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Pitt stared at Sandecker, not sure if he heard right. "Doomsday, Admiral? Did I understand you correctly?"
"I am not talking off the top of my head," Sandecker replied. "The sea off West Africa is dying, and the plague is spreading because of an unknown contaminant. The situation is rapidly developing into a chain reaction with the potential of destroying every single species of marine life."
"That could lead to a permanent change in the earth's climate," said Gunn.
"The least of our worries," Sandecker remarked. "The end result is extinction for all life forms on land, and that includes us."
Gunn murmured accusingly. "Aren't you overstating, your case--"
"Overstating my case," Sandecker interrupted acidly. "The very words the cretin in Congress handed me when I began sounding the warning, when I pleaded for backing to isolate and solve the problem. They're more concerned with maintaining their precious power base and promising the moon to get reelected. I'm sick to death of their endless, stupid committee hearings. Sick to death of their lack of guts in standing for unpopular issues, and spending the nation into bankruptcy. The two-party system has become a stagnant swamp of fraud and criminal promises. As with communism, the great experiment in democracy is withering from corruption. Who cares a damn if the oceans die? Well, by God, I do. And I'm going to the wall to save them."
Sandecker's eyes blazed in bitterness, his lips stretched tight by vehemence. Pitt was stunned by the depth of emotion. It was strangely out of character.
"Hazardous waste is dumped in nearly every river of the world," Pitt said quietly, bringing the discussion back on track. "What's so special about the Niger's pollution?"
"What's special is that it's creating a phenomenon commonly known as the red tide that is reproducing and spreading on a frightening scale."
"The charmed water burned away, a still and awful red," Pitt quoted.
Sandecker flicked a glance at Gunn and then focused on Pitt. "You got the message."
"But not the connection," Pitt admitted.
"You men are all divers," said Chapman, "so you probably know that red tide is caused by microscopic creatures called dinoflagellates, tiny organisms that contain a red pigment that gives the water a reddish-brown color when they proliferate and float in mass."
Chapman pressed a button on the remote control box and continued lecturing as an image of a strange-looking microorganism flashed on the viewing screen. "Red tides have been recorded since ancient times. Moses supposedly turned the Nile to blood. Homer and Cicero also mentioned a red bloom in the sea, as did Darwin during the voyage in the Beagle. Outbreaks in modern times have occurred around the world. The most recent came off the west coast of Mexico after the water turned slimy and noxious. The resulting red tide caused the deaths of literally billions of fish, shellfish, and turtles. Even barnacles were wiped out. Beaches were closed for 200 miles and hundreds of natives and tourists died from eating fish that was contaminated by a species of deadly, toxin-containing dinoflagellates."
"I've scuba dived in red tides," said Pitt, "and suffered no ill effects."
"Fortunately you swam through one of the many common, harmless varieties," Chapman explained. "There is, however, a newly discovered mutant species that produces the most lethal biological toxins we've ever known. No sea life lives that comes in the slightest contact with it. A few grams of it if evenly dished out could put every human on the face of the earth in a cemetery."
"That potent."
Chapman nodded. "That potent. . ."
"And if the toxin isn't bad enough," added Sandecker, "the little critters consume themselves in an orgy of marine cannibalism that drastically decreases the oxygen in the water and causes any surviving fish and algae to suffocate."
"It gets even worse," Chapman carried on. "Seventy percent of all new oxygen is provided by diatoms, the tiny plant forms such as algae that live in the sea. The rest comes from vegetation on land. I see no need to enter into a lengthy discourse on how diatoms in the water or trees in the jungle manufacture oxygen through photosynthesis. You've all had that in elementary school. The smothering toxicity of the dinoflagellates as they cluster and bloom into a red tide kills the diatoms. No diatoms, no oxygen. The tragedy is we take oxygen for granted, never thinking that a slight imbalance of the amount created by plants and what we burn off in carbon dioxide could mean our last gasp.
"Any possibility they'll eat themselves out of existence?" asked Giordino.
Chapman shook his head "They make up their losses at a ratio of ten births to one death."
"Don't the tides eventually subside and disperse?" inquired Gunn. "Or die out completely when cooler water currents come in contact with it?"
Sandecker nodded. "Unfortunately, we're not looking at normal conditions. The mutant microorganism we're dealing with here seems immune to changing water temperatures."
"So what you're saying is that there is no hope the red tide off Africa will fade and disappear?"
"Not if left on its own," Chapman answered. "Like trillions of cloning Frankensteins, the dinoflagellates are reproducing at an astronomical rate. Instead of several thousand in a gallon of water, they've mushroomed to nearly a billion per gallon. An increase never before recorded. At the moment they're unstoppable."
"Any theory on where the mutant red tide evolved from?" asked Pitt.
"The instigator behind this new breed of prolific dinoflagellates is unknown. But we believe that a contaminant of
some kind is spilling out of the Niger River and mutating the dinoflagellates that thrive in seawater and boosting their reproduction cycle."
"Like an athlete taking steroids," Giordino said dryly.
