Stanford University
California
Have you ever seen a James Bond movie? You know the part where Bond gets to the bad-guy’s hide-out and there are tons of bad guys there waiting. So he calls in the cavalry and about fifty or so nameless and face-less good-guys show up. And while they battle the bad-guy’s army of goons James Bond makes off, kills the bad-guy and runs off with the girl. Well, I’ve been one of those nameless and face-less guys… a mere cog in a giant wheel of misfortune. ……
….At the time, it all seemed a simple enough assignment; at least on paper. Ox, Cougar and my-self were assigned to ‘invite’ and escort a professor Edward J. Schuller from his offices at Stanford University. Schuller was a multi- discipline child-prodigy whose radical theories on laminar flow technology revolutionised deep-sea submersibles design and made him famous in the process. According to his bio he was once touted as this century’s Albert Einstein until he fell out of favor with the scientific community preferring now to focus on Global Climate Change and other personal pursuits.
The most recent addition to the team, I felt like the odd-man out among the more experienced operatives. That, and the fact that Cougar seemed to be assessing my every move made me more uncomfortable about my “provisional” status on the team; but nevertheless I was still pleased that my first mission with the A.C.E. Unit would be a proverbial “cake-walk.”
Having arrived forty-five minutes ahead of our scheduled meeting with the Professor we left the black Audi A-12 in the University’s parking lot and went in search of the Professor.We found the professor in the middle of a lecture. Ox took up position at the main door to the lecture hall while Cougar and I took up two empty seats, among the students, on opposite ends of the lecture hall.
Graying at the temples, Edward Schuller had just turned forty, a scrawny shell of a man, glasses and all. Even-though his hair was slightly tousled and clothes un-ironed the professor stood at the lectern with all the practiced confidence and arrogance that came with academic over-achievement. And then-some.
“On earth all energy is derived from the sun’s light. As you know, it gets hot outside if the sun is shining brightly on a summer day. The reason it warms up is because the earth is absorbing some of that solar energy.
However, not all of the energy is absorbed. Some energy is reflected back into space in the form of light. This reflection allows the earth to be seen as a star from other parts of our solar system, just like we can see the moon and other planets. Energy also leaves the earth in other forms like heat, for example, which is called infrared light.
In order for our earth to stay the same temperature from year to year, the energy arriving at the earth - solar radiation - must be the same as the energy leaving the earth - infrared radiation. If we have more energy leaving than arriving, the earth will cool down and we could have another ice age. If we have more energy arriving than leaving, we will have global warming.
The reason the earth retains more energy than it gives off has to do with the air around us and what it is made of. When we burn wood, coal, or gasoline in our cars, carbon dioxide (CO2), is released. Carbon dioxide is a gas that can’t be seen or smelled, but it does trap some of the infrared energy emitted from the Earth and prevents that energy from going back out into space. If the amount of CO2 in the air goes up, the earth will heat up; we refer to this as of global warming.
Because CO2 absorbs energy emitted from the Earth and prevents it from going back out into space, it is called a greenhouse gas. There are several other greenhouse gases. Altogether, these other gases absorb about as much infrared energy as CO2 does.
The result- shorter winter periods, longer summers, more intense drought, melting polar ice caps, higher sea levels, and modified weather patterns. Why is all this important you may ask?
Everything is inter-connected and right now we have contributed more to the problem, of climate change, in the last hundred years than at any other point in our entire history. In short, boys and girls, as far as the planet’s eco-system is concerned - we are the weakest link. In fact some scientists believe that we are witnessing, albeit in slow motion in geological terms, the first part of a human triggered ‘extinction-level’ event; an event that will wipe out all life and change the planet as we know it…”
As the professor droned on I couldn’t help but notice how attractive Cougar looked in her black and white ensemble. Even-though we all wore black-suits with white shirts and black ties, Catherine ‘Cougar’ Dowling looked more like a runway-model in her black ladies pant-suit and dark sun-glasses. Her raven-black hair neatly pulled back into a shoulder-length pony-tail. Her facial features were soft and exquisitely feminine. This was one of the few times I’d seen her face not smeared with black and green camo-paint.
She looked at me and smiled. On the inside I melted like a ten year old school-boy with a crush on his teen-age baby-sitter.
I smiled back, shyly.
She frowned and discreetly tapped her ear with a slender finger. Embarrassed, I switched on my short-range radio ear-piece.
“Sorry, Cougar I….,” I stuttered lamely as she cut me off.
“What’re you doing? We’re on the clock here. Remember?” her prim and proper New-England accent ripe with irritation.
“Quit the chatter you two,” Ox chimed in. “Status?”
‘Ox,’ was short for Oxford University; his almamater. Ox was a West-point graduate with a 180 I.Q. and was built like a tank. He was second in command of our squad and was a surgeon with a M249 S.A.W.
“It looks like the Professor is winding up now,” Cougar replied.
“All right, Rabbit, look alive. Intel told us to be ready for anything today. So, eyes open.”
“Yes, sir,” The words were barely out my mouth when the student next to me got up from his seat, along with the fifty or so other students, and started to exit the hall.
The professor stood alone at the lectern packing his notes into a worn-out leather brief-bag. Ox came across “the COM.”
“Ok, Cougar, time to go introduce ourselves.”
A few minutes later we were in the professor’s office. The professor’s cluttered office was a 16 x 14 room on the second floor of university’s administration building. The room had one large rectangular window, which overlooked the parking lot and most of the university’s well-manicured grounds, and a frosted-glass door with professor’s name and title emblazoned across it. The room’s Spartan furnishings consisted of over-flowing book-shelves, a desk covered in papers and coffee stained files and two padded chairs on either side of the desk.
I took position by the door. Ox went to the window and closed the blinds. The professor obviously annoyed at this went to the window and re-opened the blinds defiantly. Cougar, amused, waved Ox “off.” He let it go.
The professor offered Cougar a seat as he hung his jacket on the back his chair and sat. Framed certificates and honors adorned the wall behind him. The professor looked impressive. A showing no doubt meant to awe any students who sat before this human bastion of knowledge.
“What can I do for you?”
Before Cougar could respond the Professor’s personal assistant barged in startling us all. Ox’s grin said it all as Cougar rolled her eyes, shook her head and turned back to face the Professor.
Of the three of us I was the only one who had reached for my gun. A“rookie” move I would no doubt be lectured about later.
Molly, seemingly unconcerned by our presence, gave Schuller his mail and the day’s itinerary and left.
“Professor, we’ve been sent to ask you come with us.”
“Sent by whom may I ask? Am I in some sort of trouble?” The professor’s tone was a mix of condescension and lack of concern.
“No.