Dennis Rehberger sighed visibly, " So it works in the laboratory?". He was sitting in a plush chair, at the head of a mahogany table, at which sat seven other men and women, each of varying height, appearance, disposition, and temperament. The walls were on the one side reminiscent of the Arabian deserts, with a banner hanging overtop them reading, "Rub al Khali", and on the other a veritable Brazilian Rainforest lush with vegetation, the greens of varying hue, and the cyan of the stream trickling its way past scenes of a teeming ecology, with the banner, "Biodiversity".

     One of the scientists, a young man, who appeared to be just fresh from college, immediately piped up, "Yes sir, our test results were quite..."

     "Unsatisfactory," an older scientist interrupted him. He was a firm man, the white of his eyes contrasting sharply to the black of his skin, lent the appearance of a man driven by some unseen force.

     Rehberger leaned forward in his seat, crossing his arms on the table, and asked, "If your results are unsatisfactory, Dr. Swett, then why did you all want to see me?"

     Dr. Swett set his up right, and then said, "Our lab experiments are unsatisfactory because they do not take into effect factors that we cannot control for. We are here because we are sequestering funds to move the research to an onsite location. Our intentions are to run the experiment in several different natural climes, several different varying stages of desertification. We were hoping that you would supply us with enough funds for us to visit the Savannah in Africa, and from there we would head north into the Sahara. We would also would like to test our theory in the Nejd desert, and the Gobi desert."

     "Dr Swett," Rehberger stared at him quite critically, "You do realize that the LeMark corporation is going through financial troubles at the moment?"

     "Yes sir, but I believe that if our research proves successful, than we will return a profit many times LeMark's investment."

     Rehberger leaned back in his chair, considering him for a moment. He then replied, "Perhaps so, but I believe it is best to move cautiously in these times. We can't predict the demand for your research, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of clamouring to give you a grant Dr. Swett, you must remember that we were the seventh you sought out."

     "I have not forgotten that," Dr. Swett added, a bitter recrimination could be detected in his voice.

     "But, we have invested a significant amount into your research already," Rehberger continued, glancing occasionally at the two banners draping the hall.

     "We have made progress, we have shown you the results, but we need to make a on-site experimentation."

     "Well, I think you are probably right," Rehberger added. "I believe that it is in the best interest of the LeMark corporation to further your grant, and to reward you with the sequestered funds, but only on a need basis."

     "Well, we need to go to Africa, and those other locations I specified before," Dr. Swett replied, "And we'll need a duplication of our lab, mobile os that we can cross the plains; we'll also need sensory equipment far more expensive than what we have available at the lab. Dr. Schwarz and Dr. Sparks have categorized the equipment we'll need, plus the perishables that will be a necessity for survival in a desert clime. The list is quite long, but I believe it will be worth LeMark's time and effort."

     "Since I am the CEO of LeMark, I believe that decision is mine," Rehberger added quite forcefully. Already he was beginning to dislike this Dr. Swett, he seemed to insistent, too sure of himself, not enough foresight to think about the consequences of his actions.

     Leaning forward again, Rehberger smiled sardonically, "Tell you what. I'll call up one of our accountants, and have them make an estimate on the overall cost impact to the corporation. If we can reasonably afford it, you got your on-site investigation. If not, then we'll have to work something else out. Are we agreed?"

     "Sounds fair to me," Dr. Swett agreed. The other six scientists were quick to nod as well.

     "All right then." Rehberger picked up the phone next to him, and pushed a single button, "Mrs Wilkins, would you call the accounting office and have them send somebody up to the Project RED room. Tell them to bring along their laptop. Thank you very much." He then hung up the phone, and looked back at the scientists eagerly hoping to receive their funds. "The accountant will be here shortly, and then we will know if you can have your money."

     It took only a few minutes for the quite young and nervous accountant to arrive bearing his laptop underneath his right arm. He sheepishly looked in the room, "Is this the Project RED room?" he asked, looking about the faces all turned on him.

     "It is, are you the accountant I sent for?" Rehberger asked. "I guess so." The young man stepped into the room, closing the door behind him, when he suddenly noticed the painted walls, which made his mouth drop in awe. "Man! Who did this artwork? That's awesome. Rub al Khali... The Empty Quarter, somebody here knows Arabic?"

     Rehberger smiled, as did the scientific team. "If you would care to sit down, Mr..."

     "I'm Kubelik, Jason Kubelik. You can just call me Jason, everybody else does." Jason was now more at ease among these important people. Their smiles were simply so disarmingly friendly.

     "All right, Jason." Rehberger smiled. "In that case, you can call me Dennis."

     "Aren't you the CEO?" Jason asked, a bit nervous again.

     Dennis laughed a bit, and even Dr. Swett relaxed a bit. "Yes, but don't worry about that. We're all human beings here."

     "Am I in trouble?" Jason asked, not very sure he liked being called up into the CEO's presence.

     Dennis laughed out loud, and the scientists managed a few chuckles as well. Jason smiled a bit embarrassed by his own question. "You have nothing to worry about, Jason. How's this sound, if you do your job right here for me now, I'll give a ten-thousand dollar a year raise."

     Jason's eyes went wide, and his mouth hung open for a second, before he finally managed to say, "Thank you very much sir, I'll do my best!" "It's Dennis, Jason, call me Dennis."

     "Thank you, Dennis."

     Dennis then looked back at Dr. Swett, saying, "Dr. Swett here has a proposal. I'd like you to calculate the immediate cost to LeMark corporation."

     Jason pulled out his laptop, and booted up a few programs, then turning to face the scientists, not sure which one was Dr. Swett, he asked, "So where's the proposal?"

     The sole female scientist, a rather short woman with long curly brown hair, and a smile on her face said, "It's on disk." She pulled out a 3.5" floppy. "I hope this is good for you.", she added.

     "That would be heavenly." Jason took the disk from her hands, before he inserted it into his laptop. He worked away at the proposal, at times giddy with excitement, at others quite dour, as he examined the screen. It took him a bare five minutes before he finally sighed and said, "LeMark can't afford this cost as it stands. I calculated in the time you all planned to spend in each respective clime, and the local price swings against the dollar to affect the duty each item you want to transport across the respective borders of the fifteen different countries. Even when using the rosy estimates coming from our own accounting office on our net gains in the next fiscal quarter, I don't see how you can afford this."

     Dr. Swett glowered at Jason, "This is ridiculous, you put the future of our project in the hands of this adolescent!"

     Dennis shrugged, "You agreed that we would have one of the men in our accounting office analyze your proposal. It doesn't add up, I'm afraid I can't authorize the funds you have asked for."

     Dr. Swett pounded the table, "But how can he know the net benefit of our project, and how it will turn those loses into gains at least ten fold."

     Jason looked from Dr. Swett to Dennis Rehberger as they continued to argue, until Dennis looked angry enough to throw the man out and cancel his project altogether. Jason wanted to say something, but what could he say that would make a difference, not much, but oh he desperately had something to say. He tried to use his body language to convey to the two arguing men that he really had something to say, and it didn't take long for Dennis to notice either.

     "Do you want to add something, Jason?"

     "Well, um, yeah, actually I do." Jason gathered his courage again to face down these two giants. "All right what is it now?" Dr. Swett asked him, his sour face looked as if he were ready to attack him and rip him to pieces.

     "Well, the reason you can't afford this stuff is that you are crossing sixteen international boundaries, and the costs of doing so in some of these rather backwater countries in Africa especially, you're going to have to pay rather hefty duties, and to get into the Gobi desert alone is going to really cost an arm and a leg.", Jason told them, making sure everything was clear with them.

     "So what are you driving at?" Dr. Swett asked again.

     "That is true, isn't it?" Dennis mulled to himself. "The Gobi desert is in China, how were you expecting to get into China?"

     Dr. Swett didn't acknowledge the question, it not being in an area of his expertise, and continued to stare Jason down.

     "Well, I figured that you can afford this if you do you research here in the United States. They're are deserts here, and while nothing quite like the Sahara or the Nejd, if your research works as well as you all claim it will, then the profits from the US alone will supply the funds for you to make the trips to these other sites," Jason suggested.

     "The problem with the US is that any project in the desert attracts attention. All those damn sightings freaks who think any scientific installation out in the desert is area 51, will be crawling all over the place, and we don't want that," Dr. Swett added. "If you can think of a place where that won't happen, I'd be glad to hear it."

     "Barken, Texas," Jason offered, not quite sure why, but it escaped his lips before he could think about just what he was saying.

     "Where?" Dennis asked him.

     "Barken, Texas, nice little town almost an hour from Houston, I've been there before, not recently, but I have a few friends there. I'm sure they'd be willing to let you use the land near their town for your experiments. It's secluded, and trust me, nobody there is going to be worried about a science experiment."

     Dennis looked at Jason for a second, a thoughtful expression on his face, before he said, "Jason Kubelik, you've just earned the raise. I want you to accompany our scientific team to Barken, coordinate things with the people of Barken, make sure things run smoothly. If you're successful at this, I'll make sure that you have a very promising career here at LeMark."

     Jason smiled despite himself, and he immediately said, shocked, but very happy, "Thank you, sir, I mean, Dennis. Thank you so very much!"

     "Barken, eh?" Dr. Swett thought to himself. "Sounds decent enough. Looks like that's where we're going."

     Then another thought crossed Dr. Swett's mind and he asked Jason, "How did you know what our project was about?"

     "I read the abstract while I was calculating the net cost. I hope you can get it to work."

     Dr. Swett nodded, then returning to Mr. Rehberger he asked, "How long before we can leave?"