by Dane, Max
“I’m off to retrieve Dr. Sarin.”
Ryan looked around the office. It was unbelievable.
Jim came running in, “Ryan you did it! These offices are awesome, you rock!”
Jim ran over and hugged Ryan, just as Rosemary came back in.
“Ahem.”
Quickly, they jumped apart.
“Yes, Rosemary, how can I help you?” said Ryan.
“Do you agree that Dr. Sarin should go into the office, next door, opposite James?”
“Yes please, that would be fine.”
“Very good, sir,” and off she went.
They started laughing
Later that morning, after settling in, the three of them met to make a game plan and get started. They all met in Ryan’s office at his new conference table.
Ryan said, “Okay, they are taking us seriously now, and now we need to prove we deserve it. Let's go over what we need to do today.”
“Jeff, please make arrangements to collect information about the documented cases of treatment error from all three facilities. Work with Jim to allocate storage space for the data.”
“Jim, work with Jeff to collect that data. You are on point for the logistics to get it here. After that, I know you have the twins to look after. Also, please keep pushing to get your monitor script up and running on the hospital network. I am very interested in what you discover.”
Jeff said, “What are the ‘twins’?”
Ryan answered, “Jim is very excited to help the Zimmerman research group bring in two super computers. Thor and Loki, if I remember correctly?”
“They are new-tech machines; almost as powerful as SID,” said Jim.
“Meanwhile, I am going to contact more facilities, starting with Tokyo. So be prepared if I bring you more data, Jeff.”
“Does anyone have any questions?”
They didn’t.
“Okay then, the first meeting of the Dane Commission is officially adjourned.”
After their meeting, Jim left to talk with David downstairs.
Going back to his old cubicle, Jim noticed how lifeless it seemed now that he wasn’t working there.
And then he was spotted.
“Hey, Jim; you’re back. How’s it going?” asked David, looking over the cubicle wall.
“It’s going well, do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure,” said David.
Jim went around the wall and sat down on David’s side.
“Two things Dave. First, I need storage space for some data, probably less than ten petabytes, and it will have to be secure.”
“Sure, use the admin server zeta-3. Don’t forget to register the space with the network guys.”
“Okay, great; thanks, Dave,” he said.
“Second, I was hoping you would approve my request to begin monitoring the hospital network.”
“Yes, you are approved. But any information you get regarding this specific project, must be shared with Information Services as well as the Dane Commission,” David said.
With a serious tone and a somber glare, he added, “Seriously Jim, I don’t want to be left out of the loop on this one.”
“No problem David, you are in the loop. You have my word.”
“Thanks Jim, and congratulations on your appointment.”
“Thanks Dave, I’ll see you later.”
Jim went back upstairs to talk with Jeff.
He found Jeff trying to move his desk, and not having much luck.
Jim who was quite a bit stronger stepped up and grabbed the back, “Where are we going with it?”
“I just want to turn it 90 degrees so that my back is to the wall, and not the window. I can’t see anything with all that glare.”
Together they managed to turn it around.
“Ah, much better. Thanks Jim.”
“Sure, listen Jeff, I will send you a message shortly with the location of the storage space you need. I got us ten petabytes, all secure. Let me know if you need more.”
“Okay, thanks Jim.”
Jeff sat down and thought about what he had to do.
To compare the data from the treatment errors, he needed to standardize the data.
Of course first he had to get it. He decided to start with the easiest first, and called Dorothy Allen.
“Ms. Allen, My name is Dr. Jeff Sarin. I’m working with Ryan Dane on the Dane commission. I was hoping you would help us.”
Smiling on the televid she said, “I believe I’m familiar with the Dane Commission. How can I help?”
Shortly afterwards, he made similar calls to London and Sydney, resulting in data transmissions from them as well. The procedures were flowing into his data storage. Jeff was astounded at how easy it was. As the information was pouring in, he began some tests, sorting the instances by date, and then by type. Already he about 400 records, and Sydney was still coming. He decided to outline categories of treatments. By looking at the types of treatments he hoped to gain some perspective on the nature of their direction. Maybe start identifying trends. Already he could tell this would be an interesting project.
In his office, Ryan was scrolling through contacts for the Tokyo facility. He thought that this time he would try a direct approach to their Director of Patient Services. Locally, Dorothy Allen had known every detail of what was happening in the hospital. He hoped their Director was equally aware of their own hospital. This would be easier than starting with someone on the front lines.
After a few minutes of looking for the right button, he lowered his wall screen, and used the televid to call her. A young woman with long black hair answered, “Ohayoo gozaimasu.”
He was caught a little off guard, and was trying to remember how to say ‘hello’ in Japanese.
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 wo
rk 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.
Th
e 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.