Neuromancer: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Molly has taken Case to a room in the Chiba Hilton Hotel. She suggests he drink a cup of coffee, and he obliges. When Armitage, Molly’s boss, enters the room, he startles Case, who swings his mug at him but misses. Unfazed, Armitage begins his spiel. Case notices Armitage wears an earring, which he recognizes as belonging to men in the Special Forces.

Armitage offers Case a deal—he says they’ve made a profile of Case that says his reckless behavior will probably kill him in a month, and if it doesn’t, he will need a new pancreas within a year. Armitage promises Case he can correct his neural damage, if Case will agree to work for him as a jockey. Case doesn’t believe him, but listens to the terms of their hypothetical contract anyway.

The next day, Sunday, Molly takes Case to a clinic in Chiba. He has decided to work with Armitage in exchange for reconstructive surgery. As they wait outside, Molly explains Armitage is paying for the surgery with the new program he’s brought them to use to fix Case’s nervous system. Case is nervous, and makes small talk with Molly. Molly stays it’s funny talking to Case; because of his profile, she feels like she already knows him. He doesn’t like this.

Molly has worked for Armitage for a few months, but when Case presses her for information, she explains she’s just a working girl with no true allegiance to her boss. She explains, “What I always think about first, Case, is my own sweet ass.” Still, she discloses that Armitage is newly wealthy, and she suspects the money is coming from his employer, but she doesn’t know who it is. The anesthesiologist interrupts them, ushering Case inside.

Case wakes up on Wednesday, three days later. His neck and spine hurt. Molly is lying beside him in a coffin in Cheap Hotel. Seeing that he’s awake, she passes him water. He sits up groggily, explaining, “I gotta punch deck.” She laughs and explains he can’t hook himself up to the matrix for eight days at least, allowing his nervous system to heal.

Case wonders why Molly isn’t with Armitage, back in the Hilton, and she straddles him in response. They begin to kiss and then have sex. Case describes his orgasm as “flaring blue in the timeless space, a vastness like the matrix, where the faces were shredded and blown away down hurricane corridors…”

The next day, Case goes to talk to Julie. Molly follows along, under order to watch him. Case wants to see Julie, and lies that he has “tight friends” who might “die” if he doesn’t talk to them privately. Molly correctly guesses Case just wants to “check us out with your smuggler,” but gives him five minutes.

Julie greets Case with a gun in his hand, explaining he’s “just taking care.” Case wants a history lesson, and asks about Armitage. Julie looks Armitage up on a laptop, but announces Armitage has managed to block himself from Julie’s servers. Case then asks about Screaming Fist. Julie explains it was a cover-up like Watergate—the American government knew about Russian defenses, but sent in soldiers to test new technology anyway.

As Case leaves, Julie says he spent the war in Lisbon. He wasn’t fighting, and jokes, “wonderful what a war can do for one’s markets.”

After seeing Julie, Case finds Wage and pays off the last of his debt with money gifted from Armitage. Case takes Molly to the Chat, and when he takes out an octagon of dex, she informs him that his new pancreas and the plugs in his liver will prevent him from getting high.

Molly wants to go see a fight, and drags Case with her to an arena by the water, where holographic representations of two knife fighters loom large over the crowd. Molly is captivated, but Case is uncomfortable, and goes to find some food. As he stands by the food stalls, Case suddenly is overcome by the fear that the operation failed, and he is “still here, still meat,” everything just “some pathetic fantasy.” He begins to cry.

Suddenly, Linda Lee rushes past Case. Reflexively, he runs after her. A boy trips him and tries to stab him, but Molly appears, shooting the boy with her fletcher. Case gets up and begins to walk under the seats of the stadium, looking for Linda. Eventually, he finds her body. He keeps walking until he runs into Molly again. He can hear someone else dying behind her. She announces the fight is over, and that “friends of your tight friend […] killed your girl for you.” Molly explains that when Linda Lee tried to sell the RAM she stole from Case, Julie decided it was easier to kill her than buy the data. She passes Case a “blood-flecked bag of preserved ginger.