How It All Goes Down
- Y.T. returns to Griffith Park, relying on some pretty epic skateboard feats to get back into the Falabala camp.
- She finds the burned-out woman she'd had a brief conversation with on her first visit and starts interrogating her.
- The woman used to be a programmer, and she remembers spending time on the Enterprise (which is part of Rife's traveling Raft); she is blissed out and dazed throughout their chat.
- On the Raft, the woman and people like her (other programmers) gave blood, until their veins stopped cooperating and they were moved here to the camp.
- The Priest starts edging in on Y.T., trying to convince her to stay a while with them. Y.T. turns her goggles to infrared and sees another person sneaking up on her in the dark, holding a syringe with something warm in it: human blood.
- Since Y.T. came prepared, she knocks out the priest and needle-bearer with Liquid Knuckles. Then she books it.
- She calls up Hiro, who is walking around somewhere. Yep, he went gargoyle on us—he bought a computer he could wear on a belt.
- Y.T. tells Hiro about the programmer she talked to, who caught Snow Crash by seeing it on a screen. Hiro confirms that this is true—but Y.T. doesn't have to worry since it only affects hackers.
- Hang on a sec—Y.T.'s mom is a programmer for the Feds; Y.T. calls Hiro a jerk and rushes home.
- As usual, Y.T.'s mom is working from her home computer. Y.T. grabs some heavy glass award her mom won for being a corporate tool and chucks it at the screen. Y.T.'s mom, not knowing about the virus, is upset, but Y.T. declares that she just saved her mom's life, and then she pours herself some juice.