Hiro Protagonist and Vitaly Chernobyl are in their home, which is a twenty by thirty foot U-Stor-It unit in Inglewood, California. Hiro is sitting on the floor in front of a low table. Hiro has light brown skin, Asian eyes, and dreadlocks. He's wearing shiny goggles and earphones. Hiro's computer sits in front of him, connected to a translucent tube that feeds into a fiber-optic jack. Since he lost his pizza delivery job a few weeks ago, Hiro has been spending more time on his backup job, collecting information. Any information he finds, he uploads to the Central Intelligence Corporation library. Other corporations search through the library looking for information that may be valuable. If someone buys something that Hiro uploads, he gets paid. The computer creates a virtual world that Hiro views.....
