Study Guide

Snow Crash Chapter 63

By Neal Stephenson

Chapter 63

Hiro rides his bike through Downtown in the Metaverse. It's super-crowded because of a benefit being thrown for Da5id, who's still in the hospital.
He's heading for Rife's mysterious black cube, and he goes invisible and then hacks his way inside.
The place is full of cubes and spheres and other 3D shapes in bright, primary colors. Hiro recognizes it as a model of a system, like a giant worldwide network of some kind.
Juanita, also goggled in, recognizes it: It's the Government of the United States. The Feds employ thousands of programmers, who are all working on parts of something.
This is that something. The government has been contracted to write software for Rife.
Then they see Raven's avatar standing next to a giant blue cube. He's carrying something, which he sets in the sidecar of his motorcycle.
It's got to be a bomb, Rife's revenge on hackers for refusing to bow to him. And all of the hackers, right now, are in one place in the Metaverse: the amphitheater where Da5id's benefit is.