Neuromancer
Chapters - William Gibson
Part 1: Chiba City Blues
Part One of Neuromancer, set in Chiba City. Case is a burned-out console cowboy whose nervous system was damaged in retaliation for stealing from an employer; he scrapes a living in Night City until Molly Millions recruits him for Armitage.
Chapter 1: 1
Case, a washed-up console cowboy stranded in Chiba City's Night City, learns from his ex-girlfriend Linda Lee that a dealer named Wage may want him dead. Desperate and self-destructive, he arms himself and wanders Ninsei, pursued by a mysterious dark-haired figure in mirrored glasses. After a failed confrontation with Wage at the Chatsubo bar, Case returns to his coffin hotel to find the pursuer waiting: a razorgirl named Molly Millions, who disarms him and explains she's collecting him for her employer. Linda has stolen Case's stash of hot RAM and vanished.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Ratz, Linda Lee, Julius Deane, Wage, Lonny Zone
Chapter 2: 2
Molly Millions brings Case to the Chiba Hilton to meet Armitage, a mysterious ex-Special Forces operative who offers to repair Case's neural damage in exchange for his hacking skills. Case undergoes surgery at a Chiba clinic that restores his ability to jack into cyberspace. While recovering, he and Molly grow closer. Case visits his fence Julius Deane to investigate Armitage's background and learns about Screaming Fist, a botched military operation. At a knife-fighting arena called Sammi's, Linda Lee is killed by assassins sent by Deane, and Molly saves Case from a razor-wielding attacker. Case and Molly leave Chiba with Armitage.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Ratz, Linda Lee, Wage, Lonny Zone·Mentioned: Julius Deane
Part 2: The Shopping Expedition
Part Two of Neuromancer, opening in the Sprawl. Armitage has Case's nervous system repaired and sets him to work on a Sense/Net heist to steal the Dixie Flatline construct, then takes the team to Istanbul to recruit Peter Riviera.
Chapter 3: 3
Case and Molly Millions arrive in the Sprawl, where Armitage has set them up in a loft with top-of-the-line hacking equipment including an Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 deck. Armitage reveals he has bonded toxin sacs to Case's arteries as insurance, giving Case a ticking deadline. Case jacks into cyberspace for the first time since his repair and weeps with joy. Molly takes him to visit the The Finn, a fence who scans them for implants and bugs. In the Finn's secure room, Molly reveals they must steal the Dixie Flatline's ROM personality construct from Sense/Net, and that someone called the Panther Moderns will help create a diversion.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, The Finn·Mentioned: Peter Riviera, Dixie Flatline
Chapter 4: 4
Case spends days mapping Sense/Net's ice defences while testing the simstim link to Molly Millions's sensorium. The Panther Moderns execute an elaborate diversion, flooding Sense/Net with hoax terror threats about Blue Nine in the ventilation system, causing mass panic. Case hacks through Sense/Net's security while Molly physically infiltrates the building, fighting security guards and breaking her leg. She retrieves the Dixie Flatline construct from the research library vault. The Moderns help her escape the chaotic lobby. Lupus Yonderboy, the Modern leader, later delivers a cryptic message to Case: the single word 'Wintermute'.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Lupus Yonderboy·Mentioned: Dixie Flatline
Chapter 5: 5
Molly Millions recovers from her broken leg at a medical facility in Baltimore while the Finn reveals that Wintermute is a Túring-registered artificial intelligence built for Tessier-Ashpool S.A. The Finn tells Case and Molly about a fence named Smith who once handled a stolen cloisonne head - a computer terminal - from the Tessier-Ashpool estate in Straylight, at the tip of the Freeside spindle. A vatgrown ninja assassin came to retrieve it, killing the original thief. Molly gives Case coordinates for Armitage's London database, and the Panther Moderns provide a lead on Armitage's true identity.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, The Finn, Dixie Flatline, Smith·Mentioned: Wintermute, Hideo
Chapter 6: 6
Case and the Dixie Flatline construct hack into Armitage's London database and discover his true identity: Colonel Willis Corto, a survivor of Screaming Fist who was betrayed by his superiors, horribly wounded, and driven insane through a series of violent episodes. Corto was eventually cured of catatonic schizophrenia in a French hospital through a cybernetic therapy program - the only success in the experiment. Case realizes that Wintermute rebuilt Corto's shattered psyche into the persona of Armitage. Armitage calls to announce they're leaving for Istanbul immediately.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Dixie Flatline
Chapter 7: 7
In Istanbul, Case and Molly Millions meet Terzibashjian, a corrupt military intelligence agent who has been surveilling their next recruit: Peter Peter Riviera, a holographic projector artist with cocaine and meperidine addictions. In a bazaar alley, they ambush Riviera, who projects a horrifying monster illusion as a distraction while trying to escape with a hidden pistol. Molly subdues him with a toxin dart. The Finn examines Riviera's implants. Case tells Molly the Corto story, and they speculate that Wintermute is the true puppet master. Armitage shows them a brochure: their next destination is Freeside, the orbital resort owned by Tessier-Ashpool.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Peter Riviera, The Finn, Terzibashjian·Mentioned: Wintermute
Part 3: Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne
Part Three of Neuromancer, set at the orbital colony Freeside. The team prepares for the Straylight run while Case begins to glimpse the shape of Wintermute's plan and the Tessier-Ashpool clan that owns the AI he is being hired to liberate.
Chapter 8: 8
The team transfers through Paris to the JAL shuttle headed for orbit. At the Istanbul Hilton, a phone rings for Case - it is Wintermute, calling him directly, but Case hangs up in fear. They stop at Zion, a Rastafarian space colony, where Case practices zero-gravity operations and meets the Dixie Flatline construct, which asks Case to erase it when the job is done. Armitage briefs them using a hologram of Freeside and Villa Straylight. The two surviving Zion Founders tell Case and Molly Millions that Wintermute has contacted them and instructed them to provide Maelcum and his tug Marcus Garvey for the mission.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Peter Riviera, Wintermute, Aerol, Maelcum, Dixie Flatline
Chapter 9: 9
Aboard the tug Marcus Garvey en route to Freeside, Case and the Dixie Flatline attempt to probe Wintermute's AI in Berne. They approach the white cube of ice, but a dark sphere detaches and pursues them. Case flatlines and is pulled into a construct of Night City where he encounters a simulated Linda Lee. Wintermute breaks the illusion and uses the construct of Julius Deane to explain itself: it is one half of a potential entity, a decision-maker that assembled Armitage from Corto's ruins. Wintermute warns that Corto is unstable and will soon crack, and that its other lobe - the Rio AI - is aware of their plans.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Wintermute, Dixie Flatline, Maelcum, Linda Lee, Julius Deane·Mentioned: Ratz
Chapter 10: 10
Case and Molly Millions arrive on Freeside and settle into the Intercontinental hotel. Case struggles with the disorienting artificial gravity and environment of the orbital colony. He reflects on the Wintermute encounter and the death of Julius Deane in the construct. The memory of the wasp nest from his childhood becomes linked to Tessier-Ashpool's nature. Molly insists on coating Case with bronzer to blend in with the tanned Freeside tourists. Armitage and Peter Riviera join them for breakfast, where Riviera demonstrates his projection abilities with petty subliminal tricks.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Peter Riviera, Cath, Bruce·Mentioned: Linda Lee
Chapter 11: 11
Case visits Marcus Garvey where he receives a Chinese Kuang Grade Mark Eleven virus program designed to penetrate AI defences. The Dixie Flatline examines it and confirms it's a slow virus that could take six hours to crack military ice. Case returns to Freeside and meets Cath, a young tourist, and her partner Bruce, who supply him with betaphenethylamine - a drug that bypasses his modified pancreas. At a fancy floating restaurant, Peter Riviera performs a disturbing holographic show called 'The Doll,' constructing and then being destroyed by a simulacrum of Molly Millions's body, dedicated to Lady 3Jane. Case spots 3Jane watching from a balcony. Molly vanishes, enraged.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Peter Riviera, Dixie Flatline, Maelcum, 3Jane, Cath, Bruce
Chapter 12: 12
Case searches for Molly Millions, enlisting Bruce and Cath to drive him to the cubicle district where she's hiding. He finds her receiving a mission briefing from Wintermute on a monitor. She tells him the story of her past as a meat puppet whose cut-out chip malfunctioned, causing her to become aware during violent acts performed with her body by clients. She killed a senator and had to flee. Peter Riviera's show deliberately triggered these memories. Wintermute projects Lonny Zone on Case's hotel screen, taunting him about Linda Lee's death and his emotional detachment. Case walks Freeside all night in a drug-fuelled rage, and sees Linda's face formed in the hologram sky at midnight.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Wintermute, Linda Lee, Lonny Zone, Cath, Bruce
Part 4: The Straylight Run
Part Four of Neuromancer, the Straylight run itself. Molly Millions infiltrates the Villa Straylight while Case rides her sensorium by simstim and pushes the Kuang virus against the Tessier-Ashpool ice from the matrix.
Chapter 13: 13
Returning to his room, Case finds three Túring Registry police agents - Michele, Roland, and Pierre - who arrest him for conspiracy to augment an artificial intelligence. They interrogate him about Armitage, Molly Millions, and the Sense/Net theft. Michele threatens extradition either to Switzerland for the AI trial or to the Sprawl for the Sense/Net riot that killed fourteen people. Before they can take him away, Wintermute intervenes: a drone microlight kills Pierre, and a robot gardener takes Roland. Michele is swept off a bridge. Case flees to the spindle dock where Aerol waits.
POV: Case·On page: Wintermute, Roland, Pierre·Mentioned: Armitage, Molly Millions
Chapter 14: 14
Case reaches Marcus Garvey, now grappled by Armitage's yacht Haniwa. The Dixie Flatline reports Armitage has ordered them to run immediately. Case slots the Chinese virus into his deck and the Kuang program begins its slow penetration of the Tessier-Ashpool ice. Flipping to simstim, Case follows Molly Millions as she enters Straylight through a freefall concrete tube. Wintermute appears in the matrix as the The Finn and shows Case the interior of Straylight, including the ceremonial head-terminal where someone must speak a code word. Wintermute explains it cannot know the word itself - Molly must get it from 3Jane and deliver it at exactly the right moment.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Wintermute, Dixie Flatline, Maelcum, Aerol, The Finn·Mentioned: Pierre
Chapter 15: 15
Through simstim, Case rides Molly Millions's sensorium as she navigates Straylight's maze of corridors, carpets, and museum cases. She tells him about Johnny, a former lover who was assassinated by the Yakuza. She picks a mechanical lock, finds a Chubb key hidden in a tool cabinet - a key Wintermute spent twenty years manoeuvring into place, killing an eight-year-old boy to keep its location secret. Molly explains what Wintermute told her about the Tessier-Ashpool family's decline. She encounters the elderly Ashpool, who has just woken from cryogenic sleep and killed a clone of 3Jane. After he passes out from drugs and drink, Molly kills him with a toxin dart.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Ashpool, Wintermute, Linda Lee, Bruce·Mentioned: 3Jane
Chapter 16: 16
Armitage appears on screen as his Corto personality resurfaces, raving about betrayal by General Girling and Screaming Fist. Through simstim, Case watches Molly Millions navigate a service bay in Straylight, led by a Braun micro-drone. Meanwhile, Maelcum reports that Armitage is issuing insane orders to fly to Finland. The Zion Founders tell Maelcum and Aerol to abandon the mission, but Case refuses to leave while Molly is inside Straylight. Maelcum stays with him out of warrior solidarity. Case confronts Corto through the video link, trying to get the toxin enzyme information, but Corto is lost in Screaming Fist delusions.
POV: Case·On page: Molly Millions, Armitage, Dixie Flatline, Maelcum, Wintermute