How It All Goes Down
- Y.T. and Hiro talk on the phone. She tells him about her delivery, and all the people who were speaking in tongues in the same way but in different locations.
- Hiro consults the Librarian because it's time for some hardcore research.
- They cover glossolalia (speaking in tongues), which is found all over the world, although it's primarily associated with Pentecostal Christians.
- Next they talk about early Christianity and Judaism. Apparently there were some super-strict Jews, the Pharisees, who adhered closely to the letter of their religion. Other Jews, the Essenes, were big on purification, believing that parasites and demons were essentially the same.
- On to ancient Sumerian stuff: Nam-shub is speech with magical force, like an incantation. For all that their civilization was really advanced, at one point their language just disappeared. Were they conquered? Genocide? No one's sure.
- Y.T. calls Hiro back, saying she followed the Clint on the monorail and saw him go into a black cube twenty miles long on each side. Hiro's best guess is that L. Bob Rife owns it.