TNT: Ch. 60

Lying in his bed at the hotel room, Eric realized he needed to do work, to take his mind off of everything. Anyway, he reasoned, the sooner we get the springs the sooner we're out of here, and he's out of her life. He hoped, anyway.
Suddenly Eric had an idea. Gina would make the best progress with Sam alone. That much was certianly true. Eric couldn't stand to be around the two of them anyway. So, he would get close to the other side - the state, the park rangers. Maybe not romantically, but if they worked this one completely seperately, they might not even have to mess with the lawsuit. They could convince whomever won to give them some of the springs.
So Eric went to sleep, happy to have a plan.
The next morning, he put on his best suit (he did think to pack a suit), headed to the park headquarters, and jumped through some bureaucratic hoops. He eventually managed to get a meeting with a man named John Begonia.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. - "
"Smellick, Eric Smellick"
"Mr. Smellick. John Begonia." They shook hands gingerly.
"What brings you here?" he asked.
"I have a special interest in this case. What I'm curious about is why you're so interested in all this. Do these springs have some special value?"
The man sat down and ran his hands across his face.
"Are you with the media?" he asked levelly, "Is this going to show up in the damn newspapers tomorrow?"
"No. I'm just an independent interested party."
Begonia looked at Eric, looked at his desk, and looked back. He sighed.
"We don't know. We haven't even had a good chance to examine them. To tell you the truth, I haven't the faintest idea why we care. The only person who might be able to tell you is Melissa Hastings, the park director. But you won't get any information out of her."
"Mr. Begonia, I was told you were overseeing the whole case."
"True enough. Damned if I know why, though. I mean, things like this have happened before, and we didn't even care. Not springs - just cool rocks, the odd fossil - stuff real archeologists would care about. But this, I don't understand it." He shook his head.
Eric was speechless. This gentleman, whom a moment ago had seemed so professional, seemed now very tired.
"So I've been straight with you," he said, "Your turn."
Eric thought. He had an opportunity to get ahead by being honest, but too much honesty and he'd be taken for crazy. He had to walk the line.
"Mr. Begonia - may I call you John?- John, you're into something deep here. It's not just crazy people who want these springs; there are other forces who could benefit from them a lot. I think you may be caught up in this."
"Honestly, I thought it might be something like that. I don't suppose you can tell me any details?"
"I myself am on a need to know basis. What I can tell you is that if you can help me to get the springs- or at least some of them- it will be the best for everyone."
"I wish I could help you, Eric, you seem like a good guy," John said, "But don't you see, without some information you're just the same as Melissa, plus I don't even have the springs to give them to you if I wanted to."
Eric leaned in in his most conspiratorial way.
"John, if you want to know what's going on, the real deal, meet me this time tomorrow by the fork in the forest path."
He walked out without looking back. Everyone had something they wanted, and John wanted it all to make sense. To make that happen, he was going to have to play this cool, and he was going to have to call Master Lin.