SNOW CRASH
son? Former President of the Temporary Republic of Kenai and Kodiak?”
“Yeah. What do you want? I don’t have any money.”
“Just to talk. I work for CIC, and my job is to gather intelligence.”
“I need a fucking drink,” Chuck Wnghtson says.
The Towne Hall is a big inflatable building in the middle of the Snooze ‘n’ Cruise. It is Derelict Las Vegas: convenience store, video arcade, laundromat, bar, liquor store, flea market, whorehouse. It always seems to be ruled by that small percentage of the human population that is capable of partying until five in the morning every single night, and that has no other function.
Most Towne Halls have a few franchises-within-franchises. Hiro sees a Kelley’s Tap, which is about the nicest trough you are likely to find at a Snooze ‘n’ Cruise, and leads Chuck Wrightson into it. Chuck is wearing many layers of dothing that used to be different colors. Now they are the same color as his skin, which is khaki.
All the businesses in a Towne Hall, including this bar, look like something you’d see on a prison ship-everything nailed down, brightly lit up twenty-four hours a day, all of the personnel sealed up behind thick glass barriers that have gone all yellow and murky. Security at this Towne Hall is provided by The Enforcers, so there are a lot of steroid addicts in black armorgel outfits, cruising up and down the arcade in twos and threes, enthusiastically violating people’s human rights.
Hiro and Chuck grab the closest thing they can find to a corner table. Hiro buttonholes a waiter and surreptitiously orders a pitcher of Pub Special, mixed half and half with nonalcoholic beer. This way, Chuck ought to remain awake a little longer than he would otherwise.
It doesn’t take much to make him open up. He’s like one of these old guys from a disgraced presidential administration, forced out by scandal, who devotes the rest of his life to finding people who will listen to him.
“Yeah, I was president of TROKK for two years. And I still consider myself the president of the government in exile.”
Hiro tries to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Chuck seems to notice.