The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (15 page)

#starEtrySIDnet12B34b61 ‘let Sc3356BBB
9’

“Well, hello there, my little friend,”
he said under his breath.

This was enough to become an issue for
Jim. Random code fragments could appear, but they could not repeat.
It defied logic. This was something different.

He decided to catch the program that
was generating this entry.

He could simply write a monitor program
and let it run 24 hours a day, but any constant surveillance would be detected
by David. The protocol would be for David to request a report with explanations
and documentation from Jim. It would also mean a lot of attention and scrutiny
on what Jim was doing. It was nothing he couldn’t handle, but why go there if
it wasn’t necessary.

Instead, he believed that with a little
clever scripting, he could accomplish the same thing. So he began writing a
script that would search for the fragment every second from six o’clock in the
evening, through the night and end at six o’clock in the morning. This was a
twelve-hour period, which more than covered the usual time frame for when the
entry had been appearing. And the next time it happened, his script would trace
the entry backwards, and identify the executable responsible.

He smiled as he uploaded his ‘monitor’
script to the server.
‘I’m coming for you,’ he thought.

Later that morning, while performing
light maintenance on server apps, he received a message from Mr. James. It went
to the whole program team asking them to meet with him at two o’clock. He
called over the partition wall to David.
“Hey Dave, did you see that message from Ben just now?”

“Yeah, I got it too.”

 
“Know what it’s about?” he said.

“Nope. We have about two hours to kill
before our system scans are wrapped up. Want to kill some orcs?” said David.

David had recently bought the latest
version of the Dungeon Master series and was always looking to play.

“Sure, why not. I’m always ready for
some mass destruction.”

Ryan’s challenge was to find his own
counterpart at the London facility. Being as he was recently hired, and that
there was no such position prior to that point, it made finding his counterpart
difficult. He wondered what would be better, talking with an IT person or
someone in the hospital administration.

Ryan had looked through the directory
over at the London IntelliHealth Facility, and come up with a few names of
individuals to try. The first name on his list was the office assistant for the
counterpart to Ben James. His name was Jack Spree, and his office assistant was
Samuel Post. If Samuel was anything like Theresa, he might know better who to
send Ryan to.

With his fingers crossed, he took his
first stab at getting through, and dialed the number on his televid. A face
appeared and said, “Hello this is the office of Mr. Spree, my name is Samuel,
how may I help you?”

“Good Morning Samuel, this is Ryan Dane
from IntelliHealth, over in the States. I was wondering if you could help
locate someone to talk with about a problem we’ve identified. I’m starting with
you, because I also work in the Information Services Department,” Ryan said.

The man was an empty slate of emotion.
He was so motionless, Ryan wondered for a second if he was a painting they just
sat in front of the camera.

Then words emerged, “What exactly is
the issue?”

Ryan carefully considered his words,
“We have experienced an anomaly wherein patient treatments have sometimes been
confirmed as inaccurate. The percentage is quite low, but we do want to be
thorough. I was wondering if anyone in your facility might have noticed
anything of this sort as well.”

Without hesitating, and with only as
much patience as to allow Ryan to finish, Samuel said, “You want to speak with
Laura Stems in Patient Services. I will transfer you now.”

The screen reverted to the
IntelliHealth logo, while he was being transferred. Ryan wondered about Sam’s
quick exchange. It was probably the simplest way to free him from the burden of
this call. Cursing to himself, the screen came on again with a new face was on
the screen.
“Yes, I am Laura Stems, what do you know about our mixed-up treatments?”

Ryan leaned back and smiled, he would
need to remember to send a present to Mr. Samuel Post.

Jim hated Mondays.

Jim had attended the meeting with the
rest of his group, earlier this morning.

In the meeting, Mr. James had indicated
that IntelliHealth research would be ramping up in a big way over the coming
months. Their department needed to be ready to support them any way they could.
He explained that any overtime would be rewarded with additional money, not
time-off. In fact he was suspending all vacation time until further notice. The
group did not understand the details of the increased workload, but the gravity
of the situation was unmistakable.

Mr. James ordered that everyone make a
list of the current projects they were working on, and submit their list to
David for review and prioritization.

“Don’t be surprised if some of your
projects are suspended indefinitely.”

“Mr. James,” David asked, “Can you give
us any more detail on why the sudden change?”

“Not at this time, Dave. I understand
your wanting to know. My understanding is that a company-wide statement of some
sort, is being drafted.”
Ben turned to the whole group, “Please do not worry about your job, you are
needed. As usual, please contact David or myself if you find you are stuck, and
need help or resources. That is all for now; thanks everyone.”

People began sending their projects to
David for review. Jim was not sure if he should include his sparring with the
unknown code fragment, as a project.

When he checked on his script this
morning, he found the entry present again.
The timestamp in the log, indicated its appearance at 6:01 AM.
It showed up exactly one minute after his monitor script had shut down.

His first reaction was to wonder if
maybe he had simply been wrong about the most likely window to catch it. He
decided to expand the window during which he would be monitoring. He adjusted
the script to watch for the fragment between 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM.

‘I’ll get you in the morning my little
friend,’ he thought.

He decided not to list his code
fragment as a project. Realistically, it was not an assigned project, nor was
it a hunt yet. It was a ‘weird network thingy’, and that would be how he
defined it for now.

Then he assembled his real list of
projects and sent it to David, hoping that something new and cool would come
his way. He leaned over the partition wall, “Dave, the meeting this morning was
pretty hardcore. Has Ben talked with you?”

“Yes he did, afterwards. But he still
wouldn’t go into any detail. I feel like something has happened, and they must
believe it’s serious because they are throwing a lot of resources at it.
Apparently, they are re-opening floors 210 through 230 and plan on filling them
with new labs, right away.”

David’s eyes were closed and he was
rubbing his head.
“Jim, do you have anything for a headache?”

“Sure, hold on,” he dug through his
desk, and tossed a bottle to David, “here you go.”
“Thanks. Listen I’m going to need an assessment on total processing cycles for
the Research Network by sometime this afternoon.”

“Sure Dave, but I know we’re only around 60% currently, why?” Jim said.
“Apparently, we need to provide additional processing power to SID.”
 

Meanwhile, there was a lot of
excitement upstairs.

The labs were nearly empty, because
everyone was headed to the big auditorium.

Jeff had been asked to join a special
meeting of the research faculty, and was on his way there too. Usually, these
meetings were basically social events where the faculty got together,
complained about the administration, and expected to have a free breakfast.

Jeff avoided them at all cost.
If you were not a member of the faculty, you could find yourself handing out
drinks, or retrieving something forgotten in
Dr. Somebody’s
office.

Not today though, today was different.

Today a meeting of the faculty and top
lab directors had been called, and he couldn’t help but feel curious. A meeting
like this had not occurred in the last ten years. It was odd too because there
was no subject on any materials he had seen, only a cryptic request that all
IntelliHealth research faculty and necessary staff were to be in the auditorium
for a meeting on this day and time.
Beneath the request, the memo had read,

‘Make all necessary arrangements to attend.
Participation by all faculty is mandatory.’

There were several auditoriums around
the building, but this was the big one. The large auditorium was at the core of
the building, and was three floors deep in size, holding more than 1000 people
comfortably. This was the auditorium the folks at the top used when they wanted
to impress.

The meeting would likely begin when the
auditorium was full, and it was clear everyone was present. The tiers of the
auditorium were white all the way around, forming a sea of lab coats. He
noticed some of the faculty that had been on vacation were present; one was
still wearing shorts and a flowery shirt. Apparently, the faculty were taking
it very seriously.
Then amid all the noise, the small statured Facility Director, Dr. Eric Cohen
walked out and stepped up to the podium. Cohen was known to have been acting
for the local Facility President who had essentially retired months ago. The
rumor was that the man would simply not let go of the title. Many of the faculty
liked Cohen, as did Jeff. He was a good man, and a good leader.

“Good morning everyone, I realize many
of you were traveling, I thank you for doing what was needed to be here.”

The talking and mumbling around the
room quieted down slowly, until silence finally imposed itself on all of them.

Dr. Cohen opened a folder, and pulled
out some papers to read from.

“Some of you may know why we are here. Most of you probably do not. We at
IntelliHealth lead the world in the affairs of the genetic human condition. We
pride ourselves on the knowledge we have attained, and the progress we have
achieved. So naturally, when a problem arises it is to us, that the world looks
for answers. Ladies and gentlemen, we find ourselves now in just such a
position. Make no mistake about what I am about to tell you, this will be the
challenge of your lifetime.”

He took a drink of water from a bottle
at the podium, and turned a few pages in his folder.

“As some of you already know, there has
been a recent and sharp decline in birthrates around the world. A dedicated
group within this body has been tracking the world census, and global birth
rates. Recent numbers have been gathered that cannot be ignored. After much
testing, and debate we can say with total clarity that within the last twenty
years, but more acutely in the last two years, cases of human sterility have
increased to a level which will impact us…
as a species
.”

He said the last part as almost a
whisper.

The crowd burst into a loud raucous
tantrum of scientific denial across the breadth and height of the auditorium.
Dr. Cohen looked up at the tiers of scientists as they yelled back in forth. He
pulled out a handkerchief, and blotted his forehead.
“Ladies, gentlemen, colleagues, please calm down. The facts are real. The data
supporting the evidence will be made available immediately following this
meeting. I implore you to pause and listen.”

Stepping away from the podium he said, “At this time, I would like to introduce
the creator of IntelliHealth, and frankly the man many refer to as the Father
of Modern Medicine, Dr. Sid Frances.”

Jeff was stunned; he couldn’t believe
Sid Frances was actually here. This was the man who was referred to in school
as a visionary, maybe the greatest of his time.