searched thoroughly before we can give the all-clear.'
'Yes, yes, of course. But the point is, the main force has been dealt with,' said Thornton. The rest is surely a 'mopping-up' exercise.'
We hope so, Antony,' said Howard, 'we certainly hope so. However, it will be weeks before we can be absolutely sure. First, we have ...'
'I think it's time we put Luke fully in the picture.' Fender's eyes shot towards Mike Lehmann who had just spoken. There was silence in the room for a few moments and the rat catcher gaze shifted to Stephen Howard, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.
'Yes,' the research director said, 'it is time.' He looked first at the private secretary, then at Fender. 'I'm sorry I've never spoken of this to you before, Luke, but it was decided at the time that time being immediately after the London Outbreak
that it should be a matter of secrecy. The less who knew of it, the better.'
Fender leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, the Scotch held in both hands. His eyes never left Howard's.
'As you know, we discovered the source of the mutant Black rat when London had been cleared of people and the vermin had been successfully gassed. Their original breeding-ground had been in an old disused lock- keeper's house on a canal near the docks in East London. You know how the zoologist Schiller had smuggled a mutant rat into the country from the radiation-affected islands around New Guinea. He mated his mutant with the normal Black rat the area in which he lived, of course, was infested with them. The result
the terrifying result was the giant Black rat, a new strain, stronger, more cunning than any other rodent. They dominated the indigenous Black rat and utilized their strength of numbers.'
Lehmann had become impatient. We thought we had killed them all off,'
he said, 'but we hadn't. We didn't discover their nest, you see. We didn't know about the canal-house, the lair of the original mutant.'
'It was discovered by a man named Harris, a teacher who knew the area well, and who was helping us at the time.' Howard placed his glass back on the desk and swung round to face Fender. 'In the cellar of the house, he came upon a monster. From the description he gave, you could hardly call it an animal, let alone a rodent.'
Wait a minute,' Fender said evenly. Why haven't you told me about this before? Do any of the Ratkill investigators know?'
This time Thornton interrupted. Tour company has been acting under strict government instructions, Mr. Fender. We saw no reason to panic the public any more than it had been. The slightest leak ...' He spread his hands, leaving the sentence unfinished.
'So what happened to this ... monster?' Fender asked impatiently.
Howard exhaled a short, dissatisfied breath. 'I'm afraid Harris destroyed it. Chopped it to pieces with an axe.'
Fender almost grinned. To Howard and his colleagues, it must have seemed like the vandalization of a valuable work of art.
Lehmann sensed the rat catcher inner amusement. We could have learned a lot from the animal's genetic structure, Luke,' he said seriously.
'But you must have had thousands of corpses to study.'
'Not like this one.'
We know what the creature looked like,' said Howard, 'from the description Harris gave us. Also there were many drawings of it in the zoologist's study. The body itself was too mutilated to piece together; it was almost as if it had literally exploded.'
'Exploded?' Fender sat straight in his chair.
Yes. The body, you see, was not like that of the mutant rats. It was almost hairless, bloated, pinkish in colour. The skin was so taut the veins could be seen through it. It was like a huge, fat slug, crippled by its own obesity. And the most ghastly thing of all...' He paused, made nervous by his own description. 'It had two heads.'
Fender stared at him in disbelief.
'It's true, Luke,' Lehmann said quietly. 'I've seen the drawings myself. And what was left of the animal. According to Harris, it was blind and too heavy to move itself; totally defenceless. It really was a pity he hacked it to bits.'
'I don't blame him,' said Fender. 'I'd have done the same.'
Lehmann came straight back at him. 'No you wouldn't have. You know the value of such a freak animal. We could have studied it, discovered what had caused the mutation
'Bred your own mutant...'
'Yes, even that. That way we might have stood a chance of controlling them in the future. If we knew more about them...'
Howard held up a hand. 'All right, Mike. I think Luke takes your point.' He stood, then leaned back against the desk, looking down at the rat catcher We need to know if that particular strain has come through again. After a generation, it's quite possible.'
'You mean there might be two kinds of mutant rat.'
Howard nodded. 'Just that. If there are, we still consider it best that it be kept secret. The giant Black rat on its own is terrifying enough.'
A suspicion began to creep into Fender's mind. 'So?' he asked warily.
'We've taken you into our confidence, Mr. Fender, because you have been involved in this particular operation
