47、The man sitting opposite Robert was the Financial Controller. Everybody called him "the FC"for short. He made all the decisions about money. Robert needed some more. That was why he had to see him. The two men did not get on very well. In fact, they had always disliked each other.
"Your request is out of the question,"the FC said. Robert had difficulty in controlling himself, but he managed somehow. He explained that he wanted the money in order to make more programmes.
"And why do you want to do that?" the FC asked sharply. Again, Robert almost lost his temper. "Because more and more people are listening to my department's programmes. There's great demand for them,"he answered.
The FC did not seem to believe him. But Robert had a report on the numbers of listeners to all EBC programmes. The FC became less confident. Robert threw the report down on the table and told him to read it.
The FC looked at it in silence. The figures proved that he had been wrong, but he did not want to admit it. "Well," he finally said, "I may have made a small mistake." Robert noticed the word "may."He got up to leave. But he had the feeling that he would get the money after all.