Anemic

The city held the same atmosphere when I got off the bullet train at the platform. The crowd were going toward the ticket gate to the concourse to join the familiar flow of passing people. I walked the concourse following the crowd to take the subway. The train was crowded as usual. Got off at the terminal station. There a sales engineer of my client company was waiting in a rented car. I got in the car saying hello to him.
"Toshi-san, I am relieved you come on time."
"Is that so?"
"You don't remember? You were 20 minutes late last time."
"Was I?"
"Today just you and me. This meeting is all about your report. So if you were late how could I excuse?"
"You wouldn't have to. I would."
"How?"
"I would excuse that you were late, hahaha."
"Come on toshi-san, it is not a laughing matter, hahaha"
We drove for 30 minutes. While we were talking about the recession which hit the automakers, we got to the automaker. We got though the security which we found far more strict than before. We even had to show our driver's license to get identified.
The meeting started at 1:30 sharp. I made my presentation with confidence that came from the outcome of my research. But I could not feel the energetic reaction from the engineers listening to my presentation. A few technical questions there were but nothing more. Finally the department manager said.
"We have discussed your report in our internal meeting and found it great. But... as you know... our financial situation is now stuck. It does not allow us to start up, for the next fiscal year, any new project including the one we had been planning. So we have no choice but to apply your idea by ourselves. But we are worried if we can do it. I know this is just our fond hope but we would like you to help us this year in order to start this project in 2010 fiscal year."
Oh, the situation is this bad. Everyone was quiet and looked... anemic. I could not answer if I could help them since this is up to my client that hired me. Maybe yes, maybe no...
I said " At least I can instruct you how to do it until this project ends in June. But after that, your guess is as good as mine."
As I left the meeting room a young guy in charge of this project said loudly "よろしくお願いします!!" All I could do was just smile back.
When we came back to the station there was the same crowd moving into the concourse. But to me everyone's face looked... anemic.