The Swarm Read Online Free PDF Page A

dropping.’
    â€˜That’s not my problem,’ Lund said tersely. ‘What I’m worried about is whether we can build there in the first place. It’s the furthest out to sea we’ve ever drilled. We’ve got to get on top of the technological challenges and prove that we’re respecting the environment. Which is why we’re trying to find out what’s swimming around down there and how the site functions ecologically - so that people like you don’t complain.’
    Johanson nodded. Lund was contending with the fallout from the recent North Sea Conference, at which the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries had castigated the oil industry for expelling millions of tonnes of contaminated water into the sea every day. It had lain undisturbed in sub-seabed petroleum reserves for millions of years but was now being pumped to the surface by the hundreds of offshore North Sea platforms that lined the Norwegian coast. The oil was separated from it by mechanical means, and the chemical-saturated water discharged back into the sea. No one had questioned the practice until, after decades, the Norwegian government had asked the Institute of Marine Research to undertake a study. The findings dealt a blow to the oil industry and environmentalists alike. Substances in the water were interfering withthe reproductive cycle of cod. They worked like female hormones, causing the male fish to become infertile or even to change sex. Other species were affected too. The oil companies were ordered to stop dumping the water and had no choice but to look for an alternative.
    â€˜They’re right to keep an eye on you,’ Johanson said. ‘The closer the better.’
    â€˜You’re a great help.’ Lund sighed. ‘Anyway, our recce of the slope took us pretty deep into the ocean. We did the usual seismic survey, then sent a dive robot down seven hundred metres to take a few shots. We weren’t expecting to find worms so deep.’
    â€˜They’re everywhere. How about above seven hundred metres? Did you find them there too?’
    â€˜No. So what are we going to do about them?’
    Johanson rested his chin on his hands. ‘The trouble with your worm,’ he said, ‘is that it’s really two separate worms.’
    She looked at him blankly. ‘Well, I know that. I gave you two.’
    â€˜That’s not what I meant. I’m talking about its taxonomy. If I’m not mistaken, your worm belongs to a new species that has only just come to light. It was found on the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico availing itself of the bacteria that live off methane.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜And that’s where it starts to get interesting. Your worms are too big. Sure, some types of bristleworm grow to over two metres and live to a ripe old age. But they’re nothing like yours, and you wouldn’t find them around here. If yours are the same as the Mexican ones, they’ve done a fair bit of growing since we found them. The worms in the Mexican Gulf measure five centimetres at most, but yours are three times as long. And there’s no record of them ever being found on the Norwegian shelf.’
    â€˜How do you account for that?’
    â€˜I can’t. Right now I can only think that you’ve stumbled on a brand new species. Congratulations to Statoil. Your worm looks like a Mexican ice worm but, as far as its length and other features are concerned, it’s a completely different fellow. In fact, it’s more like a prehistoric worm, a tiny Cambrian monster that we thought was extinct. But I still don’t see how…’
    He paused. The Norwegian shelf had been picked over with a fine-tooth comb. Surely the oil companies would have noticed a worm of that size before now.
    â€˜What?’ Lund pressed him.
    â€˜Well, either we’re all blind or your worms have only just got there. They may have originated even further down.’
    â€˜So why