CHAPTER
26
CHAPTER
26
Andrew and Thomas walked into Claudia’s office and she knew instantly the results were positive. Both men were revved up and grinning broadly.
‘So things are looking good?’ she asked.
‘Things are bloody marvellous,’ Andrew said, ‘so bloody marvellous that you can stop fretting your pretty little head about cancer-data.’ He flapped a bundle of printouts in the air. ‘Our data is rock solid.’
‘Fantastic news. Thank you so much for all your hard work.’
‘Think nothing of it little lady.’ Thomas said. ‘And we can now bask arrogantly in the knowledge that you owe us big time, and therefore you will never decline any request we make; no matter how unreasonable it is.’
'Exactly.’ Andrew agreed, ‘And our first request is two days uninterrupted sleep.’
‘Of course. Sleep for a week. Better still, why don’t I ask Sarah to book a Hawkesbury River houseboat for you both. You can spend a week resting, fishing, reading and swimming.’ Claudia said enthusiastically.
‘Sounds great, but the river will have to wait. You little woman are going to need two strong men at your side for a few weeks.’ Andrew said.
‘What do you mean?’
He looked at Thomas, ‘You tell her.’
Thomas nodded, ‘Look let’s all sit down and I’ll explain what we’ve found.' He spoke directly to Claudia, ‘As you know Andrew likes to do his own thing, so it turns out he has never used Weather Scope’s data. He’s always done his own tables and they are the ones all our calcs are based on.’
Andrew looked sheepish. ‘Sorry boss. I just can’t help myself. I just can’t bring myself to trust other people’s work. I trust my team, because I know their work is good, and I can watch what they do and how they do it.’ He pulled a face, ‘But when it comes to using tables produced by the New Yorkers, I just couldn’t do it. I did my own tables and enter them into AtmosFear.’ He shrugged and apologised again.
‘Bloody hell, Andrew don’t apologise. You’ve probably saved us all from ruin. The New York stuff is useless.’
Thomas continued, ‘Last night we checked all our models against Weather Scope’s data, and surprise, surprise, we found their calcs have all been scaled down around three hundred percent. Their timelines have been pushed out to around two hundred years, so the net result is that when you model the sea level rise indications across the expanded timelines, you end up with a less than one in ten rise annually. Then if you take the melt rate and push that out two hundred years, the impact is next to nothing. You end up with only a slight increase on present day levels.’ Thomas put the graphs on the table for the others to see. Claudia studied them carefully, then looked up and said, ‘So of course if you release these results there is no threat. Governments don’t need to do anything and everyone can just get on with their lives.’ Her brow creased, ‘But we know that in less then than ten years all coastlines will recede by around one hundred kilometres.’
‘Exactly.’ Thomas replied, ‘But how do you convince the people that our predictions are right?’
‘We don’t.’ Claudia said firmly, ‘We have to expose Weather Scope for data tampering, and we get the media to run the story. After that everything else will just fall into place. Imagine how the media will play out fraudulent data. They’ll scream it on every news outlet. When they’ve bled every drop of blood from that story, they’ll be looking for a sensational follow up. That’s when we give them the true models. Ten years will seem like ten minutes to panicking people.’ Claudia took a sip of water and cleared her throat. ‘People will support the relocation plans then; because they will be scared stiff.’
It was after midnight when she arrived home. There were three messages from Christoph asking her to call him as soon as she got in. She kicked off her shoes, poured herself a small glass of wine and dialled his number.
‘Hello my darling. How are things in the land down-under?’ Christoph asked.
‘We are indeed living in the very best and the very worst of times.’ She told him about her meeting with Thomas and Andrew.
‘That’s the greatest news possible. Thank them for all their hard work. Tell them I’m grateful to them both.’ He said, and then went over the events that had taken place since he returned to New York. ‘The real puzzle is what do Angus and Ursula have to gain from tampering with the data? It’s got me stumped.’
‘Andrew thinks it’s to retain economic stability in the western world. He says that the longer the governments can keep the threat at bay, the more stable economies will remain. Let the genie out of the bottle and all hell will break lose. Global markets will go wild, and no one will be able to contain them.’ Claudia said.
‘I agree, but there has to be a link between Weather Scope and some other organization, political party or government body. Weather Scope is working with someone, and we need to find out who it is.’
‘I suspect the connection is here in the States. I’ll start digging around and see what I can come up with. How are you handling the pressure?’
‘Not too badly. I’m staying focused and trying not to get ahead of myself. My biggest problem is when and how to involve our Prime Minister. He has to know what’s going on.’
‘Be careful Claudia. If you talk to him too early, you might loose all credibility and nothing you say after that will be taken seriously.’
‘I know. But it could go the other way too. If I leave it too long and he hears from another source I’ll be committing professional suicide.’ She sighed heavily. ‘I wish you were here.’
‘I do too. But I can be more help to you here. You’ve got good people helping you. Don’t try to do too much by yourself. Talk everything over with the team before you make any big decisions.’
‘No problem there. We talk all the time.’
‘Good. Now go and get some sleep.’ he said, ‘and remember, I love you.’ He added.
‘Thank you.’
‘For?’
‘Loving me.’ Claudia said quietly.