'Not in the conditions out there,' countered Ellison.
'All the tunnels may not have been flooded.'
'She's right,' said Dealey. 'Many of the tube tunnels and sewers have flood doors that would have been closed shortly after or before the bombs dropped.'
'More government precautions to save the elite,' sneered Strachan.
Dealey ignored him. 'And other tunnels would be well above sewer level.'
Clare Reynolds exhaled cigarette smoke into the tightly packed room. 'I think it's time we learned a little more about
these Black rats. Did you come across any live vermin, Steve?'
Culver shook his head and Fairbank added a Thank God'.
She regarded Alex Dealey coldly. 'And what does - did -the government know about them? You see, I found poisons in the supply store that could only be used against rats, as well as the antitoxin I administered to you and Steve when you first arrived at the shelter. That antitoxin was specifically for the disease carried by this particular strain of mutant Black rat, so I figure their threat was still known and still feared. Was the government aware the problem hadn't been completely eradicated, that these creatures still existed in our sewers?'
'I was just a Civil Servant, Dr Reynolds, and not one to be taken into ministerial confidence,' Dealey replied uneasily.
‘Your office was the Inspector of Establishments and you yourself admitted that a large part of your duties involved fallout shelters. You must have had some knowledge of it! Look, Dealey, try to understand that we're all in this together; the time for 'official secrecy' is long past. Just tell us what you bloody-well know, even if it's only to prevent people leaving this shelter.'
Dealey looked more irritated than intimidated. 'Very well, I'll tell you what I know, but believe me it isn't much. As I implied, my position was not very high in the Civil Service echelon - far from it.'
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. 'I'm sure most of you know that during the first London Outbreak
- that was what the Black-rat infestation of the capital became known as - it was discovered that a certain zoologist by the name of Schiller inter-bred normal Black rats with a mutant, or possibly several mutants, he had brought back from the radiation-affected islands around New Guinea. The new breed soon
proliferated and spread throughout London, a stronger and much more intelligent animal than the ordinary rat with, unfortunately, an insatiable taste for human flesh.
'Most were exterminated quickly enough, although the havoc they caused was severe—'
You mean they killed a lot of people,' Strachan interrupted bitterly.
Dealey went on: 'It was thought at the time that all the vermin had been eliminated, but several must have escaped. In fact, the new outbreak several years later occurred just north-east of the city, in Epping Forest.'
'I seem to remember we were told the problem was solved permanently at that time,' said Dr Reynolds.
Yes, it was believed to be so.'
Then how d'you account for those bloody things out there?' Fairbank's eyes were narrowed, anger boiling in his usually genial face.
'Obviously some escaped the net, or had never left the city in the first place.'
Then why wasn't the public informed of the danger?' asked Strachan.
'Because, by God, nobody knew!'
Then why the antitoxin, the poisons?' Dr Reynolds asked calmly. There's even an ultrasonic machine in the supplies store.'
They were provided as a precaution.'
Ellison's fist thumped against the desktop. You must have known! D'you think we're really that simple?'
Some of Dealey's composure had gone. There have been rumours over the years, that's all. Perhaps one or two sightings, nothing—'
'Perhaps?' Strachan was furious and so were others in the room.
'Nothing,' Dealey continued, 'definite, certainly no attacks on anyone working in the tunnels or sewers.'
'Any disappearances?' Culver sipped his coffee-mixed brandy as he awaited the answer to his quietly put question.
Dealey hesitated. 'I have heard of one or two workmen going missing,' he replied eventually. 'But that wasn't unusual. Sewers flood from time to time after heavy rainfall, tunnels collapse—'
'How many exactly?' Culver persisted, remembering Bryce's earlier conjecture that Dealey would know.
'Good Lord, man, I can't give you figures. It was hardly my department.'
'But you were involved in the building of new shelters and extending and updating old ones. Any records of men disappearing while that kind of work was going on?'
There are always accidents, deaths even, involved in underground excavation.'
'Disappearances, though?'
This is getting—'
'Why so evasive, Dealey?' Clare Reynolds asked. 'What are you hiding?'
'Nothing at all. It's just that I don't see the point of all this. Certainly, several people have been lost in the tunnels over the years, but as I've stressed, it's nothing unusual.'
Were their bodies ever recovered?' persisted Culver.
'Not all, but yes, some were.'
'Intact?'
Dealey shook his head in frustration. 'If they weren't found until weeks, perhaps months later, then of course you'd expect the bodies to be decomposed.'
'Eaten?'
A snort of annoyance. 'I'm not denying there are rats
living beneath the streets, but not of the mutant kind. We've never had evidence of that.'
‘You said earlier there'd been sightings.'
They could have been anything - cats, even lost dogs. And yes, I admit, large rats. Not monsters, though, as you're suggesting.'
Clare Reynolds' cigarette was almost singeing the filter, but still she did not extinguish it, conscious of just how low the supply was running. 'Autopsies must have been carried out on the remains that were found, so I'd imagine the existence of the mutant Black would easily have been determined.'
That may be so, but I was never privy to such knowledge.'
'So you say,' remarked Ellison.
'Why should I lie?' Dealey snapped back.
To protect yourself.'
'From what, exactly?'
The silence had an ominous hollowness to it.
Dr Reynolds quickly stepped in, striding to the desk and regretfully stubbing the meagre remains of her cigarette into an ashtray lying there. The real point is that if we're to deal with these overblown rodents we need to know as much about them as possible, and what poisons are most effective.'
'I promise you,' said Dealey, 'I know no more than I've already told you.'
The doctor's words were measured, each one a single capsule, as though she were speaking to someone whose slow-wittedness demanded uncomplicated syllables: 'Have you any idea how many mutant rats are living in the sewers?'
There can't be a great number, otherwise there would have been much more evidence of them.'
'How d'you explain the slaughter we saw outside?' said Fairbank. 'Just a handful couldn't have done
