n units within one hundred twenty days. That's
all gentlemen except to say that, as occurred when I asked you two
years ago for a similar projection for the laser unit complex, I will
not accept any solutions calling for a pogrom of all Anglo white
Protestants between the ages of six and sixty."

The meeting broke up in laughter as the engineers crowded up to the
desk to pick up copies of the prospectus.

Troy and Alec fell into step with Jordan Plumber, their section chief.

"One thing you have to admire in the old man," Alec commented, "he has
faith in his staff to come up with the answers."

"Hm-m-m," Plumber sniffed, "he doesn't need faith. He's a realist from
the old school. He knows that we have no choice and all that's left is
to come up with a formula for living with the situation. It doesn't
bother him a bit how we figure this one. He knows we have to work it
out."

Back at their combination laboratory and office area, the trio split
up to their respective cubicles to go over the report. Troy and Alec,
as semispecialists in snow depth and moisture gauges, would study the
problem from the viewpoint of increasing the accuracy and volume of
their instruments in inventorying Region Six snowfall. Other members
of the headquarters staff would tackle it from soil moisture content;
stored water capabilities; increasing domestic, municipal and
industrial water economies; while the meteorology men would venture
even farther into left field via data, formula and Ouija board, to
increase the potential future limits of their forecasts.

The key to the entire problem lay in streamflow forecasting. Accuracy
in predicting the amount of water entering the vast underground
reservoirs now had reached ninety-eight point three per cent. Yet in
the remaining one point seven per cent was the equivalent of more than
seventy-five million acre feet of water. The question now was--how
much more water would the new units require and could the forecast be
projected another tenth or more percentage points closer to supply
than demand.

That was the basic problem. There were thousands of allied problems
involved, ranging from where and how the additional water would be
stored and channeled and how it could be used after the new factories
had had initial use.

At 1630, Alec stuck his copy of the prospectus, together with some
other more pressing reports, in his briefcase and headed for home. He
stopped in the door to Troy's cubicle.