The Unbegotten by John Creasey

Maddern: but the strength of their views did not make him right. He was at the crunch of decision.
    â€˜Well?’ Hartwall almost barked.
    â€˜We have been ordered not to disclose the news, under threat of the contamination of more areas,’ Palfrey stated in his calmest voice.
    â€˜In England ?’ demanded Hartwall.
    â€˜The man who telephoned said that it would be not only here but abroad and in metropolitan districts.’
    â€˜Douglas, you know what this means,’ said Maddison Keys, his voice sharp with excitement. ‘Nowhere else is affected yet. If we keep the news back at least until we know what the perpetrators want, the situation can’t become any worse. If we disclose it, then hundreds of thousands of more families will be affected. We can’t take that risk. But if we tell every government individually, or tell the United Nations, you can be sure that someone will talk.’
    The awful thing, Palfrey kept on reminding himself, was that he could not be sure which was the right course. It wasn’t a clear-cut issue. Keys was certainly right when he said that the wrong policy could lead to utter disaster. But at least one thing was now virtually certain: the cause of the phenomenon was a human agency. Human beings could control a woman’s ability to conceive a child: the most intimate, the most personal of all decisions could be taken away from husband and wife. And it was possible, it might even be probable, that if he held his peace and was silent, he might find the men involved, their purpose, and their method.
    Hartwall finished his brandy and then said abruptly, ‘I still think you have to make the decision, Palfrey. But I am inclined to the view that the facts should be disclosed.’
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    â€˜Keep silent, or I will create barrenness among many hundreds of thousands,’ the man who had warned Joyce had said.
    From the beginning of his knowledge, Palfrey had been under deadly attack—obviously, to silence him.
    If those who could cause this horror were so anxious not to tell the world, then surely the world should be told.
    What certainty was there that other areas of this country and of many others were not at the beginning of a cycle which would result, in seven or eight or nine months time, in the same dread effect as in Middlecombe, Tan-y-bas and Wetherly?
    Make up your mind, he told himself. The decision’s been left to you.
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Chapter Nine
DECISION
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    Palfrey thought, I need everybody’s help; everybody’s.
    And he thought, this is a matter for every single human being to decide for himself. It isn’t a question of saving lives; of political freedom; it is an issue which is absolutely fundamental to all men and all women. No one has any right to make such decisions for them, and they can only make decisions if they know the facts.
    He knew, as this raced through his mind, what he would have to do—there was really no alternative. He felt calmer than he had for a long time as he said, ‘Will you make a statement yourself, sir?’
    â€˜Tell the people?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜I think—’
    â€˜Douglas,’ interrupted Keys with passionate intensity, ‘you mustn’t do this. Any young woman who wants a baby and doesn’t catch will think it’s because of this phenomenon, will think she never will conceive. Think of the awful social consequences. We’re in an age of sexual permissiveness, the pill has made promiscuity safe and relatively easy, but this—why, it will give absolute sexual freedom, licence to everyone in the land. It will be utterly disastrous.’
    â€˜I don’t think you are thinking straight,’ said Hartwall. He was now much more decisive in manner than Palfrey expected. ‘If this affliction became nationwide—’
    â€˜But the man behind it says he’ll make it effective in a city if we talk! Three rural areas already affected, now a