"What?" was the first word spoken. Raphael, having a quicker tongue than the rest, was the first to recover. "What do you mean, the end of the world?"
Don looked at the other three. "I mean just that. The complete end of life on earth as we know it. Well, maybe I'm being a little too drastic. . ."
Rapheal relaxed a little, and sat back in his chair. "Thought so."
"What it is is the end of civilization, and probably of man. And of us."
Raph groaned. Leo leaned forward. "I think you better explain." Mike nodded in agreement.
"Well," Don began, "it's like this. You guys know about global warming, right?"
Raph snorted. "I live on the 10th floor, and if I step out my door I'll fall in the ocean. It's kinda hard to miss, you know?"
"Right," Don said, and then paused. "So what if I told you we're going to have another ice age?"
The silence was longer this time. Mike went first, and voiced the shared opinion "Don, man, you have definitely taken a flying leap off a rolling doughnut this time. What the heck do you mean, an ice age? We barely have had a winter lately!"
Shaking his head, Don continued. "No, I'm afraid it's true, Mike. It all started. . . well, a long time ago. The world started going through an ice age. There's a whole bunch of stuff to back this up, but I hope you guys will just take my word for it. Then, for some reason, the ice age seemed to lose momentum. The reason," he said, pausing for effect, "was that people started polluting. Ever hear about the fogs of London? Warm, rainy British winters? They disappeared with the pollution. For a while, the winters in the United Kingdom were cold and bitter things."
"But the damage had already been done by pollution, right? That's why things are like they are, right?" Mike queried. Again, Don shook his head.
"Not really. We had reached an equilibrium between global warming and global cooling. Then, suddenly, pollutants got out of control. You guys remember? And people lashed back out against pollution. Laws were passed. We stopped putting pollutants in the air. And the deserts started growing. No pollution means less particles for rain to form on, means less rain. Instead of gradually bringing things into balance, we swung too far in the opposite direction. And the warming had already changed the ocean currents, so that the colder water was staying nearer the surface; all it needed was a little extra push. Like no more warming. So now. . . now we are cooling. The ice age is taking effect."
"So? Ice ages take forever! Why are you so worried?"
"They don't take forever, Raph. In twenty years Canada and Russia will be gone, and you'll have a glacier breathing down your neck," Don paused. "If we don't do something about it, that is."
"Do something about it?" Raph bellowed. "It's a friggin' ICE AGE! It's not like it's a bomb, or an assassin, or something. IT'S A GEOLOGIC EVENT!"
"Calm down, Raph," Leo said softly. Raph did, with visible effort. Leo turned to Don. "There's something you haven't told us."
Don took a deep breath. "Yeah. There is something we can do about it. In fact, I've already started. My companies have started producing large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. If we can slow down the cooling, we might just get our old earth back." He paused yet again.
"But. . ." Leo prompted.
"But," Don continued, "there's something else going on that could ruin everything. You guys hear about that volcano that exploded the other day?" The three nodded. "Well, it put alot of ash into the air. It's acting as a kind of reverse greenhouse; instead of keeping the heat in, it's keeping the light out. No light means no heat. And. . . it wasn't a natural explosion. It was detonated."
"How do you detonate a volcano?" Mike asked.
"You use a very powerful explosive. You nuke that sucker."
"What?" Leo gasped.
"Yeah. My scientists confirmed it. It was a very clean nuke, and left little trace. Plus, it was deep within the volcano. Hard to detect. But the trigger for that explosion was definitely nuclear. So that means. . ."
"Someone is trying to put us in an ice age," Raphael groaned. "Great. Just great." He rubbed his temples. "OK, so who is this nutcase, where does he live, and does he wear body armor in his sleep?"
"Raphael. . ." Leonardo warned. Raphael just smiled brutally.
"Well, I went way back, to see who could've been behind this. Anyway, I ran into several interesting facts. Seems that the company most guilty of severe environmental pollution was owned by the same person that donated billions to the environmental movement. One of the environmental groups he donated to was even called 'the Global Cooling Action Center' . . . even though they just planted trees. . ."
"OK, so who is this guy?" Raph asked impatiently.
"Null."