Fifeshire put down the print-outs. ‘If we just take the first twenty-four hours: in this area, everyone would have to be evacuated for one year. The total size of this area is just under thirty thousand square miles. It may be of help to know, if you are trying to work out exactly what kind of area we are talking about, that the entire land mass of England, Scotland and Wales combined comes to only 89,038 square miles.’ He paused for a few moments. ‘These figures are not based purely on calculated estimates; they are also based on hard factual evidence. Data from previous instances of leakage of radiation, and from atomic blasts, was fed into the computer, including details of the nuclear-waste explosion that occurred at Kyshtym in the Urals in the winter of 1957. That was a small explosion, but it totally devastated an area of five hundred square miles.

‘Thousands of people died then, and thousands are still dying from the effects of the fall-out today. Ten years after the explosion, women who had lived nearby were still being advised to abort if they became pregnant, and today, over a quarter of a century later, massive signs on the north-south highway which runs through the entire region warn drivers to drive at maximum speed for thirty miles, to keep windows closed, and not to stop for any reason.

‘Also fed into the computer was data derived from the analysis of ash movements from volcanic eruptions during the past three decades. There are many recorded instances of volcanic ash pouring down thousands of miles away from the volcanoes,

‘This print-out is, I believe, a soundly researched document. It might, perhaps, be exaggerating the dangers; but, equally, it might be underestimating them. I know that Sir Isaac, in more than broad outline, agrees with it.’

Quoit nodded his head. He looked a good deal more compos mentis than he had a week ago after being freed from a portable chicken coop on the Illushyn.