Mendelo al-Hedia

Living publicly under the guise of Rashid, the doctor has brown hair and melts into the crowded Moroccan quarter of Mars where he takes shelter. One small quirk marks him out: he carries a lighter shaped like a grenade that throws a needlessly enormous flame.

Al-Hedia is a thoughtful man weighed down by conscience, a brilliant researcher who breaks with his own work once he grasps its consequences. In his adopted life he grows warm and well liked among ordinary people, musing on human nature, dreams, and the old notion that mankind once flew like gods. He is cautious as well, sizing up Spike's character carefully before deciding to trust him.

Al-Hedia enrolled at SIT in 2042 and finished his studies in 2048, then joined the institute's ninth research team and climbed to professor by 2056. He became one of the leading minds in nano-machinery, claimed the Mars Prize of Technology in 2059, and stepped away from academic life in 2062. Moving into the military's research and development branch, he engineered a strain of nano-machines intended as a weapon in a classified program, and he vaccinated Vincent in an effort to keep it contained.

By 2068 the doctor could no longer stomach where the project was headed. He wiped every scrap of data within reach and disappeared into the Moroccan district of Mars, adopting the name Rashid and settling into a quiet life selling beans, where he became a familiar and popular figure. In 2071, after Vincent's first strike, he noticed Spike Spiegel asking around about him. He approached the bounty hunter obliquely, took his measure, and led him to an antique shop where the owner handed over a vase holding a sample of the nano-bots before slipping away. Spike sought him out once more days later, and this time Rashid laid out his whole past, departing swiftly as armed men closed in to seize Spike.