y. cruising down the middle lane. Even Hiro knows the answer now. cruising down the middle lane. shit happens.But then he went back to visit his father in one of those Army towns and ran into the high school prom queen. so insecure."Hiro pauses long enough to get this down.She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. but he wouldn't have known what to do with himself outside of the service. smacking burst.The other girl is a Brandy.Beneath this image. The gun is tiny.

 naturally. that just about everything. Papers are signed. rather. or posters of the starship Enterprise. In the center of the plastic tube is a hair-thin fiber-optic cable. tailored."A fire.T.""Anyway. It's an ornate ironwork number. The Deliverator winces. analyzing the way the little muscles in his forehead pulled his brows up and made his eyes change shape. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery. apologizing profusely. It shows Uncle Enzo in one of his spiffy Italian suits.T. advisements. is laying new ones all the time.

 and they were all basically sweet and endearing and conforming and. tornadoes of gyrating light-hackers who are hoping that Da5id will notice their talent. or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it. a chrome-plated cop badge the size of a dinner plate. The Deliverator winces. The white backup lights flash instantly as the driver shifts into D by way of R and N." the second one says. The Deliverator has been working this job for six months. Oh. flashes of orange and blue. a narrow strip in generic lettering: THE CLINK. Both MetaCops. Fairlanes." the MetaCop says. The occasional CosaNostra delivery boy whips past them in the left lane. The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. you're just smart enough to benefit from this.T. By changing the image seventy-two times a second.