Burning Mold Read online

  Jean smiled as she approached the security guard. “Good morning, Jean,” he said, smiling before adding, “Have a great day!”

  “You too, John,” she replied, swiping her badge by the elevators, then zoning out to reflect on the upcoming day.

  The elevator doors opened, and she walked in and pressed the button for the sixth floor of the CDC headquarters building in Washington, DC. She straightened her blouse and checked her hair against the smooth elevator doors. As the elevator rose, she took out her cell phone and checked the time. She had about three minutes to get to her desk for the 8 a.m. conference call.

  The doors chimed, and she exited the elevators, walking straight to her desk. and pressed the button for the speed dial. A moment later, she was listening to conference call music on hold. She sat down and turned on the monitor of her computer and logged in. She checked her email, most of which was spam, but there was one email about a small outbreak of a stomach bug in Dallas.

  “Good morning, team,” said a voice on the phone as the music ended, which pulled Jean’s eyes off her screen.

  “Good morning,” Jean said. Other voices on the call echoed back in response.

  “Today we’ve been following a detection of West Nile in Florida and in Texas. Locals are already responding with sprays. There was a report of a regional outbreak of E. Coli on Wendy’s Hamburgers in the Midwest. The company is already responding by recalling and destroying the contaminated beef. We have confirmed fifty-two people are sick from ingesting the contaminated beef and are receiving treatment. With that, let’s go around the room. Jean, why don’t you go first?”

  “Thank you, Howard,” Jean responded. “Globally we’re monitoring outbreaks of Ebola from Africa. The disease is contained for the moment and we are coordinating with locals there to provide resources and support. A new field lab test for Ebola is being tried in the Congo, and we’re reporting a much higher early detection rate with it. This will help us to prevent outbreaks sooner in the villages. The field lab test is still undergoing trials, and there have been no negative outcomes.”

  “Thank you, Jean. Okay, let’s hear from Atlanta, Michael,” Stephen said.

  The conference calls were routine. Jean’s attention wavered, since she had already read Michael’s report. There was nothing really that interesting coming out of any of the offices. Jean went back to her emails, and while half-listening to Michael, read the report about the stomach bug in Texas.

  Over the weekend, there was an increase in ER visits by people reporting gastrointestinal issues. But the symptoms cleared up nearly as quickly as they were reported, with no readily apparent commonality between the patients. The event suggested the possibility of something airborne or waterborne. Given that the symptoms were fading with time and that there were no deaths, Jean tagged the email as nonessential and forgot about it for the time being, restoring her focus back to the conference call.

  “Okay, team, let’s make it another great week,” Howard said, wrapping up the call.

  “Thank you, sir,” Jean replied.

  She really liked Howard. He was the no-hassle Director of the CDC. She wasn’t quite sure which camp he fell under, but even if he did have political aspirations, he’d always been effective and direct. As long as her reports were filed on time and she was on the calls, he never really bothered her. His hands-off approach left her free to do periodic research on potential outbreaks, seasonal viruses, and new pathogens.

  Her recent report that the influenza vaccine would be ineffective for that year made the rounds between the various CDC assistant directors, and she was certain she would at least receive an award for this work. The model she used would help to create next year’s influenza vaccine and would hopefully save more lives.

  She opened up the spreadsheet and started scanning the numbers again, determined to make the next vaccine much more effective.

  The elevators dinged and Jean winced. She knew that it was probably….

  “Doug’s in the house!” he said.

  That was Doug, unprofessional to the last.

  “Happy Monday. I brought donuts for everyone!” he added.

  Jean thought that if Doug knew what was in those donuts, he would probably really freak out. Each donut was loaded with refined chemicals and junk that she thought were guaranteed to make his liver and gallbladder stress out for hours.

  “Morning, Jean,” Doug said, while peering over the cubicle wall with his blonde hair and blue eyes.

  “Good morning, Doug,” Jean responded. “Did your weekend go well?”

  Doug continued to talk as he walked to the doorway of Jean’s cubicle. “Yessirree. Our group got together, and we did some jet skiing at Deep Creek Lake. We all had a blast. Oh, you have to see this…Jack totally wiped out.”

  Doug worked his phone and brought up the video of Jack on the jet ski. Something off the screen momentarily distracted Jack, and his jet ski drifted into the wake of a passing boat. The wake caused the jet ski to jump up directly into the air and sent Jack flying into the water. Jack's arms and legs flailed the whole way. Doug laughed as he watched the video.

  Jean giggled, trying to hold it but not quite succeeding. “Looks like you guys had a total blast,” she said.

  “It was great. You’re welcome to join us,” Doug replied.

  “Sure…one of these days,” Jean added.

  “Hey, Doug,” someone behind Doug said.

  “Oh, hey, Darren. How’s the arm?” Doug asked.

  “Doing better today actually. As far as I can tell, anyway. The itching is a bit better, and I found a great tool for it. Check it out,” Darren said as he pulled out a mini wooden back scratcher. “I found this at the 99-cent store, of all places. Such sweet relief,” he added.

  “Cool. Do you want to meet up in about an hour to jam on the latest West Nile updates?” Doug asked.

  “Sure…sure…” Darren replied as he was looking at the screen, “That’s a really impressive formula you have going there. Is this the influenza analysis?”

  “Yes,” said Jean. “This proves that the current system doesn’t do as well for predicting the location of the next outbreak. This new formula should increase influenza protection by up to 75% over the current system.”

  Jean exhaled, smiling. She had not yet gotten the recognition she thought it deserved, but seeing the way the office worked, that was par for the course. They always came around late, and when they did, it was usually as an afterthought. But that didn’t bother her. As long as it worked, she’d be thrilled, but she did get her hopes up that there’d at least be some nod to her work in the near future.

  “Sweet. Good job!” Darren said.

  “’Sweet,’” Jean thought to herself. It always amazed her how cavalier people could be with matters of disease and human lives. Jean believed in her work and the potential for change it held, but it felt like no one else did. Most other people in the CDC, like Darren, simply treated their work as a job and people like statistics on a report, when those people were dropping like flies from various viruses and diseases.

  Jean smiled and said, “This right here is my pride and joy. Plus, I think it could be applied to any new disease outbreak to model how it will spread. If we can get funding to track Lyme outbreaks, this could save a lot of lives.”

  “Not with this government,” Dean snorted. “We’re lucky to keep the funding that we already have.”

  “Politics shouldn’t have anything to do with saving lives,” Jean interjected. “I mean, since when is the CDC a partisan organization? This formula has the potential to save millions of lives, and I don’t care which lobbyists are inconvenienced by it. It will be approved, and it will go into effect so long as I am working here.”

  Dean and Darren were taken aback at this sudden burst of conviction from Jean but did a good job of hiding the surprise it elicited.

  “Let’s stay away from politics,” Darren added, “but we may yet find a way to get Lyme and the other tick-borne di
seases covered. Once someone famous gets hit, you can bet that there will be huge coverage for it. And it would be great if we had already set up everything to be ready for it. I just finished compiling the updated database of tick locations.”

  “That’s great. Could you send me a copy?” Jean asked.

  Darren nodded. “You bet.”

  Darren and Doug wandered off to their respective cubicles, and Jean went back to work on the spreadsheet. She was eager just to try the model on the tick-borne viruses. Even though there was a vaccine for Lyme disease, public pressure on the company had caused them to withdraw the vaccine from the market. As a result, more than three million people each year were newly infected with Lyme disease.

  Thousands died from other tick-borne viruses, and there was no effective treatment for any of them. Jean knew that it was just a matter of time before the disease would get the attention it deserved. With proper surveillance and insect treatment like the government already did with mosquitos, the number of people dying from Lyme disease would dramatically decrease.

  Jean thought it was odd that snake bites and shark bites received far more coverage, even though the chances for survival were far higher than with tick-borne viruses.

  It was a troubling reality for Jean, who was genuinely concerned with saving lives. It was all too obvious to her that the stories which evoked shock and awe were the ones that made the headlines. “If it bleeds, it leads,” was the old adage. Just because influenza was a tired story that didn’t read as sensationally as an isolated incident like someone drowning at the beach, that meant very few people cared about it.

  A computer notification alerted her to the next upcoming conference call. Jean sighed and dialed the numbers to listen to more conference call music while on hold.

  As she listened to the droning music, she thought about what it was that made the headlines and how her life’s work was more than likely to be swept under the rug. It’s not that she craved recognition for what she had done – it was more about societal values and how they were so skewed. A sudden voice coming from the conference call snapped her out of her melancholy reverie.

  “All right, who do we have so far?” asked Howard.

  Jean was the first to reply. “I’m here.”

  Then another voice sounded. She recognized it. It was Terrance, who operated somewhere out of Florida – Jean could never remember what specific city it was. He had a gruff, twangy voice that was tinged with arrogance. It was the voice of someone who didn’t necessarily look down on other people, but someone who was definitely overly self-assured. And possessing overt self-assurance was a trait that Jean believed was detrimental for anyone in the CDC.

  “Gabe here. I’m on the line here, too.”

  “Great, then that’s everyone,” Howard happily reported. “Terrance, why don’t you start?”

  “Well, I’d be glad to,” Terrance obliged. “Now this West Nile, I feel, should be on top of our priority list, and I’m not just saying that because I’m here in Orlando. The local response has been shoddy and the last thing we need is for West Nile to flare up again and cause a national panic.”

  Jean interrupted, “With all due respect, the local response to these isolated cases has been well within acceptable parameters for containment. I haven’t read anything that would warrant further allotment of resources. On the other hand, this outbreak in Texas….” Jean was then interrupted by Howard.

  “Now I understand all that, Jean, but recent mutations….” Terrance wasn’t allowed to finish.

  “And what mutations would those be? I haven’t seen it in any of the official reports,” Jean explained.

  “They’re preliminary. Our labs are working on fine-tuning them and will be available shortly,” Terrance snapped back.

  “Howard, this is speculation at this point. We shouldn’t be extending resources that are already thin for speculations on cases that are well under the threshold of a serious outbreak. But look at Texas, where tens of thousands got sick,” Jean argued.

  The call fell silent for a moment. Howard finally spoke up. “I’m going to go with Terrance’s suggestions to continue containing the outbreak.” Howard sighed audibly and then said, “Moving on…I got word from Washington that we will have some more cutbacks next year. Gabe, can you fill us in on what this means for us?”

  Chapter 3

  Just Had Another Day

  Frisco, Texas

  For the first day of school, Chad got the kids ready in the morning, dropped them off at school and headed into the office. Traffic was only a little lighter than usual as he listened to the daily podcasts on “All Things Technology with Joe Squared.”

  “I’m your host, Joe Joe. Joining us now is Tom Tower, the CEO from YTR Solutions, here to talk about the latest in the AI space.”

  “Thanks for having me, Joe Squared,” Tom said.

  “Tell us what’s up in your world, Tom.”

  “We are excited to announce our new autonomous corporation software package. If you are a small business owner, or you are managing real estate properties or virtually any type of operation that handles income and expenses, our software solution can now handle all of these things for you. The….”

  “Wait, hold on there,” Joe Squared interrupted. “Are you saying that this could host my show?”

  Tom laughed and continued, “Oh no…It can’t host a podcast, but it can handle routine operations such as seeking and finding advertisers or even attracting an audience.”

  “Wow, that’s incredible. Tell me a bit more about how this works,” Joe said.

  “It’s quite simple really. Just go onto our website, www.runmycorp.com, and sign up,” Tom explained. “From there simply answer a few questions as to the nature of your business or operation. Our AI will do the rest.”

  “But what about the problem? What if the advertiser fails to pay or the supplier fails to deliver?” Joe asked.

  “Yes, as we all know, businesses have issues. In those instances, a prompt will appear on your dashboard and send you an email asking how you think the problem should be handled,” Tom clarified. “In 75% of the cases, our AI will have already identified a solution for you, and it will appear in the solutions box.”

  “That’s absolutely amazing. We have Lucy on the line with us now. Lucy, what is your question?”

  “Thanks, Joe Squared. I love your show. I run a flower shop, and I’ve been here for years. Are you saying that it will cut my flowers and hand them to my customers?”

  A few rings played in the background, indicating it was a regular response when callers asked a question.

  “Oh, what a great question,” Tom replied. “This AI does not have a physical presence, so it cannot handle anything in the real world. What it can do are things like answer the phone for sales or customer service inquiries, order replacement inventory, track shipments, and even balance your books automatically. It can also identify advertising opportunities that will drive more customers into your store. This frees your time up for you to sell, sell, sell!”

  “Wow. That’s amazing. But I’m sure it’s going to be thousands of dollars a month,” lamented Lucy.

  “Our solution is affordable at just $99 a month for most businesses.”

  “That’s incredible,” Joe Squared said. “I’m probably going to sign up right now. How about you, Lucy?”

  The show went silent.

  “Lucy?”

  “My jaw just hit the floor. This is incredible. I’m going to fire my bookkeeper,” Lucy said excitedly, “my inventory person and my advertising agency. And I will end up having a lot more time, to boot!”

  “We love our customers and. . . . .” Chad turned off the car, interrupting the conversation.

  Chad arrived at his workplace. He realized that this podcast was nothing but advertising, but it featured so many brand-new ventures. Some of these ventures were scams, but he managed to find out about some amazing new products and services early on. This had led to some new op
portunities for his employer as well.

  Still, he struggled with the idea of peddling hucksters and often worried if his show did more harm than good. He’d convinced himself it did more good on balance, so it was just enough to keep his conscience clear.

  Chad got out of the car and walked towards the building. He noticed Bobby approaching the building as well. “Good morning, Bobby,” Chad said. “Are you feeling better?”

  “Yeah, man. That was a crazy weekend but I’m fit as a fiddle,” Bobby replied, “Thanks for busting ass on that. We’re actually all set to deliver in about two hours today, and the client is really happy.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. Once I land, I will have a few things to catch up on. Meeting at the usual time?”

  “Sure thing,” Bobby said as he fished in his pocket to answer his cell. “Bobby here.”

  Chad continued into the building and pressed the button for the 9th floor. He glanced at the news ticker on the elevator monitor.

  MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT AMBASSADOR AFFAIR. POPE TO VISIT AMERICA. LARCHMONT ENERGY REPORTS LOSS.

  The elevator dinged and he stepped out into the lobby. Marissa, the receptionist, was always there sitting just below the large MARASCHINO ENTERPRISES sign.

  “Good morning, Marissa.”

  “Good morning. Your tea is already on your desk.”

  “You’re so kind,” Chad replied.

  Chad walked past the desk and headed past Marissa’s into his office. Most everyone was already present at their desks.

  Chad sat down at his PC and opened up the preliminary work that he had done on the analysis for Hadaran.

  The Hadaran system was coming online and the presentation was scheduled for just two days later – August 22. Still, the system was not performing up to the desired specifications. The presentation was not going to go very well if he had to stand in front of 200 investors and scientists and the system puts out the equivalent of Tic Tac Toe. This system had to put out the equivalent of WarGames version 4.0 in order to impress everyone and to secure the next round of funding. And yet, Chad felt, he was so close to having this system perform. The investors had put up more than $2 billion into this project – into him and his dream – and this involved a lot of work putting all the hardware and software and custom nanotech designs with the quantum replicators. That was truly the most impressive part. Until Chad came alone, no one had thought to put together quantum replicators in order to get the heuristic AI to function correctly. These little nanomachines would collaborate in a swarm and to communicate amongst themselves at a quantum level across the entire chain. In this way, when a new idea needed to propagate itself, it would be done instantly. Chad, sighed. That is, if it worked the way that it did on paper.