Crisis by Ken McClure

Bannerman.
    This puts us in a very difficult position,’ said Flow ers. He turned to the man from the Prime Minister’s Office and said, ‘Perhaps Mr Allison would like to explain?’
    Allison nodded, cleared his throat and said, ‘Her Majesty’s Government is very anxious to assure our European colleagues that there is absolutely no problem with British meat products. Ideally we would like to be able to say categorically that slow virus diseases of animals cannot be transmitted to man through the food chain.’
    ‘I see,’ said Bannerman.
    ‘We have reason to believe that Her Majesty’s Opposition is about to press us very soon to make a statement to this effect. If we cannot do this with the backing of the Medical Research Council then the effects on the farming community might well be
    catastrophic.’
    ‘All the evidence has been pointing to an effective species barrier between animals and man and then suddenly, we have this report from Scotland,’ said
    Flowers.
    ‘I can well understand the problem,’ said Bannerman.
    ‘Naturally, we are hoping that the report is mis taken in some way,’ said Allison.
    ‘But even if it is, and please God it is, I under stand that there has been an overall increase in the incidence of degenerative brain disease in the population. Is that not so?’ asked Bannerman.
    Allison appeared to move uncomfortably in his seat. He said, ‘Our statisticians have concluded that that is not necessarily the case. Data in the past has been scant and very difficult to obtain so what represents a true increase percentage-wise is quite hard to define …’
    Bannerman looked at Flowers but the Secretary diverted his eyes and looked down at the table. ‘I see,’ he said.
    ‘If this report is accurate however,’ said Flowers, ‘and an animal brain disease has been transmitted to man, then that would be quite another matter.’ ‘Quite,’ said Allison.
    Flowers looked up at Bannerman and said, ‘Might I ask what your feelings are at this stage Doctor?’
    ‘I think that if this report is real, then some extra factor must have come into play,’ said Bannerman.
    ‘What sort of extra factor were you thinking of?’ asked Allison.
    ‘If the Scrapie agent caused the deaths of these men then I believe it must have changed in some way; something caused it to mutate, enabling it to cross the species barrier.’
    “This is largely the conclusion I and my colleagues have come to. It would be very worrying of course, if the change were due to a spontaneous mutation occurring in the animals because that would mean that this sort of thing could happen at any time and in any place. If however, the mutation was induced by some outside factor then it may be possible to identify such a factor. With luck we should be able to take steps to prevent it happening again.’
    ‘Something tells me that you have identified a factor,’ said Bannerman.
    ‘I think we may have,’ said Flowers. ‘The area where the three dead men farmed the sheep is adjacent to the Invermaddoch power station.’
    ‘The Invermaddoch nuclear power station,’ added Allison.
    ‘Oh,’ said Bannerman, taking a moment to consider the possible implications. Radiation was one of the most common inducers of mutation in living things. ‘I suppose you couldn’t hope for a better candidate,’ he said, ‘assuming there has been a leak. Has there?’
    ‘Officially no,’ said Allison.
    ‘What does that mean?’ said Bannerman.
    Allison took off his glasses to clean them, unnec essarily.
    There was a slight problem at the station some six months ago,’ he admitted hesitantly. ‘Which was covered up,’ said Bannerman.
    ‘We were assured that it was very slight and we didn’t want to cause unnecessary alarm,’ said Allison.
    ‘But it happened,’ said Bannerman.
    Flowers moved in to defuse the situation. ‘I think it’s about time we came to the point,’ he said to Bannerman. ‘We were rather hoping to enlist your