around here who can do. It's all right thinking it out, then you need
the catalyst to transform thought and intention into action. Tom sucked
at the can and then licked the froth off his mustache. I know what you
have done, I've heard you speak, I've seen you move, and those things
count. But most important of all, I know you care.
I've been watching you carefully, Nick, and you really care, down deep
in your guts, the way we do. It sounds as though you're offering me a
job, Tom. I'm not going to horse around, Nick, I am offering you a job.
He waved a huge paw, like a bunch of broiled pork sausages.
Hell, I know you're a busy man, but I'd like to romance you into an
associate professorship. We'd want a little of your time when it came
to hassling and negotiating up in Washington, we'd call for you when we
needed real muscle to put our case, when we need the right contacts,
somebody with a big reputation to open doors, when we need a man who
knows the practical side of the oceans and the men that use them and
abuse them.
We need a man who is a hard-headed businessman, who knows the economics
of sea trade, who has built and run tankers, who knows that human need
is of paramount importance, but who can balance the human need for
protein and fossil fuels against the greater danger of turning the
oceans into watery deserts. Tom lubricated his throat with beer,
watching shrewdly for some reaction from Nicholas, and when he received
no encouragement, he went on more persuasively. We are specialists,
perhaps we have the specialist's narrow view; God knows, they think of
us as sentimentalists, the lunatic fringe of doom-sayers, long-haired
intellectual hippies. What we need is a man with real clout in the
establishment, - shit, Nicholas, if you walked into a Congressional
committee they'd really jerk out of their geriatric trance and switch on
their hearing-aids. Nicholas was silent still and Tom was becoming
desperate. What can we offer in return? I know you aren't short of
cash, and it would be a lousy twelve thousand a year, but an associate
professorship is a nice title. We start out holding hands with that.
Then we might start going steady, a full professorship - chair of
applied oceanology, or some juicy title like that which we'd think up. I
don't know what else we can offer you, Nick, except perhaps the warm
good feeling in your guts when you're doing a tough job that has to be
done. He stopped again, running out of words, and he wagged his big
shaggy head sadly.
You aren't interested, are you? he asked.
Nick stirred himself. When do I start? he asked, and as Tom's face
split into a great beaming grin, Nick held out his hand. I think I'll
take that beer now.
The water was cool enough to be invigorating. Nick and Samantha swam so
far out that the land was almost lost in the lowering gloom of dusk, and
then they turned and swam back side by side. The beach was deserted; in
their mood, the lights of the nearest condominiums were no more
intrusive than the stars, the faint sound of music and laughter no more
intrusive than the cry of gulls.
it was the right time to tell her, and he did it in detail beginning
