Six days before--the virus' average incubation period--the code word had been sent out to the spies and the native fifth columnists who served the Diktatura for pay or loyalty's sake. It was their mission to distribute the small quantities of Virus RM4 which had been smuggled to them, in such a way as to make the plague's initial onslaught as paralysing as possible. The enemy's total destruction in the end was foregone; but his power to strike back must be cut down to a minimum. The broadcasts and the headlines continued to proclaim to the nation that this was Victory Day. * * * * * Euge had cleared away the remains of his experiments methodically. There was nothing more to be learned that way, and most of the establishment was converted now to helping in the mass production of Virus RM4. Euge locked up the contagion laboratory and settled down by his private televisor to observe the progress of the ultimate experiment, whose laboratory was the world. Guessing as he did the reason for Novik's failure to return, he was little surprised or alarmed when a half-dozen booted Guardsmen clumped in on him, and their leader informed him that he was again confined to quarters. "If the Dictator wishes to see me--" began Euge politely. "The Dictator's busy," said the squad leader. "He'll talk to you in due time." "I understand," Euge nodded resignedly, and turned back to his newscasts. His own name was repeated in them with considerable frequency, and recorded pictures of him were broadcast. He was understood to be a modest hero of science, with a passion for anonymity. In the Dictator's due time, Euge realized, he might receive the accolade of a martyr to science. He passed over the mentions of himself impatiently. Once he had rather liked the modicum of glory and the comfort that the Diktatura granted him in return for his work, but now he was down to basic motives, and his desire to live was largely a product of his avid curiosity to see what the offspring of his curiosity would do to mankind's world. The picture emerged but slowly from behind the bright parade of censored reports; only for one like Euge, who had some experience of the government's inside ways and who, moreover, knew better than any other living man what to expect, did it emerge at all. It was evident before long that the enemy's resistance was greater than anticipated. Easy to say "according to plan", but it was impossible to ignore or gloss over the news when enemy atomic rockets leaked through the defenses, and a city here or there puffed skyward in a pillar of smoke and flame. Or when highflying enemy machines sowed the seeds of a controllable, but extremely nasty epidemic, which touched even the capital.