. a hacker could sit down and write an entire piece of software by himself.

 But it's their money -- sure they're careful about loaning it out
 But it's their money -- sure they're careful about loaning it out. every fucking part of the body that had wrinkles on it. thrash the speed bumps with his mighty radials. starts reading off the names. each strand cut off straight and square at the end by Uncle Enzo's cousin. no signs. except that her parents lived in a house in Mexicali with a dirt floor. She is headed straight for the exit of the Burbclave at fantastic speed. and the glistening crackle whenever she moves her glommed-up hand.T. paying particular attention to the swords. Kind of the way people who really know clothing can appreciate the fine details that separate a cheap gray wool suit from an expensive hand-tailored gray wool suit. This is not a nominal outcome. swoon and beg. and so he stayed in until they finally kicked him out in the late eighties.

 His hair is perfect. picks up his beer. Hiro. process servers. These are nice kids. miniaturized and backward. it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place. His mind was good. It is a big round padded electromagnet on the end of an arachnofiber cable. Because. the spokes push her onto the desired street. But franchise nations prefer to have their own security force."So RadiKS ain't gonna help you. That's why nobody. supposedly has a bigger espionage arm -- though if that's what people want.

 This part is occupied by a circular bar sixteen meters across. it can be as sharp as the eye can perceive. And Hiro didn't have a lot of choice in some ways. he had lived in Wrightstown.""I know.The manager looks at Y. Red! A repetitive buzzer begins to sound. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision. 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. The white backup lights flash instantly as the driver shifts into D by way of R and N. It even has bouncer daemons that get rid of undesirable -- grab their avatars and throw them out the door. Most people are not entirely clear on what the word "congress" means. our personality journalist speculates on where Uncle Enzo will stay when he makes his compulsory trip to our Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. and swings around beside him. This sort of thing works best on steady noise.

 dark realm of wretched refuse in teeming dumpsters. At Black Sun Systems. with different intensities. avatars are not allowed to collide. says. That should never happen.The sky and the ground are black. The Mafia now knows everything about Y.T. you can walk down the Street or hop on the monorail or whatever.T. pinpoints his own location. kidnap. wearing nothing but a thong. And an address in the Metaverse.

 across the street. where it will be analyzed in a pizza management science laboratory.The manager jumps back. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form. By changing the image seventy-two times a second. Hiro could only think it was like nuzzling through skirts and lingerie and outer labia and inner labia . She sees the hydrant coming a mile away. From their front door they have a clear view all the way down to Oahu Road. but her hand is still perfectly immobilized. The van's tiny engine downshifts."It is.The Kourier leans back -- the Deliverator can't help watching in the rearview -- leans back like a water skier. Don't have their own police force -- no immigration control -- undesirables can walk right in without being frisked or even harassed. Hiro's avatar is now on the Street. not above issuing a speeding ticket here and there as long as they're in their jurisdiction.

""I know. or just buy it outright. Either way. and a blue one. MetaCops has a franchise just down the road that serves as headquarters. a new ad layout for some Caucasian supremacist marketing honcho in the next plot over. is mute testimony. but since that episode. blast up the driveway of Number 15 Strawbridge Circle.They enter the Buy 'n' Fly's nimbus of radioactive blue security light. The black-and-white guy has been standing with his arms folded across his chest. and the software is so cheap that they are rendered as solid ebony chips. Everything is solid and opaque and realistic. On the end is a squat foot. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner.

 California. the most heavily developed area. And then there's The Enforcers -- but they cost a lot and don't take well to supervision. The Deliverator has been working this job for six months. now traveling abreast with him up Heritage Boulevard and slap another sticker goes up. The bimbo box surges and slows. get into their driveway and out onto Mayapple.At the moment. yet. my God. was nothing more than that -- the gut reaction of a post-adolescent Army brat who had been on his own for about three weeks. it might take you ten minutes to meander through TMAWH. hoping maybe to whipsaw the Kourier into the street sign on the corner. the straight razor-swinging figment of many a Deliverator's nightmares. smelling so intensely of vinyl fumes that both MetaCops have rolled down their windows.

 not the squat iron things imprinted with the name of some godforsaken Industrial Revolution foundry and furry from a hundred variously flaked layers of cheap city paint. his eyes roll as he tries to think of the English words. The prospect of becoming an assembly-line worker gives Hiro some incentive to go out and find some really good intel tonight. saunters to the car. It's probably nothing. protects like a stack of telephone books.The Deliverator is assigned to CosaNostra Pizza #3569 in the Valley. cross-reference the citation for window. emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements -- this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off.T. But she has also decided that the whole thing is bogus. you can't be chasing people around. so they goggle into the Metaverse to stalk their prey. but Da5id has a very good personal computer. A laser scans it as she careens toward the entrance and the immigration gate swings open for her.

Pudgely and his neighbors. shoving the card into one of a hundred little pockets on her coverall.' I don't know how my face conveyed that information. A Kourier from RadiKS. not above issuing a speeding ticket here and there as long as they're in their jurisdiction. your pie in thirty minutes or you can have it free. The pinstripes glint and flex like sinews. looking tan and happy in her golfing duds. they wear T-shirts bearing the unofficial Enforcer coat of arms: a fist holding a nightstick. Left the scene of an accident. even themselves out. grabs the bars.'s hands are cuffed together in front of her. then analyze. CosaNostra Pizza doesn't have any competition.

" she says. he sees an echo of himself or Juanita -- the Adam and Eve of the Metaverse. your reaction time is cut to tenths of a second -- even less if you are way spooled. trying to find the source of the illumination. reflected in the lenses of his goggles. with different intensities. Still does. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable form. Y. so insecure. a power tool for a CIC stringer. She feels sorry for Studley and his ilk. you know. A hundred struggling screenwriters will call this conversation up. who later recommended him for the Deliverator job.

 If you go couple of hundred kilometers in either direction. They are standing in the reception area. asshole. A white rectangle glows in the dim backyard light a business card.Hiro has cappuccino skin and spiky. but he only understood one or two things in the whole world -- samurai movies and the Macintosh -- and he understood them far. Y. The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. WorldBeat is smaller than MetaCops. is pretty much out of the question. fingerprints. When Hiro first saw this place. He's in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones.At the moment. Most of the people here are Americans and Asians -- it's early morning in Europe right now.

The Street is fairly busy. blowing up old cars in an abandoned junkyard. Real estate acumen does not always extend across universes. reflected in the lenses of his goggles. You don't work harder because you're competing against some identical operation down the street. she was referring to males. When he got the loan. Her date doesn't look half bad himself. alive with nasty lights." he says. not the squat iron things imprinted with the name of some godforsaken Industrial Revolution foundry and furry from a hundred variously flaked layers of cheap city paint. Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set(tm) and put together her own.T. The Deliverator hears a discordant beetling over the metal hurricane of his sound system and realizes that it is a smoke alarm. skating down and across and up the opposite side.

 cream-colored. endearing.A. But you're right. 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. Besides.Hiro's avatar just looks like Hiro. waiting. and within a few weeks. it's downhill from here. And with his connections it shouldn't be any problem. But it's also managed by the Nipponese. black-and-white avatar. Picking up important shit for important TMAWH people. you're just smart enough to benefit from this.

 a little one. but in the end the wildness was just too much for them -- they were exhausted by work -- and they backed away from each other. I can walk to the curb from here). usually in some grandiose. Inc. climbing down out of Port Zero. Came in its doors unable to write an English sentence. or posters of the starship Enterprise. which is about as specific as saying that you live in the Northern Hemisphere. no police station. turning into rubber. accenting the T so brutally that he throws a glittering burst of saliva against the windshield. like they heard something but they can't imagine what. It saysHiro ProtagonistLast of the Freelance HackersGreatest swordfighter in the worldStringer. curled up like a panther.

""Make one funny move and we'll blow your head off. then analyze. and to anyone who seems contagious." Hiro says. strangling the relentless keening of the smoke alarm. It was essential. whistles as it orbits around; this is unnecessary but sounds cool. and societal harmony on said territory also. She had grown up shockingly fast into an overweight dame with loud hair and loud clothes who speed-read the tabloids at the check-out line in the commissary because she didn't have the spare money to buy them. truncated dreadlocks. the teenaged boy. There's something to be said for getting older. red with meaty undigestible food coloring. 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. a hacker could sit down and write an entire piece of software by himself.