NEAL STEPHENSON

“Not in Chinatown. Shit,” Squeaky says, getting pissed again in retrospect, “I can’t believe that guy. I could have killed him.”

“Raven?”

“No. That Crip. Chasing Raven. He’s lucky Raven got to him first, not me.”

“You were chasing the Crip?”

“Yeah, I was chasing the Crip. What, did you think Iwas trying to catch Raven?”

“Sort of, yeah. I mean, he’s the bad guy, right?”

“Definitely. So I’d be chasing Raven if I was a cop and it was my job to catch bad guys. But I’m an Enforcer, and it’s my job to enforce order. So I’m doing everything I can-and so is every other Enforcer in town-to protect Raven. And if you have any ideas about trying to go and find Raven yourself and get revenge for that colleague of yours that he offed, you can forget it.”

“Offed? What colleague?” Y.T. breaks in. She didn’t see what happened with Lagos.

Him is mortified by this idea. “Is that why everyone was telling me not to fuck with Raven? They were afraid I was going to attdck him?”

Squeaky eyes the swords. “You got the means.”

“Why should anyone protect Raven?”

Squeaky smiles, as though we have just crossed the border into the realm of kidding around. “He’s a Sovereign.”

“So declare war on him.”

“It’s not a good idea to declare war on a nuclear power.”

“Huh?”

“Christ,” Squeaky says, shaking his head, “if I had any idea how little you knew about this shit, I never would have let you into my car. I thought you were some kind of a serious CIC wet-operations guy. Are you telling me you really didn’t know about Raven?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

“Okay. I’m gonna tell you this so you don’t go out and cause any more trouble. Raven’s packing a torpedo warhead that he boosted from an old Soviet nuke sub. It was a torpedo that was designed to take out a carrier battle group with one shot. A nuclear torpedo. You know that funny-looking sidecar that Raven has on his Harley? Well, it’s a hydrogen bomb, man.