The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (31 page)

Now, Cohen was
leaning forward, rubbing his temples.

“Ryan, are you
saying that SID may have tampered with the Rn186 vaccination?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ryan, is
there anything else?”

“Only that I
am so very sorry for this report, sir. It is the most difficult of my life.
Each of my friends on the commission was impacted on different and personal
levels in this case. I do not for one second, underestimate what will happen if
this is announced, nor am I blind to the resistance there will be against this
idea. My biggest fear is that it will take too long to make people believe, and
in the meantime, there are still people arriving to get the vaccination. These
individuals may be our hope for the future.”

Dr. Cohen
called Rosemary.

“Rosemary,
please drop what you are doing and come in here. Our plans for the afternoon
have just changed.”

“Yes, Dr.
Cohen.”

He looked at
Ryan and said, “Ryan, please return to your office. Keep your team handy. We
will review your work, and if it pans out, I will call an emergency meeting of
the Facility Presidents, top researchers and founders. You better be prepared,
you will be the one to present your case to them.”

“Yes sir, I
understand.”

Rosemary
entered as Ryan was moving to the door.

“Our friend
Mr. Dane has presented us with facts that must be reviewed, if they turn out to
be true, I will need an emergency meeting of the Presidents, scientists and
founders. Please have some of the staff begin clearing schedules for the
meeting. Then gather three to four of your most trusted staff for our review of
Mr. Dane’s files here.”

She read the
urgency in Cohen’s voice, and left aware that this would be a long afternoon.
Glancing briefly at Ryan, she wondered what he had discovered.

Ryan returned
to his office.
He sent messages to Jeff, Jim and Lara indicating that he’d met with Cohen, and
that each of them might be required to participate in a meeting of the Facility
Presidents. He wanted them to stay close, if the call came.

Later that
afternoon, he got a message from Rosemary.

It read,
‘Ryan- I’m rather sorry to report that your files have checked out. Cohen is
calling the meeting he described earlier. Please be prepared to join us in
conference room 237a tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. You should bring the rest of
your team as well.’

Her message
ended with two words, ‘Good Luck’.

That night, he
explained to Jean that there seemed to be credible evidence indicating the
vaccination was created with an addition of complex proteins resulting in a
worsening of the fertility crisis. They agreed to avoid getting any more shots
until this mess was cleared up.

She mentioned
that Alex will have a school holiday next week, and she was thinking of going
to visit her parents in Florida. He explained that he had to attend a meeting
tomorrow morning, and couldn’t go. He didn’t want to go into the details of
what was going on. It was still just too uncertain. However, he thought the
idea of her taking Alex and getting away for a while was a good one. The intensity
at work was getting difficult to hide. He helped them pack some clothes and
toys, and hugged them both. They waved from the car as it pulled out of the
driveway.

‘I hope you’re
just as happy when you come back,’ he thought.

Going inside,
he made himself a drink and sat down to watch the news.

Crying a
little, the dog laid down next to him.

She was not
happy about Jean and Alex leaving.

“I know, I
feel the same way.”

The next
morning was Saturday, and the traffic to work was very light.

Ryan got to
work earlier than he meant to.

He got some
coffee going, and sat down at his desk to wait. Shortly, Jim and then Jeff
arrived. Lara also arrived, and together they all waited in Ryan’s office until
it was time to go upstairs.

Each of them
had dressed up with Jim as the only exception. Sporting a V-neck white T-shirt,
and jeans, he noticed everyone was looking at him in the elevator.

“What? It’s
Saturday. This is what I wear on Saturdays. Besides, after they hear what Ryan
has to say, no one is going to give a rat’s ass what I’m wearing.”

They all
laughed.

The doors
opened, and Rosemary was talking with Cohen not far away. There was a lot of
noise coming from the nearest conference room. Ryan was suddenly very nervous.
He was about to tell the highest level people in IntelliHealth that their mad
computer had plotted to kill humanity.

For a moment
he turned back to the elevator, and thought about leaving. Was this mess really
his? Hell, he’d only been with them for about 6 weeks now. He could split, and
let them figure it out themselves. After all, none of this was his fault. He
was just the unlucky idiot who had applied for the job.
 

He felt a calm
hand on his shoulder.

It was
Rosemary.

“Hello Ryan,
how are you?”

“Well, I’m not
really sure at the moment.”

“It’s okay,
Dr. Cohen will be with you. They will not want to hear what you have to say,
but if you’re even half right, you have to tell them. This is too big.”

She still had
not let go of his shoulder; he turned and faced the conference room.

“I’m okay, I’m
ready.”

“Very good,
Mr. Dane. I have taken the liberty to provide coffee and water at your seat.
Just look for your name tag… it’s on the tallest chair.”

She smiled at
him and vanished amidst the entire hubbub.

Ryan turned to
his friends, and smiled, “Well this is it. Let's kick some robot ass.”

They went
inside single file and sat down. Lara was to his left, with Jeff on his right,
and Jim next to Jeff.

The conference
room was quite large, easily 200 feet on the long axis, and 2/3 as deep. There
was a heady mix of scientists and administrators around the big table. Near the
middle sat Ryan and his ‘Dane Commission’. Cohen sat opposite him, deep in
conversation with another man Ryan didn’t know.

There were six
medium sized televid screens around the table, and two large ones further back
placed on opposite sides of the room. There were faces in all of the medium
sized screens, but the two big ones were black with the IntelliHealth logo.
Counting around the table it looked like there were about fifty people present.

After a few
minutes, Dr. Cohen reached to the center of the table, and rang a large brass
bell. It reminded Ryan of the liberty bell souvenir he got as a kid, but this
one wasn’t cracked. As it rang, the crowd quieted down. After a moment, Dr.
Cohen addressed the meeting.

“Good morning
everyone,” he said, “Thank you for coming; I certainly appreciate you being
here for a meeting regarding some troubling ideas. In particular, I would like
to thank Dr. Sid Frances and Dr. Steven Ranks whose expert opinions may shed
light on the subject today. Not many of you know this, but Sid is a college
friend of mine, and although I know that you do not like to make appearances
any more Sid, I wanted to say thank you for joining us today.”

As he was
speaking, the large screens came to life revealing Sid Frances on the left, and
Steven Ranks on the right.
 

Dr. Sid
Frances said, “My pleasure, Eric, thank you for inviting me.”

“We also have
the Presidents and Facility Directors of some nineteen facilities recently
contacted by Mr. Ryan Dane, of the IntelliHealth, Dane Commission. We are also
fortunate to have with us the uppermost research scientists of the
IntelliHealth System. Our charge today is to listen to the findings of the Dane
Commission, and determine what action, if any, is warranted. I will now remind
this body why I first established this investigative commission.”

“Recently, it
came to my attention that this facility was experiencing a seemingly random
anomaly wherein one of our research doctors would prescribe a treatment, only
to learn that the receiving hospital technician had received something
different, sometimes with dire results. The total number of such incidents
amounted to less than 1 % of our total patient treatments. Regardless, our duty
is to protect our patients and to that end, I established the Dane Commission
whose charge it was to learn how this happened and put an end to it.”

“Yesterday I
received the results of their investigation, and found them to be quite
alarming. Before I give the floor to Mr. Ryan Dane, I would like to say that my
own staff has confirmed the documentation provided for what you are about to
hear. As such, I can provide copies in part or in whole, at your request.”

Cohen turned to Ryan, “Mr. Dane, please explain to this body, your results.”

Ryan felt
flushed; he squared his papers before him, and looked around the room.

“Ladies and
gentlemen, we have documented that sixteen of nineteen facilities have been
affected.”

He re-counted
his story as he had with Cohen yesterday. As he spoke he looked around the
room, and could sense the tension mounting among the participants. Several
moments later, Ryan was explaining the proportional breakdown of research
across the Facilities, which Jeff had found.
 

Suddenly,
IntelliHealth founder, Dr. Sid Frances cut him off.

“Excuse me,
Mr. Dane. I think we are all interested in getting to the bottom of this. Can
you please skip to the end, and simply tell us where the fault lies, or perhaps
what system needs revision?”

Caught off
guard, Ryan wasn’t sure how to go forward. He paused, and tried to re-organize
his notes.

“Well, we
believe the SID program has engineered these events and is responsible for-”

Dr. Sid
Frances cut him off again, as voices began rising around the table.

“I’m sorry,
Mr. Dane did you say ‘the SID’ program’ did this? Do you know how ridiculous
that sounds? We built the program to act as an automated lab assistant. It
doesn’t give orders, it takes them. The scientific arm of the entire IntelliHealth
System relies on it.”

A rising
cacophony of voices peaked from around the table.

The scientists
were yelling back and forth, and some of them were yelling at him, but he
couldn’t make out what they were saying over the noise.
‘Well,’ he thought, ‘this didn’t go well. Nope, not well at all.’

Sid Frances,
cut through the noise and chaos.

“Please,
please… my friends and colleagues. Let me ask Steve a question.”

Then, Dr.
Frances addressed Steven Ranks on the big screen on the opposite side of the room.
“Steve you were the principle author of the SID program. In your expert
opinion, is it possible for SID to act independently?”

“No.” There was no hesitation at all.

Steven Ranks
continued, “I can say with all confidence that the premise in Mr. Dane’s
argument is flawed. SID simply cannot act independently. It takes direction,
and returns the finished work.”

“Thank you
Steve, I’m pleased this has been resolved,” said Dr. Frances, “Please feel free
to contact us again when you have had time to revisit and update your case, Mr.
Dane. Thank you gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned.”

The words
echoed in Ryan’s head.

The noise in
the room was great.

Everywhere
people were standing up and complaining about their morning, their research,
their day.
Jeff was saying something, he looked very emotional. Jim was angry and
pointing, ‘talking with his finger’ Alex would say. Lara had disappeared from
the seat next to him.

Men surrounded
Dr. Cohen and were rapidly questioning him. He looked at Ryan briefly, but only
a second. They made eye contact, and then Cohen looked back at the men around
him.
Ryan put his things together.
The order didn’t matter. He stood amidst the chaos and then slowly walked to
the door. Looking back only once, he saw Rosemary talking as fast as she could
with several people around a televid.