The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (26 page)

She tried
again, “Otetsudai shimashouka?”

“I apologize,
I don’t speak Japanese. Do you speak English?”

 
With no pause at all, she responded, “Yes of
course, how may I assist you today?”

“My name is
Ryan Dane. I am the Chief Investigator on the Dane Commission, and I need to
speak with Ms. Hatsu Kimura regarding treatments in her Hospital.”

“Thank you,
Mr. Dane; hold please.”

The screen
went black, and he watched the IntelliHealth logo floating in her place for a
minute or two. When the screen came back on, he was facing a gentleman with
severely short hair. He looked extremely annoyed.

“I am Akira
Satou, Assistant Director to Ms. Kimura. Please re-state your request.”

The tone was
low, but each word had the feeling of a curse.

“Yes, of
course,” said Ryan in his best ‘friendly voice’.

“I am Ryan
Dane of the IntelliHealth, Dane Commission. I am investigating a series of
treatments that were performed in error across a number of IntelliHealth
Facilities. The prime identifier in these cases is that they seem to occur with
no explanation. Has your Facility experienced anything like what I am
describing?” said Ryan.

“No.” He
responded far too abruptly.

“I could go into more detail. This is an incongruence between what is
prescribed and what is received as a patient treatment. There is no blame to
hold for these errors. Statistically, it would seem likely that your facility-
”
Ryan was cut off before he could finish.

“We do not
have ‘errors’ in our hospital, and certainly none regarding treatments for our
patients.”

Trying his
best to remain diplomatic, “I understand sir. May I speak with Ms. Kimura, to
officially lay this matter to rest?”

“Ms. Kimura is
occupied with important matters at the moment. I will give her your message.”

And with that,
the screen black.

They were
disconnected.

‘Well that
didn’t go very well at all,’ he thought.

He couldn’t tell if Mr. Satou was telling the truth, or if it was something
else that prevented him from speaking. He would have to come back to Tokyo,
later. Maybe an electronic communication directly to Ms. Kimura might work
better.

He began
looking for a new target when he heard an, “Ahem” from the door.

Rosemary was
standing there next to a much younger woman with light skin and striking red
hair.

“Mr. Dane, I
wanted to introduce you to your assistant, Lara Quinn. Ms. Quinn will be
supporting your group for the duration of the Dane Commission.”

“Please come
in, it’s a pleasure to meet you Lara. I may not have a lot to do at first, but
I believe it will pick up as we get going.”

Rosemary said,
“Very good, I may continue to give Ms. Quinn some our work, until it interferes
with yours. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, of
course. Where will you be when I need you Ms. Quinn?”

“Please call
me Lara. Rosemary has prepared an office area out in front of yours, so I’ll be
here.” They all stepped outside to find a desk, filing cabinets and some chairs
arranged to form a waiting area.

“Rosemary, you
are the best. This looks wonderful, thank you so much,” said Ryan.

“Thank you,
Ryan. I am glad you approve. Now I’d like to talk with Lara a bit and get her
settled as well.”

“Of course.
Lara it was very nice to meet you.”

Ryan went back
to his desk and sat down, still a little frustrated with Mr. Satou in Tokyo.

He couldn’t
give their facility a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

After a few minutes, Rosemary walked in again, “Ryan you look perturbed. Is
everything acceptable?”

“Oh, sure.
It’s just that… well, I just got off the phone with Patient Services in Tokyo,
and their assistant director shut me down before I could get any answers.”

Stepping
forward, she said, “You mean Akira. Akira Satou.”

Surprised, he
said, “Yes, that’s him.”

“May I try?”

Before he
could say yes, Rosemary stepped up to the screen and activated it.

“Computer,
please call Akira Satou.”

Ryan was
nervous, could this get any worse?

Mr. Satou
appeared on the screen, looking like he was ready to eviscerate Ryan.

“Mr. Dane, I
thought I made myself perfectly clear-”
Rosemary stepped in front of the screen cutting him short.

“Akira, we do
so apologize for our bothering you again. I am certain there was a
misunderstanding earlier. Mr. Dane, of the Dane Commission needs to speak with
Ms. Kimura.”

In subtle
tones of electric fury, he said, “As I explained to Mr. Dane previously, I
will- ”
 

Rosemary cut
him off without any hesitation.

“Ah, now I see
the confusion. Akira, Mr. Dane did not call to speak with you. He wished to
speak with Ms. Kimura.”

She added in a
voice most severe, “Now you understand, don’t you Akira.”

He paused, and
sighed. Then while pushing some buttons on his console, said in a much lower
tone, “I am transferring you now.”

The screen
reverted to the IntelliHealth logo.

Rosemary
turned around and winked at Ryan as she left.

The screen
came to life again, revealing an older Japanese woman sitting at a beautiful
desk.

“Good Morning,
Mr. Dane. I am the Director of Patient Services, Hatsu Kimura.”

“Good Morning,
Ms. Kimura. Thank you for taking my call, I am investigating an anomaly that
has been identified in three IntelliHealth Facilities, and perhaps in yours as
well.”

‘I must
remember to thank her,’ he thought, as he watched Rosemary leave through the
door.

At his desk
next door, Jeff was looking at the data from the three facilities. So far, if
there was indeed a pattern here, he wasn’t finding it. He stared at the
information, and began to drift, thinking always about the fertility problem.

He had enjoyed
his job, and believed he helped make a difference in the lives of those who
benefited from the research performed here. But he wondered if something they
had done here had caused this problem.

Cell signaling had become their magic of choice. It was common to calculate and
propose models for turning off a gene here or there, to stop some negative
process or activate another. What else might have been stopped as an unforeseen
consequence?
 

If it was true, and the men and women
working at IntelliHealth were responsible, even accidentally, then didn’t he
share in their guilt? Even though he was not one of the faculty, it was Jeff
and those like him, who directed and managed the labs to perform the research.
He felt equally accountable.

Engrossed in
the possibilities, Jeff jumped when Ryan came running into his office.

“Add Tokyo to
the list.”

“Really? How
many cases do they have?” he said.

“Well, I don’t
know, but I can tell that their percentage is higher. Close to 1.5% of total
treatments.”

“Wow, that’s a
lot, Ryan. Are you sure about the percentage?”
“That’s what they said. Take a look at it Jeff, we can verify it later.”

Ryan walked
over and gave Jeff a small piece of paper with some writing on it.

“Here’s their
contact person for you. Call them, and they will begin the data transfer here.”

“That’s
amazing Ryan. Good work, my friend. I can’t believe how easily this is coming
together.”
”Me either, but we must be careful, or we’ll hang ourselves. We’re getting the
data yes, but we’re very visible now. I just hope that it gives us some clue we
can work with.”
Walking back to his office, Ryan said, “Stay on it Jeff, and get with Jim if
you need any help with your analysis.”

Jim was back
in his office, looking at his monitoring script.

He knew it was
a good one, but he wondered if he shouldn’t beef it up a little. He couldn’t
shake the gnawing feeling someone was playing with him. Whoever it was, they
had responded six times to his six windows.
It was brazen; as if they wanted him to see them, and didn’t care what he did
about it.

So he looked
at his script again. From top to bottom it was solid.

It should do
the trick.

He typed
‘activate Snoopy’ and hit enter.

His program
was now officially monitoring the hospital network.

Now he would
wait.

Confident it
was done, Jim waved his hands in front of the screens around his desk, and
moved the data around to exchange the monitor project with the data for Thor
and Loki.

Instantly he
felt better, smiling as he looked up at his new thoroughbreds.

He had
prepared their operating systems, and received messages from the facilities and
maintenance group that the big coolers were in place, and working.

Now, the only
thing to do was to turn them on. He was able to power them up remotely, and
with a huge grin, he typed some keys and initialized the power-up sequence for
Thor and Loki. In barely a heartbeat, they registered that they were online.
Before installing their software, he ran a diagnostic routine on both,
verifying the installation was successful.

They responded
affirmatively; everything was green.

This was the
point where he imagined them as empty vessels, thirsting for knowledge. He hit
the send button and began giving it to them. Their operating systems, network
discovery information, user accounts, activity hierarchies, programs and
routines for everything he could think of; and they were taking it all.

‘Take it slow,
don’t drop any. There’s plenty more where that came from,’ he thought
.

This would
take a while, maybe all night, but by tomorrow they would be ready to take out
on a test run.

With Lara’s
help, Ryan compiled a list of facilities and their appropriate contact points.
The day was getting late, and he was getting ready to shut down. He walked over
to Jim and Jeff’s offices and said good night. They were still working, but
each slowing down.

He thanked
Lara for her help on his contact list, and told everyone to go home.

The day had
been the best he could remember in a year.

He went home
and hugged his wife.

The next
morning, Ryan arrived to find that Jim was still there.

Unshaven, and
rough looking, Jim was still sitting at his desk, with candy and food wrappers
lying about.

“What the heck
Jim, were you here all night?”

“Hey Ryan.
Yeah, I’ve been here.”

Barely
glancing up from his monitor he said, “I’ve been setting up Thor and Loki. I
finished Loki sometime around 3:30, and I’m putting the last touches on Thor
now.”

Typing
furiously, he said, “Oh, Ryan you are going to love these babies as much as I
do. I’ve programmed them to assist Jeff.”
“Assist Jeff?”

“Among other
things.”

“Jim, that
sounds terrific,” Ryan said without really understanding. “Would you like some
coffee, and a Danish or something?”

Jim barely glanced at Ryan, still typing all the while, and with no hesitation
said, “Yes.”

“Okay, I’m
going to put my things down and I’ll go get some breakfast stuff for us.”

“Thanks Ryan
that would be great.”

Ryan unlocked
his door; he was still getting used to their new offices; they were perfect.

He went in,
sat down and logged in to check his mail.

As he was
looking through it, he heard Lara arrive outside, and yelled through the door,
‘Good Morning, Lara.”
He thought he heard a light, ‘Good morning,’ back.