Parvez knew that with each bomb, the story would get bigger, almost as huge as the orange stain that would soon spread across the sea.
* * *
Jenna stared stonily at her television, scarcely believing what she was witnessing: Maldivian soldiers blown up and gunned down by jihadists taking over Senator Gayle Higgens’s supertanker. That brazen moron. What was she thinking, making that kind of move on her own? And now, thanks to the hijacking, the task force was really in a state of suspended animation. Everything was on hold—except the phone starting to ring beside her. She looked at the digital readout: Marv, the executive producer of The Morning Show.
“What’s up?” She didn’t bother with niceties. Why pretend?
“You watching your old stomping grounds?”
“I am.”
“You see Birk getting taken hostage?”
“I did.” Birk was unmistakable both in appearance—shock of white unruly hair—and personality, which she declined to consider at any length.
“Elfren wants to see you in the morning. Soon as we’re off air.”
As in James Elfren, the vice president in charge of correspondents and producers. Smart guy. He didn’t waste anyone’s time. If he wanted to see her, she was about to take off for the Maldives.
CHAPTER 14
The hijacking of the supertanker trumped every other news story, including the presidential race. As soon as Jenna finished her weather segment, she rushed over to the main set to join host Andrea Hanson and Harold Swenson, a portly, gray-haired senior researcher at the Washington Center for International Terrorism Studies. Swenson immediately sparked an impromptu debate.
“We’re looking at a doomsday scenario.” The expert sat forward.
“I don’t think it’s responsible to call it a doomsday scenario,” Jenna said. “We don’t know that to be the case.” She found herself still adjusting to her new role as the network’s resident expert not only on geoengineering but also the Maldives. And now a debater to boot.
“How can you not see this brazen act of ecoterrorism in those terms?” Swenson demanded. “If they blow up that tanker and release five hundred thousand tons of iron oxide, worldwide temperatures could drop five or six degrees. That’s a distinct possibility.”
“It is possible,” Jenna said, “but—”
“That’s a new ice age,” Swenson interrupted. “That’s doomsday.”
“A five- or six-degree drop would be a new ice age,” Jenna agreed, “but it’s difficult to calibrate the impact of that much iron oxide in the ocean. Yes, it will cause a massive algae bloom; and yes, the algae will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But it’s more likely that we would see a two-degree drop in temperatures.”
Swenson shook his head. “Two degrees? That’s no picnic, either. Two degrees would mean massive crop losses in North America, Europe, Russia, and China. We’re talking famine. There wouldn’t even be summer in many places.”
“That’s very possible, and that would be horrible,” Jenna said, “but we know from the Mount Pinatubo explosion, which did drop temperatures almost two degrees worldwide, that it’s not doomsday.”
“Can you explain about Mount Pinatubo?” Andrea asked.
“That was a volcanic explosion in the Philippines in 1991 that sent millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere,” Jenna said quickly.
“So any drops in temperature in the Maldives would also be felt worldwide?” Andrea followed up.
“That’s right,” Swenson said, getting back into the discussion. “But Mount Pinatubo wasn’t even two degrees. And anything beyond a three-degree drop is the end of the world as we know it.”
“Look,” Jenna said, “we’re sitting here talking about specific drops in temperature when the reality is that we don’t know how bad the impact would be.”
“Maybe,” Swenson said, “but what’s very clear now is that suicidal Islamists have taken control of the Earth’s thermostat. This,” he pointed an accusing finger at Jenna, “is precisely why we can’t be soft on terrorists.”
“I’m not saying we should be soft on them,” Jenna remonstrated. “We should get their hands off the thermostat as fast as we can and make sure that they never get another chance to do something this frightening. But the issue about how much temperatures will drop cannot be resolved here and now, because dumping iron oxide in the ocean is a crude tool, if you want to think of it that way. And dumping five hundred thousand tons is the very definition of chaos theory. That’s why scientists insist on small-scale studies.”
“And why radical Muslims want to send us into a new ice age.”
“Hold that thought,” Andrea said to Swenson. “We’ve got Special Terrorism Correspondent Chris Randall in our Washington Bureau with an important update on the hijacking