NEAL STEPHENSON

117

is standing there measuring the length of Him’s cock through his trousers while they pretend to make conversation.

“You’re the guy who’s working with Juanita, right?” Him says.

“Or she’s working with me. Or something like that”

“She said she wanted me to meet you.”

For several seconds Lagos is frozen. He’s ransacking more data. Hiro wants to throw a bucket of water on him.

“Makes sense,” he says. “You’re as familiar with the Metaverse as anyone. Freelance hacker-that’s exactly right”

“Exactly right for what? No one wants freelance hackers anymore.”

“The corporate assembly-line hackers are suckers for infection. They’re going to go down by the thousands, just like Sennacherib’s army before the walls of Jerusalem,” Lagos says.

“Infection? Sennacherib?”

“And you can defend yourself in Reality, too-that’ll be good if you ever go up against Raven. Remember, his knives are as sharp as a molecule. They’ll go through a bulletproof jacket like lingerie.”

“Raven?”

“You’ll probably see him tonight. Don’t mess with him.”

“Okay,” Hiro says. “I’ll look out for him.”

“That’s not what I said,” Lagos says. “I said, don’t mess with him.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a dangerous world,” Lagos says. “Getting more dangerous all the time. So we don’t want to upset the balance of terror. Just think about the Cold War.”

“Yup.” All Hiro wants to do now is walk away and never see this guy again, but he won’t wind up the conversation.

“You’re a hacker. That means you have deep structures to worry about, too.”

“Deep structures?”

“Neurolinguistic pathways in your brain. Remember the first time you learned binary code?”

“Sure.”

“You were forming pathways in your brain. Deep structures. Your nerves grow new connections as you use them-the axons split and push their way between the dividing glial cells-your

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