JC: William Redman Carter
Noble Savage
Chapter 47
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005

Dr. Mayra Yolanda Darling, known to her colleagues as Darling 
Doctor and to her friends as MY Darling, was staring at William 
trying to figure out what planet he came from. She was well aware 
of his work in economics and had read every paper that he had 
published on the topic.  She had not realized that he was so young. 
His staff had basically salvaged the conference from the brink of 
disaster. He had even arranged for this catered dinner for the last 
night of the conference. 

William looked up from the sheet of paper on which he had been 
scribbling and said, “This is the result that I get, but I want you to 
double-check it for me. If I allow this parameter to get small, then 
this term here and that term there can be dropped. In that case, I get 
the same result of … uh … the German guy who presented this 
morning.”

“It does look like Gunter’s work does fall out from yours,” Mayra 
said looking over the sheet of paper. William wasn’t winning any 
points with her by showing that his work led to Gunter’s result. 
She and Gunter Schmidt had been arguing for years.

“Right… Gunter,” William muttered. He continued, “I’ll talk to 
him in a little bit. If I allow this factor to become small then this 
term disappears. If I then normalize, I get your result.”

She blinked and looked back down on the paper. She scanned 
through his equation for a second and saw what he meant. 
Surprised, she said, “You’re right. You do get my result.”

“Well, according to this equation here the two parameters are 
coupled such that only one of them can be small at a time. This 
suggests to me that your work and Gunter’s work are two special 
cases at different ends of a continuum of behavior,” William said. 
He sat back and looked at her. 

Mayra had never seen anyone focus so fully on what they were 
working on and she had seen some pretty focused people in her 
life. Holding out her hand, she said, “Let me see that sheet of 
paper.”

Handing it to her, William watched her as she read over the 
sequence of equations that he had jotted down over dinner. She 
shook her head in amazement and said, “You’re right. It does 
follow that we are both right.”

“That’s what I thought and why I wanted you to double-check it,” 
William said. 

Mayra looked around and spotted Gunter over at the table with his 
crowd of followers. She sighed at the idea of having to sit down 
and talk with the man she had referred to as ‘The Damned 
German’ for the past five years. As if she had bitten into a lemon, 
she said, “I guess it is time to talk to Gunter.”

“Yes,” William said. He had noticed a significant level of tension 
between two groups that seemed to be centered on Mayra and 
Gunter. 

Mayra stood and announced, “Gunter, if you would be so kind to 
join me at my table. We need to talk. It is time for us to bury the 
hatchet.” 

Gunter looked over at Mayra with a frown. He was sure that she 
was about to raise the argument to another level. He relaxed a little 
when he noticed that William was at the table with her. He was 
familiar with William’s work in economics, but had never realized 
that he was so young. 

Gunter sat down at the table such that William was between him 
and Mayra. William immediately launched into a discussion of the 
material on his sheet of paper. Ignoring Mayra, Gunter was 
immediately drawn into the mathematics. When William pointed 
out the conditions in which his work lead to Gunter’s results, 
Gunter sat back and said, “See I told you.”

“Wait a minute before you crow too loudly,” Mayra replied with a 
grin.

William went through the argument that led to Mayra’s work. 
Looking at the result, Gunter’s mouth opened in shock. He grabbed 
the sheet of paper while saying, “Let me look at that.”

With a frown, he read over the entire sheet of paper. His eyes kept 
returning to the one equation where the two parameters were 
coupled. He shook his head and said, “I find this hard to believe.”

“Do you believe it?” William asked.

“Yes, I do,” Gunter admitted. He sat back and asked, “Now what?”

Smiling, William said, “I thought that the three of us could publish 
this result. We could call it the Treaty of Seattle.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mayra said.

“Same here,” Gunter said.

“Okay. Let’s get up to my suite and get to work. We should be able 
to pound out a draft to distribute to the other conference attendees 
in the morning,” William said while rising from his chair. He was 
excited and ready to work despite the late hour. 

Mayra and Gunter were not so quick to rise, but they would follow 
him to his suite. The result William had identified was just too 
important not to participate in generating a paper presenting the 
ideas. While following William out of the room, Gunter asked, “I 
know about your doctorial work, but where did you do your 
undergraduate work?”

“Two years at the Native American College and then I transferred 
to the Druid College to finish my degree,” William answered.

“You are a Druid?” Mayra asked nearly stumbling.

“Not yet. My father was John Carter.”

“I did not make the connection with the names. I met a Druid once. 
His name was Oscar Meyers,” Gunter said.

Surprised to hear Oscar’s name, William couldn’t resist the chance 
to find out more about Oscar. He asked, “Where did you meet 
Oscar?”

“You know him?”

“Yes, I do,” William said.

“I am on a paintball team in Germany. My team went against him 
and his girlfriend. They were very good,” Gunter said. The pair of 
them had managed to beat his team without much difficulty. 

“I can imagine. Oscar is probably the most dangerous man in the 
world,” William said.

“Dangerous?”

“He has well over three hundred confirmed kills. Some people in 
the know place it at over a thousand,” William answered with a 
shrug of his shoulders.  He said, “Georgia and he helped train our 
troops in fighting terrorists.”

The discussion about Oscar, Druids, and politics continued until 
they reached William’s suite at the hotel. Neither Mayra nor 
Gunter noticed the pair of bodyguards following them from a 
discrete distance. No one at the conference had realized that Rock 
and Natalie were anything other than conference attendees.

Once they reached his room, William’s focus on the paper returned 
with jarring intensity. He ignored their questions concerning Rock 
and Natalie who entered the room before them and then 
disappeared into one of the suites. While Mayra and Gunter had 
both worked with intense people, neither one of them had ever 
encountered anyone like William. His fingers flew across the 
keyboard of his laptop as he wrote the paper. The short 
interruptions in writing where minor details were discussed were 
intense, focused, and direct. 

They worked on the paper for three hours without break. Upon 
finishing typing the last sentence, William sat back and said, “The 
first draft is done. Why don’t you two read it over and let me know 
what you think?”

Mayra and Gunter crowded together in front of the laptop reading 
what William had typed. At twelve pages the paper was not long, 
but the information content was dense. After twenty minutes, 
Gunter said, “I found a typo. The subscript here is wrong. It is 
supposed to be a k rather than j.”

William moved in and made the correction noting that they had 
finished reading the first half of the paper. Once he was done, he 
stepped back and went to the bathroom. When he came out, Mayra 
and Gunter were relaxing in front of the computer. Gunter said, 
“That’s a very nice paper.”

“It’s not very long,” Mayra said. She couldn’t help but think of just 
how significant of a result it presented. 

“I like it,” Gunter said.

“So do I,” Mayra said nodding her head. She had discovered that 
working with Gunter wasn’t nearly as bad as she had anticipated. 

“It will be a very significant paper. It puts over five years of debate 
to rest in a most authoritative fashion,” Gunter said looking at 
Mayra with more respect than he had held for her in years.

“It does at that,” Mayra agreed. 

William entered the discussion and said, “I’ll have Sandra make a 
hundred copies of it in the morning. We’ll distribute them when 
the conference starts.”

“Sounds good to me.”

William pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number for 
Sandra. From the second bedroom of the suite, he could hear her 
phone ring. He wondered when she had returned to the suite. A 
sleepy voice answered, “Hello.”

“Sandra. I have a paper here that needs to be printed out, copied, 
and distributed to the conference attendees in the morning.”

“It’s one o’clock in the morning,” Sandra said focusing on the 
clock beside the bed. Her brain was barely functioning. She’d been 
busy throughout the conference taking care of last minute details. 
As a result of the conference chairman’s heart attack, many of the 
details for the conference had not been finalized. Even some of the 
arrangements that had been made could not be located in time to 
verify them. Sandra had to scramble to pull together the catering, 
the conference rooms, and equipment. Unable to rent the audio-
video equipment, she had purchased them.

“Sorry about that. I kind of lost track of the time,” William said 
glancing in surprise at the clock in the room. 

“Put a note on the computer and I’ll take care of it before 
breakfast,” Sandra said.

“Okay,” William said cheerfully. He closed the phone and turned 
to Mayra and Gunter. He said, “She’ll take care of it in the 
morning.”

“She’s staying here with you?” Mayra asked. She had noticed 
where the other phone had sounded. She wondered what the 
relationship between the two was. It didn’t look like they were 
lovers considering the businesslike manner in which William 
addressed her.

“Well, it is a three room suite,” William replied.

“She is a beautiful woman. You couldn’t do better than having her 
as a roommate,” Gunter said. He had been staggered upon seeing 
her the first time. She was drop dead gorgeous.

“I suppose,” William said with a frown. He sighed and said, “I 
wish my wife was here. She’s the real mathematician and would 
have been able to help with some of the trickier parts of the 
theory.”

“Your wife knows you are here with Sandra?” 

“Yes. My wife is fully aware that Sandra arranged the conference 
since Dr. Harrison had his heart attack.”

“And she is not jealous?”

“Of what?” William asked with evident confusion. 

“She is a very pretty woman,” Mayra said. Gunter nodded his 
agreement.

“You’ve met my wife?” William asked wondering how they knew 
that his wife was pretty. 

“I was talking about Sandra.”

“Oh. Yes, I suppose she is. She’s very good at what she does. 
Putting together this conference at the last minute required that she 
work miracles,” William said. He was dismissive in his comments 
about her beauty, but enthusiastic in his praise of her abilities.

Mayra and Gunter exchanged a look and decided to drop the 
subject. Standing up, Mayra said, “I better get to bed before I fall 
asleep here. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“I’ll have breakfast delivered here. Would you both care to join 
me?”

After arrangements had been made to meet over breakfast, Mayra 
and Gunter left to return to their rooms. William took a few 
minutes to write a note for Sandra and then went to bed. He fell 
asleep without any difficulty.

Sandra woke at five in the morning wishing that she could have 
another three hours of sleep. The first thing she did was read the 
note left for her by William. Blurry eyed, she sat down at the 
computer and located the file. She started the document printing 
and went over to the coffeemaker to brew a cup of coffee. Shaking 
her head, she said, “He’s going to kill me.”

While her coffee was brewing, she stretched. She reveled in the 
free movement of her naked body while wishing that William 
would notice it. She hit the side of her head with the fingertips of 
her right hand in a futile wish to derail that train of thought. It 
amazed her that he could see her and still control himself after 
almost a full week of intense interaction. The coffee finished 
brewing and she poured herself a cup. Turning, she looked in the 
direction of the printer only to find William watching the pages 
being printed. She swore to herself and thought, ‘God, he’s so 
sexy.’

William turned and said, “Good morning.”

“It’s not even five thirty yet. What are you doing up?”

“I’m excited about the paper. I can’t wait to see people’s reactions 
to it,” William said. Normally, a paper was written in isolation, 
submitted months before the conference, and then presented. 
Seldom did one have a chance to write a paper and have a large 
audience read it within twenty-four hours.

“Oh,” Sandra said. She moved out of the way while he went to the 
coffeemaker to pour himself a cup of coffee. Feeling a little more 
awake, she went back to the note William had left. The conference 
started at nine that morning. William had scheduled the breakfast 
to start 7:30. She would need to order enough food for the six of 
them, but room service didn’t start until 6:00. The temp worker 
wouldn’t show up until 8:00. She would give the paper to the temp 
worker to copy and it should be done in time for the conference. 
Having worked with William over the week, she knew that she 
would need to arrange a lunch for twenty at one of the local 
restaurants. At least they wouldn’t be checking out until the next 
day even though the conference ended at noon.

“It’s going to be a busy day,” William said cheerfully.

“Yes, I would say so,” Sandra replied absentmindedly. She had 
been putting in sixteen hour days and it was beginning to tire her. 
Sighing, she said, “I have enough time to take a nice long hot 
shower.”

“You’ve done a great job here. In fact, I’d say that you pulled off a 
major miracle. Enjoy your shower and relax as much as you can. I 
know that you’ve got everything under control,” William said. He 
returned to the printer and picked up the copy of the paper. Sitting 
down, he started to read it just to make sure that it was correct. On 
reading the author list, he realized that neither Gunter nor Mayra 
had commented on the order in which he had given them. 

Seeing William get lost in reading his paper, Sandra shook her 
head and returned to her room. She decided that a long cold 
shower would probably be more effective in getting her ready for 
the day than a hot shower. It was frustrating working around him. 
Half of her problem was sexual. If the way to a man’s heart was 
through his stomach, then the way to a woman’s heart was through 
total confidence and support of her abilities.

Mary Gold had warned the entire staff about what to expect, but 
none of them had believed her. To have someone, with so much 
power, have such absolute confidence in her abilities was 
staggering. Not once did he second guess her. Even when there had 
been a minor foul up, he had dismissed it by saying that no one 
could have done it any better. When she called for detailed 
instructions, his answer was for her to use her best judgment. 

When breakfast time arrived, Mayra and Gunter sat across the 
table from William and Sandra. Rock was seated next to Gunter 
and Natalie was seated next to William. Curious, Mayra asked, 
“Who are these two?”

Rock and Natalie exchanged glances before Rock answered, 
“We’re his bodyguards.”

“I thought you were attending the conference.”

“We are,” Natalie answered.

“Oh, so you understand the material being discussed.”

Frowning, Rock answered, “Not at all. We are attending the 
conference so that we can guard his body.”

Ignoring the discussion, William finished his breakfast. He sat 
back and asked, “What are your plans for this evening?”

“I’m heading home this afternoon,” Mayra answered glancing over 
at the bodyguards feeling a little nervous around them.

“I’m staying here for the evening and flying back tomorrow,” 
Gunter answered.

Nodding his head, William said, “Well, I imagine Donna will be 
returning here with her family this afternoon. We’ll be going out to 
dinner and you’re invited to join us.”

While Rock and Natalie exchanged grimaces at what such a visit 
represented for them, Sandra sat back and stared at William. She 
asked, “Her family will be coming here?”

“Yes. That reminds me; call her and let her know that it is all right 
with me if her family comes here. I’m sure that they are in the 
middle of an argument right about now,” William said. He plucked 
a grape off his plate and popped it into his mouth.

Sandra pulled out her cell phone and called Barbara to forward the 
message to Donna while shaking her head. Despite knowing how 
important William was to Native Americans around the country, 
she hadn’t even thought about how Donna’s family would react to 
his presence in the area. It took a few minutes to convey the 
necessary information. When she hung up, she said, “Barbara will 
see to it that Donna is contacted.”

“Great. I imagine that there will be at least twenty guests tonight,” 
William said. He was quiet for a moment and then asked, “Do you 
think that a burger burner would be okay?”

“I don’t think so,” Sandra answered while writing down on a pad 
of paper the need to make reservations at a local restaurant. It was 
barely 8:30 and her to-do list had grown to over fifty items. 

“Pity,” William remarked thinking that it was a shame that most 
folks didn’t consider going out for fast food a special occasion. 
Turning back to Mayra, William asked, “Do you think we’ll have 
time to put together a presentation?”

“Not really,” Gunter answered. There was only thirty minutes until 
the conference started.

“We’re not on the program,” Mayra said. She saw the expression 
on Sandra’s face that resulted from her comment. William was 
about to make a suggestion when she added, “I don’t think it 
would be proper to have Sandra arrange for us to be added. 
Besides, I think we should be publishing the paper in a referred 
journal.”

“Okay,” William said even as Sandra gave forth a sigh of relief.

There was a knock on the door. Sandra rose from the table saying, 
“That will be Terry with the copies of the paper. I’ll have her take 
them down to the table at the entrance of the conference room.”

“Great,” William said. Smiling at her, he said, “I don’t know what 
we would have done without you.”

 Shaking her head, Sandra went to the door and made arrangements 
for the papers with Terry. It was only a few minutes before she 
returned to the table. Once she sat down, William said, “That 
reminds me. Give all of the people who helped you a bonus.”

“How much?”

“A thousand?” William suggested. He made a mental note to 
contact Barbara to have her arrange a bonus for Sandra. 

“Yes, sir,” Sandra said deciding that this had become the most 
expensive mathematics conference in history. She was afraid that 
she would lose her job when he saw the amount of money she had 
spent.