The Storm Read Online Free PDF Page B

Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Red, orange and yellow sectors displayed temperature gradients. Circulating arrows showed the direction and speed of the currents.
    “This is the standard current pattern of the Indian Ocean based on the averages of the last thirty years,” Jinn said. “In winter and spring this pattern is from the east to the west, flowing counterclockwise, driven by cold, high-pressure dry winds from India and China. But in summer the pattern changes. The continent heats up faster than the sea. The air rises, drawing wind onshore. The current changes and flows in a clockwise pattern, and it brings the monsoon to India.”
    Jinn clicked the remote to show the pattern changing.
    “As you know, the temperature and pressure gradients drive the winds. The winds drive the ocean currents, and together they produce either dry air or monsoon rains. In this case, pumping moisture over India and Southeast Asia, creating the monsoon rains that drench those lands, allowing them to feed their massive populations.”
    New animation on the display showed clouds streaming over India and into Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
    “We know all this,” Mustafa of Pakistan said abruptly. “We have seen this demonstration before. While they have abundant crops, our lands remain dry. Your sands are parched. We have come here to see if you are succeeding in changing this for we have invested a fortune in your scheme.”
    “Yes, that’s right,” another representative said.
    “Would I have called you all together if I had no proof?”
    “If you have it, show us,” Xhou demanded.
    Jinn tapped the remote, and the screen changed once again.
    “Three years ago we began to seed the horde into the eastern quadrant of the Indian Ocean.”
    On screen, a small, irregularly shaped triangle appeared near the equator.
    “Each year—with your funds—we have seeded further sections. Each year, the horde, as promised, has grown on its own. Two years ago it covered ten percent of the target area.”
    The irregular triangle elongated and stretched with the current. A second curving section stretched toward it from the west.
    “A year ago it reached thirty percent saturation.”
    Another click, another diagram. The two dark smears joined and were spreading across the southern loop of the Indian Ocean current.
    “We already know that the rains have become less plentiful in India. Last year’s crop was the lightest in decades. This year they will be waiting on clouds that do not come.”
    He clicked the remote one more time. The sparse black swaths had thinned, but a thicker, darker pattern in the central section of the Indian Ocean had grown. Through the natural action of the ocean currents, and Jinn’s manipulation, the horde had become highly concentrated in an area known to oceanographers as a gyre, the center of the Great Whirl. Concentrated this way, it would produce a far stronger effect on the water temperature, and the weather that flowed from it.
    “Water temperatures are dropping, but the air temperatures above the sea are increasing, becoming more like the fluctuations one feels over the land,” Jinn said. “The weather patterns are changing course. Already it is raining more than ever in the highlands of Ethiopia and Sudan. After years of drought, Lake Nasser is in danger of exceeding maximum capacity.”
    The group seemed impressed. All except Xhou.
    “The starvation of India will do none of us any good,” he said. “Aside, perhaps, from Mustafa, who sees them as an old enemy. Our intent is to have grain to sell them when their silos are bare. Which cannot happen unless there is a corresponding change in the rainfall over our own countries.”
    “Of course,” Jinn agreed. “But you cannot have the second effect without initially accomplishing the first. Your rain will fall, your worthless dry land will sprout with crops and you will make even greater fortunes than you already have by selling rice and