YT and Mr. Ng drive into the heavily-polluted, largely-unpopulated Sacrifice Zone. A sensor in the truck warns them that Snow Crash might be nearby, but it turns out that used steroid injections in “a little nest of discarded hypodermic needles” (171) have confused the sensor. Ng tells YT to buy some Snow Crash from a drug dealer and “throw it up into the air” (172). She notices that Ng has a “miniature helicopter” under his van. 

The drug dealer refers to himself as the “Undisputed King of the Ozone Destroyers” (174), or UKOD. He sells Snow Crash to YT, who immediately throws it at Mr. Ng’s hidden helicopter. Mr. Ng distracts the drug dealers with a bright flash of light and unleashes the Rat Thing robot guard dogs. After the brief, violent battle, Mr. Ng talks about the Rat Things with YT, explaining that they are made from a mixture of real dog parts and “radiothermal isotopes.” YT thinks that this is cruel, though Mr. Ng points out that he is also cybernetically enhanced. YT thinks about her own dog, Fido, who was stolen when she was young. She wonders whether Fido was turned into a Rat Thing. Unknown to her, this is exactly what happened.