The clubhouse of the Los Angeles County Patent Bar was dimly lit that afternoon although it was a sunny ninety-degree day outside. The only source of illumination hung weakly behind the bar as the bartender put a bottle of wine on the counter. The room was empty. The barkeep walked away from the bottle and gazed around.

The door to the room opened and two men came in, speaking to each other in hushed tones. Webb and Lopez, he recognized as they got closer to the bar. Good people, just talked too much and thought too little.

"How may I help you?" offered the bartender as they each took a seat by the high stools at the bar.

"I'll have a Chardonnay," ordered Webb.

"Please," added Lopez on Webb's behalf, "Santa Barbara, if you don't mind."

"So a glass for each of you?"

"Yes, please," clarified Webb.

The bartender looked behind him and found the bottle right in front of him. He silently thanked his lucky eye, took the bottle out, set it on the counter, and deftly uncorked it. He got out two glasses, and poured wine into both.

"If you need more, tell me."

"Thank you," said Webb, as he held the glass to his lips and took a swig.

"Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!" Webb exclaimed after he swallowed the wine. "Never seen anything like that in my seventeen years of practice!"

"How?" Lopez asked.

"A revolutionary invention - I kid you not - that could make all of its inventors a million dollars each over the life of its patent. But they've all decided not to patent it!"

"Revolutionary? Well if that word hasn't been overused in our industry!"

Webb guffawed. "Let me tell you what this invention is. It's simple. A way to link all the computers in the country together, so that every computer can utilize the strengths of every other one!"

"How would you do that? Are they compatible?"

"That's the problem this invention overcomes. The Interface Message Processor; the I-M-P, IMP. The IMPs communicate with each other in one universal protocol - sort of like a standard. They're interpreters between different computer languages."

"How do the messages pass?"

"That's the other innovation. Through the phone lines. Can you see a problem with that, though?"

"A problem? I can't."

"When you call someone, you get a private line just for the two of you, right?"

"I suppose."

"But that's terribly inefficient with any sort of computer network. For such a network to be useful in any way, operators need to be able to easily communicate with all the other computers in it, and you can't do that when a computer can only communicate with one other computer. And so what it does is it splits the messages up into little 'packets'. The packets then get sent over the telephone network. This way, there's no need to lay down dedicated lines, and it's much more efficient as well."

"I wouldn't have thought of that! Very elegant."

"Me neither. People have been talking about a patent. ARPA - the military research people they're doing it for - wants them to get one. I told them I would help them do everything. Apply for the patent, worldwide, write all the necessary documents, defend against all comers from anywhere in the world. And all I wanted was a 1% share of anything they made from it - which would still be five figures a year. They said no."

"Why?"

"Something about 'the benefit of all'."

"If they want to 'benefit all', they can wait until the patent expires."

"That's what I told them! But they wouldn't take no for an answer. I told them the vultures are circling. I said I'm only there to make sure they get the fortune they've earned. But a fortune is not what they're after, apparently."

"What are they after?"

"Something new..."