fractured state indicate that sharp implements were used to tear off the flesh: sharp teeth in other words. What's left of the clothing is being examined to ascertain whether it was the vicar or not, but we fear there can be little doubt. Even more odd in this most bizarre of incidents, the skulls of both bodies were missing.'
Thornton did not allow the disquieting news to disrupt the meeting further. 'Although we still have only one actual sighting of these creatures, I think we can assume beyond all doubt that it is the Black rat behind these incidents. We know of no other creature in England that could cause such damage.
'Now, our plans to combat this menace. All homes in the immediate vicinity will be evacuated by midday tomorrow. The superintendent's men are at this very moment warning all householders to stay inside and keep their windows and doors firmly closed even to erect barricades if necessary. Many will obviously prefer to leave their homes right away, even though they are quite safe for the moment.'
'How can they be safe with giant rats roaming the forest?' asked a councillor, leaning forward in his seat.
The rats haven't broken into any houses yet,' said Thorn-ton, now resigned to the interruptions. 'Besides, to our knowledge, they have only attacked one living person so far. It seems unlikely they would suddenly go on the rampage after being undetected for all this time.'
'But isn't it escalating?' the councillor insisted. 'I mean, at first just damage to property, then killing other animals. Now they're onto humans.'
Fender turned to stare at the man, realizing he was right. Considering the rats had not been seen in the forest before yesterday, there seemed to be a rapid and frightening increase in their activity.
'I think the vicar was attacked because he disturbed them,' replied Thornton. 'He may even have foolishly tried to chase them off. No, I'm sure people will be safe for the moment -as long as they stay indoors. If my colleagues agree, I think we should start a phased evacuation: the immediate area first, then moving out towards the surrounding woodlands. Major Cormack will organize the quarantining of the entire forest, working in conjunction with the Essex and London police forces.'
'How do you propose to keep the whole area out of bounds?' asked the director-general for the Forestry Commission. 'I mean, there's over 6,000 acres of woodland to cover.'
We'll concentrate on the logical area say within two or three miles of this spot.'
'It's still a hell of an area.'
'I agree. But there are plenty of broad roadways running through the forest; these can be marked out at various intervals. We'll also use helicopters for surveillance. I can't actually imagine anyone wanting to get into the forest once they know what's in there, can you?'
'I thought the idea was to keep in whatever's there,' the police commissioner commented drily.
'Quite. But we'll come to that later. The Ratkill people will move in at first light tomorrow morning and it will be their job to root these monsters out and destroy them. But I'll let Stephen Howard, the research director of Ratkill, explain his operation.' He looked encouragingly at Howard, who almost stood before he realized he was not addressing a public meeting.
What we'll need,' he began, 'is full cooperation from everyone in the forest...' he smiled disarmingly '... and detailed maps of the whole woodland area. Most important will be plans of sewage works running beneath the forest, because you can be sure, that's where the rats will be. My crews will need army protection. Your Green Goddess fire engines, Major Cormack, will be invaluable; since they've been brought up to date with new, high- powered hoses, they'll prove ideal for protection that's one thing we can thank the last firemen's strike for.
Flame-throwers might come in handy, too, although I don't like the risk to the forest itself nor to my own men. They don't appreciate singed backsides.'
The remark barely raised a smile around the room.
'My crews will all be wearing protective clothing, similar to but more advanced than that used in the London Outbreak. A team of investigators will go in first and find the likely spots, then the destruction crews will move in. I'll let Mike Lehmann, our head biologist, explain exactly what will happen.'
Lehmann was uncomfortable under their gaze, but he struck out boldly.
'If it really is the new breed of giant rat in Epping Forest, then we're in serious trouble. And if these are the descendants of the Black rat from the London Outbreak and all the evidence points in that direction there are a couple of questions that need to be answered: how did they escape the annihilation of their species in the city; and how have they remained undetected for so long?'
They could have found their way into the forest before the extermination took place,' the defence secretary suggested.
'It's possible, although the previous attacks suggested they were confined to certain areas of the city,' said Lehmann. The other possibility is that they were somehow unaffected by the ultrasonic sound waves we used to draw the rats from their nests into the gas enclosures, and fled afterwards when they realized the game was up.
Nowadays the machines are used to drive the vermin away, not draw them in; but either way, our experiments with them at the Ratkill laboratories show that the ultrasonics become ineffectual eventually; the rats adapt, learn to ignore them.'
'I must point out here,' said Howard, 'that tests are still in progress with these machines. I think we can develop one that will be extremely effective once we find the correct wavelength or indeed, wavelengths.'
To do that, we'd need a mutant rat itself. Our own over reaction killed them all off four years ago apart from the few that obviously escaped. We'd have been wiser to have saved some for study.'
'Surely,' said the defence secretary, 'you can experiment on ordinary rats?'
We've been doing just that,' the biologist replied. 'Unfortunately, the giant Black is no ordinary rodent: it's a mutation, its genes are different. They're not just bigger and stronger, they also have a high degree of intelligence. They'd need it, to have remained hidden these past few years. Of course, the fact that rats are nocturnal has helped; but what puzzles me is why there's been no evidence of them until now. Even more puzzling and, I may say, more ominous: why now?
'My guess is that after the mass destruction of their breed, the survivors developed an even stronger fear of man, which was passed on to the following generations. We already know of their abnormal brain-power. I'd say this has advanced with the new generations, too.
They've kept out of sight, foraged in places safe to them, left little evidence of their presence.'
