The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles)

by Dane, Max

  He didn’t know the IntelliHealth administration well enough to guess what action they might take. He thought he’d done a good job so far, and both Ben and Dorothy seemed to appreciate it, but still anything could happen. But mostly, he was happy and comfortable with his work, and wasn’t looking for any changes.

  When he got off the elevator, the floor seemed quiet and colder than usual. Maybe it was his imagination. Ryan heard voices as he walked up to Ben’s door. Dorothy was there, and maybe someone else. He knocked on the doorframe.

  “Good morning Ryan, please come in and have a seat,” said Ben waving towards the door.

  He walked inside and saw Dorothy, rising from the couch.

  She walked to Ryan, “Good morning, Ryan.”

  “Good morning, good morning,” he said taking a seat across the desk from Ben.

  “Ryan let me introduce you to our Facility Director, Dr. Cohen.”

  Ben motioned to someplace behind Ryan.

  Confused, he turned around to find a huge screen displaying the face of a man, presumably Dr. Cohen.

  “It’s very good to meet you Ryan. I am Dr. Eric Cohen, Director of this Facility.”

  Surprised, he said, “Good morning, Dr. Cohen, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t be there in person, I’m actually in London today.”

  Ben motioned for Ryan to take a seat and said, “Ah, very good. Shall we begin?”

  Dr. Cohen said, “My understanding is that Ryan was hired to examine in detail a problem within this facility regarding patient treatments. Specifically, a percentage of our patients, albeit very small, received treatments in error, and with no apparent explanation. Is this correct Dorothy?”

  “Yes, Eric. We believe that the research scientists who were prescribing the treatments, did so correctly.”

  Ben added, “Yes, and the records from the Research Network confirmed this.”

  Dorothy continued, “In the cases of error, the treatments the technicians received in the hospital were accurate from their perspective. Correct in how they had been submitted and received, but changed and with terrible consequences.”

  Ben added, “The Hospital Network records confirm this point as well.”

  Dr. Cohen began again, “I understand that Ryan, you have explored all possible avenues of human error both on the research and hospital sides.”

  “Yes sir, I have.”

  “Moreover, I understand that you have, on your own initiative, explored the possibility that this has occurred elsewhere, at other IntelliHealth Facilities, and discovered that indeed it has.”

  “Yes sir, London and Sydney.”

  The camera on the screen panned out as Dr. Cohen leaned back in his chair.

  “And what do you conclude from this new evidence Mr. Dane?”

  This was one of those moments when he knew his next words could change everything.

  Taking a deep breath, he stood up and faced the screen.

  “Dr. Cohen, the conservative response would be to say that this has proven nothing yet. However, I believe otherwise. I am given to understand that the System Networks and interfaces in each IntelliHealth Facility are identical. Therefore, if the problem is mechanical in nature, there is every likelihood it is occurring to some degree, in every facility in the IntelliHealth System.”

  “Then why Mr. Dane, are they not reporting it?”

  “Perhaps the percentages are so low as to fall below the radar, so to speak. Perhaps many of them simply do not want to admit to having a problem; and maybe, as I am starting to suspect, not all of them are being caught.”

  Dr. Cohen paused, and looked briefly at some papers on his desk.

  “Mr. Dane, I understand that Dorothy and Ben believe your results are valid.”

  After a short pause, he said, “and so do I.”

  “Therefore, I am requesting that a commission be formed to investigate this anomaly. Mr. Ryan Dane will head the commission, and will report to me for the interim.”

  “Ryan, I want you to pick people to support you on this commission. Send your list to me for approval. Also, send me a list of immediate steps you intend to take. I want to understand where you’re going with this. Wait for my approval to begin, do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very good. Thanks everyone.”

  The screen went black leaving the IntelliHealth logo floating in the middle.

  Ryan half sat, half fell back down into his chair.

  Ben was smiling, “So how are you, Mr. Dane, our new ‘commission lead’?”

  Dorothy was smiling, too.

  ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘ things are definitely changing.’

  Once he got back to his office, Ryan began work on his list of steps to take.

  As he was writing, he realized his list was also describing the support he needed on the commission.

  For comparison of the research treatments prescribed, he needed a researcher familiar with comparing and analyzing data. To investigate user access on the hospital network, he needed someone familiar with the IntelliHealth computer systems. He would probably need some sort of assistant at least part-time, and access to the people in Patient Services as well.

  He finished his list of steps, and then went back to talk with Ben about adding Jim to the commission. Ben wasn’t exactly happy to give away one of his best programmers, but he agreed that they could share Jim’s time without causing too much damage.

  Ryan went back to his office, and wrote a request for support from Dr. Jim Safe, in Information Services, and Dr. Jeff Sarin from Dr. Leonard Bender’s research group. He added some friendly language about sharing their time with their respective departments. He also recommended that Patient Services identify someone as his official liaison, indicating that he had worked with Lisa Evans and found her to be completely acceptable.

  Before submitting his request, he called Jim and Jeff and asked them to come to his office. He wanted to talk with them before drafting them.

  While he was waiting, he logged in and checked his mail. He had just received a memo from Dr. Cohen. It read:

  ‘To the Presidents and Facility Directors of the IntelliHealth System,

  Please be advised that I have appointed Mr. Ryan Dane to lead a commission charged with investigating an ongoing series of incidents wherein treatments are enacted in error without a known cause or explanation.

  These cases are documented, and have caused injury most dire to IntelliHealth patients. This anomaly extends to multiple IntelliHealth Facilities, and cannot be ignored. Please assist the newly formed, ‘Dane Commission’ with any information they may require.

  It is my direction that the Dane Commission accomplish this charge post haste, and help us return to our primary mission which is of course to help our patients for the betterment of all mankind.’

  The memo continued, but the rest was a lot of legal-speak giving Ryan access to people, resources etc. As he read, he could appreciate the full burden of what was now upon him. Ryan was fully responsible for the results, whether they were successful, or not.

  Jim and Jeff arrived, as he finished reading the memo.

  Ryan said, “Thanks for coming, I know you're both busy.”

  Ryan stood up from behind his desk, and said, “Well, I met with Dr. Eric Cohen, Dorothy Allen and Ben James earlier.”

  Jeff said, “How did it go? Should we bring you some boxes for your things?”

  Jim started laughing, Ryan too.

  “Not yet, but I am making a note that you offered. Here, have a read.”

  He spun his monitor around so they could see the memo.

  Jim spoke first, “Wow, Ryan; ‘the Dane commission’ that sounds awesome.”

  “Appointed by Eric Cohen himself, that’s pretty cool,” said Jeff.

  “Both of you contributed to this project, but there’s still more to do. Now we get to the real mystery; discovering what’s happening across the IntelliHealth System?”

>   Ryan emphasized the word ‘we’ and sat there smiling at them.

  Jim looked sideways at Jeff, and said, “I think I know where he’s going with this, and the answer is ‘No’. I have installers in the Zimmerman lab right now putting together my project for the next six months. Two new-tech super computers that call to me, Ryan. They’re asking me to play with them. Ryan, I can’t say no to Loki and Thor.”

  Jeff said, “Actually, I don’t really mind all that much. My lab has two lab directors now, and it only really needs one. Besides I could use a break from the constant headaches for a while.”

  Ryan sat back down, and smiling, he turned his monitor back around.

  “Jim, you’re right,“ he said, “I would like to request both of you join me on the commission. If you refuse, I won’t press the issue. But I believe we can certainly work with the time you want to spend on projects in both of your departments. My next steps include projects for each of us.”

  “Jeff, I need your help with a comparison of the treatments that were changed. Not just here, but across all the affected Facilities. I want to know if there is a trend when we look at the System-wide collection of incidents. I’m betting there will be.”

  Ryan continued, “I want to change how we’ve been looking at this problem. Jim, consider the point where the treatments are changed. It happens after the research scientist has entered a prescribed treatment, but before the corresponding hospital technician receives it. Let's call it the ‘critical point’. So first we need to define the critical point in practical terms. Is it on the Research Network, or the Hospital network, or is it elsewhere? Now imagine that someone is changing the treatment at the ‘critical point’. We need a list of users who have adequate access to be able to do that.”

  “You see gentlemen, I’m suggesting that we have failed to solve this problem, because our perspective was flawed from the beginning.”

  “You think someone is doing this on purpose?” said Jim.

  Pausing for just a moment, Ryan looked at him.

  “Yes, I do.”

  They agreed to join Ryan on the ‘Dane Commission’ but both wanted to keep their positions and ties to their respective departments.

  Jim had some additional requests; some might call demands, before agreeing.

  First he wanted an office, and it had to make him ‘feel alive’ when he was in it. Ryan wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but he was going to ask for a suite where the three could be together anyway, so no problem there.

  Second, Jim wanted to keep working on his new supercomputers. From the way Jim spoke, Ryan thought they seemed more like pets to him, than computers.

  Hell, he even named them.

  He could see that there would be no tearing Jim away from them.

  Lastly, Jim was intensely interested in the hospital network intrusion, and wanted to continue to be responsible for that, too. No problem there, because Ryan was also interested in this, and would have requested anyway.

  The only request from Jeff was that someone else would tell Dr. Bender. Ryan chuckled at that, realizing that he didn’t want to have that conversation either. They would let Cohen make the request. Problem solved.

  Jeff and Jim went back to their areas, now with a lot to prepare for. With his team on board, Ryan submitted his list of action items, and people requests to Dr. Cohen. He also added that he needed a suite for the three of them, and if possible some additional support equipment such as wall monitors, and additional electronic storage.

  Late that afternoon, not long before he left to go home, he received his action items and request lists back with just one word written and scanned by Dr. Cohen.

  “Approved.”

  Ryan jumped up. He couldn’t believe it.

  He wasn’t sure how to take care of these arrangements, but he would figure it out tomorrow. After packing up his things, he went home to tell Jean.

  This was going to be an awesome weekend.

  It was Saturday morning when the news story broke with a statement from IntelliHealth regarding the ‘fertility crisis’. Every station was running stories about the newly discovered problem. Ryan saw the statement from IntelliHealth. It was watered down, but still potent enough to get your attention. It read:

  ‘Unfortunately we must report that recent data confirms the human species is reproducing successfully at the lowest rates ever recorded. As a species some unknown factor is causing sterility. We have responded to this report by re-directing our entire research effort to solving this question. We look forward to sharing more information as it becomes available. Please remain calm and support your local city and federal governments during this difficult time.’

  As Ryan flipped between broadcasts, he saw various spins on the IntelliHealth statement reaching from the radical versions, which suggested the extinction of man, to the light versions comparing the problem to some sort of virus. A lot of people seemed to believe that a vaccination would probably be released soon to fix the problem.

  Frankly, he hoped they were right.

  Everyone knew now, there was no holding back.

  Stepping out to the porch in his back yard, he looked out across the lawn and imagined what it would be like if no one maintained it. How long would it be before it disappeared altogether into trees, and undergrowth? Maybe Mother Nature was waiting, poised to take back what was hers.

  Jeff had told him they were estimating two generations.

  That little fact had been left out of the news.

  Well, what he didn’t see were riots, or anything about runs on food, or supplies.

  For that he was grateful.

  CHAPTER 11

  “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

  - Albert Einstein

  “Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.”

  ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

  Monday arrived to find a very sober, and brooding people making their way to work.

  Ryan was no different.

  He got off the elevator, and trudged to his office to find a woman standing in his open doorway.

  “Good morning, Mr. Dane.”

  She held her hand out for him to shake, seemingly not taking no for an answer, she held it a little higher. Ryan shook her hand as he tried to understand what was happening.

  He saw men inside putting his things in boxes.

  “Good morning, Mr. Dane,” she repeated.

  “Oh, good morning,” he said awkwardly, watching over her shoulder as the men loaded up his computer.

  “Very good. My name is Rosemary Davis, and I am Dr. Cohen’s senior administrator.”

  She could tell that she still didn’t have his attention.

  “Mr. Dane, I have been instructed to move yourself, James Safe and Dr. Vignesh Sarin to an office suite upstairs. I’ve taken the liberty of packing your things. I trust you are not attached to the furniture?”

  After a moment, he realized that she was waiting for a response from him.

  “Oh, no that‘s fine. I can use whatever is available.”

  As if on cue, she stepped aside to allow the men with his things out through the door.

  “Very good then, will you come with me now?”

  “Yes, of course,” he said as he turned to follow her to the elevator.

  She waved her ID chip to the side, and Ryan noticed the entire wall was alight with glowing numbers. They exited on floor 235.

  The floor was a little on the dark side with lots of subdued lighting coming from the corners. There were lots of plants about, and it was relatively quiet.

  ‘It’s very calming here, I like this,’ he thought.

  Ryan followed Rosemary to the back where he quickly began to hear whooping and cheering.

  Rosemary paused, “That would be James, who apparently very much likes his new office.” Moving on, she led Ryan past Jim’s door. As they passed he could see Jim actually
dancing on his desk.

  At the next door, she entered and held her hands out.

  “Mr. Dane this is the office I’ve chosen for you, will it be satisfactory?”

  He looked around the huge spacious office.

  The windows were like those in the cafeteria, reaching from floor to ceiling and spanning the whole exterior wall. The furniture was beautiful, with a desk; the obligatory chairs in front, a couch and a small conference table with chairs. Around the sides were shelves, cabinets.

  He smiled.

  “Yes, this will do quite nicely. Thank you, Ms. Davis.”

  “Please, call me Rosemary. I will be visiting your group a lot over the course of the week to make sure you are getting set up properly. After that, I will rely on one of my aids to assist you with any office duties you might need. However, you are to call on me personally should you need help of a higher order. Do you understand Mr. Dane?”

  “Yes, Rosemary, I understand, but please call me Ryan.”

  “Very good Ryan. I will leave you, and your excitable friend now.”