And then there was another, and far more serious, matter: his cough was back. It had started really small at first, just a little throat-clearing rasp, but Alex had known for some time that the dosage of blue goo was losing its charm. His lungs no longer felt like sweet slick paper dipped in oil. Slowly but with terrible sureness, they were starting to feel a hell of a lot more like his own lungs. He’d worn the breathing mask faithfully, until his tanned face had a white triangular muzzle of untanned skin just like a raccoon’s, but that wasn’t enough. He was going to have to take steps.