The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (17 page)

Jeff didn’t want to deal with that just
now.
He was having too much trouble just trying figure out what to say to his own
wife.

Amala will learn soon enough.

He wrote back, ‘Please forgive me, but
I am unfortunately quite preoccupied at the moment. I will contact you soon. My
best wishes and heart go to you and your family, Amala.’

He hit the send button.

He felt dirty.

He knew that if he told Amala, it would
only bring grief and questions and turmoil to her just as it had with him. He
will spare her for as long as he can.

And maybe that was the answer for Kali,
too.

He was wrestling with these decisions,
and the knowledge he didn’t want, when his graduate student walked up and
knocked on his door.

“Dr. Sarin, I finished cleaning the
benches, and I wanted to say that I found another centrifuge we can use until
we get a new one.”

He swiveled in his chair to look at
her.

If what they said was indeed true, she
too would be sterile; never to have her own children. Wincing slightly, he
said, “Thank you. Please go back to your work. I will check in on you later.”

“Ok, thanks Dr. Sarin.”

He turned back around called Kali.

“Hello Vignesh, how are you?”

Downstairs, Ryan called Theresa and
asked if he could meet with Mr. James.

She said he would be busy the rest of
the day, but would hold time for a meeting late tomorrow morning. He still had
some time to kill so he walked over to see Jim and David.

As he approached their cubicles he
could see the activity surrounding his two friends. David had three other
programmers present. He seemed to be listening to their questions, and giving
some sort of directions.

Jim had four very young men outside his
cubicle, and he was handing a paper to each. They wore tool belts, and carried
flashlights. He gave some instructions, and they took off in the direction of
the elevator.

“Hey Ryan, how are you? You didn’t come
by this morning with more searches. I was worried.”

“Yeah, I know. I need to throw some
more together. I got a hit on a different front, and I want to follow up on it.
How are you guys doing? You seem very busy.”

“Yeah, we’re making arrangements for
some new labs coming in, and they are bringing some pretty big stuff.”

David’s group had broken up, and he
leaned over the partition too.

“Speaking of which, have you had a
chance to check your mail, Jim? I sent you the specs on the new super computers
for Dr. Zimmerman.”

Jim turned around and logged into his
account. Checking his mail, he found the specs and pulled them up.

“Wow, look at that!” He moved them
around so they filled four of his screens.

“Man, look at the local CPU cycle
parameters. Those are the new sino-organic chip clusters.”

“I read about how they actually grow
the organic material on the silicon base.”

To Ryan, it was a lot of numbers, but
not wanting to be left out, he said, “Yeah, wow.”

Misunderstanding the sarcasm in Ryan’s
voice, Jim said, “Ok, maybe this is a little light compared to our own SID
system, but some of this technology is actually newer and superior.”

“Jim, those are awesome machines,” said
David. “Look, I now they’re your project, but I want to play with them too. So,
let me know when they are set up and functioning.”

“Ok sure. Hmm… yeah, my project; my
names,” he said as he typed some notes on the plans, “I shall call you Loki and
Thor.”
Jim smiled at his new project.

They were obviously preoccupied, so
Ryan said goodbye, and headed back to his office. He was looking forward to
talking with Ben tomorrow and getting permission to start canvassing other
facilities too.

Very quickly, he sent a message to Jeff
upstairs. It said, ‘Jeff, I have some news regarding the treatment errors.
Interested? Give me a holler when you have a few minutes.’

He also responded to a message from
Laura Stems in London. Her message said, ‘Wonderful speaking with you Ryan. I
should tell you that I’ve also enjoyed talking with my friend, Sarah Warren
from the Australian Facility. Hopefully you will have a chance to meet her one
day.’

He understood that she still didn’t
have permission to discuss this as openly as he did, and appreciated her clue.
Ms. Warren would be his next target.

His investigation was finally getting
somewhere!

He logged out, headed up front and ran
into David at the elevator. They walked through the garage together. David was
telling him tonight was his weekly network party.
“Well have fun Dave, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as he walked to his car.

Several floors up, Jeff was ready to go
home.

It had been a long day.

He had received new lab assignments, and learned that his lab was merging with
another lab whose research was supposed to compliment Dr. Bender’s. He didn’t
mind that much, but it would mean new headaches.
And now he had to work with another lab director.

Her name was Dr. Sam Niles, and she was
a total pain in the ass.
Upon receiving the memo, she had stormed into his office and begun telling him
where they were going to put some new equipment. He tried to remain diplomatic,
and listened to what she had to say. Ultimately, they agreed to ‘share’ the
responsibilities, and delegate the work in her lab ‘component’ to her, while
his lab duties would remain his purview. The sticky part would come when they
exchanged a few researchers.

She was explaining that the people and
their inventoried equipment would have to remain as part of their lab of origin
unless through the consent of the local PI.

‘Blah, blah, something, something,’ he
thought as he drifted away during her speech.
Clearly Sam was overly consumed
with the minutia.

Jeff really didn’t care, he wondered if
she had attended the meeting earlier.

When she finally came to a stopping
point, he cut in, “Dr. Niles, the only thing that matters at this time, is that
we work together to get this research going as quickly as possible. Delay for
administrative details is not acceptable. If there are questions of
accountability, I have no problem being responsible. You may quote me on that.”

While he had her attention, he
continued, “I am holding a list of three people, two from your group, and one
from mine, that are to exchange positions. Let us focus on accomplishing this
immediately.”

With a more somber tone, she worked
with him to get the change made right then. It took another couple of hours,
but it gave Jeff a sense of doing something meaningful. After finishing the
person exchange, he went back to his office again and checked his mail. His
wife was wondering where he was. He sent her a quick message saying that he was
coming home shortly.

He also saw the message from Ryan
regarding the treatment errors.

He gathered his things, but sat back
down.
There was actually one person he could talk to, about all of this, without
letting anything out. It was Ryan who had stumbled on the whole mess in the
first place. He sent a message to Ryan that said, “Yes, perhaps we should talk,
I may have news as well.”

Dragging the floor, Jeff made his way
to the garage, and drove home.

That night at the Dane house, Ryan was
watching the news when a story caught his attention.

“Has our population stabilized? New
numbers seem to indicate a drop in birth rates among Americans. It appears that
fewer births were recorded last month than any month in the previous 10 years.
Scientists are suggesting there may be a link to our longer life spans.
Fertility specialists are exploring new techniques for those families
interested in having more children. Look for more on this story in the weeks to
come.”

 
Ryan asked Jean if she had heard anything about the story.
“No, not a word, but I have noticed that Alex’s classes seem smaller than they
were when I was a kid.”

Later that night Ryan got out of bed, and sneaking into the kitchen got another
piece of pizza out of the refrigerator.

Man that was good.

He washed his hands and got back in
bed. Jean who looked very much asleep, suddenly said, “There better some left
for my lunch tomorrow.”

He hugged her and went back to sleep.

CHAPTER 8

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to
write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for
opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the
opportunity.”
― John F. Kennedy

“When in danger or in doubt, run in
circles, scream and shout.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

A rainy Tuesday followed Ryan to work
and waited while he read his mail. Ryan had sent a message to Jeff yesterday
asking for a meeting, and there was a reply from Jeff saying that he was
interested in talking with him too.

Stretching, and stifling a yawn, he
slowly rose to go get a fresh coffee. Planning afterwards to take a walk to
Jeff’s office, he suddenly received a call from Theresa.
“Hey Ryan, Mr. James can see you now.”

“Okay,” but not really prepared at just
that second he said, “Sure, thanks… I’m on my way.”

It was not a problem, he gathered his notes from yesterday, and organized his
report in his head. Ryan walked upstairs to Ben’s office. When he got there,
the door was closed, but he could hear voices inside. Rather than interrupt, he
sat down outside and took the time to get his facts together. In a few minutes,
the voices stopped and shortly after that the door opened.

A man left at a brisk pace.
Ryan had never seen him before, but judging from his suit it was someone pretty
high up.

He peeked around the door, and knocked.

“Hi Ryan, come on in and have a seat.”

Ryan walked in and sat down in front of
Ben’s desk. Ben looked distracted.

“Ben, if this is not a good time, I can
always come back. My schedule works around yours.”

“No, it’s okay. I guess we’re all a
little on edge these days.”
He took a drink from a water bottle on his desk.

“That was my boss, Peter Styles. He’s
under a lot of pressure right now, and making rounds to ensure everyone is on
the same page.”

“Ryan, I believe it was you who wanted
to get together; so what’s up?”

Ryan couldn’t help but smile; he was
finally making progress and looked forward to telling Ben about it.

“I made contact with the London
IntelliHealth Facility, found the right person to talk to, and discretely
learned that they are having the same problem we are,” he said.

“What? Really? Slow down and give me
the details.”

Ryan, started over again.

He explained how he approached Jack
Spree’s assistant.

“With barely any explanation, I was
transferred to a woman in their Hospital, Mrs. Laura Stems.”
Ryan put his notes down, and leaned forward unconsciously.
“She told me what they’ve been experiencing on their side, and their cases
appear to be identical to ours.”

“You were careful in how you presented
it?”

“Yes.”

“So, the problem is not localized after
all,” Ben said, “that’s quite a story.”

“I think that I may have a lead on
another facility with the same experience as well.”

“Really? Where?” asked Ben.

“Australia. Sydney actually,” Ryan
continued, “You see, Laura was not allowed to make contact with other
facilities. Probably for all the same reasons you were leery as well. But she
has indicated to me that she has had informal communications with a friend
there implying they have the same problem. If you approve, I will try there
next.”