Sure enough, the bike comes off the truck, just as the guy described it, right down to color scheme (black) and vehicle ID number. It's a beautiful bike. It draws a crowd just sitting on the parking lot -- the other salesmen actually put down their coffee cups and take their feet off their desks to go outside and look at it. It looks like a black land torpedo1. Two-wheel drive, natch. The wheels are so advanced they're not even wheels ... they look like giant, heavy-duty versions of the smartwheels that high-speed skateboards use, independently telescoping spokes3 with fat traction4 pads on the ends. Dangling5 out over the front, in the nose cone6 of the motorcycle, is the sensor7 package that monitors road conditions, decides where to place each spoke2 as it rolls forward, how much to extend it, and how to rotate the footpad for maximum traction. It's all controlled by a bios -- a Built-In Operating System -- an onboard computer with a flat-panel screen built into the top of the fuel tank. They say that this baby will do a hundred and twenty miles per hour on rubble8. The bios patches itself into the CIC weather net so that it knows when it's about to run into precip. The aerodynamic cowling is totally flexible, calculates its own most efficient shape for the current speed and wind conditions, changes its curves accordingly, wraps around you like a nymphomaniacal gymnast.
Scott figures this guy is going to waltz off with this thing for dealer10 invoice11, being a friend and confidant of Mr.Norman. And it's not an easy thing for any red-blooded salesman to write out a contract to sell a sexy beast like this one at dealer invoice. He hesitates for a minute. Wonders what's going to happen to him if this is all some kind of mistake.
The guy's watching him intently, seems to sense his nervousness, almost as if he can hear Scott's heart beating. So at the last minute he eases up, gets magnanimous -- Scott loves these big-spender types -- decides to throw in a few hundred Kongbucks over invoice, just so Scott can pull in a meager12 commission on the deal. A tip, basically.
Then -- icing on the cake -- the guy goes nuts in the Cycle Shop. Totally berserk. Buys a complete outfit13. Everything. Top of the line. A full black coverall that swaddles everything from toes to neck in breathable, bulletproof fabric14, with armorgel pads in all the right places and airbags around the neck. Even safety fanatics15 don't bother with a helmet when they're wearing one of these babies.
So once he's figured out how to attach his swords on the outside of his coverall, he's on his way.
"I gotta say this," Scott says as the guy is sitting on his new bike, getting his swords adjusted, doing something incredibly unauthorized to the bios, "you look like one bad motherfucker."
"Thanks, I guess." He twists the throttle16 up once and Scott feels, but does not hear, the power of the engine. This baby is so efficient it doesn't waste power by making noise. "Say hi to your brand-new niece," the guy says, and then lets go the clutch. The spokes flex9 and gather themselves and the bike springs forward out of the lot, seeming to jump off its electric paws. He cuts right across the parking lot of the neighboring NeoAquarian Temple Franchise17 and pulls out onto the road. About half a second later, the guy with the swords is a dot on the horizon. Then he's gone. Northbound.
Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery18 in China and studied real hard for ten years. if my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers19 and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted20 it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
Hiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven21. In a way, this is liberating22. He no longer has to worry about trying to be the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken. The crowning touch, the one thing that really puts true world-class badmotherfuckerdom totally out of reach, of course, is the hydrogen bomb. If it wasn't for the hydrogen bomb, a man could still aspire23. Maybe find Raven's Achilles' heel. Sneak24 up, get a drop, slip a mickey, pull a fast one. But Raven's nuclear umbrella kind of puts the world title out of reach.
Which is okay. Sometimes it's all right just to be a little bad. To know your limitations. Make do with what you've got.
Once he maneuvers25 his way onto the freeway, aimed up into the mountains, he goggles26 into his office. Earth is still there, zoomed27 in tight on the Raft. Hiro contemplates28 it, superimposed in ghostly hues29 on his view of the highway, as he rides toward Oregon at a hundred and forty miles per hour.
From a distance, it looks bigger than it really is. Getting closer, he can see that this illusion is caused by an enveloping30, self-made slick/cloud of sewage and air pollution, fading out into the ocean and the atmosphere.
It orbits the Pacific clockwise. When they fire up the boilers31 on the Enterprise, it can control its direction a little bit, but real navigation is a practical impossibility with all the other shit lashed32 onto it. It mostly has to go where the wind and the Coriolis effect take it. A couple of years ago, it was going by the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Siberia, picking up Refus. Then it swung up the Aleutian chain, down the Alaska panhandle, and now it's gliding33 past the small town of Port Sherman, Oregon, near the California border.
As the Raft moves through the Pacific, riding mostly on ocean currents, it occasionally sheds great hunks of itself. Eventually, these fragments wash up in some place like Santa Barbara, still lashed together, carrying a payload of skeletons and gnawed34 bones.
When it gets to California, it will enter a new phase of its life cycle. It will shed much of its sprawling35 improvised36 bulk as a few hundred thousand Refus cut themselves loose and paddle to shore. The only Refus who make it that far are, by definition, the ones who were agile37 enough to make it out to the Raft in the first place, resourceful enough to survive the agonizingly slow passage through the arctic waters, and tough enough not to get killed by any of the other Refus. Nice guys, all of them. Just the kind of people you'd like to have showing up on your private beach in groups of a few thousand.
Stripped down to a few major ships, a little more maneuverable, the Enterprise then will swing across the South Pacific, heading for Indonesia, where it will turn north again and start the next cycle of migration38.
Army ants cross mighty39 rivers by climbing on top of each other and clustering together into a little ball that floats. Many of them fall off and sink, and naturally the ants on the bottom of the ball drown. The ones who are quick and vigorous enough to keep clawing their way to the top survive. A lot of them make it across, and that's why you can't stop army ants by dynamiting40 the bridges. That's how Refus come across the Pacific, even though they are too poor to book passage on a real ship or buy a seaworthy boat. A new wave washes up onto the West Coast every five years or so, when the ocean currents bring the Enterprise back.
For the last couple of months, owners of beachfront property in California have been hiring security people, putting up spotlights41 and antipersonnel fences along the tide line, mounting machine guns on their yachts. They have all subscribed42 to CIC's twenty-four-hour Raft Report, getting the latest news flash, straight from the satellite, on when the Latest contingent43 of twenty-five thousand starving Eurasians has cut itself loose from the Enterprise and started dipping its myriad44 oars45 into the Pacific, like ant legs.
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torpedo
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| n.水雷，地雷；v.用鱼雷破坏 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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spokes
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| n.（车轮的）辐条( spoke的名词复数 )；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 | |
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traction
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| n.牵引；附着摩擦力 | |
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dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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sensor
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| n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官） | |
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rubble
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| n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾 | |
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flex
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| n.皮线，花线；vt.弯曲或伸展 | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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invoice
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| vt.开发票；n.发票，装货清单 | |
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meager
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| adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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fanatics
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| 狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 ) | |
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throttle
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| n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压 | |
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franchise
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| n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权 | |
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monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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dealers
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| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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liberating
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| 解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 ) | |
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aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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maneuvers
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| n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 ) | |
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goggles
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| n.护目镜 | |
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zoomed
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| v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去式 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨 | |
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contemplates
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的第三人称单数 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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enveloping
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的现在分词 ) | |
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boilers
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| 锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 ) | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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dynamiting
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| v.（尤指用于采矿的）甘油炸药( dynamite的现在分词 )；会引起轰动的人[事物]；增重 | |
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spotlights
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| n.聚光灯（的光）( spotlight的名词复数 )；公众注意的中心v.聚光照明( spotlight的第三人称单数 )；使公众注意，使突出醒目 | |
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42
subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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43
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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44
myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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45
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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