A hand held the back of his neck in a choking grip and a long-suffering voice said, "Why the fuck can't you take an overdose like the rest of them and get it over with quietly?"
Winthrop had expected skepticism from the other members of the subcommittee whose brief was to vet the agenda for the next monthly session of PSAC, when the president himself would be in attendance. He had expected incredulity from some of them, even scornful laughter --but not the open hostility he now faced.
The attack had been led by Gen. George N. Wolfe of the Department of Defense, who wasted no time and little breath in calling the proposal alarmist and unscientific. Winthrop had actually flushed and only just stopped himself blurting out that the general should stick to military matters and leave others better qualified to decide what was "unscientific" and what wasn't. But this would have opened an old wound, he knew--the presence of a Defense Department spokesman on the President's Scientific Advisory Committee--and would have served no useful purpose. It wouldn't help his career any either. If word got back to the Pentagon that the deputy director of the World Ocean-ographic Data Center was an awkward son of a bitch . . . well, anyway, better to ease off a little and not get excited. He wanted to see his name on the director's door, not on a list of has-beens circulating Washington for the post of washroom attendant.
"It amazes me, Winthrop, that you even considered putting this crackpot notion forward in the first place." General Wolfe hunched forward over the polished circular table, his tanned face a maze of cracks and lines that was the legacy of Southeast Asia. His eyes were like fissures in sandstone. "Jesus Christ, man, this is a government-appointed body, not a goddamn college debating society. We're supposed to deal in hard scientific fact. Instead you come up with some ludicrous concoction dreamed up by a lunatic living on--" He turned his craggy head abruptly to his aide, a lieutenant with sharp features who murmured in his ear. General Wolfe swiveled back to bark at Winthrop, "Canton Island. Wherever the hell that is."
Winthrop smoothed his silvery hair with long slender fingers. "General, I feel I ought to point out that Dr. Detrick is an eminently respected scientist with an international reputation. His book
General Wolfe snorted rudely. "Just because the guy's written some book or other doesn't make him a divine oracle."
Esther Steinbekker, the chairwoman, cropped gray hair framing a sexless face, and with a slight squint behind black-frame spectacles, said crisply, "Many of us are familiar with Dr. Detrick's work, Parris. We know of his important contributions to the field. But really, on the basis of unsupported and unverified data you can't seriously expect us to include this item on the PSAC agenda."
Everyone looked toward Winthrop, who was at pains to define his position. The last thing he wanted was to be lumped with Theo in the cranks and screwballs category.
"Of course I must agree that the research is, as yet, unsupported by others in the field--and I don't for one second accept all the conclusions that Detrick draws. But I do think we should at least consider what is after all the fruit of twenty years effort. If Detrick is conceivably right--"
"Then I'm a Dutchman," General Wolfe grated, getting a few chuckles and hidden smiles.
Winthrop eyed him stonily. This bastard was out to make him a laughingstock. He could feel perspiration prickling the back of his neck.
Two seats along to his left, Professor Gene Lucas spoke up in his mild southern voice. Lucas, a small, slim man with a clipped gray moustache, was with the Geophysical Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton and was one of the country's leading experts in the study of the biosphere.
"You say in your summary, Dr. Winthrop"--peering through bifocals at the stapled typewritten sheets before him--"that Detrick expects the decline in phytoplankton production to have an effect, quote appreciable effect unquote, on the oxygen level within twenty years." He looked up, mouth tight and prim. "If that were the case, shouldn't we be able to register the start of such a trend right now? Those things don't happen overnight."
Before Winthrop could respond, one of the other scientists, a particle physicist, directed a question at Lucas. "As we're not as well-ac-quainted with atmospheric dynamics as yourself, Professor Lucas, perhaps you could tell us how such a change would be detected and if in fact there has been any change?"
