The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (20 page)

Jim spoke first, “Why? How did it
happen?”

 
“Well that’s the problem,” said Jeff, “No one knows.”
Jeff walked back to them and sat down.

”That’s why we are ramping up. That’s why we have labs moving in, and
re-organizing. That’s why we have shiny new equipment coming in every day.
IntelliHealth is working with every government on Earth to solve this mystery.”

He rubbed his eyes, pushed his hair
back.

“I’m sorry my friend, now you know.”

Ryan didn’t really remember driving
home that night.

He remembered being at work and having
a good day. He remembered basking in his success, and patting himself on the
back.
Then he felt as if he’d been mugged.
He couldn’t really believe it. He had just been told the end of mankind was
looming just ahead. Only three weeks ago, his worst problem was a stiff
depression for not having a job.

Surely Jeff had it wrong.

He was a young doctor, and maybe he was
impulsive. Maybe he misunderstood what had been said at some meeting, and this
was simply one of those times when a rumor got started. He remembered that game
kids would play where one person whispered a secret to the next, and then the
next, and so on. At the end, the secret was something completely different.
That must be it.

Except that, it fit the clues he had
found. The mystery of the census numbers at IntelliHealth was solved. He felt
sick.

Suddenly his dark reverie was broken by
the welcome intrusion of his wife’s agitated voice.

“What’s wrong with you, get up off that
couch and come in here, dinner’s ready.” Jean had been calling Ryan and Alex to
dinner for about 10 minutes, and she was getting frustrated.

Ryan went to the table and sat down.

“Daddy you didn’t wash your hands.
Mommy, Daddy didn’t wash his hands first,” said Alex. Recently, Alex had become
very excited to rat out either or both of them. Alex was the ‘stoolie’ in the
Dane household. For an 8 year old, that kind of power was a rush.

Without arguing, Ryan went and washed
his hands. Alex was telling them about why he didn’t like music class. Ryan ate
his dinner and moved like a robot to the kitchen where he put away the dishes.
Jean could see that there was something bothering him.

As the night went on, she gave Alex his
bath, got his milk and waited for him to fall asleep. Downstairs, she found
Ryan moving through the news channels. She sat and watched silently in the
background. First he went through them singly, and then he gathered particular
ones together and had them all playing at once. He seemed to be looking for
something in particular.

Suddenly, Ryan found it; a story about
the declining birth rate.

Somewhere a woman was being interviewed
“… noticed that the birthing wards in our local hospitals have been reducing
their staff. It seems that the number of babies being born recently has
dropped.”

The story went to another person
elsewhere.
“I believe we have reached a point in history when people simply prefer smaller
families.”

Talking to the audience, the reporter
said, “Is this a sign of a ‘new-world’ way of thinking; perhaps a new
more-evolved model of the nuclear family?”

Shifting again to a new location, the
reporter stood in front of a digital billboard advertising a fertility clinic.
There was a giant picture of a man and woman looking down at their new baby in
a crib. The reporter said, “Fertility clinics are on the rise. There are more
fertility clinics now than there are grocery stores, or emergency centers, or
dentists. Why?”

The picture shifted again, showing a
man inside a fertility clinic. The waiting room was full, and in the
background, someone was talking with the receptionist.

He said, “I believe that people are
living longer, and naturally having less children because of it. It is the way
of things, a natural balance of the world.”

The image shifted back to the news
center. The reporter continued, “It is the opinion of this reporter that the
real numbers will prove more drastic than what these suggested ideas can
account for. Local doctors seem uncomfortable to talk about the issue, and
government officials aren’t talking either. So far there has been no statement
from the officials at IntelliHealth.”

”Join me again tomorrow, when I try to speak with Jon Will from the
IntelliHealth Communications Office.”

Jean sat down next to Ryan, “So what’s
up?”

He was startled that she was there.
Ryan wasn’t ready to tell her the news in all its gory detail. Not yet. What if
Jeff had it wrong?

“Oh, well I was just watching the news.”
“I can see that. So why out of all these stories, were you listening to a story
about having babies?” she said.

“I heard a disturbing rumor at work
today.”

“Well you know how rumors are, all
bullshit and excitement.”

He looked back at the news shows all
laid out on the vid.

“Yeah, I know.”

“So, what exactly did you hear, Ryan?”

“There may be truth to the idea that
people are having fewer babies,” he said.

“That’s not good. Did you hear why?”

“No, not really.” Skirting the
question, he said, “It was the level of concern I saw that makes me think there
might be at least some truth to it.”

He went on, “One thing is certain Jean,
the people at IntelliHealth are increasing workloads, reassigning projects, and
re-prioritizing everything. Something is up.”

She leaned back into the couch, and watched as he moved between the news
channels.

Leaning against him, she said, “Okay,
that
is
odd.”

In Jeff Sarin’s house, they were
getting ready for dinner.

When Kali brought Jeff his fish for
dinner, she was talking about their appointment this Saturday to go see their
fertility specialist. He was not excited about going, or about paying for an
expensive and now apparently useless procedure. But mostly, he didn’t want to
go through any more emotional roller coasters, waiting to see if the treatment
worked.

Having given it much thought, he also
decided he would not be the one to tell Kali.

He rationalized that IntelliHealth
would fix this.

They cured cancer, fixed HIV/aids they
will fix this too. There was no reason to decimate her emotionally just to
share his grief. Besides, having talked with Ryan and Jim, he did feel less a
victim. They were all going to work together, and they would solve this. Even
the world governments were working together, providing enormous resources.
‘It was just a matter of time,’ he thought to himself.

It was a rationalization he could live
with.

He looked at her and said, “You know
what Kali, I would like to get away. Why don’t we jump down and visit your
parents this weekend?”

“Really Vignesh? That would be
wonderful!” she said suddenly excited, “I’ll call them after dinner.”

Kali’s parents had retired to Bermuda,
and going to visit them had become a true vacation. She was excited about the
visit, and began going over all the details.

It was a good idea.

He ate his fish, and it was good.

They didn’t watch the news that night.

Meanwhile across the city, in an
apartment overlooking the park, Jim’s doorbell rang. He had been drinking. He
opened the door to see the delivery girl with his pizza. Pushing money into her
hand, he took the box. She was still talking to him when he shut the door. Yes,
she could have the rest of the money, whatever.

‘Just go away,’ he thought.

Returning to his couch, he opened it
and ate it over the box. The story Jeff had told was weird and terrible. Could
it be true? Being single, it was at times like this when he might regret not
having someone to share this with.
Most of his friends were married.

Some had even had time to get divorced,
too.

At thirty-three and still very
good-looking, he had his share of opportunities. But he thought of himself as
still too much of a kid to get involved. He had a good job, one that could be
called a good career.
He was generally happy.
Generally.

‘What would the world be like without
humans?’ he wondered.

Maybe ‘better’, was the truth.

Still though, the idea seemed ethereal.
With no wife, no kids, and no family, his own investment in the world was less
than someone like Ryan. His own life would come and go without any change.
So why did he feel so damn angry about it?

Because someone had caused this.

Some asshole scientist with their
bullshit experiments had screwed around with their fancy toys and killed us
all.

He opened another beer and drank the
smooth cool beverage to the bottom, placing the dead can next to its four
brothers on the bar.

In the end, he thought, after they ran
around and screamed and yelled, that’s what it would come down to, some asshole
in a white lab coat. The very nice man or woman who had done this had probably
even received some kind of award for it. Best genetic manipulation of the year
goes to ‘Dr. Kilzusalle’.

He walked out onto the porch and threw
his can as high as he could.

“You bastards.”

He had some more pizza, and turned on
the vid.

There was a documentary on about how
the dinosaurs had become extinct. He started laughing and couldn’t stop.

The phone rang, it was a Linda; a girl
that he’d been dating on and off.

She was nearby, and wanted to come
visit.

“Sure, that would be great, come on
over,” he said still chuckling out loud.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Oh, nothing. A documentary about us.”

“Okay, well I’ll see you soon.”

He hung up and looked around the room;
it was all kinds of a mess.

‘I’m sorry baby, the end of the world
is here, and I didn’t really feel like cleaning up,’ he thought.

He put the beer cans away, the pizza on
the bar and looked at himself in a mirror.

Even at the end of the world, he looked
good.

CHAPTER 9

“For a while" is a phrase whose
length can't be measured. At least by the person who's waiting.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

It was Wednesday, and Ryan was waiting.

His notes were spread out on his desk,
carefully arranged in specific groups. He was focused on the last set, and
reviewed their order. He had spoken with Laura Stems, from Patient Services at
the London Facility. After having confirmed their treatment errors, on Laura’s
advice, he went to the Sydney facility in Australia. It was in Sydney that he
met Sarah Warren, and Dr. Moore.
With two confirmed hits, he had updated Dorothy Allen, the Director of Patient
Services here at Ryan’s Facility. Based on his investigation, Dorothy was
somewhere right now initiating official dialogues with London and Sydney.

Getting Dorothy involved was like
starting a fire; it was beyond his control now. He imagined an investigation at
the top would be initiated. Perhaps someone would ask for his data, perhaps
not. Just in case, he thought he should assemble everything and document it as
best he could. He re-shuffled the last two pages and placed them on top of the
last set of notes. They were ready.

For now he had to wait for new
direction from Ben and Dorothy.
He pulled out the global list of IntelliHealth facilities and wondered where
another possible candidate might be. He was drawn to Tokyo. He understood they
had a great team there. The better the people, the quicker they would be to
spot the anomaly.