The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (40 page)

Jim was still
rubbing his hands together, and wrung them out and wiped them on his shirt. He
was sweating.

“Either
solution will be hard to do. If we decide to separate the research and hospital
networks, I will need help. They’re so heavily integrated it will take a few of
us, working together. Maybe David and some others from that group.”

Ryan didn’t
know how much time they had.

The
conservative move would be to destroy the satellite, now, before SID found it
too. But with this danger came an opportunity.

“Jim, I have
an idea. Can you access the satellite?”

“Well, I
should be able to; let me see. It will take a little while for me to find the
manual for it.”

“Go as fast as
you can, I want to know if you can break it, so that it can’t transmit to
earth…
only receive
. ”

Jim smiled,
“You are thinking of a trap.”

“See if you
can do it. We have to know before SID does.”

“I’m on it,
Ryan.”

Ryan went back
to his office, and waited.

There wasn’t much
more he could do.

He knew that
ordering Jim to leave the satellite uplink open was a terrible risk. He wasn’t
excited at the prospect of being remembered as the man who let SID out into the
world.

He picked up
his tablet and opened the application that Jim had installed earlier. It was
the app that ‘watched’ SID. The meter was steady, meaning that local activity
had not increased.

The way he
understood it, IntelliHealth Facilities around the world shut down their ‘SID
supporting servers’, and SID would shift his presence here to compensate. That
would mean a rise in the measurable activity here. Voila, a SID meter.

He was really
growing to hate technology.

He left it
running and checked his messages.

There was one
from his wife, it read:

‘Ryan-

I got your
message, and we are on the way to the airport now. I don’t understand what’s
happening, but I understand that you need us. I can’t believe you sent a
company jet. Alex is going to have a ball.

See you soon.

Love,

Jean and
Alex.’

He was
startled and completely confused. They had talked on the phone earlier and she
was going to stay in Florida for a few more days. Looking down the page, Ryan
saw the message that she thought was from him.

‘Message
received

From:
[email protected]

‘Jean –

I need you and Alex with me. Please
come as soon as possible. I have permission to use an IntelliHealth plane, and
have made arrangements for it to bring you here. It will be available after
11:00 am (your local time). Please come and bring Alex too.

I’ll explain when you get here.

I love you.

Ryan’

There was a video clip of Ryan smiling
in the corner of the message. He activated it with his finger. It came to life,
and with
his
voice it said, “Come home Jean, I need you here.”

Furious and terrified, he pulled his
personal phone out of his pocket and trying to dial, juggled it and dropped it
to the ground. He picked it up again and picked Jean’s number. It dialed.

He was sweating again; his hands were
wet.

Suddenly he heard her voice.
“Hello, Ryan?”

“Jean, where are you right now?” he
said. His voice was raised.

“Hold on Ryan,” he could hear her
talking to Alex on the other side, “Alex come here; you need to stay with me.”

“Jean, where are you right now?” he
said again louder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
Cohen step into his office.

He was watching Ryan, aware that
something was wrong.

Behind him, Jim, Jeff and Lara had come
as well.

They could hear the commotion. Ryan was
practically yelling into the phone.

“Jean, please answer the question.
Where are you right now?
” he said again, even louder this time.

“Okay, Okay, I’m back. Alex was trying
to crawl into the baggage area under the plane.”

“Do not get on that plane, Jean.”

“Okay, but why are you yelling? I
thought you
wanted
me to get on the plane?”

“Get Alex, and get back inside the
airport. Get away from that plane, as fast as you can.”

“Alex, let's go use the bathroom, once
more before the trip.”

He could hear in the background, “But I
don’t need to. I want to go on the plane Mommy.”
 
“Not now Alex, now come with me. Hold
my hand.”
“Okay, Ryan we’re walking back into the terminal now-”

Suddenly Ryan heard an explosion on the
other side.

“Jean, what happened? Jean? Jean?”

 
It was the longest three seconds of his life.

“Ryan, the plane… it just blew up.” She
paused and he could hear her breathing.

“We’re okay, but there were people out
there.”

In the background he could hear Alex
crying.

“Ryan what’s happening?”

“Listen, go back to your parents and
stay there. That message was a fake. Don’t come here, I will come to you. If
you get any more messages like that, ignore them. Do you understand?”

“Not really, but we’ll go back to my
parents now and wait for you.”

“I love you, baby.”

“I love you too.”

Ryan hung up and slowly put his phone
back in his pocket.

He caught his breath, and turned around
to see the whole group watching him.

“SID tried to kill my family.”

“What the hell?” It was Cohen, a visage
of fury, his hands clenched into fists.

“It sent a message to my wife in Florida.
It pretended to be me, and asked her to come home on an IntelliHealth jet, at a
local airport. It even had a fake video clip of me attached.”
He walked to a chair, and fell into it.

I stopped her, and my son from getting
on the plane… barely.”
He took a deep breath, “When they walked away from the plane, SID blew it
up. It almost got them.”

Cohen stepped up and put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder.

“Thank God you were in time, Ryan.” He
looked around the room, “I suggest we all call our loved ones right now and
warn them as well.”

Jim ran back to his office

Everyone was instantly on their personal phones calling families, and parents.

Moments later, Jim came back and said,
“The airport at the Palm Beach terminal is reporting an explosion which has killed
eight people and wounded about twelve more.”

“How could he even do it?” said Jeff as
he put his phone away.

“It doesn’t matter how he did it, this
is meant to distract us. He is playing with us even now,” said Eric.
 

“Jim, stay on target,” said Ryan, “We
need access to that satellite.”

“I understand, I’m on it. It shouldn’t
be long now, I found the manual.”

All at once, Ryan’s tablet began
beeping lightly along with Cohen’s and Jim’s too.

Ryan picked it up and looked at the
gauge displayed.

SID’s activity had just risen.

Cohen said, “The reason I came here,
was to tell you that we delivered all of our messages to the other Facilities.
We should begin to notice them shutting down all over the world. It has begun.”

Ryan was hoping it would happen slowly.
They still needed time to get their trap ready.

“Ryan, has your group made any progress
on finding a way to force SID to release the code for his database?”

“No, not exactly. My intention is to
trap him. Once we have him in a box, then we can take our time figuring out how
to force it out of him.”

“I don’t understand, isn’t our plan to
trap him here?” said Eric.

“Yes,” said Jim, “but we’re worried
that he will find some way out. As long as he has access to one of our
Facilities he will remain a threat.”

“Okay, so how do we trap and hold SID?”

“I may have a plan. I don’t know if it
will work yet.” Letting out a very long sigh, Ryan stood up and rubbed the back
of his neck.

“I’m waiting for Jim’s next report.”

Eric said, “Take a break and come get
something to eat.”

Ryan nodded; he walked over to Jim’s
door.

“Jim, I’m going to go get some food,
I’ll bring you back some dinner.”

Jim was intensely reading some text on
his screen; barely moving he nodded at Ryan.

“Jim call me if you get through.”

“I will Ryan.”

Eric and Ryan went to the cafeteria.

Ryan picked up a burger and some fries
and sat down. Cohen joined him with several more bags for the rest of the group
upstairs.

They sat in silence for a minute or
two.

“You know Ryan, it occurs to me that
SID must perceive you as the greatest threat. It must have believed that it
could take you out of the game with that move.”

“Eric, you see this as a chess game
don’t you,” said Ryan.

“Me? No. But I think SID does. It might
be helpful to think along these lines too.”

“You might be right,” he said thinking
back over its moves so far.

“It tried to kill my wife and son.” He
was angry. “At the end, I want to be the one that pulls the switch.”

“We’ll do it together.”

Moments later, his phone rang, “Ryan?
This is Jim.”
“I know. Did you find something?”

“I’ve done it.”

“Excellent work Jim, we’re on our way.”

He grabbed his food, and said
excitedly, “Come on Eric, Jim’s done it.”

“Done what exactly?”

“Come on, come on. I’ll explain
upstairs.”

Together they ran towards the elevator.

When they arrived at Jim’s office, he
was opening a beer.

“Toast me ladies and gentlemen, I just
hacked the IntelliHealth network satellite.”

He sat down looking very pleased with
himself. Jeff stepped in and sat next to him.

“Were you able to make the modification
we needed?”

“Yes, it’s already done. It can receive
but not transmit to
anyplace
on earth. I moved and fused the transmitter
antenna so that it points away from earth.”

“Excellent Jim.”

Feeling a little left out, Cohen said,
“Will someone please explain what’s going on?”

“We’ve made a trap,” said Jim.

Ryan was smiling. He looked at Jeff and
then Cohen, and in a low voice he began.

“We discovered that the Hospital
Network has access to a satellite. It has never been used, and is relatively
unknown, but it is there. Its purpose is to allow IntelliHealth Hospitals to
contact the United Nations, and apparently the World Space Program, in the
event of a global emergency. And because the Research network is integrated
with the Hospital network, it provides a way out of the IntelliHealth System.
An escape route for SID.”

Jim added, “We’ve modified the
satellite to prevent SID from using it to transmit himself back to the earth,
and freedom. He can get there, but he can’t get back.”

“Very good Ryan, excellent,” said Cohen
feeling very relieved.

“Okay Ryan we’ve finished this part, so how do we get him to go in?” asked Jim.

“I’ve been thinking about that, and
about how Eric,” he was pointing to Dr. Cohen, “described this as a chess game.
I believe we need to sacrifice Thor and Loki.”