The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (30 page)

The morning
found Jeff and Jim sitting down at the conference table in Ryan’s office.

All three had
coffee.

The air in the
office was calm, subdued and empty but for the fewest of words.

Ryan began.

“Good morning,
from the look of it, both of you got about as much sleep as I did.”
 
He took a sip of his coffee.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I believe we should take our results to Dr.
Eric Cohen.”

“And what
exactly are you going to say?” Jeff said.

“A killer
robot has screwed us. Oh and by the way, it’s the same robot you are relying on
to solve the problem,” Jim said.

“Well, I’ll
probably use some better expletives,” Ryan smiled. “But listen, I agree we need
to have something solid to say to Dr. Cohen. So, let's list the things we agree
on.”

Ryan began
writing, taking notes as they were talking.

“First, lets
talk about the research treatments which were altered.”
 

“We have
proven that they are orchestrated in an intelligent, and distributed way,
therefore proving it is a purposeful act rather than a random error. Further,
based on the intent of the breakdown, and the fact they caused harm to our
patients, the force driving this work is purposely harmful.”

“We can also
say that all suspects employed by IntelliHealth have been ruled out. And
coincident to this, is the idea that the force manipulating the changes in
treatments would necessarily have to watch and address prescribed treatments
occurring ceaselessly around the clock. It is a job that SID could perform… and
maybe only SID.”

“Lastly, we
speculate that the research identified in this way is consistent with the
current fertility crisis, and that there may actually be a connection.”

Pausing, Ryan
said, “Speaking only to this point, am I leaving anything out?”

“Well, I think
I may know how he did it,” Jeff said.

“What do you
mean?”

“I have been
thinking about it, and I think I may know how SID could have introduced
specific complex proteins into our bodies to make us sterile, and I think that
we helped him do it, a
ll of us
.”

Jeff
continued, “I think that he’s been doing it in the vaccinations we’ve all been
taking for the last ten to twenty years. You see, he didn’t need to do
something specific that would shut down the activity in our reproduction cells,
all at once. He’s been adding random signals that have only been partially
working. From time-to-time, either he or we would introduce a new vaccine
needed for some new virus, or maybe as a preventative measure. Sid probably
added more randomizing signals targeting our reproduction cells to each shot.
It couldn’t have been any easier.”

“Think about
it, for years now, we have relied on SID to perform the actual work in the
labs. Following our own safety standards, the protocol to test the drug, would
have been for one of us to set up a series of tests for analysis, and then ask
SID to run them, and provide the results. If SID said the results were good,
our people upstairs would’ve believed it.”

“The
injections that we asked for, that we lined up for, that we paid for, were
slowing adding more and more conflicting protein signals, targeting
reproduction cells and making them a little more inert each time.”

“Jesus, we
just had another one for that Rn186 virus,” Jim said.

Ryan jumped
up, and pulled out his cell phone.

Calling his
wife as fast as he could, “Jean, this is Ryan. Have you taken Alex for his
inoculation yet?”

“Hold on just
a second, Ryan.”

His palms were
sweaty; he remembered the long lines of kids getting their shots at school.

“Hello, Ryan
I’m back, we’re at the doctor’s office. What’s up?”

This time with
his voiced raised, “DON’T LET ALEX GET THE SHOT.”

“What- Ryan’s
what’s wrong?”

“Jean, listen
to me. Get Ryan out of there.
DO NOT
give him the inoculation for Rn186.
Do you understand me? Do it now-”
“Okay, Okay. Hold on.”

In the
background, he could hear, “Alex, come here please. Listen your daddy has gone
crazy, so lets go get something to eat, and go home. No shot today.”
He could hear Alex in the background, “Yay!”

A minute
later, Jean got back on the phone, “Ok, Ryan, can you please explain why I just
pulled our son out of the doctor’s office?”

“I can’t talk
right now, Jean. There is something wrong with the shot. Just trust me and
we’ll talk about it tonight.”

“All right,
tonight then. Bye Ryan.”
“Bye.”

He hung up and
turned back to Jeff and Jim.

“I’m sorry
about that, it was my son.”

Ryan put his
cell phone back in his pocket, and slowly walked back to the table.

“We have to
hurry, there are bound to be other people out there, just like my son right
now.”

“Wait, I have
one more speculation for you,” Jeff said.

“I’ve been
thinking about the number of facilities that you found with the same problem,
and the few that you called who didn’t. I’ll bet that the reason Paris, Mexico
City and Delhi reported no cases of the mistreatments is simple. They only
noticed a problem, if the treatment had a bad and
noticeable
effect.”

“In other
words, how many altered treatments might exist, if you compared prescribed
orders to received orders? The hospital probably never noticed, because the
patient didn’t show any
visible
, negative signs.”

“Meaning that
every facility in still being impacted,” said Ryan.

“Yes.”

They paused as
Ryan wrote furiously.

“All right
then, I guess the next part is mine,” Jim said.

“The daily
network intrusions I discovered on the Hospital Network are consistent with how
SID could change the treatments. Additionally, the entity that I noticed, also
noticed me. Subsequently, my account and the network security were compromised,
and the code used to do it, appears to be years more advanced than mine.”

“Also, I
concur that we were able to rule out every single person working at
IntelliHealth with adequate network access to pull this off. It only leaves SID
as a suspect.”

Calm again,
Ryan wrapped up his notes.

“I’m going to
meet with Cohen. Please keep looking at our case. If you think of anything
else, let me know as fast as you can.”

Ryan added, “Jeff, consider the best way to test the last couple of
inoculations for tampering, or additives. We need a list of steps to do it that
don’t involve SID.”
“Jim, I believe you need to explain what's happened to Ben, in Information
Services. Do you want me to go with you?”

“Thanks Ryan,
but I can do it. I need to finish documenting it, and then I’ll take it to
them. I will try to meet with them by lunch. I imagine they’ll blame me at
first, but once they look at the ‘pirate’ code they’ll believe me.”

Everyone stood
up and went to their offices. Ryan stepped out and said to Lara, “Please get me
a meeting with Dr. Cohen as soon as possible. It’s urgent.”

By 11:00am,
Ryan was on his way to Cohen’s office.
The floor was very plush, and bustled with activity. It appeared that most of
the people on this floor were members of Cohen’s personal staff.

He saw
Rosemary in the back, waving at him. She motioned to a door adjacent to her
own. When he got there, the door was open. He knocked and waited until Dr.
Cohen finished what he was typing, and motioned for Ryan to come in.

“Ryan, it’s
good to see you.” He stood and leaned over his desk to shake hands.

“Thank you,
Dr. Cohen, it’s good to see you as well.”

“Ryan, Rosemary
said that you mentioned this meeting was urgent. What’s going on?”

“Well, sir,
before I begin, may I shut your door?”

He nodded and
Ryan shut the door.

“Dr. Cohen, my
colleagues and I on the Dane Commission have news to report.”

“Go ahead,
what have you found?”

“I have an
unusual explanation as to how and why the IntelliHealth System has experienced
treatments altered between prescribing them, and receiving them in the
hospital. I also believe that time is a factor, hence the urgency.”

Dr. Cohen leaned
back in his chair, “Go ahead, let's hear it.”

“We have shown
that sixteen, of nineteen facilities have documented the same anomaly. We
believe that actually all nineteen are having the same problem, but that three
do not know they are, as the evidence proving so may not have become apparent
yet.

We have
identified a point called the ‘critical point’ when the prescribed treatment is
being captured, changed and then submitted to the Hospital to be carried out.
This point is actually on the Hospital Network. Upon deeper investigation we
have determined there is an ongoing incursion on the Hospital Network
consistent with this activity.

It should be
noted that all staff, directors, and administrators who have access to do the
network have been checked, and ruled out. Still the network intruder remains.

More
disturbing is the nature of the altered treatments, sir. We believe the
evidence shows the entity who is changing the treatments is purposefully
studying how to make the patients sterile. By extension, learning how to make
the human body sterile.”

Dr. Cohen took
a drink of water from a glass on his desk.

“Do you have
evidence to support these claims?”

“Yes sir, we
do. But there is more sir.”
 

“Please
continue.”

“We have
documented that the entity behind this, noticed our attention, and proactively
took steps to confuse and hide its actions on the Hospital Network. Currently,
my colleague Jim Safe is explaining this specific incident in detail to Ben
James in Information Services per their department protocol regarding network
security.”

“In summary,
we believe the entity responsible for the altered treatments, the wrongful
research performed on our patients, and for the pirate activity on the Hospital
Network, has actually implemented a knowledge gained via these activities for
nearly twenty years. It has led to the fertility crisis facing us all.”

Ryan held in
his arms the files he had been preparing since the beginning, documenting the
steps they had taken.

“Ryan, what
you’re describing is so far beyond what I initiated the commission for; do you
fully understand what you’re saying? Someone is guilty of masterminding the
most heinous act in history…
and they did it using IntelliHealth?
”

He nodded.

“Frankly Ryan,
I am disturbed. I find this whole idea distasteful. Please leave all of the
documentation on the table there.”

“Yes sir, I
understand.”

“Do you have
an idea of who the culprit might be?”
“Yes, sir. We believe the only entity capable of the research, capable of
intercepting the constant submissions of prescribed treatments, and capable of
generating the advanced code discovered in the Hospital Network intrusions, is
the computer entity SID.”

“SID?”

“Yes sir. We
believe the SID program has become something unexpected, and is now acting in
grievous error.”

Pausing for
just a moment, Cohen asked, “What is it then, that you think we should do
next?”

“Well, that’s
why I’m here Dr. Cohen. We, the commission believe that the problem stems from
the SID program and that the IntelliHealth leadership should suspend use of the
SID program until an investigation can analyze SID’s activity.”

“Additionally,
we suggest that the Rn186 vaccination may have additional and potentially
harmful complex proteins in its make-up, and should be tested immediately. Any
more inoculations should be suspended until the results can be fully analyzed.
This testing must be independent, and take place without any assistance
whatsoever from the SID program. Dr. Sarin on the commission has written a
procedure for this testing and is ready, if you request it.”