The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles)
Page 19
A few minutes later, Ryan got up and went to the cafeteria to get breakfast for everyone.
When he got back to their suite, he had coffee, and a box of biscuits, kolaches and donuts.
He saw that Jeff had arrived. Ryan set everything down on a small table in the front and invited everyone over. Jim came out, looking tired but satisfied. He reached for a kolache, and started explaining to Ryan and Jeff what he had done with the ‘twins’.
“I’ve given access to both of you, and I’ll send you the file path to find them. You see, I need to test them, you know? Push them a little. But the point is, you have at your disposal the fastest number-crunchers in the whole IntelliHealth System. I’ve installed their software, and taught them how to compare data, respond to queries and all that stuff. They now have access to your database Jeff. You can give them a request, and they’ll carry it out for you. At light speed.”
Jeff was less excited, but careful to respond appropriately.
“Thanks, Jim. That’s really impressive. I’m looking forward to using them.”
Ryan laughed a little, but caught himself.
Jim was already walking back to his office, donuts in hand.
Ryan went to his office and pulled up his list of facilities to canvass today.
He hoped they went better than Tokyo.
The first one on the list was New York City. He crossed his fingers and called the Director of Patient Services, Maria Stevens.
A large face filled his slick new, drop-down screen, “Good Morning, you have reached the office of Mrs. Maria Stevens, how may I help you?”
“Good morning, my name is Ryan Dane. I am the lead investigator for an IntelliHealth commission seeking data on patient treatments. May I speak with Mrs. Stevens?”
“Please hold one moment, Mr. Dane.”
The screen went black, leaving him with his new friend, the floating IntelliHealth logo.
After a moment the screen came to life with a new face on the screen.
“Good morning, Mr. Dane. How can I help you?”
Ryan was elated, he thought, ‘We’re on our way now!’
By early afternoon, he had contacted four IntelliHealth facilities, New York, Paris, Salvador and Mexico City. Ryan went to Jeff’s office, and found him with several screens up, each with different graphs, numbers and charts displayed.
“Jeff, I just sent you contacts for two more facilities to add to your database.”
Not looking away from his work, Jeff responded, “Ah, very good, very good.”
“It’s odd though, I contacted four, but only two reported the anomaly.”
Jeff looked up, “Were they being stubborn like Tokyo?”
“I don’t think so, no. Their reaction seemed honest, I believe them.”
“It seems that the basic assumptions of our investigation have reversed,” said Jeff.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, now we find it odd when the anomaly doesn’t appear.”
Ryan understood his point, they shouldn’t just assume everyone has this issue, but it was nagging at him all the same.
“Have you spotted anything unusual?” Ryan asked.
“No. Sometimes I feel like I get close to something, but when the analysis completes, the numbers aren’t working out. So far, I haven’t been able to discern any kind of pattern in the treatments you’ve given me.”
So, not all the facilities were reporting having experienced this issue, and still no pattern in the treatments they’d found.
‘Well, it’s not going to be so easy after all,’ he thought.
He returned to his office, and began to generate a new list of facilities to contact.
Jim had worked through the night, and by lunch was able to sit back and watch his new machines run.
They were spectacular.
He helped Jeff learn how to start running his analyses on them, and now he sat back and watched them perform.
They were officially named on the network as ‘Thor’ and ‘Loki’ now too.
‘Very cool,’ he thought.
He was a bit tired, and he had that ‘I worked all night’ dullness rising in him.
He decided to take a break.
After getting some food, he ate his lunch at his desk and re-organized what information he had up on his displays.
On one screen he showed the twins running, keeping an eye on their diagnostics all the time. This was technically still their installation period, and he didn’t want to miss anything if they suddenly had problems.
On another screen, he pulled up the security log from the Hospital network, and laid it beside the results from his ‘Snoopy’ script.
On another screen, he opened an empty text file.
He needed to compile the list Ryan was asking for, regarding treatment changes at Ryan’s ‘critical point.’
This would be a list of users who have high enough network access, that they could change a prescribed treatment after a research scientist has entered it, but before the corresponding hospital technician receives it, invisibly and leaving no record. This would be a tricky operation, even for him. He tried to imagine a way to accomplish this same trick.
First, he would introduce a script capturing prescribed treatments at their point of submission into the research network. Then, he would need to hold the entry in a queue, while he decided how to modify it. Since the scientists weren’t noticing any changes to their entries, it would have to be altered in the hospital Network, requiring a second script there. Finally, because entries were submitted around the clock, and from every facility, someone would need to be watching all the time. It would be a daunting task to say the least.
Still though, the idea was not to prove who was doing it exactly, but only to prove that individuals did indeed have access to the network, such that they could hypothetically do it.
He wrote his own name at the top of the list, followed by about 36 network people from around IntelliHealth. These names made up the entire group of network administrators actually assigned to watch and maintain the research and hospital networks. Next he pulled up the list of ‘super-user accounts’, which included another 105 names. These were the highest-level scientists, Facility and Department Directors, and Presidents. Sid Frances and Steven Ranks were in this group too.
The total came to 141 users with adequate network access.
Jim didn’t think just anyone could really usurp the systems like that, but with Ranks on the list, he supposed it was possible.
Jim saved the list, and went back to his ‘Snoopy’ report to see if it had caught anything last night. Technically, it was supposed to send an alert to him, when it detected activity. Looking at the report, he found nothing. It showed no sign of the intruder.
Next he looked at the hospital network security log, but didn’t find anything there either.
The code fragment was gone, its absence as odd and abrupt, as its presence had been.
‘Did ‘they’ see my script running, and choose not to jump in?’ he wondered.
His script was invisible. How could anyone know it was there?
Right now, only David, Ben and he even knew that he was monitoring the network.
Taking a deep breath to clear his head, he followed the IntelliHealth security protocol, and sent Dave and Mr. James a message indicated that no activity was noted last night.
Leaving his script running, he got up and went to visit with Ryan.
Ryan was on the televid with the Los Angeles facility when Jim walked in.
“Well, thank you so much, I will have our analyst contact yours to begin the data transfer.”
The face on the screen said goodbye, and logged off.
The screen faded to black.
Ryan saw Jim in the doorway, “Come on in, I have three more hits for Jeff to add to his collection.” He sent Jeff the contact information for the three new facilities.
“That makes eleven facilities contacted with nine hits and two misses,�
�� said Ryan.
Jim said, “I have news to report when you’re ready for it.”
“Sure, hold on; let's get Jeff in here too.”
Ryan stepped outside.
“Lara, please keep helping me with the list of facilities and contact names. We’re going to need more.”
“Sure, Mr. Dane,” she said putting down the papers she was reading.
Raising his voice a little, Ryan called out, “Jeff, can you take a break and join us?”
Through the open door of his office, Jeff said, “Yes, I could use a break.”
They all sat down at the small conference room in Ryan’s office.
Ryan started, “Jim, you said you have some news.”
“Well, I have the list of names you wanted,” said Jim, “The users who have network access high enough to capture and change prescribed treatments.”
“How many people are on it?” said Ryan.
“141,” said Jim, “that includes network admins, facility and department directors a few top scientists, the presidents and Frances and Ranks of course.”
Jim continued, “I have to say Ryan, the idea you’re suggesting would be very hard to pull off. I mean trying to change treatments on the fly, day and night from all the IntelliHealth facilities? There are probably only three or four names that could come anywhere near to doing it.”
“I agree that sounds almost impossible,” said Jeff.
“I agree too, but to solve this we need to continue eliminating all possible theories. I would like to start taking names off that list.”
Standing up, he said, “Lara can you come in here too, please?”
A moment later she was at the table with the rest of them.
“Jeff, please generate a list of the last ten to twenty treatment changes, by date, and give them to Lara. And Jim can you send your list of users to Lara.”
Turning to Lara, he said, “Lara, please compare the two lists. I want to remove users who were not present at work when the treatments were changed. See how many names you can get off the list.”
Jim said, “Yes, I see what you’re saying. The network can’t be broken from outside without alarms going off everywhere. The suspect would need to be at work to do it; ah, very good Ryan.”
“Okay, so moving on to the network incursions,” said Ryan.
Jim said sourly, “Snoopy detected no activity last night, and the security logs agree.”
“You don’t sound convinced,” said Jeff.
“Well, I saw activity every night since I started paying attention, and now for the first time, there’s nothing. It’s a little weird. I feel like ‘they’ new I was monitoring. Either they knew, and chose not to access the network, or they sidestepped Snoopy. Either way it should be impossible.”
Ryan said, “Who knew that you were running Snoopy?”
“David and Ben, but I trust them implicitly.”
“I know them too, and I feel the same way. So rule them out as suspects. Look at the date stamps on the last few incursions, and compare to their user accounts. Hopefully, you’ll find that they were not logged in,’ Ryan said.
“Yeah,” said Jim, “that’s a good idea. I can do that pretty quick.”
Ryan noticed that everyone looked a little tired.
“So, to re-cap where we are, Jeff is studying the treatments that were changed, looking for any clues. Jim has given us Loki and Thor to help with the analyses. Lara is going to work on the list of users who have a high enough access to change treatments. And Jim is still working on the hospital network activity. Meanwhile, I will continue contacting new facilities to add them to our list.”
He stood up, “Did I leave anything out?”
No one said anything.
“Okay, well it’s late, Jim needs a shower, and I need to get something to eat. Everyone go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
A full week passed as they continued to collect more data.
Ryan canvassed a total of seventeen facilities, yielding fourteen hits and three misses. Jeff’s database had grown too, now holding 824 instances of altered treatments. And unfortunately, nearly every Facility had an example of at least one related fatality.
Jim had solidly established the new supercomputers, Thor and Loki at the facility and Jeff had become quite adept at using them.
Jim was right, they were fast.
Very fast.
But even with their help, he still couldn’t find a connection.
The treatment errors still seemed to be an apparently random mix of treatments. There were no tendencies or groupings visible. Ryan seemed so certain a trend would reveal itself, but Jeff was starting to have doubts.
Jim worried that since the activation of his network monitor program ‘Snoopy,’ there had been no more incursions into the Hospital network. It didn’t make sense. With so much activity before why would it stop now?
He followed Ryan’s suggestion and took steps to prove Dave and Mr. James couldn’t have been the culprit who was in the network. Fortunately, there were documented instances of activity while either or both were at home, and not logged in. He was relieved to cross them off the list.
Lara had been able to cut down her list to about 15 names. It was more difficult with some of the names, especially the lower level employees who didn’t have assistants to keep their schedules. The directors, and presidents were relatively easy to compare against the schedule of treatment errors. She found she could send a list of the dates to all the assistants at once and get back results on whether they had been present at their respective facilities very quickly. She would have the list completed very soon.
Overall, Ryan was very proud of his group, and pleased at the progress they were making. He kept hoping with each new Facility, they would find the clue that would explain everything.
At home the news was full of stories about the fertility crisis. Everyone was speculating about the cause. Ryan realized that it was a problem that didn’t actually impact everyone in their daily lives. The force of what it meant varied from person to person, creating a disparity between their reactions.
For the very young, it meant almost nothing. They lived in the moment, and to them, their lives were unchanged.
To the people who already had their children, it was a sadness they could not express outright. They understood exactly what it meant, but to delve too deeply into the issue would be to bring that same sorrow and pain to their children as well. They spoke of it when they were alone, in sadness and hushed whispers.
For the couples trying to have children it was an unrelenting agony. New tests concluded that at least one, but usually both of the parents were sterile. A great race began to adopt the homeless children of the world. Costs soared, as access and numbers dwindled.
And to the very old, it was a sorrow they couldn’t really describe. How could they explain what it meant to them, to have children and grandchildren?
To carry on.
Watching the news was painful now. Ryan was frustrated with the sudden outpour of data. Statistics of all kinds were ready to be debated. But there was no way of knowing how much of it was true, and how much had been exaggerated.
These were difficult times.
The day was Wednesday, of the following week.
Ryan began by identifying four more facilities, and their contact points.
By lunch, he had nailed Cairo, and Beijing; two more hits. That afternoon he would go after Moscow and Seoul. It was actually getting easier.
The memo forming his commission had circulated around the system, and some of the people he spoke with already knew why he was calling. He sent Jeff the contact information for the next two facilities. Their data transfers would mean Jeff had sixteen facilities in the database.
Lara wanted to meet and talk about the list of names she was working on. Apparently she was done. Ryan sent everyone a message asking that they meet in his office after lunch. In the meantime, he headed downstairs to grab something to eat.
Jeff took a piece while Ryan got started.
“Okay, we’re here because Lara finished with the list of users who could access the network.”
Lara handed out copies with the names sorted, such that the three at the top remained active while all the rest were checked off.
The names read:
1. Sid Frances
2. Steven Ranks
3. Larry Holmes
Lara said, “I am unable to get information on these three names.”
“I know Frances and Ranks, but who is Holmes?” said Ryan.
Jim grabbed another piece of pizza, and leaned towards Lara.
“I know Larry Holmes, he’s a network engineer over at the Los Angeles facility. I met him at a security conference once.”
“Well, he won’t return my calls or messages.”
“I can contact his boss, and get you an answer on that one,” he said.
“So that just leaves the big two, Frances and Ranks,” said Ryan.
“For me to rule them out, I need a list of their travel arrangements over the last three months,” she said.