She gives him a crooked smile in return. "Did you hear me asking you?"

As to his question, she shrugs. "The biggest challenge is a frustratingly small data set. There just aren't enough of us, and the phenomenon didn't exist until a couple of years ago as far as anyone seems to know. It doesn't seem like anyone's ill from it right now, so onset is somewhere between now and five years in the future theoretically." She worries at her thumbnail, absently. "Have you met anyone with it somewhere other than one of their hands? I haven't, so far."