Free The Weathermakers (1967) by Ben Bova

right.”
    Rossman shuffled through his papers. “Do you know what this is?” He brandished a memorandum. “It’s an estimate of the cost to the Department of that plane’s flight over the ocean.”
    “The plane was going to that general region anyway.”
    “And this,” he pulled out a telegram, “is a formal complaint from the Air Force about unauthorized persons being involved in their highly secret laser operations. Unauthorized. That’s you, Marrett. You could be cited for a violation of national security!”
    “But, Dr. Rossman—” I began.
    “Wait a minute, Jerry,” Ted said, turning back to Rossman. “Listen. I spent two years in the Air Force, a good chunk of it on orbital duty. I know those lasers inside out. How do you think I got the idea of using ‘em to alter the weather? I haven’t spied on anybody, or broken Security regs. All I did was ask a buddy of mine who’s still on duty up there to pay special attention to a certain geographic location. I didn’t even mention the word laser’ to him. So there’s no violation. Don’t threaten me.”
    “Do you realize that I can deduct from your salary the cost of that radiophone call to the orbital station?”
    “You can’t put radiophone calls through to the military satellites. I went over to Otis Air Force Base—on my own time—and got some friends of mine to place the message.” Rossman glowered at Ted, his long, sour face flushed with anger. “And do you realize that you ruined Dr. Barneveldt’s experiment? There weren’t even any monitoring planes aloft when the pellets were dropped.”
    “When are you going to realize,” Ted demanded, springing to his feet, “that we proved we can change the weather. Efficiently, quickly, and definitely make deliberate changes! You’re screaming about nickels and dimes when the whole concept of meteorology can be changed. We can make accurate long-range forecasts; we can understand the planetary flow patterns in detail; we can change the weather deliberately . Now are you going to open your eyes or stand there blocking the way?”
    Rossman nearly turned purple. Ted stood there before his desk, looming over him. Visibly trembling, Rossman got up from his chair.
    “Can you prove you changed the weather?” he asked in a choked voice.
    I said, “I can vouch for that, Dr. Rossman. The forecast Saturday morning was completely different from the actual weather.”
    Ignoring me, he asked Ted again, “Can you prove your illegal operations actually forced a weather change? Or would the change have occurred anyway?”
    “We operated. The weather changed. Your own predictions didn’t foresee the change.”
    “But you have no proof whatsoever that the change wasn’t completely natural. You made no observations. You took no data. For all you know, the weather would have changed without your lifting a finger.”
    “No. My long-range forecast showed—”
    But Rossman was fishing through the papers on his desk again. “And here’s another little item—a note from the statistics group. That rainstorm would have helped alleviate the water shortage that’s building up. Suppose the farmers learn that the Climatology Division deliberately took away their best chance for a soaking rain for as far ahead as we can foresee? How long do you think we’d stay in our jobs?” Ted spread his arms in a gesture of helplessness. “Look, you can’t have it both ways. Either we didn’t have any effect on the weather or we robbed the pitiful farmers of their rain. Now which is it?”
    “I don’t know,” Rossman snapped. “And I don’t care.
    Marrett, I will not have people sneaking behind my back. And I will not tolerate insubordination. Ill expect your resignation on my desk by the end of the day. If not, I’ve got enough on you to get a review’ board to toss you out on your ear. You’re finished, Marrett. Finished!”

7. Cross Currents

    I MUST have been in a state of shock as we filed out of Dr.