The Unbegotten by John Creasey Page A

city—I tell you it will bring a sexual revolution in the country, all the bonds of marriage will be broken, all the bounds of
    decency will be down. I beg you not to make any statement.’
    â€˜As I see it, I don’t have any choice,’ said Hartwall, crisply. ‘I agree with Palfrey.’
    He broke off when there was a tap at the door, glanced towards it and said irritably, ‘I told them not to disturb me.’ There was another tap, so soon after the first that it carried a note of insistence, and he raised his voice, sounding very angry. ‘What is it?’
    The door opened and the golden-haired secretary came in, looking flustered, carrying a single sheet of paper in his hand.
    â€˜I thought you ought to see this, sir.’
    Hartwall almost snatched the paper from his hand, began to read and went absolutely still. Palfrey on one side and Keys on the other moved so as to read the paper over his shoulders. The words PRESS RELEASE were stamped across one corner in bright red, and there were three short paragraphs centred on the paper, obviously done on a duplicating machine. The corner heading was:
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    South West News Agency, Bristol 21.
    Is The Human Race Dying Out?
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    In several parts of the British Isles and we believe in several other parts of the Western World, whole areas, affecting tens of thousands of women, have become a human desert. There are no children on the way in any of these places. The women are barren or the men are sterile.
    If this process spreads then the future of the whole human race is at stake. In fact the human race could be dying out.
    Secret investigations by Z5, the international organisation led by Dr. Stanislaus Alexander Palfrey have failed to find any explanation. Dr. Palfrey himself has been the subject of murderous assaults since his investigations began.
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    Hartwall put the paper down slowly and glanced at Palfrey with a resigned, even a quizzical air.
    â€˜Someone jumped the gun,’ he remarked.
    â€˜Did you release that?’ demanded Keys, in cold anger.
    â€˜Don’t be absurd,’ Palfrey said sharply. ‘I’ve never heard of this South West News Agency.’ In one way he was relieved, for the responsibility had been snatched out of his hands, but who had made the release? Which newspapers would use it? And what would the consequences be? He had envisaged a carefully worded statement to break the ice; this would have the effect of a bombshell.
    â€˜Where did it come from?’ asked Hartwall.
    â€˜It was delivered with a selection of the usual nightly Press Releases,’ the golden-haired secretary said. ‘None of the others is significant.’
    â€˜Get the agency on the telephone,’ Palfrey growled.
    Neither Hartwall nor Keys spoke, but read the release again, standing side by side. Palfrey stood by the telephone until it began to ring; in a flash he had the receiver at his ear. Controlling his voice, he said, ‘Is that the South West News Agency?’
    â€˜Yes, but—’ a man began.
    â€˜I am speaking for the Home Secretary,’ Palfrey interrupted. ‘Where did you obtain and why did you send out the sterility story?’
    â€˜But we didn’t!’ the man cried. ‘It was added to one of our releases but no one here knows who did it. If I’d seen it I would have killed the story stone dead.’
    Palfrey said, ‘Try to find out who slipped it in, will you?’ He rang off and reported to the others. Keys was badly shaken, Hartwall took it much more phlegmatically than Palfrey had expected.
    â€˜Well, the decision has been made for us,’ he said, ‘and perhaps—’
    He broke off as a man shouted out from beyond the door ‘It’s on television!’ Almost at once Hartwall spun round and switched on a television in a corner, a set which Palfrey hadn’t noticed. There was a tense pause, over surprisingly quickly, before first the