“What about his computer?” Diesel asked. “Did he clean out his desk?”
“No. He never came back. Scanlon went through the desk and had the computer wiped clean.”
“Thanks,” Diesel said. “We appreciate your help.”
“You sure you don’t want to stay for the game? I got a lot more beer.”
“Some other time,” Diesel said.
We buckled ourselves into the Subaru, and Diesel made a phone call.
“I want to talk to someone about HAARP,” he said. “I’ll be back at the apartment in ten to fifteen minutes.”
He disconnected and looked over at me. “I could get the information off the computer, but I’m Googled out and this will be faster.”
Fifteen minutes later, we stepped out of the elevator and I saw a young guy standing in front of my door. He was cute, with brown hair that needed a cut, ratty sneakers, and baggy jeans. I put his age at twenty-?five. No wedding band. Five inches shorter than Diesel.
He stared up at Diesel, smiled, and extended his hand. “Ivan. And you must be Diesel. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“This won’t take long,” Diesel said, opening my door, ushering Ivan into my apartment.
“No problem. I was in the area.”
“Tell me about HAARP.”
“HAARP stands for High-?Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. The HAARP facility in Alaska has a high-?frequency transmitter system that stimulates and controls ionospheric pro cesses that alter the per for mance of communications systems. In other words, it transmits radio waves into the Earth’s atmosphere to heat and temporarily modify the ionosphere. At least, in theory.”
“Walk me through it,” Diesel said.
“A signal is generated by a transmitter. The signal is delivered to an antenna array. In the case of the Alaskan station, there are one hundred and eighty antennae requiring thirty-?six hundred kilowatts of transmitter power. The antenna array directs the signal into the atmosphere, where it’s absorbed at an altitude between twenty to sixty miles. The ionosphere is heated, causing changes that can be mea sured with a magnetometer.”
“What’s the purpose?”
“It allows the scientific community to study atmospheric phenomena.”
“Why would Wulf be interested?”
“The Chinese have been experimenting with generating Very Low Frequency Waves in the ionosphere, hoping to control weather. So far as I know, they haven’t been very successful. If you could actually create weather, it would be worth something.”
“What role would barium play in this?”
“I suppose if you seeded the ionosphere with barium, you could increase the cold plasma density and accelerate the pro cess of manipulating atmospheric conditions.”
“Like weather,” Diesel said.
“Yeah. Like weather.”
“Jeez,” I said. “Do you think Wulf is making an Evil Weather Machine?”
Ivan looked over at me and smiled. “Civilians,” he said. “You gotta love ’em.”
Diesel grinned and tugged at my hair. “She makes a mean grilled cheese.”
“Hey,” Ivan said. “You don’t want to underestimate a good grilled cheese.”
Diesel opened the door for him. “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I appreciate it. This was helpful.”
“Anytime,” Ivan said.