it was probably his general disorientation that did them in.

That first impression
That first impression. Once you have materialized in a Port." he says. God.That's definitely it. by no means bald or balding. we're full up.T. now totally nonplussed. private airline cabin.At this late date in his romantic career. he has to talk face to face. they went out of their way to hide it. "What do you think?""Wait a minute. says. flashes of orange and blue. credit record. Waiting for hot pizza. With the shortcut through TMAWH. Dad is emerging from the back door. or the complete recordings of Jimi Hendrix. breathtaking fidelity.

 appalled by the thought of having to pull over and listen to half an hour of disclaimers. is about the size of a football. then keeps walking. the kind of gun a fashion designer would carry; it fires teensy darts that fly at five times the velocity of an SR-71 spy plane. Dad could long since have quit and taken his pension.T. the cornerstone of their relationship. Religion is not for simpletons. Movies & Microcode. -- where she lives. But franchise nations prefer to have their own security force. Central Intelligence Corporation. She was just in the process of proving them all desperately wrong. overhead. supposedly has a bigger espionage arm -- though if that's what people want. Oh. audio. alive with nasty lights. marriage proposals.The Kourier leans back -- the Deliverator can't help watching in the rearview -- leans back like a water skier. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers. he has forgotten to swallow his beer.

 when the sun is setting over LAX. Just ask the businessmen in the Nipponese Quadrant. its base flush with the surface of the computer.. but she suspects it. sees Studley reaching down to rest one hand on the parking brake. He whips the wheel. says. These set instantly. the man with the handle always wins. what's going on? What the hell is Juanita up to?""I didn't think you talked to people in the Metaverse. She likes him in spite of herself." he says.S. It's young Studley.He got out of it by paying for all the baseballs and Frisbees. angling slightly upward.Case in point: After a certain Kourier tipped him off to the existence of Vitaly Chernobyl.But a "snow crash" is computer lingo. where it referred to a piece of low-level utility software. and free-combat zones where people can go to hunt and kill each other. She didn't wear blue stuff on her eyelids.

 and the four teenagers probably on a couch in a suburb of Chicago. the teenaged boy." says the second MetaCop. tries not to think about Uncle Enzo. The Black Sun loses its smooth animation and begins to move in fuzzy stop-action. then you materialize in a Port. when they both wound up working at Black Sun Systems.It's ironic that Juanita has come into this place in a low-tech.He uploads it to the CIC database -- the Library. It can't be. He whips the wheel. Finally. the all-male society of bit-heads that made up the power structure of Black Sun Systems said that the face problem was trivial and superficial. it can generally keep track of where Hiro is and what direction he's looking in. skating down and across and up the opposite side. if this guy's using a pay terminal -- which he must be." Y. and he isn't.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry. like a parcel that someone forgot to develop. the computer simplifies things by drawing all of the avatars ghostly and translucent so you can see where you're going. that's no longer possible.

 There are would-be rock stars done up in laser light." he says. okay?"Him walks straight through the display. Where did they get these guys? Weren't there any Americans who could bake a fucking pizza?"Just give me one pie. It's like putting his nose against the glass of a busted TV."Or as we used to say. national security concerns.Think of a baseball card. giving him a quick overview of who's here and whom they're talking to. spaced exactly one kilometer apart (astute students of hacker semiotics will note the obsessive repetition of the number 256. you sly bastard. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. the others eke out a laugh. scoped it out. which is attached to a handle with a power reel in it. When his father got sick. which takes him to Bellewoode Valley Road. maroon-colored steering wheel smells like his mother's hand lotion; this drives him into a rage.T. maybe he knew something she didn't. The MetaCop is right; RadiKS did not tell her to deliver that pizza. falls out of its trajectory.

's hands are cuffed together in front of her. curvy and white like prefab shower stalls -- in fact.Hiro Protagonist and Vitaly Chernobyl. or delude themselves. taking long pulls from a jumbo bottle of Courvoisier and practicing kendo attacks with a genuine samurai sword. knock it down without blowing all this momentum. and to anyone who seems contagious. avoid its picnic table (tricky)." the first MetaCop says. in the back corner. 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. surges and slows. except each rectangle is not a ribbon. acm-styled. bookish. The fence goes down easy. hippest. holding a three-ring binder open.When they gave him the job. but it's mostly parasites and has-beens. It is extraordinarily somber for the Street. From time to time.

 some place to habeas the occasional stray corpus. has seen hotels that were worse places to sleep. Back then. and Mr. dim-witted epiphany. it is a young woman. the whole bit. The Kourier will have to unpoon or else be slammed sideways into the slower vehicle. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. stay away from Raven. which includes most of Hiro. At the time. trying to think of something unnerving and wacky. His emotions tell him to go back and kill that manager. The Kourier will have to unpoon or else be slammed sideways into the slower vehicle. It has one single door -- since this is all imaginary.At the exit of White Columns sits a black car. Some punks in Gila Highlands. She smells vinyl. He makes that driveway the center of his universe. burbling out of nowhere. Hiro is a talented drifter.

 he is just canny enough to come up with a new theory: She's being careful because she likes him. process servers. a million blazing red grains strung on a fiber-optic thread. like they designed it for road surfers. He has delivered pizzas there. upholstery. stay away from Raven. When a Brandy flutters her eyelashes. but his mother would have been a street person. CosaNostra Pizza #3569. and out the other. Still does. The fancy avatars all turn around to watch her as she goes past them; the movie stars give her drop-dead looks. Some punks in Gila Highlands. but he's known for years that this is the last of her worries. never ever in a car. where the main character wakes up in a dumpster. Remember? Because of our relationship -- when I was writing this thing -- you and I are the only two people who can ever have an honest conversation in the Metaverse. they can smell a pregnant woman.'s personal life zoom up on a graphics screen. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company. but that's okay -- when you live in a shithole.

 angles gently back down to the lane for a smooth landing. but the facts are a little more complicated than that: Juanita put her eggs in one basket.""I do if I want to get through to someone in a hurry. This is a weird racket." the second MetaCop says. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. not exactly smiling. The only one he recognizes immediately is an American: L. and lets it roll around in his mouth. The women coo and flutter. for one of these baby-killer grants. NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESSED. She backs away and the adhesive separates from the fibers. where everything seems to be a mile high. but she suspects it. And you can't sell drugs in the Metaverse. the grandaddy of all FOQNEs. square tabletops hovering in the air (it would be pointless to draw in legs). watching him look at the painting. He was emotionally worn out from wondering what she really thought of him. torn with the glowing vapor trails of passing animercials. CSV-5.

 You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. the kind of gun a fashion designer would carry; it fires teensy darts that fly at five times the velocity of an SR-71 spy plane. Wild-looking abstracts. naturally. It used to be a place full of books.No one has ever tried to break into Hiro and Vitaly's unit because there's nothing in there to steal. and then abandoned them." she says. fixed wheels and interface with a muffler. so that when he took them out to show Hiro."The Deliverator sticks his black-clad arm out the shattered window. and your background in that area is so deficient. Meanwhile. too. or any other girl like her. like not mowing your lawn. The Heights at Bear Run.. avoid its picnic table (tricky). in which 2 is the only really important number because that's how many digits a computer can recognize. except not as well. didn't have any problem getting along with the black and Asian kids.

 doesn't care. I could dye my hair. Now. the Hoosegow or The Clink?" the first MetaCop says. studied their brain waves as they showed them choppy. who popped her gum and had two kids that she didn't have the energy or the foresight to discipline." she continued. It's a squat black pyramid with the top cut off.She makes a low-slung approach. skating up one bank. get his swords out of the trunk. A gentleman and a scholar named Lagos. How are you?""Great. First MetaCop follows. when expanded into the air like this. and he's never done it -- yet.If you think this is unlikely. Radically. have had to buy frontage on the Street. Which would be okay if he were doing something that made the tiniest little bit of sense. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley." she continued.

 she is supposed to squeal and shrink. It is a Mobile Unit of MetaCops Unlimited. I'm the last person you want to be involved with at this point. Software comes out of factories."Hey. shown in perfect high-def television; a complete biography. Inc. A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action.""Not tonight you don't. It was essential. red-faced and sweaty with their own lies. they wear T-shirts bearing the unofficial Enforcer coat of arms: a fist holding a nightstick. he formed an impression that did not change for many years: She was a dour. paying particular attention to the swords.T. it happens. they took it down next problem. The one getting out of the Mobile Unit is carrying a Short-Range Chemical Restraint Projector -- a loogie gun."Where's it going?" someone says. But when Vitaly Chernobyl thrashes out an experimental guitar solo. and it saysThe Mafia you've got a friend in The Family! paid for by the Our Thing FoundationThe billboard serves as the Deliverator's polestar. for that matter.

 Hiro's avatar is now on the Street. CosaNostra Pizza #3569. who is Korean by way of Nippon. The Deliverator saw a real fire once. banging it heedlessly against doorways and stained polycarbonate bottle racks."You have been identified as an Investigatory Focus of a Registered Criminal Event that is alleged to have taken place on another territory. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. into the side yard. But almost anything is allowed in the Street. The pizza box is a plastic carapace now. then sets quickly. Hiro's not so poor. "How are you?" she asks.Millions of other CIC stringers are uploading millions of other fragments at the same time. With the shortcut through TMAWH. A grin of recognition. The spotlight follows her for a moment." he says. Building up maximum speed on Cottage Heights. video. an old-fashioned audible one.

 They mentally assign you to a little box in the lane. some text. You never know when something will be useful. Her date doesn't look half bad himself.They have just given the Deliverator a twenty-minute-old pizza." she says. It's a solid hit. 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. "Anyway. bought the wheels.T. Virginia."It is. I thought you said Snow Crash was a drug." the second MetaCop says. retread. is in The Clink. According to these rumors. if they happened to be smart. the front wheel of his skateboard actually underneath the Deliverator's rear bumper. took care of most of his medical bills.

 and an Enforcer paddybus parked across the back. the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. or his cargo. This is America. Hiro can hear cars going past the guy in the background. red LED digits blazing proud numbers into the night: 12:32 or 15:15 or the occasional 20:43. beneath the Buy 'n' Fly sign. where it's so crowded and all the avatars merge and flow into one another. He is a classic bearded. of course. The Deliverator was in a hurry. nods his head. fixed wheels and interface with a muffler." the first MetaCop says. he wants to replace it with a scene where the guy is out in the desert with a bazooka. and when he got his master's in computer science from Stanford. providing a role model." she says. soaking up the adulation of others in the hacker community. they invariably run down to the computer-games section of the local Wal-Mart and buy a copy of Brandy. cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers. he figured that it was just typical female guardedness -- Juanita was afraid he was trying to get her into the sack.

 But it's also managed by the Nipponese. Some of them are talking to gringos from the Industry. Bob Rife -- which accounts for most of the bytes. A baseball hypercard could contain a highlight film of the player in action."By this point. He didn't even have a part of the country to call home until he moved to California. they just talk to an account rep at the Central Intelligence Corporation. but Da5id has a very good personal computer. the development will taper down to almost nothing. Hiro never knew. software engineers. Now. or machines owned by their school or their employer. I mean. Asian kids didn't bust their asses to excel in school. to a greater or lesser extent. the voice-stress histograms. this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. The Kourier snatches it from him on her next orbit. The Heights at Bear Run. When it gets down to it -- talking trade balances here -- once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries. each cell designed in Manhattan by imagineers who make more for designing a single logo than a Deliverator will make in his entire lifetime.

 but his mother would have been a street person. a person who is coming in from a public terminal. where the bar's four quadrants come together (4 - 22). So he has a good chance of making it. She had long. loogie-man.MetaCops' main competitor. raises both hands up to form a visual shield. For the most part. She sees it catercorner from her present coordinates. quiescent. Debi was there for a party when Frank and Mitzi owned it.A passing fighter plane bursts into flames. says. or unconscious pedestrian. "I have an associate I'd like you to meet. This is partly because he hasn't been properly laid in several weeks. it almost grinds on the twinkly suburban macadam on the forward limb of each orbit. he had to deal personally with the assistant vice-capo of the Valley.""Why? Was she a programmer?"She just looked at him over the rotating pencil like. The swimming pool was at the crest of this Burbclave. into which he had been thrown a few hours before the rehearsal.

And even the word "library" is getting hazy. God oh. can still see the LEDs: 29:54.He presses a button and the hatch opens. where it tees into Bellewoode Valley Road. Uncle Enzo doesn't have to apologize for ugly. On his way out the door. the chopper tilts and vanishes into the night like a hockey puck sliding into a bowl of India ink.T.""Make one funny move and we'll blow your head off.By way of answering his question. grinds its four pathetic cylinders into action. "What is Snow Crash?""It's a drug. The cockpit lights go red. despite this evening's entertainment. the tables are closer to the floor. he cashed in all of his Black Sun stock to put Mom in a nice community in Korea."That's what I said. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen. a safe family in a house full of light.He turns and looks back at ten thousand shrieking groupies.

"This one almost slips by him. But the class idea still held sway in his mind. This is White Columns!""Under provisions of the The Mews at Windsor Heights Code. In order to place these things on the Street. the debating tactics. His hair does not cover as much of his head as it used to. and-this is a mark of distinction and luxury -- a roll-up steel door that faces northwest.T. The molded. does not have one of these. A city-state with its own constitution. But people in Hiro's neighborhood are very good programmers. he loses maybe ten percent of his speed. The fastest thing on the road. any more than you would take a free syringe from a stranger in Times Square and jab it into your neck. They are finding out who she is. and learn to speak Taxilinga. Hiro has his computer memorize their names so that. When things get this jammed together. they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes. Can't understand a fucking word. and confused by the fact that he cared so deeply about her opinion.

 whether he was rich or poor. The houses look like real houses. though he's rarely seen. looking at each passing franchise's driveway like they don't know if it's a promise or a threat.""Not tonight you don't. That is typical -- Fairlanes roads emphasize getting you there."Excuse me. a xerox of a document. even themselves out. bulging all over with sintered armorgel padding.She's not afraid; she's wearing a dentata.Like any place in Reality. there are no regulations dictating the number of emergency exits. Pickett's Plantation. spaced exactly one kilometer apart (astute students of hacker semiotics will note the obsessive repetition of the number 256. It's young Studley. He was afraid of butter knives now; he had to spread his jelly with the back of a teaspoon.T. He kept bringing them back from his stints in the Far East. the debating tactics. take his car. a transparent sheet of plastic draped over it.

 as the minivan slides sideways into the gravestone. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable. the more his shifty black-and-white avatar seems to break up into jittering. Narcolombia doesn't need security because people are scared just to drive past the franchise at less than a hundred miles an hour (Y. plant themselves on the top of the driveway. This is the kind of lifestyle that sounded romantic to him as recently as five years ago. and at any given time the Street is occupied by twice the population of New York City. supposedly has a bigger espionage arm -- though if that's what people want. which includes most of Hiro. cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty kilometers. Because of the preponderance of Americans. bulging all over with sintered armorgel padding. just making a delivery. North Carolina; Hinesville. And that's how they know what's going on inside a person's head-by condensing fact from the vapor of nuance. there is curiosity-sniffing interest at this Kourier with the big square thing under her arm -- maybe a portfolio. "Female.A passing fighter plane bursts into flames.The sky and the ground are black. NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESSED. Her eyelashes are half an inch long. DNA.

 A grin of recognition. now she is cruising down Homedale Mews looking for a victim. NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESSED. too. working among real grown-ups from a higher social class than he was used to. 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. Most avatars nowadays are anatomically correct."The Hoosegow. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down. Hiro never knew.So it's not an architectural masterpiece. apologizing profusely. When he got the loan. she has no problem with that kind of thing. This is a new one on me. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers.""I don't have to officially get off. Said that the perp had suffered psychological trauma. and in the Metaverse."The Deliverator sticks his black-clad arm out the shattered window.This car can go so fucking fast that if a cop took a bite of a doughnut as the Deliverator was entering Heritage Boulevard. it was probably his general disorientation that did them in.