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Virtual Light is a cyberpunk novel released on September 3rd, 1993, by William Gibson. The novel focuses on three protagonists. The first is Chevette Washington, a data courier,who steals something she will soon regret stealing. The second is Berry Rydell, a rent-a-cop who is hired by a mysterious employer after losing his job. The final is Yamazaki, a Japanese student who is doing research on the Bridge with the help of Skinner.


Summary Chevette Washington steals a pair of shades from a rich man at a party in a hotel, but quickly regrets her decision as she learns that Intensecure, a rent-a-cop company, is hunting her down. She and her friend Sammy go to the Bridge and are about to throw the glasses into the ocean below from Skinner's shack, but a man with gold in the sides of his teeth and a pistol stos them. Skinner and Yamazaki, who were in the shack, are restrained in the room using a plastic-like goo that forms around a person's wrist harder and tighter the more they struggle. The gold-toothed man, named Loveless, tries to capture Chevette, but she managed to escape by shocking him with the safety mechanism on her courier bike. Sammy throws a hunk of junk at Loveless's head, but Loveless shrugs it off and guns Sammy down. Chevette then escapes. Chevette then goes to a bar in the Bridge to meet up with an ex,for help. The Russian detectives come in and arrest her, with Rydell entering at the same time and reluctantly helping them.

iIn earlier chapters, Rydell was hired after losing his job at Intensecure after a botched hostage situation, and he meets his employer, Warbaby, at the airport. They then drive to a hotel were a man carrying the shades (the one Chevette pickpocketed) was mysteriously murdered after the glasses were taken. Warbaby pulls out his own shades, which turn out to be Virtual Light Shades, which overlay data and images over a person's vision. Rydell is given the pair, and he sees a body of the man with his tongue sticking out of a slit in his neck (Columbian necktie), and is disgusted. Warbaby's assistant then as a sick joke, splices in pornography into the dead man's image and this make Rydell feel sick to the stomach. Warbaby threatens the assistant with job loss, and he promptly stop. Rydell with the help of the assistant, go to shop for new clothes, then he meets back up with Warbaby. They go to a coffee shop and have a short discussion with some russian homicide detectives, and then leave. They then make their way to the Bridge to find Chevette, who they identified as the possible thief.

When Chevette is brought to Warbaby, the Bridge locals surround them. The russian detectives and Rydell bring her to Warbaby, but Chevette's hoarse crying and terrified voice makes Rydell make a split decision and try to steal the car that Warbaby arrived in to escape with her. A local comes in to the fight, bashing one of Warbaby's men's skull into the grill of his car, but one of the detectives shoots and kills him. Chevette and Rydell steal the car and escape.

They drive to the compound of a secluded christian cult that worships old movies and TV shows, saying they preach the word of god. Rydell meets up with an old friend of his from his old job to use a VR-like headset to call for help. Rydell then uses the headset to call the Republic of Desire, an infamous hacker group who's number he found from Chevette's ex. The hackers were at first unintrested, but once he told them about the plans to change San Francisco's buildings and start over, they decided to help him. Together, they planned to set up the detectives and Warbaby by hacking into the Death Star, a police sattelite used to identify crimes and dispatch police. When Rydell and Chevette leaves, they are met by an old woman who Rydell met on the airplane earlier, driving a rented RV. That night, while sleeping, the old woman dissapears, and Loveless captures them. Loveless asks Chevette to get him a coke from the minifridge in the RV, while he explains more about his role in their current issue and why he's hunting them. Chevette slips drugs in his drink, and he goes crazy, screaming and slamming his gun into his crotch. He falls out of the RV, and Rydell and Chevette escape.

Rydell sets up a meeting with Warbaby, and when Warbaby arrives, police drones arrest him and his men. Chevette and Rydell's friend, who tagged along, are attacked by Loveless, but Rydell uses a stun gun to knock him out. Then, an agent from a TV show called Cops in Trouble offers to give Rydell, Chevette, and Rydell's friend help on any court cases that arises due to their actions, and promises they will be ok, and will also become famous and possibly rich from it (due to Rydell's ex-cop status. Earlier in the book, they contact Rydell after he lost his job, but dropped him when a more profitable case appeared for them.)

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