NEAL STEPHENSON

93

Back in his cool little house, SemiAutonomous Guard Unit #A-367 is howling.

Outside in the yard, it was very hot and he felt bad. Whenever he is out in the yard, he gets hot unless he keeps running. When he got hurt and had to lie down for a long time, he felt hotter than he had ever been before.

Now he doesn’t feel hot anymore. But he is still hurt. He is howling his injured howl. He is telling all the neighbor doggies that he needs help. They feel sad and upset and repeat his howl and pass it along to all the rest of the doggies.

Soon he hears the vet’s car approaching. The nice vet will

come and make him feel better.

He starts barking again. He is telling all the other doggies about how the bad strangers came and hurt him. And how hot it was out in the yard when he had to lie down. And how the nice girl helped him and took him back to his cool house.

Right in front of the Hong Kong franchise, Y.T. notices a black Town Car that has been sitting there for a while. She doesn’t have to see the plates to know it’s Mafia. Only the Mafia drives cars like that. The windows are blackened, but she knows someone’s in there keeping an eye on her. How do they do it? You see these Town Cars everywhere, but you never see them move, never see them get anyplace. She’s not even sure they have engines in them.

“Okay. Sorry,” Hiro says. “I keep my own thing going, but

we have a partnership for any intel you can dig up. Fifty-fifty split.”

“Deal,” she says, climbing onto her plank.

“Call me anytime. You have my card.”

“Hey, that reminds me. Your card said you’re into the three Ms of software.”

“Yeah. Music, movies, and microcode.”

“You heard of Vitaly Chemobyl and the Meltdowns?”

“No. Is that a band?”

“Yeah. It’s the greatest band. You should check it out, home. boy, it’s going to be the next big thing.”

She coasts out onto the road and poons an Audi with Bloom—