Summary
Molly, Case, and Armitage go to the Sprawl—a commercialized American link of cities that brings together “BAMA,” the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis—that Case recognizes as his former home. Case starts to suspect that Armitage used to be in the Special Forces or was a policeman. Armitage reveals that Case has fifteen toxic sacs bonded to his arteries; if Case doesn’t do the job that Armitage hired him for, the sacs will dissolve and reverse the neural repair that Armitage gave Case.
Molly and Case head to Manhattan to have breakfast and Molly takes Case to get a scan from “the Finn” that can confirm whether the toxic sacs Armitage threatened him with are real. The scans are inconclusive. Molly then tells Case about the job Armitage wants them on: stealing the “construct” (a personality record, kept after someone’s death) of Dixie Flatline, also known as McCoy Pauley—Casey’s former mentor, also a cyber-cowboy. Molly reveals to Case that although she’s tried to uncover Armitage’s real identity, she hasn’t been successful. All she has discovered is that no one under the name of Armitage took part in the military operation he said he was in, Operation Screaming Fist.
After Molly and Case hack into cyberspace and steal Pauley’s ROM, the Finn—a fence, or mover of illicit goods—comes and picks it up, and hints to Case that he is setting up to hack into Molly next.
Case enters cyberspace and for the first time, narrates the experience for the reader as he enters Molly’s simulation stimulation, otherwise known as simstim. Later, Case and Molly deliver a plan for a cyberattack to Armitage and deliver Pauley’s “Sense/Net” to Armitage (Sense/Net is what keeps the data libraries and files of important personalities, like Pauley’s/Dixie Flatline’s).
After a complicated heist that involves collaborating with a local gang called the Panther Moderns, Case and Molly are able to hack into Sense/Net using programs that Case designed; Molly hacks into the locker where Flatline’s construct is stored, and Armitage pays the leader of the Panther Moderns for their help. Case goes out for a walk but is interrupted by Lupus Yonderboy, the leader of the Panther Moderns. Lupus gives Case a message: “Wintermute.” Case has no idea what it means.
Case tells Molly the message and they go to meet with the Finn. The Finn tells Case and Molly that Wintermute is an AI—artificial intelligence—built for Tessier-Ashpool, a large corporation. Finn tells Molly and Case about another fence named Smith, who collected chips that were more akin to art and were highly prized by collectors. Smith once came across a sculpture of a man that had a synthetic voice attached to it, but when Smith tried to sell it, he was visited by an assassin with ties to Japanese gangs. Smith later learned that the assassin had killed Jimmy, the man who had originally given the bust to Smith. Smith and Finn discovered that the assassin had been hired by Tessier-Ashpool SA. Molly tells Case to figure out the connection between Armitage and Wintermute. In order to accomplish this, Case decides to use the ROM construct of Dixie Flatline.
In cyberspace, Dixie and Case discover Armitage’s real identity: Colonel Willis Corto. Case learns that Corto had been part of a high-stakes mission called “Operation Screaming Fist” flying into Russia, but had been injured after a virus infected his airplane, resulting in Corto being shot out of the sky and losing his sight, legs, and jaw. Corto underwent intensive reconstructive surgery in order to testify on television about the suppression of reports covering the failed operation. Following the largely inconclusive trial, Corto fell through the cracks, resorting to violence and criminal activity in order to fulfill his desire for revenge, periodically surfacing in a variety of countries for crimes he committed or in psychiatric units. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Corto became a subject in an experimental program that reversed schizophrenia with cybernetic models; Corto was the only success in the experiment and vanished from any records following his release.
Armitage calls Case and Molly to tell them they’re being sent to Istanbul. When they arrive, they meet up with the Finn and Armitage. Case tries to ask Armitage for more information about their mission and Armitage sends Case and Molly to meet a man named Terzibashijan in order to find out more about the man they’re tracking down, Riviera. Terzibashijan takes Case and Molly to try and track down Riveria, who they locate in an alley outside a local bazaar. However, the encounter doesn’t turn out as planned and Terzibashijan is shot in the hand. Molly tells Case that Riviera is a sociopath addicted to taking advantage of women. Case and Molly take a car back to Armitage and Case reveals to Molly that he thinks Wintermute pulled Corto out of the Parisian hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Armitage sends Case and Molly to a new location—Freeside—but as they leave, Wintermute calls Case and tells him it’s time for them to talk.
Analysis
Part II of Neuromancer continues many of the themes that were introduced in the novel’s initial chapters. The novel’s dystopian setting begins to take a clearer shape as Molly and Case travel across the world in what appears to be a matter of days, sometimes hours, going from Chiba City to the Sprawl to Istanbul and finally, to a place called Freeside. Although it may at first seem like many of these cities blur together, it is important to note how each one retains a distinct atmosphere, especially within Case’s own memories and imagination.
The Sprawl is one of the few cities that holds sentimental value for Case. Although Case’s narrative perspective is frequently without significant emotions, it is the Sprawl that conjures up feelings of homesickness and nostalgia, which he experiences most strongly as he and Molly leave the Sprawl and see it in its entirety. The Sprawl also serves as a physical metaphor for American commercialism; where Chiba was connected by crime and electric, technological descriptors, the Sprawl is defined by its commercial markets, stores, and malls. Familiar American cities like New York and Chicago are strung together by strips of stores, blurring the geographic distinctions between states in favor of a literal “sprawl” of a marketplace.
Part II also allows the reader to experience the first scene that occurs within cyberspace. As Case goes to track down Dixie Flatline, he loses hours and days almost imperceptibly. When he emerges, he is struck by a debilitating hangover. We begin to understand how the experience of cyberspace mirrors a drug-induced altered state, and how that experience can be addictive for someone like Case. With little family or connections of his own, all he has is his job as a cyber cowboy.
Another crucial development that Part II reveals is Corto’s (Armitage’s) backstory. Corto’s backstory introduces the novel’s focus on government failure. Corto, formerly an accomplished military colonel with high status, is injured in a secret operation that leaves him with life-threatening injuries. After his plane is shot down, Corto manages to escape across the Finnish border. He eventually ends up in a Parisian mental hospital, where he is diagnosed with schizophrenia and later taken back to the United States in order to take part in an experimental psychological treatment. Although he is able to undergo treatment and his jaw, legs, and sight are restored, he is only allowed those surgeries if he testifies on television; when he receives them, it is with the caveat that they are being done in order to make him presentable for broadcast. The government is only willing to assist Corto in order to ensure its own image remains presentable. Despite his service, he is discarded and forgotten by the very system for whose sake he almost lost his life.
Through Corto’s backstory, we also learn how easy it can be to vanish within this dystopian world as someone living on the outskirts of society—where crime and violence thrive, unseen and barely trackable. After testifying, the government covers up the failed operation, and Corto begins to seek revenge on his own. He takes part in a heroin-trafficking ring, shoots a Russian spy, and eventually takes on his identity as “Armitage.” Corto's tragic backstory demonstrates the novel's focus on post-capitalist failures of government intervention within individual life, as the government uses Corto for its own ends before discarding him.
