Sidney Sheldon by Are You Afraid of the Dark? Page B

down.”
    Praegitzer asked, “Is it possible to control the weather?”
    Tanner shook his head. “Only to a limited degree. A lot of people have tried. As long ago as 1900, Nikola Tesla was doing experiments with weather. He discovered that ionization of the atmosphere could be altered by radio waves. In 1958, our Defense Department experimented with dropping copper needles into the ionosphere. Ten years later, there was Project Popeye, where the government attempted to extend the monsoon season in Laos, to increase the amount of mud in the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They used a silver iodide nuclei agent, and generators shot banks of silver iodide into the clouds, to become seeds for raindrops.”
    “Did it work?”
    “Yes, but on a confined local basis. There are several reasons why no one will ever be able to control the weather. One problem is that El Niño creates warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that disrupt the world’s ecological system, while La Niña creates cold weather temperatures in the Pacific, and the two of them combined completely negate any realistic weather control planning. The Southern Hemisphere is about eighty percent ocean, while the Northern Hemisphere is sixty percent ocean, causing another imbalance. In addition to that, the jet stream determines the path of storms, and there is no way to control that.”
    Greenburg nodded, then hesitated. “Do you know why we’re here, Mr. Kingsley?”
    Tanner studied Greenburg a moment. “I trust that that is a rhetorical question. Otherwise, I would find it offensive. Kingsley International Group is a think tank. Four of my employees have died or disappeared mysteriously within a period of twenty-four hours. We have already started our own investigation. We have offices in major cities around the world, with eighteen hundred employees, and it is obviously difficult for me to keep in contact with all of them. But what I have learned so far is that two of the employees who were murdered were apparently involved in illegal activities. It cost them their lives—but I assure you, it is not going to cost Kingsley International Group its reputation. I expect our people to resolve this very quickly.”
    Greenburg spoke up. “Mr. Kingsley, there’s something else. We understand that six years ago a Japanese scientist named Akira Iso committed suicide in Tokyo. Three years ago a Swiss scientist named Madeleine Smith committed suicide in—”
    Tanner interrupted. “Zurich. Neither of them committed suicide. They were murdered.”
    The two detectives looked at him in surprise. Praegitzer asked, “How do you know that?”
    There was a hardened tone in Tanner’s voice. “They were killed because of me.”
    “When you say—”
    “Akira Iso was a brilliant scientist. He worked for a Japanese electronics conglomerate called Tokyo First Industrial. I met Iso at an international industry convention in Tokyo. We got along well. I felt that KIG could offer him a better atmosphere than the company he was with. I made him an offer to work here, and he accepted. In fact, he was very excited about it.” Tanner was fighting to keep his voice steady. “We agreed to keep it confidential until he was legally able toleave that company. But he obviously mentioned it to someone, because there was an item about it in a newspaper column, and…” Tanner stopped again for a long moment, then went on. “The day after the item appeared, Iso was found dead in a hotel room.”
    Robert Praegitzer asked, “Mr. Kingsley, couldn’t there have been other reasons that might explain his death?”
    Tanner shook his head. “No. I didn’t believe he committed suicide. I hired investigators and sent them and some of my own people to Japan to try to learn what had happened. They couldn’t find any evidence of foul play, and I thought that perhaps I was wrong, that possibly there was some tragedy in Iso’s life that I knew nothing about.”
    “Then why are you so sure now that he was