Vern cracked a warm smile. ‘Maybe you can come across and meet my cows later, Patrick.’

Patrick acted shy. ‘Will you come with me, Harry?’

Harry had seen horrible stories about the overworked child-care system on TV news and Vegas Local. He supported Charlie bringing Patrick home, but wasn’t used to little kids and found the constant need for attention a strain.

‘I’ll be making dinner,’ Harry said. ‘But Ed might go with you.’

‘What’s the gooey stuff?’ Patrick asked, sliding off the dining chair and moving closer to the epoxy filler that Harry had mixed to fill the screw holes where the old hinge had torn loose.

‘Don’t touch that,’ Vern and Harry yelled in unison, just as the phone started to ring.

‘Can you fetch that, pal?’ Harry asked.

Patrick ran into the hallway, returning with the ringing handset as Harry wiped sticky hands on his jeans.

‘Afternoon, Harry speaking.’

‘Young Mr Smirnov,’ the man on the other end said brightly. ‘It’s Dr Harkom. I’ve had your biopsy results back, and I was hoping you had a minute to catch up.’

Harry asked Vern to keep an eye on Patrick, then crossed to the living room and shut the door.

‘How’s the cough been since I saw you?’ the doctor asked.

Harry settled into an armchair. ‘It’s manageable in the day, when I’m busy doing stuff, but at night it tickles like crazy. Sleeping propped on pillows helps.’

‘Are you still bringing up blood?’

‘Blood most days,’ Harry admitted as he heard one of the patrol drones skim over the house.

‘Better or worse since you started the steroid injections?’

‘No difference so far,’ Harry said disappointedly. ‘You said you had the biopsy results?’

Dr Harkom laughed uneasily. ‘My colleagues found your lung tissue interesting.’

‘In a good way?’ Harry asked nervously.

‘The picture is complex,’ Dr Harkom explained. ‘For the first ten years I practised medicine, you looked at symptoms, compared them to a list of known ailments and diseases and decided which one it was.

‘Now, we have patients altering their genes, synthetic viruses, mutant bacteria, purple wasps, neurotoxic dog bites and Lord knows what else. And, of course, all those things interact with one another, and the health infrastructure is overwhelmed with millions suffering the after-effects of Killer-T and superflu.’

‘So we’ve not got anywhere?’

‘Your lung tissue was sticky and inflamed,’ Dr Harkom explained. ‘Healthy lung tissue has a colour and texture similar to a fresh white mushroom. Under the microscope, your sample looked more like chewed pink bubble gum. I showed the pictures to some colleagues. One had seen similar tissue in a keen amateur cyclist, who had the same respiratory mod as you.’

Harry was surprised. ‘But my respiratory mod is common. I’ve looked online and there’s nothing saying it’s dangerous.’