Neuromancer Chapter 22 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • The service cart races Case and Maelcum to where Molly, 3Jane, and Riviera's location. Case is cranking out on the betaphenethylamine.
  • When they get to the pool, an arrow comes out of nowhere and pierces Maelcum's shoulder. Hideo steps out of the shadows, bows, and tells Maelcum the artery is still intact. Man, ninjas are cool.
  • Riviera comes in and does the typical bad guy "I've won; you've lost" speech.
  • 3Jane enters with Molly in a Victorian bathchair. It's a party now. She asks Hideo to tend Maelcum's wound.
  • Case tells 3Jane about Neuromancer and the beach. 3Jane recognizes the beach as a place her mother spent her childhood in Morocco.
  • Riviera must have decided to give up on bad guy speeches because he pulls out a fletcher and starts shooting. He misses Case, and Hideo catches the needle projectile and throws it back, hitting Riviera.
  • Riviera lets out a surprise light beam attack and blinds Hideo. It seems bad, but Hideo is a ninja so of course he can use Zen and fight blinded anyway. No big deal.
  • Riviera runs away with Hideo on his trail. Not that it really matters. Molly reveals that she's been drugging Riviera's drugs (oh, irony, how we love you). The poisonous hotshots are going to kill Riviera whether Hideo gets him or not.
  • Case, Molly, Maelcum, and 3Jane ride an elevator to Straylight's core. Five minutes on the clock. It's time to put up or shut up.