Chapter 80. MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM pages 348 - 352
"'Business-class lounge for Air Asshole,' declared Inchmale, enthusiastically taking in the central area of the first floor of Bigend’s flat."
Chapter 80. MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM
Thinking back to "the single strangest thing I imagine I’ll ever see," Hollis wonders aloud to Inchmale about the Mongolian Death Worm ["a mascot for my anxiety" directing focus to "what I’m supposed to be most afraid of, now"] [227 characters]
Wikipedia article on the mythical Mongolian Death Worm
SInce Mongolia includes a large area of the Gobi desert, this seems more likely to be the source of William Gibson's inspiration (given his lack of television viewing) than the theory that this is an allusion to the sandworms in Frank Herbert's Dune proposed by Ed Park in his review of Spook Countryfor the LA Times.
UPDATE:
William Gibson has also said on this book tour that he does not read much fiction, so it is unclear if he has read Dune or not. He has also said in London, that he got the inspiration for the Pattern Recognition's Cayce Pollard character trait of a pathological aversion to logos and labels, simply by reading the titleof the book No Logo by Naomi Klein, and not by actually reading it.