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Galveston said.  “You had to physically speak to another human being.”
    “ Yeah, it was horrible and no help.  I don’t know what to tell you guys at this point.  I struck out—big time.”
    Alex was clearly dejected.  He wasn’t used to coming up empty-handed.  This was a severe blow to his overly inflated ego.
    “ Well, stay by the phone.  Roger and I need to talk about what we’re going to do next.”
    “ Okay.  Maybe I can do better next time,” Alex replied, like a kid that didn’t get all A’s on his report card.
    Galveston ended the call and looked at me.  “That was rather pitiful.”
    “ I’ll say,” I agreed.
    “ I really wanted to give him a hard time and say, ‘thanks for nothing’, but even I’m not that heartless.”
    “ That probably was a good decision.  At least he’ll work harder for us next time,” I concluded.
    “ Very true.  This is something we can hold over his head for years to come.”
    We both had a quick laugh about the situation, but we still had a major pressing problem—we were at another dead end.
    I thought about our situation and realized what we had to do.
    “ I hate to say this, and I know you would be telling me this in a few seconds, but we have to go to Greenland.”
    Galveston face, for once in our partnership together, flashed in surprise.
    “ Greenland?  Whatever for?”
    “ You know as well as I do that we have to go to the source.  It’s what you’ve preached for years,” I said emphatically.
    “ There’s nothing in Greenland but ice.  It isn’t really green, you know,” he said in a whisper.
    “ I know, but that’s where we have to go to find these guys harassing Stanwick.”
    “ Ah, hell, you’re right.  I’ll call Stanwick and arrange the trip.  You realize we’ve just become geology research assistants, right?” Galveston said flatly.
    “ It’s been a dream of mine for years.”             
    “ I bet it has.  You are about as boring as a rock,” Galveston shot back.
    I gave Galveston a slap on the back, ignoring his playful barb as he dialed his phone to Professor Stanwick.  If we had only known the trip to Greenland wouldn’t be as boring as a rock.

-Chapter 8-
     
    Joe agreed to our request and convinced his superiors to give him time off to go to Greenland.  We figured a week would leave plenty of time for us to investigate. 
    He had us sign a few papers to get us the necessary credentials as his research assistants.  This would allow him to pay us from his research grants.
    Traveling to Greenland was going to be a tedious affair.  We would have to take a flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then to Kulusuk, Greenland.  From there we would take a short flight over the mainland to Nuuk, before flying up the western coast to the town of Upernavik.  I was beginning to cause myself seizures trying to say the names of the towns in Greenland.
    Greenland was such an unknown to me, and I was excited about the opportunity.  The Kingdom of Denmark continues to maintain foreign affairs, defense, and monetary policies for the country, but in recent years the people of Greenland voted on having more autonomous control.
    Even though Greenland’s chief export is fishing and fish products, a new, burgeoning mineral industry had begun to develop.  Gold, rubies, iron, uranium, and a list of other minerals are mined in the country.  This has opened Greenland up to more economic development.  It has also made Greenland a new player in the business of mineral exports.
    I was intrigued when I found out about this last bit of information.  I had no idea Greenland was a forthcoming hotbed of mineral production—especially rubies.  I figured the people were all seafaring folk and disconnected from the rest of the world.  Things were changing fast in the least densely populated country in the world.
    Where there were minerals and money to be made, there were companies to take advantage of the money-making