diff --git a/include/vm_segment.h b/include/vm_segment.h
index 7a2f2a5..07c09ae 100644
--- a/include/vm_segment.h
+++ b/include/vm_segment.h
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ extern int vm_segment_fread(vm_segment *, FILE *, size_t, size_t);
 extern int vm_segment_read_map(vm_segment *, size_t, vm_segment_read_fn);
 extern int vm_segment_set(vm_segment *, size_t, vm_8bit);
 extern int vm_segment_write_map(vm_segment *, size_t, vm_segment_write_fn);
+extern vm_16bit vm_segment_get16(vm_segment *, size_t);
 extern vm_8bit vm_segment_get(vm_segment *, size_t);
 extern vm_segment *vm_segment_create(size_t);
 extern void vm_segment_free(vm_segment *);
diff --git a/src/vm_segment.c b/src/vm_segment.c
index 0c75bf0..fc0745e 100644
--- a/src/vm_segment.c
+++ b/src/vm_segment.c
@@ -146,6 +146,23 @@ vm_segment_get(vm_segment *segment, size_t index)
     return segment->memory[index];
 }
 
+/*
+ * Return a 16-bit value from a given address. This will read the byte
+ * at addr and the byte at addr+1, then fit those into a two-byte
+ * variable such that addr contains the most significant byte and addr+1
+ * contains the least significant byte.
+ */
+vm_16bit
+vm_segment_get16(vm_segment *segment, size_t addr)
+{
+    vm_16bit msb, lsb;
+
+    msb = (vm_16bit)vm_segment_get(segment, addr);
+    lsb = (vm_16bit)vm_segment_get(segment, addr+1);
+
+    return (msb << 8) | lsb;
+}
+
 /*
  * Copy a set of bytes from `src` (at `src_index`) to `dest` (at
  * `dest_index`), such that the range is `length` bytes long. Note that