Theodore L. Thomas (1920–2005)

“The clone was a creature of growth, and all the nutrients it needed were at hand in the pool.”

from the back cover: "One night, beneath the streets of the city, four ingredients found their way into the same collector box in the underground sewer system. There these ingredients - muriatic acid; trisodium phosphate; a bit of meat; and a fleck of silica gel - combined in a warm, seething liquid and gave birth to a hideous, destructive force: the clone..." "Then seeking more food, the deadly green tissue reached upward and entered the unsuspecting city..."

"Nothing could stop it...". And when it comes up from the sewers into a sink in the kitchen of Al’s Restaurant (on Michigan at Eighteenth), Mark Kenniston “…saw a creature or an organism of some sort there capable of dissolving human tissue…”! Then it flows back down the drain…. Leaving “…only a puddle of water and some clothes.”

The clone doesn’t like iodine solution, however. Or Harry’s, meat cleaver, which is in his hand throughout! It even starts absorbing the nutrients from building materials, and slowly starts to destroy the whole city! It's a pretty fun read, even though it is also a warning from the authors (from 1965!) about the dangers of the chemicals poisoning our environment! And, in this story, the danger eats people!!!

Moral of the story: Be careful what you pour down the drain!!!

Or you may find yourself at the wrong end of “…this pusillanimous fleck of gelatinous matter…”!… (more)