The door opened and Kiefer’s secretary came in with an ashtray which she set before Peterson. Peterson thanked her, abstractedly tabulating her physical characteristics and giving her a good 8 out of 10. He realized with relish that only his status as a member of the Council had overridden Kiefer’s ban on smoking in his office.
Kiefer perched on the edge of the chair facing him. “So … tell me how you found the situation in South America.” He rubbed his hands together eagerly.
Peterson exhaled luxuriously. “It’s bad. Not desperate yet but very serious. Brazil has become more dependent on fishing lately thanks to their short-sighted slash-and-burn policy of a decade or two ago—and of course this bloom seriously affects fishing.”
Kiefer leaned forward even more, as eager for details as any gossiping housewife, and at this point Peterson put himself on automatic. He revealed what he had to and extracted from Kiefer a few technical points worth remembering. He knew more biology than physics, so he did a better job than with Renfrew and Markham. Kiefer went into their funding situation—bleak, of course; one never heard any other tune—and Peterson guided him back onto useful stuff.
“We believe the whole food chain may be threatened,” Kiefer said. “The phytoplankton are succumbing to the chlorinated hydrocarbons—the kind used in fertilizer.” Kiefer leafed through the reports. “Manodrin, specifically.”
“Manodrin?”
“Manodrin is a chlorinated hydrocarbon used in insecticides. It has opened a new life niche among the microscopic algae. A new variety of diatom has evolved. It uses an enzyme which breaks down manodrin. The diatom silica also excrete a breakdown product which interrupts transmission of nerve impulses in animals. Dendritic connections fail. But they must have gone into all this at the conference.”
“It was mostly at the political level, what steps to be taken to meet the immediate crisis and so on.”
“What is going to be done about it?”
“They’re going to try to shift resources from the Indian Ocean experiments to contain the bloom, but I don’t know if it’ll work. They haven’t completed their tests yet.”
Kiefer drummed his fingers on the ceramic tiles. He asked abruptly, “Did you see the bloom yourself?”
“I flew over it,” Peterson answered. “It’s ugly as sin. The color terrifies the fishing villages.”
“I think I’ll go down there myself,” Kiefer muttered, more to himself than to Peterson. He got up and began to pace the room. “Still, y’know, I keep feeling there’s something else …”
“Yes?”
“One of my lab types thinks there’s something special going on here, a way the process can kinda alter itself.” Kiefer waved a hand in dismissal. “All hypothetical, though. I’ll keep you informed if any of it pans out.”
“Pans out?”
“Works, I mean.”
“Oh. Do.”
• • •
Peterson got away from Scripps later than he’d planned. He accepted an invitation to dinner at Kiefer’s to keep things going on the good-fellow front, always a wise idea. It was harder for a sod to cross you when he’s drunk some and told a joke and devoured a casserole in your company, however boring the conversation had been.
Peterson’s limo and tag-along security detail took him into La Jolla center for the appointment at San Diego First Federal Savings. It was a bulky squarish building, set dead among a brace of tedious stores of the shoppe variety. He thought of getting something as a traveler-home-from-the-wars gift, something he’d done more often when younger, but dismissed the idea after three seconds of deliberation. The shops were of the semi-infinite markup species and despite the rickety dollar, the pound was worse. All that would be quite to the side if the shops had been interesting, but instead they sported knickknacks and ornate lamps and gaudy ashtrays. He grimaced and went into the bank.
The bank manager met them at the door, primed by the sight of the security force. Yes, he had been advised of Mr. Peterson’s arrival, yes, they had searched the bank records. Once inside the manager’s office Peterson asked brusquely, “Well, then?”
“Ah, sir, it was a surprise to us, let me tell you,” the thin man said seriously. “A safety deposit box with the fees arranged for decades ago. Not your typical situation.”
“Quite so.”
“I … I was told you would not have the key?” The man obviously hoped Peterson would have it, though, and save him a lot of explaining to his superiors afterward.
“Right, I don’t. But didn’t you find the box was registered in my name?”