C3 The insight

He calculated, mentally of course, that the difference between two hundred and thirty dollars and one hundred and seventy five dollar was a mere fifty five dollar and when multipled by three hundred gives sixteen thousand five hundred dollars only.

This rationalization gave him guts to conclude that the gain ran short of the trouble that might go with it.

This is not to suppose that he would have the sixteen thousand five hundred dollars all for himself.

Not at all. Engineer Shaw had indicated keen interest to have a share in the gain and it would be quite unfair to deny it to him.

After all he was the one who initiated the business and had not rested to see it afloat.

Then granted that the both of them, still remained the only people expected to come up with claims to whatever gain, it would not make any difference to the amount.

Each of their shares would still be very small whether or not someone tampered with it.

It has become common knowledge that businessmen are no angels. They hardly waive any out-of-pocket expenses incurred by them, which was certain to be the case in the present circumstance.

Perhaps at the end of the day someone say, most possibly Dr. Richard, might invent a fairly long list of expenses incurred by him to be reimbursed from the total gain before sharing it with his business partner would come to mind.

On the other hand, one could as well not take Engineer Shaw for a bloody fool who had connected him to the business.

To say the least the net gain after cutting every expense might not mean more than a peanut to each of them.

Damn it, for all that Dr. Richard saw the business as something that was never going to be a lucrative type and sweating over it a waste of time.

He decided to relax and push the business to the back of his mind and so didn't call Engineer Shaw to get him up to date, regarding the talks between him and the store officer.

On the morning of the following day Engineer Shaw called Dr. Richard on phone.

"Hello, Engineer Shaw." Dr. Richard said with low voice. He felt a twinge of conscience pricking him that he did not call Engineer Shaw on the previous day as he promised.

The instant call from Engineer Shaw himself actually played the role of a reminder to him of the promise, these made him feel some bits of regret for refusing to call him, at least to say

he had lost interest in the business.

Engineer Shaw reciprocated the greeting accordingly.

"l decided to call you after waiting for your call since yesterday without hearing from you. wonder if anything is the matter."

Dr. Richard hesitated just for a moment, and then came up with a lie to Engineer Shaw.

I was so trapped in a tight schedule of my official assignment throughout the whole of yesterday that l couldn't even remember my promise to call you. I'm very sorry for any inconveniences that the disappointment might have brought." Dr. Richard apologized.

"That's over," Engineer Shaw said. "Now tell me about your discussion with the store officer at Shell or didn't you call him as agreed?"

"l did, and he was kind enough to give me every piece of information that I needed from him. l guess he's a nice fellow."

"People talk good of him," Engineer Shaw said. What about the A-10 Oil Pipeline Pit. Does the company have it in stock?"

"Yes, they do. l was so informed by the store officer that the product is in stock and in enough quantity that can take care of the number of packets being requested by me."

"At what price per packet does the company sell?"

"One hundred and seventy five."

"One hundred and seventy five!"

Engineer Shaw exclaimed. "The company has increased the price then."

"Yes, since January this year according to the store officer."

"There is still something to gain from the deal between the company's price and the NPC approved price even at the new price of one hundred and seventy five."

"How much is that?" Dr. Richard asked with a searing scorn in his voice. "is it not just fifty five dollar per packet totalling only sixteen thousand five hundred dollars, when multipled by three hundred packets?"

"No, Doc, you're getting it all wrong. lt is not fifty five dollar but fifty five thousand dollars per packet making a total of sixteen million five hundred thousand dollars."

"How can that be?" Dr. Richard asked in utter disbelief. "l don't understand."

"Now listen carefully. l want you to understand. The NPC approved price is two hundred and thirty thousand dollars while Shell sells at one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, which makes the difference between the figures fifty five thousand dollars per packet. Then if fifty thousand dollars is multipled by three hundred, the sum will be sixteen million five hundred thousand dollars which is the gain being expected. Do you understand the arithmetic now?"

"Yes. l think l do. l had been making the mistake of taking those prices to be in hundreds."

"No, they are in thousands. You can see that a lot of money stands to be gained from the transaction and so much to lose if we don't proceed with the business. Engineer Kennedy is preparing to leave for Providence to search for the product. l want you to call him on phone and negotiate price with him."

"But I don't know him, either do l have his phone number," Dr. Richard declared.

" That's not a problem. I'll text you his number."

" Good. till then."

Dr. Richard did not allow his mind slide away from the business while waiting for Engineer Shaw to text him the phone number of Engineer Kennedy.

He made a mug of coffee to take, while he picked a pen and paper to do a simple arithmetic of how much was going to be gain from the transaction and was convinced beyond all shadow of doubt after his arithmetic calculation that Engineer Shaw's sum was absolutely correct.

The gain was attractive indeed, he thought and revived his interest to become a party to the transaction.

ln fact, he wanted every bit of the business to start working out immediately but it was not possible to happen the way he was thinking.

The business could not progress any further unless Dr. Kennedy's number got to him. He now longed for the number more than anything else and the five minutes requested by Engineer Shaw to enable him text the number seemed to him like an hour.

Engineer Shaw was following up everything in a business man-like way. When it was exactly five minutes, the text popped in as he had promised.

"You have to call him now, sir,"

"Certainly, I'll do that right away."

"Don't put me at sight, with Engineer Kennedy. if you do, he will try to back out of the business and all our effort will be in vain and waste like rubbish consigned to the death dump."

"I understand."

"You have to tell him that you're a contractor with NPC Jackson, Mississippi Depot and got his number from the depot. lf you say so to him, am sure he will believe you, for he knows it like the language of his mother tongue that each depot has particulars and details of every principal officer of NPC. Please try and call him now and let me know the outcome of your discussion with him."

"Damn right, I'll call him right away and give you feedback after."

"Thanks."

He didn't start calling Engineer Kennedy the moment he received the number. He was almost through with preparation to leave office and chose to make the call when he reached there.

As luck would also have it, he was not scheduled for duty on that day and was as free as air to make use of all the time in the world to discuss business with Dr. Kennedy.

At 8:45am he arrived in his office. Then the office was already filled up with other staff that reported earlier than him for duty.

His arrival used to attract the attention of workers in his department.

He shifted his attention to the business area of the hospital. lt appeared to be as ruthlessly efficient as the rest of the area was indulgent.

The workstation held a computers and phones. Across from it stood a large monitor that showed all the hospital areas. One could tell, it was a security cameras throughout the public areas.

He was one of the senior medical officers of the hospital who commanded tremendous respect from his subordinate staff.

Being a consultant paediatric surgeon and head of department was not the only thing that gave him solid recognition. There were many more other things too numerous to mention.

Because of certain informal protocol in and out of his office on a daily, he did not call Engineer Kennedy straight away on getting to his office.

He also knew that such protocol was always short-lived like the blink of an eye. At times, how long the protocol lasted depended on him.

He knew when to draw the line with staffs that enteres his office for greetings and enquire. He also enjoy sharing good humour with the staffs.

Ten minutes after his arrival in the office Dr. Richard could see that he was through with his departmental staff besieging his office to share greetings with him.

For the first time in years Dr. Richard was observing the shortest time ever being consumed by such protocol in his office.

He was happy that it came when he needed it most. ln the absence of further interruption in sight, he started getting ready by dialling Engineer Kennedy's number.

Now, in his office alone, Dr. Richard walked over to his office coffee machine. He'd insisted on one of his own to save himself the annoyance of buzzing an assistant every time he wanted a hit.

He sat at the desk, his back to the wall as he focus on the floor-to-ceiling shelves of books.

He did not finish doing that before someone, a fast guy, was first in time and called his own number.

Behold it was Engineer Shaw again calling from Baltimore.

"Hello, Engineer Shaw."

"Hello, sir. I waited to hear from you to know how you discussed the business with Engineer Kennedy but l couldn't get your call. Did you call him as proposed?"

"No, I'm yet to do so. l was onto it when you called."

"Okay, please do. He has got set to travel. He just got back from the bank and will soon leave for the airport."

"You know what?"

"No, sir."

"Just drop the call, still me call him straight away, then get back to you after that."

"Okay, till you call."

"Right then."

One could imagine the huge surprise that the turn of invent was to Dr. Richard.