Goodbye California - Alistair [101]
‘“Most people are under the impression that ozone is what they sniff at the seaside. Ozone is an allotropic condition of oxygen, having three atoms instead of the normal two, and can be smelled at the seaside by the electrolysis of water and also after the discharge of electricity through the air, as occurs in a thunderstorm. But ozone in its natural state occurs almost solely in the lower stratosphere at an altitude between ten and thirty miles.
‘“The intense heat given off by a nuclear explosion causes the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere to combine. Those form oxides of nitrogen which would be borne upwards in the atomic cloud. Those would react with the ozone layer and by a well-understood chemical reaction convert the three atoms of ozone into two, that is, normal oxygen which offers zero protection against ultra-violet radiation. This would effectively blow a hole in the ozone layer and would expose the earth underneath the hole to the direct effects of the sun.
‘“Two effects remain unclear. The first of those –”’
Delage broke off as a telephone rang. Leroy picked it up, listened in silence, thanked the caller and hung up. He said: ‘I don’t know why I thanked him for that call. From the local TV station. It seems that Morro wants to strike while the iron is hot. He has another statement to make. At eleven o’clock. That’s in eight minutes’ time. It will be carried on every TV and radio station in the State. For the rest of the States, too, I shouldn’t wonder.’
‘Isn’t that wonderful?’ Dunne said. ‘A morning to remember. I wonder why it wasn’t cleared with the FBI first – we would have heard, wouldn’t we?’
Ryder said: ‘You blame them? After what the FBI did to stop the atomic blast in Nevada this morning? This is a matter for national concern now, not just for the FBI. Since when have you had the power to impose martial law? Their attitude, and probably the attitude of every citizen in the country, is that the FBI can go take a jump.’ He looked at Delage. ‘The first “unclear effect”?’
‘You’re a cold-blooded bastard, Ryder.’ Dunne undoubtedly meant what he said.
Delage looked unhappily at Dunne, but Dunne had his head in his hands. Delage returned to his notes.
‘“We just don’t know what will happen. The consequences might be small, they might be catastrophic. We might just all end up becoming very heavily suntanned: or the ultraviolet could conceivably destroy all human, animal and plant life. Subterranean and aquatic life might survive any conditions. We have no means of knowing.”’ Delage looked up. ‘He is a cheery lad, isn’t he?’
‘Let’s fall about afterwards,’ Ryder said. ‘Let’s have the second unclear effect.’
‘Well. He says: “It is not known whether this hole in the stratosphere would remain localized and keep pace with the rotation of the earth; worse, it is not known whether or not this hole can spread through the rest of the ozone layer. Chemical reactions at that level in the stratosphere are unknown and wholly unpredictable: there might well exist a form of breeder reaction, in which case large areas of the earth could be devastated.
‘“The possibility must be taken into account that some nation may already have experimented in some remote and uninhabitated region –”’
Parker said: ‘Siberia?’
‘He doesn’t say. He goes on: “It may have been established that such a hole can be blown through the ozone layer and has been found to be stable as to both location and extent. This, however, is pure conjecture.
‘“This introduces the Geneva connection. As long ago as September third of nineteen-seventy-six the thirty-nation