Count Zero

Turner drives through heavy rain toward the Sprawl, but failing wiper blades force him off the highway onto a service road. They discover an old gas station. A man emerges in a poncho, concealing something. As the man begins to gesture, a thin red laser beam from a hovering black helicopter destroys his head. Turner opens the roof hatch and fires at the helicopter while ordering Angie to crash through the station. The structure explodes; the damaged helicopter descends and Turner rams it twice with the hovercraft, crushing it.

Inspecting the wreckage, Turner finds two dead men: Oakey and a Japanese pilot. He retrieves Oakey’s flask of whiskey. As they drive away, the helicopter’s fuel ignites the ruined station in a fireball. Turner explains the laser’s effect to Angie, who vomits. She then enters a trance-like state, speaking rapidly in patois. A deep, alien voice emerges, identifying itself as the Lord of Roads. The entity claims that it wants Angie as its horse so that it can move among the towns of men. The entity orders Turner to carry Angie east to his city. It mentions that Samedi, the Lord of Graveyards, rides with them. Angie collapses.

Bobby and Jammer attempt to call the Finn but only reach his bizarre answering program. This, Jammer notes, suggests that something is amiss. Jammer also notes that the club’s staff is missing and sends Bobby to check outside, where they discover the area crowded with an unnatural mix of rival Gothick and Kasual gang members. Rusty screws begin dropping from the ceiling. Jammer retrieves a weapon while Bobby and Jackie take cover. A ceiling grate opens and Beauvoir descends from an air duct, having crossed from a neighboring building.

Beauvoir confirms that Lucas is dead and recounts what he has learned: A Lobe named Alix was contacted by a Gothick warlord named Raymond, who had been approached by a wealthy client wanting to hire both gangs to besiege the club. Beauvoir speculates that Maas Biolabs may have orchestrated this, noting that most neighboring businesses have been bought out with cash. He arms Jackie and outlines a plan to ambush the professional team he expects will attack them. Jammer impulsively opens the door to confront the crowd outside. A laser beam instantly burns through the door and two of Jammer’s fingers, cauterizing the wound. Beauvoir extinguishes a small fire and tells Bobby that he will have to handle the deck since Jammer no longer can.

Aboard the interorbital tug Sweet Jane, pilot Rez explains to the space-sick Marly that their destination is the derelict Tessier-Ashpool data cores, remnants of the collapsed corporate empire depicted in Neuromancer. Rez makes radio contact with the cores’ inhabitants. Marly warns them about Josef Virek; at the mention of his name, the man’s fanatical tone shifts. Rez insists that Marly wear a spacesuit to enter, but Marly’s claustrophobia prevents her from wearing the helmet. They compromise; she will wear the suit but carry the helmet.

Marly enters the airlock and tumbles into a vast, dark space that smells of long abandonment. Lights reveal an immense interior of steel and lunar rock, pitted with carved channels. She is reeled in by Jones at Wigan Ludgate’s command. Jones, a younger man, calms Ludgate and leads Marly away down a long corridor. He explains that Ludgate is largely harmless but delusional, believing that he has found God in this place. Jones reveals that he is a fugitive who now helps Ludgate run a small business selling scavenged items, including the boxes and various software. He confirms they are inside the old Tessier-Ashpool cores and notes that the system still seems partly operational despite supposedly being wiped after the disintegration of the Tessier-Ashpool family.

Turner conceals the hovercraft under garbage in an alley in the Sprawl. Angie wakes, believing that she had a bad dream. Suddenly, she is possessed again, this time by the entity Samedi, who reveals that the previous spirit was Legba and orders Turner to go to New York that night to kill someone. Turner strips the insulation from his parka to conceal his gun in the heat. They travel through Washington, DC’s, Dupont Circle, where Turner purchases transit tokens.

On the train, Turner turns to Mitchell’s biosoft dossier and discovers Angie’s IQ has always been well above normal—Mitchell lied to her about the reason for inserting the technology into her brain. Checking Mitchell’s academic records, Turner realizes Mitchell himself lacked the intellectual arc of a true genius. He deduces that someone (or something) had been secretly feeding Mitchell scientific breakthroughs and, in exchange, Mitchell allowed these entities to use his daughter. At Union Station, Turner intimidates a tout into providing a cash cab. Possessed, Angie provides a Madison Avenue address: Hypermart.

Arriving at Hypermart, Angie is upset that her dream of visiting New York is occurring under such fearful circumstances. The entity directs them to a club called Jammer’s. Inside, they stop at an espresso stand. Turner bribes the reluctant barista, who explains that gangs have taken over the top two floors, waiting for someone to enter or leave Jammer’s. Angie’s cup shatters and the voice commands Turner to enter the club.

Jackie treats Jammer’s laser-burned hand while Beauvoir rigs the club’s doors with explosives. Jammer decides to call in an old favor from the Yakuza and gives Bobby a back-door access code to contact them through cyberspace. Jackie prepares to accompany Bobby into the matrix. Following Jammer’s navigation instructions, they jack into cyberspace. On their approach, an unseen defense construct hits them, separating Bobby from Jackie and paralyzing him.

A voice questions Bobby; it is Jaylene Slide, who has been monitoring cyberspace for clues about her partner, Ramirez’s, death. She pulls Bobby into her personalized construct, a stylized Los Angeles apartment. Bobby explains their situation. Slide reveals that she watched Maas agents destroy Bobby’s mother’s condo with the same rocket launcher that killed Lucas. After hearing Bobby’s story, Slide refuses to help but reveals that the group besieging Jammer’s is not Maas, but a European corporate team on Park Avenue; they are protected by heavy ice. She sends Bobby back.

Bobby awakens to find two strangers in the room: a tall, gaunt man holding a massive revolver and a hollow-eyed girl. He recognizes the girl as the figure who saved him during his first cyberspace run. Jackie, awestruck, identifies her as the Virgin of Miracles. The man, Turner, asks what happened, and Bobby recounts his encounter with Slide. The phone rings. A man with bleached-white hair and a cruel mouth (Conroy) appears on the screen, addressing Turner and saying they need to talk.

Marly and Jones continue through the tunnels. Resting in a widened chamber, Marly studies the microscopically etched wall patterns before insisting Jones help her remove the bulky spacesuit. They reach the end of the guideline at a dark chamber entrance. Jones revives the power, illuminating a vast dome filled with a slow-moving storm of floating debris: toys, tools, clothing, and personal effects. At the apex is a modified construction remote machine. Its manipulators cradle an unfinished box. Marly realizes that the machine is the artist; the floating objects are its raw materials. Jones explains that it operates autonomously.

A large screen activates, showing Josef Virek. He tells Marly that she has fulfilled her contract: Her presence in Paris forced Maas to act, inadvertently revealing the location of the conceptual source he has sought for years. Virek announces that his agent Paco is en route and speaks of his impending freedom from the vat in Stockholm: his plan to inhabit multiple bodies. He reveals that he purchased the Tessier-Ashpool cores an hour before Marly’s flight, and he orders her to admit Paco’s team. The screen goes dark. Jones attempts to reassure Marly, but she insists that Virek’s intentions are evil. As she speaks, the steel arm of the remote she is holding begins to vibrate and move.