come almost to lose its meaning. But the term, in this case, is precise and exact. If by 'ultimate'
one means total annihilation."
He smiled, a little self-consciously.
" I'm being melodramatic, a little? Perehaps. My Latin blood shall we say? But listen carefully, gentlemen, and try to understand the full significance of what I'm going to say. Not the General and Colonel, of course, they already know: but you, Superintendent, and you, Mr. Cavell.
"We have developed in Mordon here over forty different types of plague germs. I will confine myself to two. One of them is a derivative of the botulinus toxin—which we had developed in World War II. As a point of interest, a quarter of a million troops in England were inoculated against this toxin just before D-Day and I doubt whether any of them know to this day what they were inoculated against.
"We have refined this toxin into a fantastic and shocking weapon compared to which even the mightiest hydrogen bomb is a child's toy.
Six ounces of this toxin, gentlemen, distributed fairly evenly throughout the world, would destroy every man, woman and child alive on this planet to-day. No flight of fancy." His voice was weighted with heavy emphasis, his face still and sombre. "This is simple fact Give me an airplane and let me fly over London on a windless summer afternoon with no more than a gramme of botulinus toxin to scatter and by evening seven million Londoners would be dead. A thimbleful in its water reservoirs and London would become one vast channel house. If God does not strike me down for using the term 'ideal' in this connection, then this is the ideal form of germ warfare. The botulinus toxin oxidises after twelve hours exposure to the atmosphere and becomes harmless. Twelve hours after country A releases a few grammes of botulinus over country B it can send its soldiers in without any fear of attack by either the toxin or the defending soldiers. For the defending soldiers would be dead. And the civilians, the men, the women, the children. They would all be dead. All dead."
Gregori fumbled in his pocket for another cigarette. His hands were shaking and he made no attempt to conceal the fact. He was probably unaware of it.
I said, " But you used the term 'ultimate weapon', as if we alone possessed it. Surely the Russians and Americans too"
" They have it too. We know where Russia's laboratories in the Urals are. We know where the Canadians manufacture it—the Canadians were leaders in the field until recently— and it's no secret that there are four thousand scientists working on a crash program in Fort Detrick in America to produce even more deadlier poisons, so hurried a crash program that we know that scientists have died and eight hundred of them fallen ill over the past few years. They have all failed to produce this deadlier poison. Britain has succeeded which is why the eyes of the world are on Mordon."
" Is it possible?" Hardanger's tone was dry but his face was set. "A deadlier poison than this damn' botulinus? Seems kind of superfluous to me."
" Botulinus has its drawback," Gregori said quietly. " From a military viewpoint that is. Botulinus you must breathe or swallow to become infected. It is not contagious. Also, we suspect that a few countries may have produced a form of vaccine against even the refined type of drug we have developed here. But there is no vaccine on earth to counteract the newest virus we have produced—and it's as contagious as a bush-fire.
" This other virus is a derivative of the polio virus—infantile paralysis, if you will—but a virus the potency of which has been increased a million times by—well, the methods don't matter and you wouldn't understand.
What does matter is this: unlike botulinus, this new polio virus is indestructible —extremes of heat and cold, oxidization and poison have no effect upon it and its life span appears to be indefinite, although we believe it impossible—we hope it impossible— that any
one means total annihilation."
He smiled, a little self-consciously.
" I'm being melodramatic, a little? Perehaps. My Latin blood shall we say? But listen carefully, gentlemen, and try to understand the full significance of what I'm going to say. Not the General and Colonel, of course, they already know: but you, Superintendent, and you, Mr. Cavell.
"We have developed in Mordon here over forty different types of plague germs. I will confine myself to two. One of them is a derivative of the botulinus toxin—which we had developed in World War II. As a point of interest, a quarter of a million troops in England were inoculated against this toxin just before D-Day and I doubt whether any of them know to this day what they were inoculated against.
"We have refined this toxin into a fantastic and shocking weapon compared to which even the mightiest hydrogen bomb is a child's toy.
Six ounces of this toxin, gentlemen, distributed fairly evenly throughout the world, would destroy every man, woman and child alive on this planet to-day. No flight of fancy." His voice was weighted with heavy emphasis, his face still and sombre. "This is simple fact Give me an airplane and let me fly over London on a windless summer afternoon with no more than a gramme of botulinus toxin to scatter and by evening seven million Londoners would be dead. A thimbleful in its water reservoirs and London would become one vast channel house. If God does not strike me down for using the term 'ideal' in this connection, then this is the ideal form of germ warfare. The botulinus toxin oxidises after twelve hours exposure to the atmosphere and becomes harmless. Twelve hours after country A releases a few grammes of botulinus over country B it can send its soldiers in without any fear of attack by either the toxin or the defending soldiers. For the defending soldiers would be dead. And the civilians, the men, the women, the children. They would all be dead. All dead."
Gregori fumbled in his pocket for another cigarette. His hands were shaking and he made no attempt to conceal the fact. He was probably unaware of it.
I said, " But you used the term 'ultimate weapon', as if we alone possessed it. Surely the Russians and Americans too"
" They have it too. We know where Russia's laboratories in the Urals are. We know where the Canadians manufacture it—the Canadians were leaders in the field until recently— and it's no secret that there are four thousand scientists working on a crash program in Fort Detrick in America to produce even more deadlier poisons, so hurried a crash program that we know that scientists have died and eight hundred of them fallen ill over the past few years. They have all failed to produce this deadlier poison. Britain has succeeded which is why the eyes of the world are on Mordon."
" Is it possible?" Hardanger's tone was dry but his face was set. "A deadlier poison than this damn' botulinus? Seems kind of superfluous to me."
" Botulinus has its drawback," Gregori said quietly. " From a military viewpoint that is. Botulinus you must breathe or swallow to become infected. It is not contagious. Also, we suspect that a few countries may have produced a form of vaccine against even the refined type of drug we have developed here. But there is no vaccine on earth to counteract the newest virus we have produced—and it's as contagious as a bush-fire.
" This other virus is a derivative of the polio virus—infantile paralysis, if you will—but a virus the potency of which has been increased a million times by—well, the methods don't matter and you wouldn't understand.
What does matter is this: unlike botulinus, this new polio virus is indestructible —extremes of heat and cold, oxidization and poison have no effect upon it and its life span appears to be indefinite, although we believe it impossible—we hope it impossible— that any
Similar Books
