The word appears 3 times.
The book presents the Sumerian language as the firmware programming language for the brainstem, which is supposedly functioning as the BIOS for the human brain. According to characters in the book, the goddess Asherah is the personification of a linguistic virus, similar to a computer virus. The god Enki created a counter-program which he called a nam-shub that caused all of humanity to speak different languages as a protection against Asherah (a re-interpretation of the ancient Near Eastern story of the Tower of Babel).
"Well, sir, I'm sorry to disturb you in the middle of your conversation with this gentleman here. But me and my friends were just wondering. Are you a lazy shiftless watermelon-eating black-ass nigger, or a sneaky v.d.-infected gook?"
"There is one problem with New South Africa," the guy says. "Don't mean to sound unpatriotic, but it's true."
"And what is the problem?" Hiro says.
"There's no niggers, gooks, or kikes there to beat the shit out of."
"Ah. That is a problem," Hiro says. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For announcing your intentions - giving me the right to do this."
Then Hiro cuts his head off.
"What if I need more consular services?"
"I can always go out and tell people," the man says, "that a nigger with swords is out raping Chinese refugees."
"Hmm. This isn't exactly the best service I've ever had at a Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong."