"It's done," the woman replied. "That's what I came to see you about." "Good." "Not so good as you might think." She tucked a stray black curl into place and sighed. "We've developed a plastic that can be sprayed on in the molten state. When it cools it grows almost as hard as diamond. But...." "Go on," said Matt. "What's the trouble?" "We don't have the raw materials." Matt said, "Oh. What's needed?" "Aluminum, principally. If we could get trucks through to Louisville, we could get all we need. There were several aluminum plants there before the plague." "Just a minute." He buzzed the organic lab on the telecaster and got Sawyer. "What's the latest development, Jesse?" Sawyer passed a chubby hand across his eyes. They were red and swollen with fatigue. "Bad. Bad. We've distinguished nineteen distinct species, all adaptations of the aquatic form. They reproduce in a rather peculiar form of fission. Instead of dividing in half, they break up into twenty or thirty units at maturity, each unit growing and breaking up into twenty or thirty more. They grow rapidly--and adjust rapidly." Matt whistled softly. "How much time?" "Time for what?" "Before they kill off all bacterial forms of life?" "They already have!" "What? But, good Lord, Jesse, surely you're wrong! That can't be true. Why--why, it means we're too late! If all bacterial forms of life are extinct, we're done for!" "Keep your pants on," said Jesse wearily. "We're preserving about a thousand types of bacteria--algae, amoeba, molds--in airtight containers. Enough to give us a start when we get the fort sealed. Plant life isn't going to last very long though--and neither is animal life. We should lay in a supply of seeds, not to mention breeding stocks of those animals we want to preserve. And in a hurry, too." Slowly Matt clenched his fist. "O.K., Jesse," he said. "Thanks. Drop everything else and get to work on a toxic agent that'll destroy the alien amoebas inside the fort." "Right." The screen went dead. Matt realized that Lynn was regarding him in dismay. He grinned at her suddenly. "You win. We'll have to smash those women tomorrow." He turned to Willie Shaw. "Get the engineers to help you design any equipment you need. The fort will have to be sealed from top to bottom, windows and all. What about the basements?" "We can seal them from the inside." "And the dome over the roof?" "Build it up of plastic plates welded together. We'll need an airlock, of course, and all the water will have to pass through the boilers. But how are you going to handle the quantity of material that it'll take? And we don't have a tenth enough workmen." Matt frowned. "We'll have to put one of the factories in Louisville back into operation, I suppose. But as for workmen...." He paused, running his hand through his crisp black hair. "Why, we'll all have to drop everything else and go to work on this--and that includes those Amazons we captured!"