The Leviathan Effect (44 page)

“Okay.” Mallory noticed the childlike spark in the President’s eyes. He exchanged a look with Blaine, trying to stay out of the way. “Jared?” The President gestured, giving the floor to Dr. Clayton, who stood in the center of everyone like a street performer.

“Thank you,” he said, tugging on his sweater sleeves. “I agree with the President that this may or may not ultimately mean much,” he said, his eyes moving restlessly, seeming to avoid direct contact with anyone. “But we are, clearly, starting to see some dramatic activity within the eye wall.

“As you know, a series of solar laser pulses was directed to the edges of the new eye wall cycle, beginning at 1:13 this afternoon. One of the intended consequences was to create an elevation in central pressure within the eye wall. The drone planes have also delivered our 37-AQX synthetic bacteria, which appears to be inducing further disruption.

“Now, the most significant change we’re seeing right now is this increase in central pressure. And a rather dramatic weakening of the eye wall as well.”

“Which was expected,” said Blaine.

“Expected, yes. It just took longer than we thought.”

The Vice President asked, “What does central pressure mean, exactly?”

The corners of Clayton’s mouth turned up wryly. “When air flows into the center of a storm faster than it flows out, the central pressure rises. The effect of these laser pulses appears to have created a pattern of friction within the storm that’s causing the winds to ‘bend’ across the low center, cutting off the storm’s source of energy.”

“And what in God’s name does that mean?” Stanton said. “In English, please.”

“Generally, lower pressures correspond to higher winds. By raising the pressure inside this eye wall, we’re basically seeing the storm fill up. And slow down.”

“Meaning it’s working,” the President said.

“Well.” Clayton pursed his lips. “It would be rather presumptuous to say that at this point. But I think it’s valid to say that we’re seeing an impact. We get another reading in twenty-seven minutes.”

“That’s the good news,” Dr. Wu said.

“The bad?” Blaine asked.

“At this stage, it may not matter. It may be too late.”

M
ALLORY TURNED AWAY
and watched the silent television on a counter across the room while the others waited for the new reports. Storm scenes from everywhere: The cell phone video from Frederick, Maryland. A Virginia farmhouse washed into Chesapeake Bay. The eerie, continuous streams of lightning around the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral.

Several minutes later, Dr. Clayton began to make interested sounds—“mmm” and “uh, okay”—studying one of the GOES thirty-minute satellite readings of the storm’s center. Then the animated image from the Space Station. New readings coming in from the National Hurricane Center.

Something is changing
. Mallory could tell. He could read it in the separate faces of the two scientists, well before anything was
said. And even more clearly when they huddled together and talked in low voices, Clayton crouched down to bring his head level with Wu’s.

“What is it?” the President finally asked.

“We’re seeing a continuation of the shift inside the eye wall,” said Dr. Clayton, nodding toward the large monitor. “As you can see, there’s now significant destabilization and also some disintegration evident.”

“But we were seeing that five hours ago, weren’t we?” Stanton said.

“We were. What’s significant now is the activity pursuant to the outer eye wall. Which is also showing signs of disorganization. The question becomes, Will this outer eye wall be able to move in and replace it? My guess at this point would be no.”

“Meaning it won’t be able to replenish itself,” said Blaine.

“That’s how it’s starting to appear, yes.”

“And this is because of these laser pulses?” asked Stanton.

Clayton made a non-committed tilt of his head, glancing quickly at Blaine.

“In a sense, it almost doesn’t matter what’s causing it, does it?” the President said, trying not to smile.
He’s already thinking about how he’ll present this to the nation
, Mallory could tell

“Well, let’s see what happens in another twenty minutes.”

D
R
. J
AMES
W
U
could see that, in fact, the outer eye wall
was
coming apart, a development he hadn’t expected and didn’t understand. But he knew, now, where this was going, just as Jared Clayton must have known. There wasn’t going to be an eye wall replacement cycle. The center of the storm was becoming non-existent and the outer eye wall was tearing apart. The storm no longer had a source of energy, or an organizing force. It had no reason to exist.

T
WENTY MINUTES LATER
,
they saw new activity on the eastern and northern edges of the storm. High levels of wind shear were disrupting the movement of the outer bands and the vertical structure of the eye wall was being smothered, causing a more visible, and obvious, disruption. Without an energy source, Alexander was coming apart.

“It seems like it’s getting worse,” said Stanton, looking at the President.

“No, the opposite,” said Dr. Clayton. “It’s a strange storm. But it’s clearly losing its structure. Alexander’s sin is that he got too big. Too many rain bands competing for the same energy. The wind shear is causing it to lose its rotation and its structure. This is a storm that never should have gotten this big,” he said, looking only at the President, who was nodding. “But now that it has, it no longer can sustain itself. I think we may be starting to see the final death throes of this thing.”

“But something of this size,” said the Vice President. “It isn’t going to just break up and disappear, is it? Not at this stage.”

“That’s precisely what’s happening, though, isn’t it?” Clayton said. “Look at it. Too many competing winds and rain bands and temperatures.” He nodded to the monitors behind him. “Look at the projections now.”

Charles Mallory, a silent observer, nearly invisible in the room, felt the shared sense of relief: The new spaghetti models showed a slight shift away from land, with two indicating that the storm was going to take a sharp turn to the east and north, sputtering out at sea.

The President turned to Dr. Wu. “Jim?”

When he responded, it was in a soft but strained voice. “Yes. He’s right.” His eyes glistened. “I wouldn’t have believed this,” he said, “but I don’t think Alexander has anything to do now but break up and return to sea.”

“This storm is unraveling, people,” Dr. Clayton said, surprising everyone by vigorously clapping his hands together. “We’ve stolen its energy. We’ve outwitted it.”

Moments later, the others in the room, including Mallory, began to clap their hands almost simultaneously, breaking out in a spontaneous, energetic applause that didn’t want to end.

T
HE NETWORKS AND NEWS
channels all broke in within minutes of one another to announce the news CNN’s Kyra Phillips was the first to come on the air.

T
HE TELEPHONE CALL
that Dmitry Petrenko expected from the White House finally came at 7:53. The Oval Office summoning Victor Zorn.

Petrenko listened as Zorn took the call in his private room at the Virginia compound. President Hall congratulating him first, Victor responding. The President baiting a trap. Or else, inviting him to come in and join the other side.

Either way, Petrenko would, of necessity, have to provide an alternative.

ABORT
.

“Thank you, sir,” Zorn said, the persuasive salesman’s tone back in his voice. “I am only sorry that the initial projections were not on target.”

“Well, the end result is what matters, isn’t it?”

“Yes it is, sir. So thank you,” Victor said, his eyes lit with naked excitement. “And your part of the bargain, of course, was to make the address to the nation, announcing our partnership. Does that still hold?”

“Of course,” the President said. “As we agreed. In fact, I’d love to announce it with you on television at nine thirty this evening. If you can make it here by then.”

Mr. Zorn laughed. “No. Thank you, sir, but I am not a television performer.”

The President laughed then, too. “Could we invite you to at least be present here with us? I’d love for you to be at the White House when we make the announcement and seal the deal.”

“Yes. Thank you, sir. Yes, of course. That would be an honor.”

“Very good. Thank you again, Mr. Zorn. And congratulations,” the President said. “I believe we are on the cusp of a real breakthrough in science. Of a new era for civilization, really.”

“Yes, we are.” Zorn was beaming, thinking, as he nearly always did, that he would come out of this on top.

His name, Victor, had been a most perfect choice
, Petrenko thought.
Perfect, until now
.

O
NE OF
P
ETRENKO
’
S
security officers drove Victor Zorn to Washington through the still-heavy rains in a Mercedes GL450 SUV. Two D.C. police cars accompanied the vehicle the last twelve blocks and in through the White House gates near Fifteenth Street. The car arrived on the White House grounds shortly after 9:15
P.M.

Mr. Zorn and his driver were detained by White House police immediately as they stepped out into the rain, and transported to the military prison at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

From Zorn’s house in the Virginia foothills, Petrenko activated a remote electronic prompt just minutes before President Hall began his talk to the nation. It released a synthetic endotoxin from the implant in Mr. Zorn’s left arm, which quickly seeped into his bloodstream, shedding bubbles containing concentrated toxin. Within seconds, the poison had given him an irregular heartbeat and was causing blood vessels to leak throughout his body. As the blood vessels hemorrhaged, Mr. Zorn’s lungs and kidneys were destroyed.

Six minutes after the activation, Victor Zorn was dead.

“G
OOD EVENING
,” P
RESIDENT
H
ALL
began, seated behind his desk in the Oval Office, gazing at the teleprompter that scrolled through the speech he had finished writing that evening with Dr. Wu. “I would like to update the American people tonight on the fate of Hurricane Alexander.

“Just twelve hours ago, many of the world’s leading climate scientists and weather forecasters were predicting that Alexander had the potential to become the worst natural disaster in this nation’s history. Its unprecedented power, we were warned, was capable of destroying dozens of cities along the East Coast of the United States, resulting in tens of thousands of lives lost.

“This evening, I am able to report to you that this tragic scenario has been averted. While the remains of Alexander still pose a serious threat to some mid-Atlantic and New England regions, the unprecedented disaster that many had feared was inevitable has been avoided.

“I’ve just met with a team of the country’s leading weather scientists from FEMA, the National Weather Service, and the National Hurricane Center, and I am pleased to announce that as of twenty minutes ago, Alexander has been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, with all projections showing continued weakening through the overnight hours.

“Threats such as Alexander remind us of our nation’s vulnerabilities—and of our own vulnerabilities as human beings. They are a clear testament to the power of nature to disrupt our lives and our livelihoods. Today, however, I am able to announce that some
important and exciting new strides have been taken that may eventually render disasters such as Alexander obsolete.”

The camera came in for a closeup.

“In fact, I am both pleased and humbled to tell you this evening that some of the credit for averting Alexander may in fact belong to American science, rather than nature.

“For the first time, the federal government of the United States, working in tandem with a consortium of research centers, was able to implement a program of comprehensive storm mitigation. Specifically, we engaged cutting-edge solar laser technologies that were designed to alter the structure of hurricanes, cutting off Alexander’s energy source, increasing central pressure and, as a result, degrading the hurricane’s eye and diminishing its overall strength. Although I am not able to offer definitive proof to you tonight that these efforts were the sole reason that Alexander is no longer a hurricane, I
am
able to announce that this is a viable new science and that the United States will pledge all of its resources, ingenuity, and imagination to becoming the world leader in this field. Eventually, this new science will enable us to eliminate drought and heat waves, providing significant assistance in crop production and mitigating various other natural disasters.

“The destructive force of storms such as Alexander makes it imperative that we take the lead in exploring and developing this new realm of science and technology, so that in the future we may harness the power of nature for good rather than be at its mercy. It is our American responsibility—to ourselves, to our nation and to our future.

“It is in this spirit, therefore, that I am today announcing a new international organization that will pool resources and research to fully explore the dynamics of climate and weather science. It is our goal that within a generation, massive hurricanes such as Alexander will no longer pose a danger to these shores, to our lives, or to our livelihoods.