John’s report took longer than he had thought. Ir was nearly sixweek later whan he went to discuss the reruslts with David Wilson.
Mr Wilson wasn’t ascientist. He was a businessman He knew how to run a business, how to make money.
Thanks for coming, John’ David Wilson came out from behind his desk and shook hands with Jonn. They sat in to big, comfortabla armchais by the windo.
David Wilson’s office was large,with a thick carpet and beautiful pictures on the walls. From the Window,Jonh could see the river, and the woods and fields on the other side. He felt comfortable , happy,safe.
I’ve read your report, Wilson began. Then he stopped, and lit a cigarette. ‘Not very good ,is it?
‘What?’ Jonh staret at him in surprise.
Wilson smiled, and moved his hand through the clouds of smoke. ‘No,no,don’t worry-I don’t man the report is bad,of course not. You worked very hard, and done your job well. What I mean is, I don’t like the ideas at the end of the report.
‘What’s wrog with them?
‘They’re too expensive. The man stared at each other for a moment, and John felt cold and sick in his stomach.
Wilson smiled, but it wasn’t the kind of smile that John liked.
‘Look’ John, he said. ‘Your report says that we should build some new machines to clean up the waste products
Before they into the river, right? And those machines will course two million pounds Where do you think we can
Find all that? Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know
NO of course not. John’s mouth was dry. He took a drink of water, and felt his hand shaking. ‘But we’re selling a lot of the new paint. We’re making millions of pounds every month from that, aren’t we?
We’re doing very well, yes, said Wilson. But if we spend two million pounds to build these new machines, the paint will have to cost more, and we won’t sell so much.
But-we’ve got to do, said John. ‘These waste products are much more dangerous than I’d thought.
Didn’t you read that in my report? When I put the chemicals in rats’ drinking water some of the baby rats were born without eyes and ears. One didn’t have any legs, and one had six. He shivered. And some were born without legs when they drank only two parts million. We can’t put those chemicals in the river.
Of course I read that, John. I read your report very carefully indeed. And your report also says that on most
Days we put less than two parts per million into the river. No,wait , listen to me for a minute! We both know that