The Lawless One and the End of Time

by Lonnie Pacelli

  “All done.” Mario quietly cleaned up while Sal went back to his cubicle. He sat in his chair, pulled Jasmine from her cage, kissed her head, leaned back in his chair, and put her on his chest. “Let’s hope my result is the same as yours,” he said.

  Never had anyone been so anxious to see the signs of cancer. Each morning Mario and Sal conducted a barrage of tests and body scans, looking for any signs of Burkitt Lymphoma. Blood tests confirmed abnormal blood levels, but no tumors yet.

  Sal laughed at the irony of his situation. “I can’t wait to hear the words that millions before me dreaded to hear,” he said as Mario confirmed no visible tumors on day ten after the injection. Days 11, 12, and 13, no tumor. On day 14, Sal noticed a small lump on his jaw as he was shaving. “Finally!” Sal finished shaving, being careful not to nick the area where the lump was beginning to grow. He dressed as quickly as he could then made his way to the lab to take a measurement. When he got to the lab Mario was already there. “It’s on my jaw!” Sal said as he pointed to the tumor. “How big?”

  Mario did an MRI. “Three millimeters,” Mario said. “When do you want to start the SK treatment?”

  “20 millimeters.”

  “Twenty?” Mario couldn’t believe Sal would want to wait until the tumor got that big. “We can prove the trial with it being much smaller, why risk it at 20?”

  “Jasmine was at 20, I’m going to be at 20.”

  Mario shook his head. “OK, boss.”

  Each morning Sal and Mario took measurements. Day two, seven millimeters. Day three, 12 millimeters. Day four, 15 millimeters. Then the measurement on day five.

  “23 millimeters,” Mario said.

  “Let’s do it.”

  “Finally.” Mario said. Sal just looked at him and smiled.

  That afternoon, Mario prepared the lab for chip insertion. He wheeled a stretcher to an open area in the room and prepared a tray holding a sterile magnetic tip catheter with the microfluidic chip already inserted, a Seldinger needle, a syringe with lidocaine, a guide wire, alcohol wipes, a catheter sheath, cotton balls, bandages and a surgical magnet used to guide the catheter. Entry would be at the groin into the femoral artery. Mario shaved and disinfected the entry site. Sal lay down on the stretcher, showing the same determination as he did during the Burkitt injection. Mario was all business, wanting to make sure nothing went wrong with the chip insertion. Mario numbed the site and inserted the Seldinger needle into Sal’s groin area, finding the femoral artery. He threaded the guide wire through the needle into the artery, removed the needle and inserted the catheter sheath over the guide wire. He then pulled the guide wire out.

  “How you doing?” Mario asked.

  “All good.”

  “Now the catheter.” Mario turned on the catheter camera and threaded the catheter through the sheath into Sal’s femoral artery. On a screen next to the stretcher, Mario and Sal saw the catheter tip enter the artery. He then grabbed the surgical magnet and turned it on, a red light showed on top of the magnet. The magnet looked like a computer mouse and served two functions. One was to guide the magnetic-tipped catheter from the femoral artery into the right atrium of the heart. The second was to communicate with the chip throughout the procedure and ensure the chip was functioning smoothly after it had adhered to the atrium wall. When the light was red, the magnet was on but not communicating with the chip. Yellow meant communication was established with the chip, and green meant the chip was successfully adhered and functioning.

  “Let’s start the journey,” Mario said as he started moving the surgical magnet from Sal’s groin, up into his midsection on its way to the heart, the light still red. So far so good.

  “It looks great!” Sal said as he watched the screen. The catheter followed the surgical magnet’s every move as it made its way up Sal’s chest.

  “Yup, very responsive.” Mario now had the magnet in the center of Sal’s chest, right above the right atrium. The catheter made its way into the right atrium, positioning its tip along the atrium wall. Mario then slid his finger across the magnet which moved the chip out of the catheter along the wall. The light on the magnet changed from red to yellow, indicating the magnet and chip were now talking to each other. Mario swiped his finger side to side telling the chip to unroll to its full size of a man’s pinky nail. Mario moved his finger forward on the magnet to push the chip flat against the heart wall. Once in place, eight small rigid surgical wires grabbed onto the wall which both held the chip in place and powered the chip. The light continued to burn yellow.

  “Come on, green!” Mario said, watching the magnet with intensity. Five seconds, then ten, then 15, the light was still yellow.

  “Come on, green.” Mario whispered, not wanting Sal to hear. Sal didn’t need to hear it from Mario, he knew what the yellow light meant.

  Finally, after 30 seconds, the light turned green.

  “It’s in and powered.” Mario took a deep breath, continuing to stare at the light to ensure it stayed green.

  Sal took a deep sigh of relief and gazed at the green light. Both watched it for a minute to see if it was still green, periodically looking at the screen to make sure the chip was stable.

  “Catheter’s coming out.” Mario put the magnet back on the tray then pulled the catheter and sheath out and dressed the entry site.

  “How do you feel?” Mario asked.

  “I feel alright, just let me lie here for a minute.” Sal was fine, he was just overcome by the fact that this microfluidic chip that he’d been working on since his days at Columbia was now powered up in his heart.

  “When you’re ready, we’ll do the saline.” Mario was anxious to get the solution in him, knowing the tumor could double in size every 14 hours. To him every hour counted.

  Sal lay there for five minutes while Mario prepared the solution injection. “Sal, you ready?”

  “Yup.” Sal sat up on the stretcher, put out his right arm, and Mario gave him the SK injection.

  “Now we wait.” Sal patted Mario on the back, knowing how stressful this was for him. Mario went to his cubicle and slumped in his chair, exhausted from the procedure. Sal went back to his cubicle, sat in his chair, and pulled Jasmine from her cage.

  “You and I have a lot in common, Jasmine.” Sal kissed her on the head and held her as he closed his eyes and rubbed the tumor on his jaw. “Hope it’s gone as quick as hers,” he thought.

  Each morning after the procedure, Sal had Mario MRI the tumor. Day one wasn’t good.

  “27 millimeters. Bigger by four.” Sal had hoped to at least stop the growth. Day two, 29 millimeters. Still growing, but slower. Sal hoped that was a good sign. Day three, 30 millimeters. On day four, Mario MRI’d the tumor.

  “27 millimeters. Down by three.” Mario said. Right direction, but they weren’t out of the woods.

  Day five, 21. Day six, 18. Day seven, 14. Day eight, nine. Day nine, five. Day ten, no visual sign.

  “Scan me!” Sal said, wanting Mario to do a PET scan to confirm the cancer was completely gone.

  “OK, boss,”

  The two went to the PET scanner in the lab where Mario prepped Sal for the scan. Sal lay down, then the table with Sal on it moved slowly into the machine. Mario observed the procedure.

  “Gone.” Mario said.

  Sal leapt up from the table, hitting his head on the scanner. “YES!” He hugged Mario, who was just as excited as Sal.

  Sal lay back on the table, overcome with emotion. He flashed back to his room full of trophies, and how this achievement was the biggest trophy of all. He thought of his mother, how this could have saved her life. Tears came as he imagined how this could change the world, how he was going to change the world. But a human trial of one was just the start. He’d need more trials. A lot more.

  Customers for Life

  2046

  E ach week over the next year, Sal had himself injected with a different type of cancer. For the first six months, each injection of the SK cells from the initial salin
e SK solution treatment eradicated the cancer cells before they had a chance to grow. After six months, Sal noticed sluggishness and growing tumors, which confirmed the saline SK solution treatment life of six months. Mario immediately injected a booster solution treatment. A week after the booster Sal felt normal and the tumors reduced in size. He continued the weekly cancer injections for another six months, 52 cancer injections gone in one year with no side effects.

  At Sal’s one-year anniversary of starting the weekly cancer injections, he and Mario were sitting alone in the lab sipping kopi luwak and reviewing trial results. Mario decided to ask Sal the question he’d been wanting to ask for months.

  “Are you gonna tell the board?” Mario asked Sal.

  “About what?”

  “The immune system issue.”

  “Nope. And neither are you. You and your bank account will be very happy.”

  “Sworn to secrecy,” Mario said. Sal had solved the immune system issue months ago, but that meant a person could stop saline SK solution treatments anytime they wanted. Once a person started on the treatments, they would become a customer for life, generating a consistent and huge revenue stream for MD Biometrics. Solve the immune issue and solution sales would be drastically impacted. Sal took his cue from printer manufacturers 50 years earlier that would sell printers for next to nothing and make their money on ink. It was the perfect business model, with certain death being at stake. Mario was the only other person who knew, and Sal promised to reward him well for his silence.

  “Once the board sees hera gushing in they’ll forget about the issue.” Sal said.

  The board was delighted with the results. Fifty-two different cancer types, all eradicated. No side effects. Only the immune system issue, which was solved by solution booster injections. The board authorized one year of expanded human trials across gender, race, age, body type, and income class. Each participant was paid 10,000 hera. Among the trial participants was Lou, the only board member to volunteer. The trials continued for another year, all with similar results to Sal’s. Sal and the board now had enough data to submit the chip and solution invention to the Europe Ethnarchy’s drug administration for approval. One year later they got the approval they were looking for.

  Recognizing chip insertion and solution injection needed to be accessible to anyone, Sal designed two automated appliances to insert the chip and inject the fluid. The chip insertion appliance looked like a tanning bed. A naked patient would lay in the appliance and close the clamshell top over his body. In the top was a robotic arm that shaved, sterilized and numbed the groin area, then inserted the magnetic-tip catheter containing the chip into the femoral artery. Magnets above and below the patient guided the catheter to the right atrium where the chip was inserted and confirmed operational. The catheter would then exit the body and the robotic arm bandaged the area. The procedure took about 15 minutes and was monitored by a certified MD Biometrics technician in the event of a malfunction.

  The solution injection appliance looked like a pharmacy blood pressure machine. The patient sat in a seat and a cuff gently wrapped around his neck. Injection in the neck was required in case the patient did not have an arm or leg to accommodate an injection. Once the cuff was in place, a robotic arm sterilized the skin above the jugular vein then a needle injected the saline SK solution into the vein. The procedure took about five minutes and was monitored by a technician. Both appliances bore the MD Biometrics logo, a black circle with the block letters MD in bright orange.

  Over the next five years, the appliances were installed in pharmacies throughout the Europe Ethnarchy, with the logo prominently displayed in store windows to attract customers. Pharmacists and nurses became certified MD Biometrics technicians by attending a one-month HoloMate certification class. Insurance companies covered the cost of chip insertions and solution injections, it was cheaper than having to pay for cancer treatments. The rest of the world ethnarchies took notice of the treatment and began ordering appliances. MD Biometrics certified as many appliance manufacturers as they could to keep up with demand. Chip and solution production remained in-house, with thousands of MD Biometrics employees manufacturing and certifying chips and fluid. A crucial organization of MD Biometrics not known to the public was its information technology organization, called MDCentral. MDCentral was responsible for recording and tracking every chip manufactured and implanted, and every solution treatment received. They knew who had each and every chip and could control its operation. The general public didn’t know about MD’s ability to control the chips implanted in their hearts, and even if they did, the benefit of being cancer-free would have outweighed any fear of MD’s control. While only those in MDCentral knew of chip control, only Sal and Mario knew what it was really capable of doing.

  Clunky Glasses

  2043

  T he first year after HoloMate’s launch in August 2042 saw only 3,000 subscribers, well below HoloMate management’s expectations of 100,000. The glasses were the problem. They were heavy, the lenses thick, round and nerdy. The ear buds were clumsy and non-functional for hearing aid wearers. The skin-sensing technology was unreliable, frequently confusing body pressure points. A handshake between HoloMate friends could either be felt by the wearer as a handshake, a slap on the arm or a punch on the thigh. The glasses served just one function, communication through HoloMate. If a wearer already wore prescription lenses or wanted to wear sunglasses, they needed to carry around extra glasses. If HoloMate glasses were to be accepted, they needed to ensure the glasses did everything a wearer needed. Caleb’s boss, Vincent Guardino, was getting intense pressure from HoloMate’s investors to get the glasses right, and he gave Caleb a blank check to make it happen. Caleb hired engineers who specialized in electrochromic glass, bone conduction assistive hearing, and somatosensory systems. He hired a fashion designer to help design eyewear that someone would enjoy wearing as a fashion accessory, not just as must-need glasses. HoloMate’s fate hung on the glasses, and Caleb knew he had to get it right.

  While Caleb worked on next-generation glasses, Vincent decided to disable skin-sensing, as that was the technology that was the most unstable. With no skin-sensing, wearers could see and hear their HoloFriends but could not feel any touching sensations. Wearers weren’t happy, but it was better than shutting down the HoloMate platform completely. With skin sensing disabled, Caleb first worked on lens functionality and fashion. His engineering team created slim electrochromic lenses with three modes. The first mode was a clear-glass mode that scanned the eye and digitally adjusted the prescription of the lens to enable the wearer to see with 20/20 vision. The second mode was a sunglass mode, where the lens digitally darkened or lightened based on sun conditions. The third mode was HoloMode, which enabled the wearer to enter a HoloRoom and meet with other HoloFriends. Rather than see what was physically around him, he would now see a HoloRoom and HoloFriends in the room. It was easy to see if glasses were in HoloMode, the lenses were frosted instead of clear. When the wearer left the HoloRoom, the lenses changed from frosted to clear. The next generation of glasses also came in ten different frame styles, giving wearers more fashion choices. The glasses still included earbuds and did not include skin-sensing, those features would be in future versions. Wanting to divorce itself of the negative image of clunky glasses, HoloMate dubbed the new glasses HoloSpecs I, with a release date of August 1, 2044. HoloSpecs II and III would eliminate ear buds and include skin-sensing, respectively, and were slated for release in 2045.

  Caleb didn’t mind the challenge of figuring out the technology, or even the long hours. He was passionate about HoloMate and wanted to see its success. It was the annoying status reports and frequent updates he had to give to Vincent and the investors that frustrated him. Every week, it seemed there was yet another request from Vincent to prepare some special update on progress, issues, or budget. He hated having to answer to someone else about his baby. With each request for information to placate Vincent and the investors, he bristled wi
th disdain at having to pacify stakeholders. He longed for the day when he could change his 30 percent ownership to 100, with no one to answer to and no one to appease; just him at the helm doing things the way he wanted.

  HoloSpecs I glasses were available for sale as planned on August 1. HoloMate management viewed the glasses as a loss-leader to getting and keeping customers onto the HoloMate network. They offered to exchange the old, clunky glasses for the new and improved HoloSpecs I for free. For HoloSpecs II and III, the same offer would be made to minimize losing customers. It was all about HoloFriends for life, which HoloMate management adopted as the company’s vision.

  HoloSpecs I was a huge success. The number of subscribers jumped, with two million subscribers by the end of 2044. Even with the huge subscriber bump, HoloMate wasn’t profitable.

  And its investors were still nervous.

  Caleb went to work on HoloSpecs II. Engineers who specialized in bone conduction technology designed electromechanical transducers that fit into the temples of the HoloSpecs, which converted the sounds in the HoloRooms to mechanical vibrations which were sent directly to the wearer’s cochlea. Rather than having to put ear buds in each time a wearer entered a HoloRoom, the wearer simply activated HoloSpecs hearing by rapidly sticking out his tongue three times. While this looked peculiar to some, the HoloSpecs engineers decided that any gestures which controlled the HoloSpecs must be done solely through the head. That way, someone without the use of arms or legs could still operate the HoloSpecs.