Gesturing to one of his office chairs, Magus said, "Please have a seat, Calvin Dorfman."
"Hello, Magus," Calvin said. He sat down and looked at Magus wondering why he had been asked to come into the office.
"I've been working on your problem," Magus said.
Surprised, Calvin said, "I figured you had given up on it."
It seemed to Magus that everyone expected instant answers to complex problems. Trivial problems were easy to answer quickly, but a hard problem took time to solve. He said, "I wouldn't give up on a good problem like this one."
"So what's your solution?" Calvin asked.
"I haven't got one yet," Magus said.
Calvin asked, "So why did you ask me to come here?"
"Eventually, I will need you to sign these papers," Magus answered. He held up a stack of papers for Calvin to see.
"What are they?" Calvin asked suspiciously. He was beginning to wonder if Magus wasn't some sort of con man.
Magus answered, "This is a proposal to the Department of Agriculture to do a study of the nutrients in the water."
"I don't know what that has to do with me," Calvin said.
Magus said, "I put you down as the Principle Investigator."
"You did what?" Calvin asked.
"I put you in charge of a research program to measure nutrients up and down the east coast," Magus answered.
"Excuse me," Calvin said. "I'm not sure that I understood you correctly. You are putting me in charge of a research effort."
"Yes," Magus answered.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but that's crazy. All I've got is a high school degree," Calvin said.
"Your point is?" Magus asked.
"I can't be in charge of a research program. That requires scientists," Calvin said.
Magus said, "You won't be doing the science part. I have subcontracted a laboratory to do the water analysis. I have two biologists as paid consultants to do the impact analysis of nutrient levels on fish populations. A satellite imagery company will provide photographs of the coast in the visible and infrared spectrums. A former NASA climatologist will do the photographic analysis to establish algae levels and water temperatures. Poindexter over at Paladin Incorporated will do the data analysis."
"Uh," Calvin said slack jawed.
"You'll have to coordinate with fishermen from Maine down to the tip of Florida to get water samples at varying depths and various distances from shore. They'll have to make weekly measurements. Everyone will get paid for it, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal. In fact, it will augment their earnings quite nicely," Magus said.
"How much money are you talking about?" Calvin asked. This sounded expensive.
"Twenty million dollars over a two year period," Magus answered.
That was a lot of money. Still trying to wrap his head around everything Magus had told him, Calvin said, "I have no clue what you are trying to accomplish."
Magus said, "Did you know that farmers put fertilizer on their fields?"
"Yes," Calvin answered slowly.
"Do you know why they do that?" Magus asked.
"They do that to get better yields of their crops," Calvin answered. He felt like he was in fifth grade.
"Exactly," Magus said. He looked at Calvin and said, "It dawned on me that if farmers could do that to grow more corn or feed more cattle, then why couldn't fishermen do that to catch more fish."
"Fish move around," Calvin said. "They don't sit there like plants."
"Really? I didn't know that," Magus said looking surprised.
Calvin was about to say something when he realized that Magus was being sarcastic. He said, "So how are you proposing to do this thing?"
"That's a good question. We need to find the one thing that is at the bottom of the food chain, and arrange for it to thrive so that everything above it can thrive. To make the conditions right for it to thrive, we have to know what is there now and what really needs to be there. That's where the water analysis comes into the picture," Magus answered.
"Actually, that makes sense," Calvin said rather surprised that he understood the basic concept.
Magus said, "I think so too."
"So what do I need to do?" Calvin asked.
Magus handed the stack of papers to Calvin and said, "You'll need to read this tonight for the meeting tomorrow."
"What meeting tomorrow?" Calvin asked.
"We are having a red team meeting. A group of independent experts are coming in to critique the proposal to assure that it is complete and scientifically sound. You'll want to sit in on that meeting," Magus said.
"Okay," Calvin said. He looked down at the proposal and said, "What if I don't understand it?"
"It is about fish. You understand fish," Magus said dismissively.
"I guess," Calvin said without much confidence. He felt that he was in way over his head. "All I really know about fish is how to catch them."
"See, you're already an expert on fish. I can't catch fish," Magus said.
"I don't know about that," Calvin said. There was a lot of difference between being an oceanographer and a fisherman.
Magus said, "You'll want to take that proposal by your lawyer and make sure that you're properly protected."
"Okay," Calvin said. His lawyer required more than a few minutes' notice to get an appointment.
"Your lawyer was planning on playing golf today, but I convinced him to stick around the office until after you got there," Magus said.
"You know my lawyer?" Calvin asked.
"I wouldn't be Magus if I didn't know that kind of stuff," Magus answered.
"I guess so," Calvin replied. He wondered if the FBI had been investigating him without him knowing about it.
Magus said, "Your wife is pretty good at organizing things. You might have her go over the management sections of the proposal with you. I'm sure she'll help you out."
"What do you know about my wife?" Calvin asked.
"She does a lot of charity work and organizes fund raising events for your church," Magus said.
"Do you belong to our church?" Calvin asked.
"No."
Feeling like he was being railroaded into this, Calvin asked, "Why did you pick me?"
Magus grinned broadly on hearing the question. He answered, "Because you were the first to bring this problem to my attention. It wasn't the USDA or NOAA. It was Calvin Dorfman who came into my office and asked why each year's catch was worse than the year before."
"I was just worried about my business," Calvin said.
Magus said, "You weren't the only one who was worried. You were the first one who decided to do the right thing about your worries. You came to me. As a result of that one wise decision, it should be Calvin Dorfman who receives credit for revolutionizing the fishing industry."
"There are bigger outfits than me," Calvin said. "They could probably handle something like this better than me."
"Nonsense. You're the right man at the right time and place for the job," Magus said.
"I'll look the proposal over this evening. I can't make any promises," Calvin said. "I'm just a fisherman."
"And a fine one at that," Magus said. He straightened up and said, "You need to run along to your lawyer's office before he gets too impatient. I've got to talk to a man at the Department of Agriculture about a marvelous proposal to revolutionize the fishing industry that happened to cross my desk."
"This one?" Calvin asked holding up his copy of the proposal.
Magus picked up a copy of the proposal and moved it from one side of his desk to the other. He said, "See, it just crossed my desk."
Calvin groaned at the bad joke and said, "I'll be going now."
Magus said, "By the way, we're meeting tomorrow next door in the conference room of Paladin Incorporated at ten o'clock. Be there or be square."
"I'll see you," Calvin said.
Thirty minutes later, Leland Bowne stuck his head into Magus' office. Wary, he asked, "You wanted me to visit?"
"Leland Bowne, how are you doing?" Magus asked.
Knowing that it was a trick question, Leland answered, "Fine."
"I'm looking forward to the wedding," Magus said.
Hoping that the discussion was about the wedding rather than something work related, Leland said, "Me too."
Magus asked, "So what made you decide to propose?"
Leland turned red and answered, "I'd rather not say."
"I guess that a day out in the fresh air gamboling through the woods with Irene was very romantic," Magus said.
"Yes ... gamboling ... I guess that's a good way to phrase it. We were gamboling through the woods," Leland said trying to remember what gamboling meant.
"I've often said that skipping around playfully is very romantic, particularly when done au natural," Magus said. He smiled at Leland.
"Oh God, you know," Leland said shrinking into his chair. It crossed his mind that Magus might have had a whole camera crew out there making a documentary about the mating habits of low level government bureaucrats.
"Actually, it was Titus who suggested it to Irene. I was just waiting for her to figure it out all by herself," Magus said.
"Titus knows," Leland said shrinking even further into his chair. The thought that they had two film crews out there crossed his mind.
Magus said, "Don't bother naming your first born after me or Titus. There's only enough room in the world for one Magus and one Titus."
"I'm sure that Irene will be disappointed to learn that," Leland said trying to sound sincere. He was not successful. He would never, not in a million years, name a child Magus or Titus. He thought about it for a second and said, "There is already more than one Titus in the world."
"That can be corrected. I have access to computers," Magus said. He wiggled his eyebrows in a somewhat scary manner.
"I'm sure there is a Titus somewhere who will object to that."
Magus smiled and said, "I'm just yanking your chain. You can name your child Titus if you wish."
"Thanks," Leland said.
Magus said, "Now that the small talk is out of the way and you are nice and relaxed we can get down to business."
"That was small talk?" Leland asked.
"Sure," Magus said. He lifted the proposal and moved it from one side of the desk to the other. He said, "Ah, a proposal just crossed my desk. Would you like to see that again?"
"No," Leland answered with a groan. He hated it when Magus did things like that.
"Would you like to read the proposal?" Magus asked.
"No," Leland answered.
"Yes, you do. You're boiling over with curiosity. Don't try to deny it to me," Magus said handing the proposal over to Leland.
Leland accepted the proposal and looked at it. He read the first few pages with an impressive frown on his face. The frown slowly changed to a look of concentration. He read a couple more pages and then asked, "Don't they already to this?"
"No," Magus answered.
"It makes perfect sense to me," Leland said. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Of course, I only understand land management and not ocean management. Still, you'd think people would already be doing this."
"What people?" Magus asked.
Leland said, "Fisherman?"
"They don't do that," Magus said. "By the time the fisherman and the fish get to the fishing grounds, the school size is already established. The fish are six or more years old."
"The fisheries introduce stock into the wild," Leland said.
"Yes, they do. That's the hard way to improve the catch and it doesn't really help the situation. All of a sudden you are introducing a sudden surge of a single species into an ecosystem that is functioning within already established boundaries. Those fish displace something else," Magus said.
"I can see how that might happen," Leland said.
"The easy way is to get Mother Nature on our side to prompt fish to breed more and to do so within acceptable ecological boundaries. It will require artificially increasing those boundaries to support more fish overall. The point is that it isn't supporting just one species, but many different species," Magus said.
Leland held up the proposal and said, "I've got to say that I'm really intrigued by the concept. However, I'm going to have to study this."
"You can't," Magus said.
"What do you mean?"
Magus said, "We'll be submitting that to you in a week as an unsolicited proposal. Then you can study it."
"Why are you showing me this now?" Leland asked.
"So that you have a chance to think about it," Magus said.
Not quite following Magus' logic, Leland said, "I would be better able to think about it if I could study it."
"No. You don't want to think about the specifics in the proposal. You want to think about how to arrange twenty million dollars to fund an unsolicited proposal. You will also need to identify who will be on the independent review team that will determine whether this effort should be funded or not," Magus said. "You don't want to fill it with people who have a vested interested in fisheries."
"I get it," Leland said. Getting an unsolicited proposal accepted and funded was a painful process. It didn't happen very often. They were typically rejected out of hand.
Magus said, "I think it would be nice if you were to ask Titus to be your best man at your wedding."
"I've already got a best man," Leland said finding the sudden change in topic jarring.
"Ah, Irene wasn't quite clear on that. She stuttered a bit and changed the subject when I asked her about that. Of course, she may have gotten the mistaken impression that I wanted to be the best man," Magus said. "At least include him in the wedding, perhaps as a groomsman. You would never have proposed if it wasn't for him. You should make him suffer by forcing him into a penguin suit."
"I'll have to talk to Irene," Leland said. "She's in charge of all of those details."
"Wise man," Magus said. "Have you met your mother in law yet?"
"Yes. She's a lot easier to get along with than you are," Leland said. So was a shark.
Magus smiled and said, "She must be an exceptionally sweet woman. I can't wait to meet her."