Neuromancer by William Gibson

Part 1 - Chiba City Blues

Chapter 1
- Case in a bar with Ratz, whore, etc.
- Case longs for cyberspace
- FLASHBACK: Case's nervous system damaged by the "wealthier thieves"
- He had lately started "running the loosest deals in the street"/being careless
- FLASHBACK: First meeting with Linda Lee
- Talks w/ Linda about Wage's death threat
- Goes to see Julie Jones
- Buys weapon ("cobra") as someone is following him
- Sees Zone, then starts running till he jumps out of game house window
- Goes to Cheap Hotel; finds nobody is buying his products
- Confrontation with Wage - he's not trying to kill him
- Goes back to Cheap Hotel; Linda has stolen his RAM; mysterious woman (Molly) wants to take him to her employer

Chapter 2
- Case meets Armitage; offers to fix him in exchange for some sort of job
- Soon goes into surgery; Molly is always at his side
- After surgery, has sexual encounter with Molly at Cheap Hotel
- Molly follows him around after he gets up and moving; sees Julius to check Armitage out --> nothing
- They go to a fight (i.e. gladiator fight) at Sammi's
- Sees Linda Lee, who is being chased; someone tries to kill Case; Molly saves him, Linda dies, apparently for trying to sell Case's RAM (it wasn't worth the buyer's while to pay her)
- Molly & Case go to Armitage

Part 2 - The Shopping Expedition

Chapter 3
- Armitage puts them in a hotel and gives Case some great hardware
- Tells him about the mycotoxin that has been implanted into him; if he did Armitage's bidding for a while, Armitage would give him a cure; first, he must get Flatline's construct (a virtual construction of Case's dead mentor, Dixie, which retains all his knowledge, etc and can help Case)
- Molly/Case wander town, go to a friend of Molly's (Finn) who scans them to see what Armitage has implanted and then they talk about the whole thing (who is Armitage, their job, why Case, etc)
- 8 days after operation, Case "jacks in" to cyberspace; Finn brings him a "simtsim" unit

Chapter 4
- Case uses the simtsim to hook into cyberspace and live in the body of Molly (who is aware)
- Works over a week to get some sort of plan to get into "Sense/Net"'s systems formulated
- Molly gets the help of the "Panther Moderns" street gang group to carry out the operation
- They carry out the break in into Sense/Net; Panther Moderns create terror scare while Molly goes in and Case does the hacking
- It is successful and they get Flatline's construct, though Molly breaks her thigh in the process
- Panther Modern leader gives him a message, "Wintermute"

Chapter 5
- Case tells Molly the message and they go to see Finn
- Finn tells the story of Smith, whose worker had discovered some sort of artificial intelligence tool
- The tool was actually the figurehead of the AI that runs the company T-A, which runs Armitage
- Case goes back to his loft, jacks into his mentor, Flatline's, construct to talk

Chapter 6
- Gets records from an info account of Armitage's that Molly had the number to; from the records sees FLASHBACK Armitage's history (fails mission into Russia; needs extensive surgery to put him back together; testifies in a trial the way he is told to; goes off on his own through various, mischevous lifestyles; ends with being diagnosed schizophrenic and fitted with a programmable chip that controls him)
- Armitage calls and tells them they're going to Istanbul

Chapter 7
- They arrive, and they go to find a subject with some sort of special implants that allow for intriguing powers
- They get to the bazaar (Molly, Finn, Case, the Armenian) and meet some kind of monster (is actually Riviera, who is using said powers to be menacing)
- They employ Riviera
- Wintermute tries to contact Case via phone; Case doesn't talk

Part 3 - Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne

Chapter 8
- They (Molly, Riviera, Case, Armitage) arrive on (planet?) Zion
- They settle in a hotel
- A zionite takes them to the elders, who say Wintermute told them to help Case's party (they think Wintermute is some sort of prophet; it had told them that Case's party would be a useful tool in the "Final Days")

Chapter 9
- The zionite is taking them somewhere, meanwhile Case jacks in
- He finds Wintermute in the Swiss area of cyberspace, and Wintermute "attacks" him
- He finds himself in a matrix created by Wintermute, where they talk (Wintermute takes the form of Julius Deane)
- Case shoots him before they are done speaking
- He learns that Wintermute likes to improvise, Armitage/Corto's story is real, and Wintermute went through great pains to assemble the current team

Chapter 10
- Case had flatlined while talking to Wintermute, but afterward he is fine
- He gets some rest when they arrive at their destination
- He recalled a dream about exterminating a wasp nest labeled T-A with some sort of flamethrower
- He goes somewhere with a zionite, then returns to his hotel where Molly is sleeping
- He goes out and finds a drug dealer which has some sort of drug which helps him get high despite his pancreas arrangement (during the surgery to repair his nervous system, Armitage had also made his system bypass his pancreas so he couldn't get high)

Chapter 11
- All 4 head to a restaurant where Riviera puts on a holographic show involving brutality and sexual acts with Molly
- Case leaves to go vomit, and then returns to find Riviera and Molly gone
- He goes to his place, gets Flatline to locate Molly, Wintermute tries to convince him to stop, and he heads with Cath and Bruce (drug dealers he happened to meet in his free time) to the cubicles where she supposedly is
- These cubicles are a brothel, although the women in it are all temporarily brainwashed with some sort of chip
- Molly is there "to meditate", but she recounts to Case how she got her starting capital (for surgeries, etc) at a place like this, also notes that she wants to kill Riviera

Chapter 12
- Case goes to "Rue Jules Verne," an avenue
- Straylight (T-A headquarters) is there
- He heads to a bar where he meets Cath, who talks to him about 3Jane, a bored woman who is in the lineage of T-A's family ownership
- Cath gives him some sort of drug, and as he walks away feeling woozy, she screams "Fuck you, you rip-off shit" (I don't know why?)
- Eventually he feels a little better and returns to his hotel, where he is arrested by Turing (the organization that monitors the power of AIs)


Part 4 - The Straylight Run

Chapter 13
- The Turing people interrogate Case
- They talk about what he's been doing, and mention Wintermute's plan which is to break out of Turing's restrictions and merge with his brother AI, Neuromancer (Case knew about this plan awhile ago, I forget where he learned it)
- They start to take Case somewhere, but Wintermute uses his powers to use the environment to kill of the 3 Turing people and Case is left free

Chapter 14
- Case returns to the spot where his computer ("Hosaka") is located and jacks in
- Talks to Dixie and prepares Armitage's Chinese Virus program that will act upon Wintermute (to help him break the Turing restrictions)
- Wintermute takes over his cyberspace and they talk again
- Wintermute takes Case into Straylight in cyberspace (which to Case is blurry because he has no "memory" of seeing it; Wintermute is doing his best to construct it for him)
- Shows him the room where someone (Molly) must get and say a "magic word" which Wintermute does not know; at the same time Case/Flatline must ride the Chinese Virus in; results will be "I don't exist, after that. I cease" (i.e. he will then be part of a whole entity with Neuromancer)

Chapter 15
- Case gets back to normal cyberspace and checks on Molly using their simtsim link
- She tells him a story about Johnny, the first man she had settled down with
- The Yakuza (military?) were after him for burning them on a deal
- They ended up killing him
- Molly said she never really cared about anyone after that (implied except Case?)
- Molly is being guided by Wintermute through Straylight
- First she finds a key
- As she keeps going, she ignores Wintermute's instruction and runs right into an Ashpool family member
- He claims to have been using all the alchohol near him to committ suicide, but soon just falls asleep and Molly takes his gun, shoots him, and leaves

Chapter 16
- Molly continues her journey to find that room
- Meanwhile Case is working on the virus with Flatline
- It is revealed that Straylight is aware that the Ashpool died and is sending another one to be at Straylight; Case/Flatline hope to finish the project before he gets there
- Armitage shows up in cyberspace, except he is no longer Armitage; he has regained memory of being Corto and acts accordingly
- Case and Maelcum (a zionite) enter onto Armitage's "boat" (I think these are spaceships) where he is presumably trying to take off (Case/Maelcum had previously been sitting on their own, smaller boat where the Hosaka is located)
- Case is worried that if Corto takes off, he won't be able to stop the mycotoxin from devouring his nervous system again
- Turns out that Wintermute had Armitage try to take off with "an open hatch," which resulted in the death of Armitage (Case knew this was going to occur, that's why he was upset)

Chapter 17
- Case watches Molly chase after a drone that should lead her to Riviera for a while (Note that Riviera's job is to coerce an Ashpool member, 3Jane, into giving that magic word they need)
- He returned to watch the progress of the Chinese Virus, and Wintermute showed up next to him and Flatline
- They talk about Corto, and then Wintermute says he'll still make good on his promises of saving Case's nervous system and erasing Flatline's construct
- Case goes back to watching Molly proceed further into Straylight

Chapter 18
- Molly finds Riviera, 3Jane.....and Hideo, a ninja
- They capture her, and her leg is broken as Case watches on
- He jacks out and Wintermute lays out a new plan: Case and Maelcum are to go in after her to finish the job
- Case slowly progresses through everything; Maelcum is getting them to Straylight, Flatline is working on injecting the virus, and Case is checking on Molly (who is now unconscious)
- They get to Straylight's dock

Chapter 19
- Maelcum and Case get their computer hooked in on the inside of Straylight
- Meanwhile 3Jane is talking to Molly, says she can't give her the code
- Maelcum and Case head towards where 3Jane/Riviera/Hideo are via service cart

Chapter 20
- Neuromancer (the other AI) gets him flatlined into a makeshift Chiba
- He meets Linda Lee again who is apparently convinced that this is all pretty real

Chapter 21
- Next day, apparently the ice (aka Turing restrictions) is breaking, according to Case
- He finds and talks to Neuromancer in the form of a boy; Neuromancer doesn't want him to finish the job so he won't let him leave
- He gets out and Maelcum is there tending to him; he had gotten Case out by injecting him with drugs

Chapter 22
- Maelcum and Case enter further into Straylight and encounter the ninja and Riviera
- Riviera tries to kill Case but misses (Riviera has gone rogue); the ninja attacks Riviera's weapon because 3Jane expresses that she wants Case/Molly alive
- Riviera blinds the ninja, who then chases after him with bow and arrow
- Case, 3Jane, Molly, and Maelcum all willingly cooperate and head up to the room they need to be in

Chapter 23
- The virus breaks the ice, and Case now just needs the word to finish the job
- 3Jane doesn't seem to be willing to give it, but then she does (we don't hear what it is)
- Case sees memories of the past few weeks flash before him, and the job is done; Neuromancer and Wintermute are united

Coda - Departure and Arrival (Epilogue)

Chapter 24
- Wintermute/Neuromancer talks to him one last time through a screen: he doesn't seem all that ridiculously powerful and is minding his own business talking to other AIs in the universe
- Case buys a computer, a ticket back to Japan, and a new pancreas/liver so he can get high again
- He's living happily with a new girlfriend a new job, and still money from Wintermute's job
- "He never saw Molly again"