ABSTRACT
The second time he awoke, the Unknowns were huddled over him, grouped up in an urgent conference, moving slowly like dancers. All he knew was that there was something down his throat: it sounded like rubber but felt like steel. Later he would learn that this was one of the many devices they used to track the bacteria’s progress. In fact, when he awoke for that second time, they did not yet know that they were there, that they were the cause of his sudden collapse.
