For
free! You help us with this network -- all we want from you is
permission to stick up a box over your sign and patch it into your
power, you won't even know it's there -- and those customers won't be
antisocial, they'll be socializing, over the network."
"You think that's what they'll do if I help them with the network?"
He started to say, *Absolutely*, but bit it back, because Larry's
bullshit antennae were visibly twitching. "No, but some of them
will. You'll see them in here, talking, typing, typing, talking. That's
how it goes. The point is that we don't know how people are going to use
this network yet, but we know that it's a social benefit."
"You want to use my electricity?"
"Well, yeah."
"So it's not free."
"Not entirely," Alan said. "You got me there."
"Aha!" the Greek said.
"Look, if that's a deal breaker, I'll personally come by every day and
give you a dollar for the juice. Come on, Larry -- the box we want to
put in, it's just a repeater to extend the range of the network. The
network already reaches to here, but your box will help it go
farther. You'll be the first merchant in the Market to have one. I came
to you first because you've been here the longest. The others look up to
you. They'll see it and say, 'Larry has one, it must be all right.'"
The Greek downed his coffee and smoothed his mustache.
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