“You’re saying there was more than one storm?” Honi asked.
“This is the second storm,” Dr. Spencer said. “The first occurred seventeen days before this one. The first storm was a near miss, so nothing showed up in the news about it. This one was a direct hit. Thankfully, it wasn’t very strong. So far the powers that be have managed to keep it out of the news.”
“What about the earth’s magnetic field?” Jake asked. “That has been changing so much lately. What’s up with that?”
“As you are aware, the earth’s magnetic field has been decreasing in strength for the last ten years or so. A polar shift is underway.”
“You mean where the north and south poles flip?” Honi asked. “Isn’t that extremely dangerous?”
“Not normally,” Dr. Spencer replied. “It’s happened dozens of times over the last several million years. The last magnetic pole flip was the Matuyana-Brunhes reversal, 786,000 years ago. Pole flips happen every 200 to 250 thousand years, on average, so we’re actually long overdue. We originally thought pole shifts took place over several thousand years, but based on core samples, it’s hard to get a real perspective. The size of the rock sample is decidedly thin, so a thousand years is…”
“And now?” Jake asked.
Dr. Spencer looked up at him. “Oh, yes. Now we know a pole shift can happen during one’s lifetime, much less than a hundred years. In fact, the earth’s magnetic field is diminishing much more rapidly than we anticipated. It’s had a strange effect on the ozone hole over Antarctica. With the weakening of the south magnetic pole, the hole in the ozone layer is healing. Seems like it wasn’t hydrofluorocarbons after all. It was the intensity of the magnetic field that created the hole. We just made certain assumptions that we had created a problem that turned out to have an entirely natural cause.”
“Is the earth’s magnetic field going to disappear?” Honi asked.
Dr. Spencer looked at her. “Well, not entirely, at least we don’t think so. There are new north and south poles emerging, weak, but emerging. The overall field will be very weak, I’m afraid, especially in various places. The new poles are moving rapidly, well from a planetary aspect they are moving rapidly. If you were standing there you wouldn’t notice it at all.”
“How weak?” Jake asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, it’s so hard to predict these kinds of things accurately.”
“Ball park? Fifty percent? Thirty percent?”
“Oh nothing that high,” Dr. Spencer said. “We’ve already dropped by more than fifty percent. We’re probably looking at something in the three to five percent range.”
“The magnetic field will be only three to five percent of what it was ten years ago?” Honi asked.
“Yes, yes,” Dr. Spencer replied. “But that shouldn’t last more than a few years. The new poles should strengthen by the time the next sunspot maximum takes place,”
“But we’re having solar storms now!” Jake said.
“Yes, yes,” Dr. Spencer said. “I just don’t know why. It’s not natural.”
“How do we know the magnetic field will return?” Honi asked.
“Well, scientists originally thought the magnetic field was generated by the iron core in the center of the planet, but we’re much too far away from the core. The magnetosphere is produced by the flow of massive electric currents in the outer magma layer, just thirty miles or less below us. Normally, the Coriolis Force, a twisting action created by the rotation of the earth, keeps the magma flow even and the electric flow forms a geomagnetic dynamo that generates the earth’s magnetic field. Right now the magma and the electric current flows are chaotic, so the magnetic field reflects that chaotic state. But chaos is the exception. Chaos is unbalanced. Nature always seeks balance. When balance returns, so will the magnetic field.”
“And until then?” Honi asked.
“Pray we don’t get hit with a big CME,” Dr. Spencer said as he looked down at the floor.
“Thank you, Dr. Spencer,” Jake said as he and Honi turned to leave.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Dr. Spencer said. “I know you are fascinated by science things like this. There’s a bright young engineer over at George Washington University. You’re going to love what he has come up with. Here’s his card. Go and see him. Such an exciting development.”
Jake took the card. “Thanks. I’ll visit him, I promise.”
Jake checked the computer back at his office while Honi waited impatiently for him, pacing around his office. The central plains of Canada now had the north arm of compasses pointing due west. A second North Magnetic Pole was developing in the northern Pacific Ocean south of the Aleutian Islands. The South Magnetic Pole, instead of being opposite the North Pole, was moving toward the new North Pole. Magnetic South was now in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between Chili and New Zealand. To top things off, a new Magnetic South Pole was developing over Mongolia. None of it made any sense.
“This is stupid,” Honi said. “I’ve had enough.”
“What?”
“I’m done. I stayed up all night digging out essential information for your important investigation and you’re chasing phantom lights in the sky and sunspots. You have no respect for me, my time or my agency. We’re done!”
“But these are critically important things.”
“Not to me they aren’t.”
“The solar storms may not be evidence in the investigation, but they have the potential to adversely impact what we’re doing, so they’re important.”
Honi just shook her head.
I’m losing her, he realized. “I do respect you,” he said as an opening to an apology.
“No, you don’t, or you wouldn’t waste my time. Respect isn’t about words, it’s about actions. Respect is earned. I’ve gone out of my way to earn your respect, and you aren’t interested. In fact, you haven’t done a single thing to earn my respect, and without that respect, we can’t work together.”
She’s right, Jake thought. He felt the flush of embarrassment fill his face. “I still need you to work with me. I still need your help. Is there something, anything, I can do to help earn your respect at this point?”
She turned and walked to the door, stopped briefly and turned to face him. “Anything?”
“Anything,” he replied.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is for a woman to get respect in a man’s world? I have to be better, faster, stronger and smarter than every man I encounter, and I am. But I still don’t get the respect I deserve. Not from you, and certainly not from other people just like you. I’m sick of it, but I am prepared to earn your respect, on your turf, in the only way men seem to garner any respect at all. Are you into martial arts?”
“At the FBI, we all are.”
“You have a gym in this dilapidated rat trap of a building?”
“Down stairs.”
“If you can take me in hand-to-hand combat, you can earn my respect.”
Jake changed out of his street clothes and into his workout sweats. Each agent had a locker located next to the gym. He entered the gym and proceeded to strap on the ankle pads used to keep from breaking bones in your opponent. The gym was sixty feet by one hundred twenty feet, with a hardwood floor. Exercise machines and weight sets were placed around the outer walls. In the center was the martial arts mat where, in addition to fighting, suspect take-downs and control moves were taught and practiced. He slipped the padded gloves on as he bounced toward the center of the mat.
Other FBI agents working out in the gym stopped their routine and moved to the edge of the martial arts area. Agent Honika Badger stood calmly in the center of the padded section of the floor wearing her street clothes.