***** Vol.3 Chap.35 The real storm *****

“Professor Abdulcizi! Professor Abdulcizi!” Mary at the office saw him at the corner of her eye and rushed out of the office door to stop him.

“Yes?”

“I’m so glad I caught you.”

Mary stood at the door panting, catching her breath. It was very unusual for her to have a frantic look on her face being usually calm and collected all the time.

“Take your time.”

“We were all trying to track you down! Where were you?”

“Oh, I took a walk around this beautiful campus. Do you know…”

“We called your office. No one was there.” Mary was panicky and cut him off. “We called your lab, and no one answered. We thought you disappeared!”

“I was just out to get a quick lunch.”

“You don’t eat lunch!”

“Well, I didn’t have breakfast today, so I went over to the faculty club and had a pleasant lunch, for a change.”

“That must be some lunch. I didn’t think that the Faculty Club is that classy to serve three-hour lunches!” She was hysterical now.

“Well, I had a nice walk afterwards.”

“Well, it’s about time,” Mary looked at the time. “It is almost three o’clock!”

“What is all the fuss about?”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Dr. Campbell at the Provost Office wants to see you right away. He called twice already.”

“What is the problem this time?”

“I don’t know, but he told us to have you call him as soon as we see you.”

“I just had a pleasant stroll on the campus and the entire world collapses! Unbelievable.”

“Do you want me to call him now?”

“Yes, please.”

“Dr. Campbell? This is Mary at the Computer Science Office. Here is Dr. Abdulcizi.”

Mary handed the phone to him.

“Dr. Campbell?”

“Frank, so glad we got a hold of you.”

“I am here. What is the emergency?”

“Could you come over to the legal counsel office here right away? I am afraid we have a little situation here.”

“What is the big problem?”

“Just come.”

“Okay, I’ll be right over.”

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He put the phone down and was totally miffed and mystified by the phone call.

Dr. John Campbell was the current Provost. He seemed an alright guy, although he really cared little about anyone else. Likewise, Frank met him only twice and likewise, did not really care much about him or for that matter, anyone from the Political Science department, anyway.

In the past few years, he did not have to deal much with the Provost Office. As far as he was concerned, that was why you have chairs and deans and other administrators to deal with administrators.

The Provost normally handled all the academic affairs of the university, including all academic affairs related to faculty and students. So, this was strange to receive a call from the Provost directly to a faculty member without going through the proper channels, including the Dean and the Director.

And such an urgent call this was.

The more he thought about it, the more he was mystified.

Why did we have to meet at the legal counsel’s office? And what was wrong with meeting at the Provost’s office? He had a nice conference room over there. His mind was really going as he started towards the legal counsel’s office.

This could be either very good or very, very bad.

Maybe they heard about the Scientist of the Year Award and wanted to give me more money? No, No. Money and resources in the university did not come that easily. Maybe they wanted to give me an award because of that? That did not sound realistic.

Maybe they had finally found some room for my lab that I asked for months ago? Could not be. This would not have to involve the legal counsel. Just a phone call to the Dean would take care of that.

Maybe they found a potential donor for my research and wanted me to meet with the donor. May be, but I doubted. That sort of thing was usually handled by the Development Office and not the Provost Office.

Frank was really becoming frenzied now because he hated to be blindsided, but he truly had no clue what was happening in this case.

Arriving at the administration building and bouncing up a few steps, he pushed open the heavy oak door of the building and walked in. Only top administrators worked in this building. There were no classrooms and no laboratories here. There were no students around, just administrators and staff members.

The building had a stuffy smell because of poor circulation. It was one of the original buildings when the campus was first established. The woodwork was exquisite, and the furniture were all handmade with beautiful craftsmanship. Most of the furniture were still the original ones. He took the stairs to the second floor and pushed open the door to legal counsel.

“Frank, we are in the conference room.” Dr. Campbell shouted from inside.

Frank slowly walked past the secretaries and the other staff members. There was a hush-hush atmosphere in the office. Everyone was looking busy. They quickly dropped their heads and pretended to be busy working. He knew, however, that their ears were tuned to what would happen next. No one else was in the office area. He looked straight at the conference room but could not make out who else was there other than the Provost.

A bad feeling came upon him. But he consoled himself that he had been to many difficult situations before, he could handle this one. He walked straight into the conference room.

“Frank, I am so glad that I got a hold of you. Have a seat.”

John Campbell pointed to an empty chair around the conference table. There was no one else in the room.

“John, what is all this about?”

“Want a cup of coffee?”

“No, thank you. I just had some during lunch. You go right ahead.”

“Julie, a cup of black coffee for me, please. And see that we are not disturbed?”

“No problem.”

“Frank, how is your research coming along? I heard that you recently got a nice award! Let me see,” John fumbled with some papers, “Yes, the Scientist of the Year Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This is super excellent work. This brings significant notoriety to the Institute.”

“Oh well, I guess they liked my work.”

“This is wonderful. The Scientist of the Year Award is a great honor to your work and to this institution.”

“It’s okay.”

“I have instructed the Media folks to write up an article on this. We heard about this while you were gone and so we asked Dr. JB Smith to give us something in layman’s terms for the local newspaper. I think I have a copy here. Could you read this quickly for accuracy?”

“Well, if you have already talked to JB, then you don’t need me anymore. She can do as good a job as me. I have complete confidence in her.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Is that what you want to talk to me about?”

Somehow, he had the feeling that was not the reason he was summoned here.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Julie came in with the coffee. So that was just small talk to stall for time.

“Thank you, Julie. See that we are not disturbed.” John repeated the ‘not disturb’ thing again.

Frank thought to himself, this sounded serious.