SNOW CRASH

distance. It is a sort of beltway that runs all the way around the Raft. Small streets and even smaller alleys lead from this beltway into the various ghettos. Through the scope, Hiro can see that their entrances are guarded. Anyone’s free to cruise around the beltway, but people are more protective of their neighborhoods.

The worst thing that can happen on the Raft is for your neighborhood to get cut loose. That’s why the Raft is such a tangled mess. Each neighborhood is afraid that the neighboring ‘hoods are going to gang up on them, cut them loose, leave them to starve in the middle of the Pacific. So they are constantly fmding new ways to tie themselves into each other, running cables over, under, and around their neighbors, tying into more far-flung ‘hoods, or preferably into one of the Core ships.

The neighborhood guards Pare armed, needless to say. Looks like the weapon of choice is a small Chinese knockoff of the AK-47. Its metal frame jumps out pretty clearly on radar. The Chinese government must have stamped out an unimaginable number of these things, back in the days when they spent a lot of

time thinking about the possibility of fighting a land war with the Soviets.

Most of them just look like indolent Third World militia the world over. But at the entrance to one neighborhood, Hiro sees that the guard in charge has a whip antenna sticking straight up in the air, sprouting from his head.

A few minutes later, they get to a point where the beltway is intersected by a broad street that runs straight into the middle of the Raft, where the big ships are-the Core. The closest one is a Nippon6se containership-a low, flat-decked number with a high bridge, stacked with steel shipping containers. It’s webbed over with rope ladders and makeshift stairways that enable people to climb up into this container or that. Many of the containers have lights burning in them.

ddApaI.~ent building,” Tranny jokes, noting Hiro’s interest. Then he shakes his head and rolls his eyes and rubs his thumb against his fingertips. Apparently, this is quite the swell neighborhood.

The nice part of the cruise comes to an end when they notice several fast skifts emerging from a dark and smoky neighborhood.

“Vietnam gang,” Tranny says. He puts his hand on Him’s and

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