He twisted round and pushed the button on his desk intercom and asked his secretary to contact the two C.I.A. officers and ask them to come to the office.
Schofeld was still struggling with the incredible possibilities of the report as he poured coffee for Starling and Francesini. He pushed their cups towards them. His face was like stone.
“Gentlemen,” he began. “I suspect that some of what I am about to tell you, you will already know, but it will be necessary for me to recount the facts in order to persuade ourselves that my deductions are sound and my conclusions honest. Although I wish to God they were wrong.”
He picked up the report and they could almost see his nose wrinkling at the prospect of what it contained.
“I was sceptical at first, I must admit,” he told them, “but I know Harry Marsham quite well. I’ve worked with him on several occasions and trust his professional and personal judgment completely. Everything he has suggested accords with my own view.” He cleared his throat. “Unfortunately. Anyway, let us begin.”
He switched on a projector that immediately showed an oceanographers map of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the east coast of the United States and Canada to the western approaches to northern Europe.
“During the winters in our Northern Hemisphere, a high pressure system develops over Siberia and Central Asia which brings the coldest temperatures on earth outside of the Polar ice caps. It means that a great deal of the northern countries like Latvia, northern Russia, etcetera, are frozen over for almost six months of the year. The average temperature in those areas can be as low as minus eighteen degrees Celsius; about minus sixty degrees Fahrenheit. It wouldn’t happen of course if it wasn’t for the fact that the Himalayas buttress the warm air of the Indian Ocean, preventing it from flowing up into Central Asia.
He paused as if to consider his next point. “So the only tempering influence on the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere comes from the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Atlantic Ocean.”
“The Gulf Stream,” Francesini said. Starling nodded and continued to study the Professor’s face.
“Quite,” the professor continued. “Now, global warming seems to be coming to the aid of these frozen parts, but quite slowly, and of course, not for a good many years yet. Those countries will still continue to struggle under these extreme conditions, probably for much of what’s left of this century, maybe longer.”
Starling and Francesini nodded, neither of them sure just where this was leading. Schofeld carried on.
“Now, let’s consider the Gulf Stream for a moment. As you both know, I’m sure; it is born in the Gulf of Mexico, jets through the Florida Narrows between Miami and the Grand Bahamas, and flows up the eastern seaboard of America as far as Cape Hatteras. From there it swings right across the Atlantic Ocean, passes by the British Isles, continues up to Norway and then on to Russia. By which time it doesn’t do the Russians much good at all.”
Francesini and Starling allowed themselves a little victorious smile.
“There are two important considerations here. The Gulf Stream has a direct effect on the Sargasso Sea. That’s the large, almost motionless area in the centre of the Atlantic. It holds it in check. If the Sargasso Sea was able to drift and circulate a few degrees north, it would provide a warmer climate for the whole of Scandinavia.”
He paused, letting it sink in. But for the two men listening, there was nothing yet that worried them. They both wondered when the Professor would get to the point.
“The other important consideration, gentlemen, is the Irminger Current. This is a small finger of warm water that leads away from the Gulf Stream. It flows up to the Western Coast of Greenland and helps to prevent that coastline from freezing. If it were not for the upward flow of the Irminger current, then the LaGregor Current, sometimes known as the Ogden Pump, would flow down through Newfoundland as far as Cape Hatteras, and the eastern seaboard of America would freeze over in the winter. It would mean extreme conditions all along the eastern territories of the United States during the winter months and perhaps longer.”
Schofeld stopped then and lifted his cup from the desk. He looked over the top of his cup at the two men, waiting for them to either say something or let him continue. They said nothing.
“If it was possible,” he went on after finishing his coffee, “to alter the direction of the Gulf Stream by a couple of degrees, or indeed even stop it, the following things would happen.”
He began ticking them off on his fingers.
“The Sargasso Sea would tighten and warm up. The prevailing westerly winds would absorb much of this heat and bring a more temperate climate to parts of Scandinavia. Good for them, no doubt.”
“The Irminger Current would almost certainly disappear, and the effect would be to bring the LaGregor Current sweeping down the Eastern seaboard of America. This would change the climate of the north eastern states drastically, and they would be like Siberia for much of the year.”
He picked up the report which had been drawn up by Francesini, using the information obtained from Marsh by the Lieutenant Santos, the Navy Seal.
“Marsh says there are three bombs. To alter the topography of the sea bed between Florida and the Grand Bahamas in order to achieve a two degree shift of the Gulf Stream and possibly stopping it altogether, would result in a rise in sea level of about two feet along the eastern side. This would almost certainly flood the entire Bahamian Archipelago. Everything would disappear.”
“When the bombs explode, the resultant tidal wave, a Tsunami, would overrun the whole of the State of Florida as far south as the Keys. It would engulf most of the Gulf of Mexico Seaboard, Central America; places like Guatemala, Belize, Eastern Mexico. Coastlines and low lying countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico and all of the West Indies would be devastated. The tsunami that struck Indonesia and killed two hundred and thirty thousand people in 2004 would be small fry in comparison.”
“The energy pulse from the three bombs would silence all communication, cell phones, air traffic control systems, public transport, computer highways, the internet, everything. Anything that relied on telecommunications would cease to work within a two hundred mile radius. Everything!”
He dropped the report on to his desk. The two men remained silent. Schofield continued.
“Khan is attacking the soft, underbelly of America. There are nearly four thousand oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico supplying almost thirty percent of our domestic oil and gas. Our economy could be wrecked. The knock-on effect for the other Western economies would be disastrous. The death toll in the Gulf alone would reach well over a million; to say nothing of the total devastation and havoc brought down on the survivors.”
He paused, letting it sink in. Starling and Francesini sat there impassively; the expressions almost wooden.
“Gentlemen,” the professor said gravely. “You must stop this madman. If you do not, you are looking at a doomsday scenario of apocalyptic proportions.”
Chapter 16
The lines on Francesini’s face looked as though they had been painted on with an artist’s brush. They were deeply etched into his expression and showed the considerable pressure he was under. Since his meeting with Professor Schofeld at the Woods Hole Institute, he had been subjected to a very uncomfortable meeting with the President’s National Security Adviser who had wasted no time in trying to reduce him to a nervous wreck by an ingenuous attack on his character, his department, his appalling efforts to stop the madman, Hakeem Khan, and anything else he could lay his political tongue too.