The wall disappeared and Chandler felt he was actually looking across the rooftops of Ottawa, once the capital of Canada. At the edge of the business district loomed a massive wall of gray ice. It was pushing a ridge of boulders and dirt before it as it bore down on the city.
The scene dissolved to a closer view of the glacier. As Chandler watched, fascinated, the glacier ground the city under like a huge bulldozer. And still it came on and, for a moment, looked as if it might flow right into the conference room.
The lights came up and the wall became whole again. A few delegates swiveled their chairs back to the table; others continued gazing at the wall.
"Now," said the Canadian, "you can see why our plan calls for a dramatic approach."
"Tilting the Earth on its axis is quite out of the question," Dr. White said. "But freezing the Arctic and removing the source of the snow is practical."
"And time-consuming," the Canadian added.
But Chandler wasn't listening. A sudden dizziness swept over him. He felt strangely detached.
"I don't think we're capable of reversing the warm currents flowing into the Arctic," he found himself saying. "The Bering Strait Dam is one thing, but a dam across the North Atlantic...."
"Then what have you in mind?" asked the Russian.
"How would you react to a little suggestion of my own?" Again all eyes were on him. "Suppose we were to tap the heat right from the Earth's core?"