Read Online Minutes to Burn by Gregg Hurwitz - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Gregg Hurwitz
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said.
Rex waved her off. “Same difference.”
Tucker was listening intently. “Why’s Sangre de Dios so important?” he asked.
“Because it sits over a network of fissures running south from the Galápagos Fracture Zone and, more significant, fissures running inland from the East Pacific Rise—it’s near the source of both major forces that affect movement of the entire Nazca plate.”
Tank watched Rex blankly. When Rex finished speaking, Tank turned to the others. “English?” he said.
“It’s near where shit is the most fucked up,” Szabla replied.
“Because of that,” Rex continued, “it’s our canary in the coal mine.” He noticed that Tucker was jotting notes in a small pad. “That’s C-A-N-A-R-Y.”
Tucker looked at him self-consciously, then slid the pad back into his pocket. “Just thought it would help keep me up on things,” he said.
Rex flashed a grin. “Indeed.”
“I’m sure you’re all aware of the severe ozone deficiency in that region.” Donald stood and crossed to a large cabinet, pulling it open. “You’ll need to take every precaution down there. Protective contacts, SPF one hundred lotion.” He pulled out several tubes of sunblock and waved them at the soldiers. “Get it everywhere—webs of your fingers, insides of your ears; if you part your hair, rub it along the exposed line of scalp.” He held the tubes out to Derek, but Derek waved him off.
“We’re covered,” Cameron said. “Customary operating supplies for missions in ozone-poor regions.”
Derek clapped his hands once and rose. “We’ll be lifting out at 2300 from the base. Any other questions?”
“Yeah,” Savage said, thunking his bootless foot on the table. His voice was gravelly with phlegm, so he cleared his throat and spit in the corner. “You think we could see about getting me another boot sometime soon?”
Cameron walked out of the women’s room on the third floor of the New Center and headed down the hall toward the stairs, her boots loud on the tiled floor. Sealed with yellow police tape, the elevator doors were now used as a bulletin board. Cameron stopped for a moment and glanced at the flyers advertising lecture series and research trips.
One section of the doors was dedicated to the tropical ozone prob-lem. Her eyes flickered over the papers, trying to condense the informa-tion.
Evidently, tropical regions had always suffered the highest penetra-tion of UV radiation. Since the Initial Event, ocean surface heating from tectonic activity had only compounded the problem. It had spawned hurricanes that, in combination with aberrant weather patterns, had evolved into hypercanes, massive hurricanes that were so tall they reached into the stratosphere. Because of their elongation, hypercanes pumped water from the ocean surface directly into the stratosphere, introducing massive amounts of HO and HO2. This accelerated the hox catalytic cycle, a natural process that broke down ozone and removed it from the stratosphere. It took a full year for the ozone balance to nor-malize after a hypercane, and one had been occurring every three to four months. For the past five years, the flyer warned, people, plants, and ani-mals near the equator had been absorbing unprecedented amounts of UV radiation.
A tear sheet listed the effects of ultraviolet B on organisms—reduced shoot length and average leaf area in plants; decreases in rates of photo-synthesis; structural damages to light-sensitive plankton; corruption of bird, reptile, and insect eggs; reduced proportion of healthy hatchlings. But the reported effects on humans were the most disturbing. The ten percent reduction in equatorial stratospheric ozone had led to a forty percent increase in the incidence of basal cell carcinoma, and a sixty per-cent increase in squamous cell carcinoma in Ecuador, Colombia, and northern Peru. The study also reported a rise in the number of cataracts, and a condition described cryptically as a general
Rex waved her off. “Same difference.”
Tucker was listening intently. “Why’s Sangre de Dios so important?” he asked.
“Because it sits over a network of fissures running south from the Galápagos Fracture Zone and, more significant, fissures running inland from the East Pacific Rise—it’s near the source of both major forces that affect movement of the entire Nazca plate.”
Tank watched Rex blankly. When Rex finished speaking, Tank turned to the others. “English?” he said.
“It’s near where shit is the most fucked up,” Szabla replied.
“Because of that,” Rex continued, “it’s our canary in the coal mine.” He noticed that Tucker was jotting notes in a small pad. “That’s C-A-N-A-R-Y.”
Tucker looked at him self-consciously, then slid the pad back into his pocket. “Just thought it would help keep me up on things,” he said.
Rex flashed a grin. “Indeed.”
“I’m sure you’re all aware of the severe ozone deficiency in that region.” Donald stood and crossed to a large cabinet, pulling it open. “You’ll need to take every precaution down there. Protective contacts, SPF one hundred lotion.” He pulled out several tubes of sunblock and waved them at the soldiers. “Get it everywhere—webs of your fingers, insides of your ears; if you part your hair, rub it along the exposed line of scalp.” He held the tubes out to Derek, but Derek waved him off.
“We’re covered,” Cameron said. “Customary operating supplies for missions in ozone-poor regions.”
Derek clapped his hands once and rose. “We’ll be lifting out at 2300 from the base. Any other questions?”
“Yeah,” Savage said, thunking his bootless foot on the table. His voice was gravelly with phlegm, so he cleared his throat and spit in the corner. “You think we could see about getting me another boot sometime soon?”
Cameron walked out of the women’s room on the third floor of the New Center and headed down the hall toward the stairs, her boots loud on the tiled floor. Sealed with yellow police tape, the elevator doors were now used as a bulletin board. Cameron stopped for a moment and glanced at the flyers advertising lecture series and research trips.
One section of the doors was dedicated to the tropical ozone prob-lem. Her eyes flickered over the papers, trying to condense the informa-tion.
Evidently, tropical regions had always suffered the highest penetra-tion of UV radiation. Since the Initial Event, ocean surface heating from tectonic activity had only compounded the problem. It had spawned hurricanes that, in combination with aberrant weather patterns, had evolved into hypercanes, massive hurricanes that were so tall they reached into the stratosphere. Because of their elongation, hypercanes pumped water from the ocean surface directly into the stratosphere, introducing massive amounts of HO and HO2. This accelerated the hox catalytic cycle, a natural process that broke down ozone and removed it from the stratosphere. It took a full year for the ozone balance to nor-malize after a hypercane, and one had been occurring every three to four months. For the past five years, the flyer warned, people, plants, and ani-mals near the equator had been absorbing unprecedented amounts of UV radiation.
A tear sheet listed the effects of ultraviolet B on organisms—reduced shoot length and average leaf area in plants; decreases in rates of photo-synthesis; structural damages to light-sensitive plankton; corruption of bird, reptile, and insect eggs; reduced proportion of healthy hatchlings. But the reported effects on humans were the most disturbing. The ten percent reduction in equatorial stratospheric ozone had led to a forty percent increase in the incidence of basal cell carcinoma, and a sixty per-cent increase in squamous cell carcinoma in Ecuador, Colombia, and northern Peru. The study also reported a rise in the number of cataracts, and a condition described cryptically as a general
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