"O.K.," said Matt. "Let them in and lock them in the brig. I'll talk to them later." Captain Bascom looked shocked. "But they're coming with a white flag to parley...." "I don't care if they're coming with angels. The more we capture, the less are still outside opposing us. Throw them in the jail with the others." VIII It took the small group of survivors a week to adjust to their new surroundings. During that time they explored the fort and began taking an inventory. The laboratories were the first to be put back into use. The greatest activity centered around the organic lab where the biochemist, the biologist, and Isaac Trigg were immersed in the study of the alien amoebas. Matt Magoffin had converted the large front room of his and Lynn's apartment into an office. He had been confronted with a thousand problems clamoring all at once to be solved. He had ended by obstinately refusing to tackle more than one at a time. At the moment he was regarding Lynn rather balefully over his desk. "It's intolerable!" she was saying. "This being under siege by a couple of hundred women. We can't send an expedition out of the fort. We can't leave the place...." "And they can't batter their way in," he interrupted. "It's stalemate." "But...." "Never mind the buts! There are other things more important to consider." "What?" Lynn's expression was set in indignant lines. "All the specialists have made lists of the things they consider vital--books, instruments and raw materials. There's a good photographic lab here, but no means of manufacturing film, lenses or cameras. I want the material to make our own equipment. Everyone else is in the same boat. And what happens? We're under siege by a lot of paranoic women, and we can't stir a foot beyond the gates. Maybe you think other things are more important. But I'd like to know what?" "Look out the window," he said dryly. A puzzled expression crept across Lynn's features. She twisted in her chair and gazed out on the park-like roof garden. The grass had been cut, shrubs trimmed, leaves and debris raked. Water sparkled in the swimming pool. A fountain gurgled. "But what...." She paused, wrinkled her nose. "It doesn't look so green as when we first came! It's beginning to turn brown!" "And this is May," he informed her. "It should be the greenest month." "But I don't see...." "I sent down a specimen of the soil to be analyzed yesterday. Sawyer said the alien infestation has spread to the earth. Not the exact same species as the organism in the water--a variation--an adaptation!" "But I still don't see...." He said grimly. "Do you remember how the amoebas killed all other microscopic life forms in the water? The same thing is happening in the soil. "Plants depend to a large extent on the work of microbe like organisms that convert minerals into a form that they can assimilate. With those organisms dead, the vegetation is starving to death!"