The Fog - James Herbert [76]
He nodded, avoiding the many eyes that glared at him as though he were solely responsible.
The Home Secretary spoke before anyone else had a chance to. ‘We knew and we decided no good could come of its disclosure. Until today, that is. Thank you, Sir Keith.’ The Vice-Chief of the General Staff sat down, relieved that his statement was over, and the Home Secretary continued ‘Gentlemen, we know most of the facts now. This is not the time for reprisals, but let me stress that human error of this magnitude will not be tolerated. That is all that is going to be said on that particular issue at this time, but I can assure you,’ he looked towards Sir Trevor, ‘it will be looked into thoroughly after we have made progress in defeating the present threat. Now, let’s get on with it.
‘We have lost the battle to prevent the fog entering Winchester; fortunately all the residents have been evacuated in time.’
‘How did you try to stop it?’ Holman asked.
‘Perhaps you will tell us, William?’ The Home Secretary turned to the Under-Secretary of State for Defence for the Army, William Douglas-Glyne.
‘Yes. There are four principal methods of dealing with fog. The method we’ve been using today, all day, is sprinkling calcium chloride from low-flying aircraft, a practice used in San Francisco regularly to clear their fogs. It’s a chemical that actually dries up the air, but although we’ve used tons of the stuff it hasn’t had much effect. Very expensive method too, I might add. Some of the vapour was cleared but, as we now know, the gas is self-producing; it just goes on manufacturing itself.
‘Have you tried the other methods?’ asked Sir Trevor.
‘Not yet, we’ve had little time. And anyway, the calcium chloride was the most favoured. Let me tell you about the other ways and you’ll understand. During the war, our airfields had what was called the F100 system, another expensive process and little used since. With radar, fog isn’t much of a problem nowadays, but this is what they used to do: they manned the air around the airfield with petrol in special devices; as it became warmer it absorbed more moisture and the droplets of liquid turned to invisible water vapour, dispersing the fog and forming a hole above the airfield through which aircraft could land.
‘Now, apart from not having enough time to set up such an elaborate system around the town, all we would have succeeded in doing is divert the fog – not get rid of it.
‘Another method is to use ultrasonic waves. Rapid to and fro movements produced by vibrations in the air tend to cause the tiny water droplets to collect together, forming drops that are large enough to fall as rain. The disadvantage of this method is that the force of the sound waves we would have had to have used could have been harmful to living things. And again, now we know it would be useless because of the self-productive factor.’
He paused, looking down at his notes, reluctant to look at the troubled faces around him.
‘And the last method?’ the Home Secretary prodded.
‘The last method is no good at all. It involves the use of carbon dioxide and, of course, the organism thrives on this. If sprinkled on fog, it causes the water droplets to freeze and join together, making them heavy enough to fall to the ground, but in this case the mycoplasma would just “feed” on it.’
‘Are you telling us there’s nothing we can do?’ asked Sir Trevor incredulously.
‘We are still looking at other methods,’ came the somewhat feeble reply.
‘I’m sure we have enough top brains in this country to find a solution,’ said the Home Secretary. ‘As well as our own, we also have scientific institutes in America, Russia and France searching for the answer. The major powers of the world are working for us. Even China has approached us with an offer of assistance. Remember, there is nothing to prevent the fog from drifting out to sea and reaching other countries; the threat is not with us alone, although we are in the most immediate danger.
‘The fact that it could virtually depopulate a town the size of Bournemouth has made the danger