The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles)

by Dane, Max

  “Is it possible to compare to IntelliHealth meetings that they attended.”

  “That’s a good idea, I can try,” she said.

  “Anybody else with any news?” said Ryan.

  No one had anything more to add.

  Jim nearly, but not quite held a large burp at bay.

  That was their cue to go back to work.

  Lara visited Ryan at the end of the day.

  “I have the completed list for you,” she said.

  “Really?”

  “Jim found out that the Holmes person was on sick leave. Apparently that’s why he wasn’t answering me. Anyway, I got a list of sick days, and then I could check him off the list,” she said.

  “Ok, what about Frances and Ranks?”

  “Well, their schedules are still technically unknown, but I tried searching for conferences around the world at which they spoke, and I was able to eliminate them from the list too.”

  “Oh, Lara you’re awesome. So you marked everyone off the list, yes?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “And you have it all documented?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thanks Lara, you did great. Save your work in the same place Jeff’s storing his. Get with Jim for assistance, and then send me a link. I want to look at it too.”

  She nodded and left his office.

  He called Jim, “Jim send your list of user access along with a page documenting it to Lara. She’s finished checking off the names. I want it all stored together in the same place.”

  “You bet, I’ll do it now.”

  Ryan turned and looked out the window.

  He smiled.

  ‘So 141 users had the appropriate level of network access to change the entries, and each and every one of them had a documented alibi,’ Ryan leaned back in his chair, ‘that would be the first real piece of evidence he had… excellent.’

  It was almost the end of the day when Jeff walked very quickly to Ryan’s office.

  Waving him in, Ryan thought he looked excited, or nervous.

  “Hi Jeff, how’s it going?”

  “Ryan, I don’t think I need any more data. You can stop contacting the other facilities, at least for now.”

  Jeff was pacing in front of the windows, rubbing his hands together.

  “Have you found something Jeff?”

  “Maybe so. When I added the last two sets, it was like plugging in the last two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.”

  “Jeff, what exactly are you getting at?”

  “I have Thor and Loki working on it. I won’t know more until tomorrow.”

  “Okay, well. Lets plan on meeting tomorrow then,” he said.

  Jeff walked out without another word.

  Now Ryan was anxious.

  CHAPTER 12

  “The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should be treated with caution.”

  ― J.K. Rowling

  “I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”

  ― John Lennon

  The next morning found Ryan reviewing the list of names Lara had checked off. He wanted to spot check a few of them. After more than twenty correct entries, he was satisfied the work was solid. He put away the files, and went to get some coffee.

  When he returned, Jeff was sitting at his conference table with a folder, and some loose papers in front of him. Ryan was startled at the sight. Jeff seemed to be rocking back and forth uncontrollably with his hands clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. He had the look of a man who has just lost his last reason not to shoot.

  Without a word, Ryan went and sat down next to him. He didn’t say anything. He had seen people in this state before. He waited and let Jeff start when he was ready.

  Moments passed and then he seemed to recognize that Ryan was there.

  He slowed down and began to speak.

  “Ryan, what do you know about cell signaling?” he said in almost a whisper.

  “Well, not much really,” Ryan said in a matching low tone. “I remember reading that it was the breakthrough science that helped to cure cancer about twenty years ago.”

  Jeff seemed to relax a little.

  “That’s right Ryan. You see, cell-to-cell communication is necessary in all multicellular organisms. A single cell’s activity is a function of the cells around it, sometimes near, and sometimes at a distance.

  Relaxing a little more, and in a voice that Ryan imagined Jeff might use with a grad student, Jeff began to explain.

  “Our cells send chemical messengers to communicate with each other. Each cell’s surface will change in response to signals it receives. If the distance between each cell is long, we call the chemicals, hormones. You can think of the points a signal passes through to get to the cell, like a train track. This is called the signal transduction pathway.”

  “For a molecule of a hormone to be received by a cell at a distance, it must be unique and specific to the receiving cell. Think of it as a very unique key for a very specific lock. Therefore, just throwing hormones at random typically won’t affect the target cell. To encourage a cell to receive a signal, you must learn what types of signals the target cell is capable of receiving.”

  “Through trial and error, we learn which unique synthesis of proteins is necessary for success. Much of our work has been dedicated to slowly cataloguing different types of cells, and the types of signals to which they are receptive.”

  “This is what we learned twenty years ago. How to design specific protein signals and send them as pheromones targeting specific cells with the right receptors. Tricking them into behaving in the way we want. It’s how we cured cancer.”

  Jeff tensed up again, his voice rising slightly.

  “The problem with this method is that unexpected results can occur, because sometimes a single receptor can trigger multiple transduction pathways, often unnoticed. The consequences are unpredictable, and usually only through observation and repeated testing will the process become reliable.”

  “In other words, by affecting one receptor, it may affect another and then another, and so on. The end result may be something very different from what one intends. Proteins can change and re-form to create unexpected and sometimes very harmful effects.”

  “Okay, I think I understand. You’re saying that cell signaling can be a dangerous technique in a patient treatment, until it has been thoroughly tested.”

  “That’s right Ryan, it is complex, and because this communication instigates the activity of our cells, it can be deadly.”

  Jeff handed Ryan a piece of paper with the following breakdown, listed as:

  64% = Reproduction

  16% = Immune system

  8% = Various diseases

  4% = Growing new cells

  4% = Creating bioengineered proteins

  2% = Rejuvenating cells

  2% = unknown

  “What is this Jeff?”

  “I couldn’t see it, until you gave me the 16th set of data; you know the 16th Facility, Seoul. I thought I must be making some sort of mistake, so I ran the same tests over again last night. The twins confirmed what I found.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m still not following you, Jeff”

  He could see that Jeff was trying to pick his words very carefully.

  “The treatments that were changed.” He paused, his face was drawn tight, the veins across his forehead were visible.

  “When I categorized them by their results, I could see their breakdown. It took all sixteen sets of data, because the treatments were not the same in each Facility Hospital. Some facilities had more of one category, some had more of another. It wasn’t until I could see all sixteen, that these ratios became apparent.”

  Ryan looked at the page again.

  “You're saying this breakdown is completely accurate.”

  “Yes, that is co
rrect.”

  Jeff reached over and put his hand over the page Ryan was looking at.

  “Ryan, no random variable could cause proportions so perfect. This is not random. I have seen breakdowns like these my whole career.”

  Jeff took a deep breath, and then through gritted teeth, he said, “This is directed research, spread carefully over sixteen hospitals to be invisible.”

  Leaning close, he looked Ryan directly in the eye.

  “Ryan, someone is experimenting in these areas of research on living patients, and most of their focus is in stopping the reproduction process.”

  Jeff was sweaty and shaking, he was furious.

  “Try to understand Ryan, they aren’t picking a specific way to stop the reproductive process. They aren’t looking for a unique signal to turn specific cells dormant. They seem to be searching for any random throwing of switches that will make our reproductive cells cease to act as they should.

  It’s more like using a shotgun than a rifle.

  Random signals blanketing cells, which signal other cells, and ultimately cause our reproductive cells to ignore any activity whatsoever. The interactions arising as the fallout, are what harmed the patients.”

  He continued, ”We identified these as treatment errors, but that’s not what they are.”

  Jeff stood up abruptly, and threw his folders and papers across the floor.

  “Someone is learning how to kill us.”

  He walked to the window and rubbed his hands through his hair.

  Ryan was stunned.

  He wasn’t sure what he thought Jeff would find, but this was so calculated it made him shiver, and made the hairs on his arms stand.

  Jeff, visibly trying to regain his composure, said, “And this may actually be connected to the world’s fertility crisis. The observations I’ve made are consistent. All we have to do is figure out the delivery system.”

  Ryan walked over and put his hands on Jeff’s shoulders.

  “Sit down. I need you, and you have to be calm.”

  Suddenly Jim spoke from behind them; he was holding papers in both hands, partially folded and crushed.

  “I think I know why it took sixteen facilities.”

  Ryan helped Jeff back to the table, and Jim joined them.

  Jim was angry and seemed to be shaking. He looked every bit as bad as Jeff.

  Holding his voice level, he began.

  “As you know, I’ve been checking each day to see if my ‘intruder’ reappeared on the Hospital Network. Once I activated my monitoring program ‘Snoopy,’ the daily visits stopped cold.”

  “Today, actually just a little while ago, I decided I might re-write Snoopy to make it a little smarter. I opened the script, and started looking through the code. And that’s when I found it.”

  Jim, obviously angry, was trying to hold it together.

  “I don’t understand Jim, what did you find?” said Ryan.

  Jim tossed a crunched up paper out on the table.

  It was hard to read, but Ryan could see there were lines of code with red circles drawn hastily around different bits.

  “That’s not all my code; someone re-wrote my script.” Jim leaned back in his chair, his face was red.

  “Whoever did this broke into my administrator account, and they cracked my passwords, which were each 32 characters long. Then they changed my script so it would not reveal they were getting onto the network, and they added a call to another routine that removed the line fragment from my logs and reports.”

  “Just now, when I re-ran the security logs for the last few weeks, the code fragment I’ve been following was there, every single day, and are you ready for the kicker? They named the script ‘JmNoC’, it’s short for ‘Jim No See’.”

  Jim looked like he could hit someone. Ryan could sense the adrenaline coursing through him at that moment. His hands were shaking.

  “You need to understand that my security was built in a layered architecture; I’ve been around, and I know what I’m doing. Whoever did this, blew through everything I had in place in less that 24 hours of when I began. Believe me, I’ve seen a lot, and there is no one, not even Steve Ranks that could do this.”

  Jim dropped the other paper he was holding on the table. It was the security log printout from the Hospital network revealing the code fragment there, every day. Whatever it was, it had played Jim well; it got his interest, and then let him think he’d won.

  It played right to his ego.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes trying to absorb everything.

  A few minutes later Jeff said, “Why sixteen? You said you knew why it took sixteen facilities to make the ratios appear.”

  “Because SID operates on a hexadecimal number system.”

  “Oh please, you are not going to blame this on a damn computer program. This is the work of a sick individual, on par with the greatest, most evil minds in history,” said Jeff.

  With a low, cool voice Ryan said, “Lara has checked off every single user who could have had high enough access to the hospital network to make the treatment changes, and they all cleared. There is simply no one left to be a suspect.”

  Ryan continued, “Jim, you said that whoever ‘they’ were, they would have to intercept treatments prescribed day and night, from facilities around the world. Isn’t that exactly what SID was designed for, and capable of doing?”

  Ryan turned to Jeff, “The research you have found in the altered treatments is intelligent and calculated in a way that could very well be consistent with how SID might organize it. If you are going to be objective, you should at least consider the possibility.”

  Shaking his head Jeff said, “But, are you saying that SID is alive, aware? It’s a program, that’s all. I’ve worked with the SID program in our lab for years.”

  Ryan was not so sure about how ‘alive’ SID might or might not be. The acts described by Jeff and Jim made him think of someone akin to a ‘Lex Luthor’ from the comics.

  A super villain.

  Could a cold, automaton, a program, do these things?

  Whatever had played with Jeff sure smacked of pride.

  Could a program emulate emotions? Could it contemplate plans for genocide?

  Ryan could see how angry and fragile Jeff was right then, the wrong words now could cause him to walk out, maybe even severing him from the project.

  He took a deep breath.

  “No, not alive, but maybe malfunctioning.”

  “Malfunctioning in a way that has coalesced over the last two decades, resulting in something unimagined by its authors.”

  It was an idea Jeff didn’t want to hear. He believed a madman was behind these heinous experiments, and he desperately needed to exact his anger on that man. It was personal; a broken piece of software would not suffice.

  Then there was Jim.

  He had been out-smarted.

  It was a first in a lifetime of success. And he had not even mentioned the quality of the code he found amidst his own. It was years ahead. The person or entity that wrote it was better than him, a lot better.

  How was he going to tell David and Ben? How would he document how he’d been made such a fool?

  Ryan thought it was time to stop and get some perspective.

  He stood up and looked around the table.

  “No one does anything. No one says anything.”

  He walked to his desk and arranged his things.

  “We will get some rest, and meet back here in the morning to discuss which are the appropriate steps to take. I will remind you that this committee reports to me, and through me to Dr. Cohen. Whatever our conclusions might be, however conservative or outlandish, we will conduct ourselves as professionals and act through appropriate channels.”

  He looked across the room at his friends.

  “Is that understood gentlemen?”

  They nodded.

  The emotionally wracked, and weary trio locked their offices and went home.

  No one s
poke as they went to their cars.

  CHAPTER 13

  “It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made. You feel an instant of panic because you don't know yet the scale of the disaster you've left yourself open to.”

  ― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

  It was Friday.

  Driving through a drizzling, misty rain three men were arriving at the IntelliHealth Tower.

  Today it looked ugly.

  It seemed as if giants from Mount Olympus might have put it there as a warning.

  ‘Do not trespass here- past these doors there be monsters.’

  Yesterday’s startling revelations had left them angry. With precious little rest, they would need to face their demons and beat them back today. There was no way around; they would have to plow through and hope the far side might turn out better than they imagined. Ryan hoped he could keep them together. The affronts against Jim and Jeff were personal, and had struck to their core. A man that angry is likely to do anything.

  Hatred lay bare across an itchy trigger finger.