“Of course. There’s no other way to treat a person in modern times. I anonymized it before releasing it into the public record, since he was a minor, but his case was unusual, rare. We needed to have as many people see it as possible.”

“It must have been difficult,” Olafson said, “treating a child whose chances of survival were so slim.”

Smith’s gaze went distant. “Yes, especially considering his mother. She was a bioethicist and wanted to stay within well-tested bounds. Once they left the country, European standards of care took precedence, and then… I’m sure you already know that Jun passed away and that a lawsuit followed.”

“We’re aware,” Welga said. “So you weren’t involved in his care at that stage?”

Smith shook his head. “I don’t know what happened to change his mother’s mind. She was adamant against using experimental biogenetics on her son, but that final course of treatment was exactly that. I would have counseled her against it—strongly.”

“Did you participate in the experimental therapy?”

“Absolutely not. I heard about it after the fact, during the legal proceedings.”

“You published papers with two other authors. Did either of them work on it?”

“Not that I know of. We collaborated because they had local cases who were similar to my patient. I’ve heard rumors from colleagues in Europe that the experimental tech was originally developed in North Africa. I don’t know if they disclosed that as part of the lawsuit.”

Welga nodded calmly to hide her disappointment. If Smith was telling the truth, he wouldn’t be their link to the al-Muwahhidun. Judging by his demeanor as well as his house, he hadn’t profited off black-market sales, which meant he probably wasn’t lying.

“Do you know who conducted the treatment in Europe?” Olafson asked.

Mitchell Smith shook his head. “I’ll send you what I have, but if Jun’s parents went to the gray market, my information may not help you. Can’t you access the documents from the suit against SK Partners? That should have names.”

“We’re working on it,” Welga lied, though she caught Olafson’s gaze. He could make the request. “What about Jun’s younger sister?” she asked. “Was she symptomatic as well?”

“No, not at all. We tried using her genome to correct for Jun’s disorder, but we weren’t able to isolate all the relevant genes. Interestingly, they both showed markers for strong adaptation to mechanization. That’s one of the reasons we tried mech-tech as a treatment option for Jun.”

“What kind of markers?” Welga kept her voice even, but her heart leaped at adaptation to mechanization. Could they be the rare DNA segments that matched the blood from the Machinehood operative’s fragment?