I went out with Sergei today. He insisted we wear hazmat suits. The suits are uncomfortable and restrict your vision and movement. I can see why Bob never bothered with them. I said that to Sergei. He thinks that's why Bob died. He didn't take the mal seriously. We went in one Jeep, with Sergei driving.

We started with a sweep of the area near the base. Apparently, it has changed since he was last here. We stopped at a patch of scrub that didn't stand out. A few months ago, Sergei said, it was a pocket of Yellow. Now it was just another part of the Green. I couldn't see any evidence that it was different. Next, Sergei drove us to where a few plants were growing. He claimed the mal was so weak here it wasn't a true part of the Green. I asked him how he knows all this. He said that you get a feel for the mal when you spend enough time around it. I haven't got any sort of feel for it yet.

He's trying to map the area by the strength of the mal. It's a difficult task because we don't have a reliable way to judge it. He thinks that we could pick out patterns. If we could find a long stretch of weak mal, maybe we could head deeper into The Sick Land. It's something to think about.