Dr. Ritchie said, “J. C. Harding I never heard of him.”
Charlie Haines answered, “I’m sorry, but as I said before, we have an internal no-publication policy.”
Dr. Ritchie looked at him as if he were mad. “He can read and understand the entire human genome? All of it?”
Charlie Haines nodded, then simply said, “Yes, the old and the new DNA strings. He says it’s like a programmer reading the code to Microsoft Word. He told me that nature, with its random mutations, produced horribly jumbled and redundant code. He just got rid of the trash and made thing more efficient.”
Dr. Ritchie didn’t believe a word of it.
Dr. Horvitz said, “Harding has a peculiar sense of humor. I have to tell you a story about him. When I mentioned about the Nobel committee and that I was going to nominate him, he declined. When I pressed him why, get this, he said he couldn’t get the award as its past his bedtime and his parents wouldn’t allow him to attend. He said it all with a straight face.”
The remainder of the morning was spent on what had been demonstrated, the controls which were put in place to prevent fraud, new studies which were being implemented, their concerns and the necessity of doing more long-term research and the dangers of premature results leaking out. All the scientists felt that more data was needed before the widespread use of Panacea is used.
Finally, Dr. Knoble spoke, “One point where a minority strongly disagreed with the majority was the issue of timing. My wife has Alzheimer’s disease. According to Dr. Harding, Panacea would reverse it and make her live like never before. She’s my loving wife of 52 years. She’s dying. She’s dying before my eyes. Every day I see the changes. I’ve been a selfless researcher all my life, can she get it?” Tears were falling down his cheek.
Charlie Haines sighed. “That is the crux of the problem, everyone would want it. They all would want it now. The wives and children of the brilliant, the rich, the heroes, the powerful all need it. We are all dying, including me. Do we let Marta Knoble get it? What about your uncle Fredrick? What about your boss?” Charlie’s right eyebrow rose.
Ritchie was appointed by the President, and the President was given a ‘good’ medical exam results, for a person of his age. Reading between the lines, Ritchie knew what that meant. Fredrick Ritchie was his uncle, an uncle with coronary heart disease. Charles had sent his aunt an e mail last week about good doctors in the Wichita area and hospice care. Fredrick Ritchie would be dead in a year. How the hell did Haines know about Uncle Fred?
Throughout the presentation, Charles Ritchie was quiet and asked few questions. At its end he said, “I’m not sure what I can do and what you want of me. I’m actually inclined to believe you. You’re saying that you want to do more research. As the head of the FDA, I would never stand in the way of that. Your biggest problem is that you need to keep the wraps on the results, but that is not something I can help you, except to hand pick my own staff monitoring the compound for their integrity. To date, all the main markers of LPH Deficiency have remarkably been reversed. If that also works as perfectly with the proposed spinal injury study, I would also grant an expedited approval. But you aren’t looking for an expedited approval. You want to investigate long-term changes on diseases. You’re saying it cures everything. If you want me not to approve Panacea for specific diseases, I can, but it is against everything I’ve stood for. I’m not sure how I can help.”
Charlie Haines’ face enlarged until it took over the entire monitor. “I just want research to proceed, in an unbiased scientific manner. I’d like to invite you to take part in the discussions with the 24 Nobel Laureates. The unanimous decision of the committee will guide us. The results must not be disseminated until the entire project is forced to go public. We are doing our best to prolong that as long as possible. When we are ready, and when you agree that we are ready, we can do mass administrations of Panacea.”
Charles Ritchie, with his throat suddenly dry, sat up. “What do you mean by mass administration of Panacea?”
Charlie Haines had a frown, “Well, the trivial thing would be to knock off the massively redundant mechanisms which kill the virus vector and allow it to circulate in the world. Within a week every human, in every country, would receive the Panacea vector and be immunized permanently for life. Everyone would be perfectly healthy and no one would die from any disease or most accidents. That would completely devastate the world economic order in a month.” Charlie Haines paused, “Welcome to my nightmare.”
Ritchie realized that Charlie was right.
Year 23.9 No, Tank you
Phyllis entered Roderick’s office “Oh, David has a small request, are you interested in talking about sharing military technology?”
Roderick looked up from his computer screen, “I guess.”
“OK, let’s meet our guest in the meeting room. We’re letting Don do the talking. We can discuss your ideas later after the meeting, when we’re alone. I need to go downstairs and escort a him in. What a pain in the ass! But you’ll hear both sides of the argument.”
“When we’re alone? Guest?”
Roderick checked the headphone and put on the glasses then said to Phyllis who was leaving, “Which meeting room?” Immediately an arrow appeared three feet in front of him guiding his way, in his glasses. Rod followed the virtual arrow then arrived in a large meeting room. He saw the CEO of C H Electricity, Donald Gardner sitting in the front of the large table. He was no longer wearing his usual sweatshirt and jeans, but a full suit and tie, which he kept in his office just for such occasions. Roderick saw David sitting toward the back of the room. David motioned Roderick to sit next to him. David’s sweatshirt read ‘No, Tank you’. Martin entered and sat to Rod’s other side. A cabinet door on the wall was opened revealing a 40-inch television. A moment later Phyllis entered, escorting a middle-aged man flanked by two obvious bodyguards wearing sunglasses and earpieces. Donald Gardner stood and said, “Good morning Mister Vice-President.” Everyone else also stood.
Roderick was shocked; this was the Vice-President of the United States, Franklin Chamberlain, flanked by his secret service detail.
“Sit. Sit. I’m so glad you could take the time to see me. Our generals were being rebuffed right and left and I wanted a chance to discuss things personally with you. You can call me Frank.”
“Thank you Frank. And my friends call me Don. Won’t you be seated? We called Charlie up. He agreed to take part with the discussions”. Don picked up an audiovisual tray, and fiddled with some dials. The screen came to life and Charlie Haines’ head appeared three times normal height.
Roderick noticed that the screen must have been ultra high definition. He could see every hair and skin discoloration on Charlie Haines’ face. Haines wore his usual white shirt and hand-tied bowtie. Rod could make out a loose thread in the bowtie and a small lack of symmetry. In the background, Rod could make out a room similar to his own library. Could it be that Charlie Haines lived in this complex? This was the first time he saw the man in this much detail, and was surprised by his age, yet obvious good health.
The vice-president looked at Charlie, “I was hoping to meet with you personally sir.”
In a grumpy voice, Charlie said, “I never grant public interviews. I’m not a movie star. I don’t make public appearances for presidents, prime ministers, or the Nobel laureate committee. I don’t play favorites. But I’m willing to talk, get on with it.”
Roderick noticed that Martin was looking angrily at David, he was sub-vocalizing and then David just shrugged and sat back.
Rod looked back at the screen and saw that Charlie paused then went on with a softer voice, “However, I’m glad you came all the way from Bethesda to visit us. I’m afraid we’re very firm in our position, but would welcome any additional new thoughts which we could consider.” Roderick noticed that Martin was sub-vocalizing,
but looking at the Vice-President.
Charlie Haines continued, “Why don’t you proceed.” Charlie tented his fingertips and looked over them at the Vice-President
The Vice-President leaned back, “I’m prepared to offer a substantial contract to your Motor Vehicle Division. A 20 billion award for the ability to control our flight paths. We want you to allow the tanks to travel anywhere in the world.”
Charlie Haines stood up and said, “I’m not interested. We have plenty of money as it is. We’re having trouble with too much money. I’m not interested.”
The vice-president steepled his fingers, “What about 25 billion?”
Charlie Haines frowned, “25, 100, a trillion. You misunderstand me. I wasn’t trying to bargain. I actually meant what I said. We have plenty of money. We even have a committee considering lowering the energy cost to 8.75%. We are not interested.”
The Vice-President testily said, “Perhaps if you have too much, you may be paying too little in taxes. Perhaps if you were audited …”
Charlie Haines cleared his throat, “We try to be socially responsible. We’ve pulled 14 million tons of pollution out of the air already. Greenhouse gasses have started to dip for the first time in recorded history. We cut down on noise pollution too. Our cars have reduced automobile accidents 73 percent relative to more traditional cars. Our cars are not used in criminal activities. Crime has been reduced 34 percent, although that’s probably due to the jump in GNP with our economy. Cheaper energy means more industry and a better infrastructure for the poor, like improved education and more jobs. With the reduction in the cost of electricity, manufacturing costs have fallen. Manufacturers are hiring and the U.S. and all countries are investing in production and lowering their costs. More production, more jobs. It’s the economy, sir. We are the good guys here.”
Chamberlain said, “You know, they never got Al Capone for any of his crimes, the IRS did him in.”
Charlie Haines looked at the Vice-President as a hungry tiger looks at a lamb. Charlie stared into Chamberlain’s eyes. He sat down by his desk, and held his gaze for a long moment. Rod momentarily forgot that Charlie was not in the room and he wasn’t actually staring into Chamberlain’s face. “If you were forced to audit us, then you would find nothing. Nothing at all. If you looked really closely you would barely find me on the books. I’m more of a virtual head of the company than an executive. I don’t need the money. I live very simply. Hence, money that would pay me a huge salary goes to charities. My total income is less than many of your office clerks. On the other hand, if some over-eager government bureaucrat took it upon himself to harass us, then we might move our base of operations to some other country. If that bureaucrat decided that it was no longer in the best interest for us to work in the United States, well we can shut down our United States power plants, motor vehicles, airlines, intra-stellar flights overnight. However, feel free to audit our taxes. I feel that all companies should have their books examined on a regular basis, for example, Algonquin Oil.”
The Vice-President turned red in the face then took on a more conciliatory tone. “But Mr. Haines, our country is in danger. What would happen if some terrorist wanted to attack it?”
Charlie said, “Then you would defend it. That IS the job of the government. I have said before and I will say again, I will build tanks to protect this or any country, WITHIN that country. But I will not build planes or tanks to invade another country. No pre-emptive strikes – I thought you learned that lesson in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Your regular jet planes all can intercept any plane. If you want to have military planes that can fly using our technology within the geographic borders of the United States, we can build them. But I will not help you invade any other country. As far as tanks go, we can build any vehicle that will fly on any path set down by any government. However, the vehicle must be permitted to travel in that country, by the rules of that country. I will not sell you tanks that can invade China, nor will I sell tanks to China to invade America. No terrorists can fly our cars or planes into the Pentagon or the White House, either. They have to keep to the roads by your own rules.
“Let me put it in another way. What would happen if you heard that some very unfriendly third world country just built a tank? This is not a normal tank, but one using special equipment and materials. It could reflect gravity, and since weight is no longer a problem, it can have extra-special missile-proof plating, in other words, invulnerable. Carrying a huge payload, even to the outer border of a country, would make it trivial to lob explosives anywhere. We could make them invisible and of course they’re completely quiet. It could fire continuously a weapon that would cut through hardened steel like a ten thousand degree sword through warm butter. What would you do?
“Let me tell you. You would have a preemptive strike on this third world country. Perhaps you would nuke its development site and its major cities. Just in the name of pre-emptive action.
“And if the U.S. were the ones to develop such a weapon? What would Russia and China do? What action could a less powerful country mount? They might sneak in a nuclear device or a biological weapon. They’d already know that a direct confrontation would be useless.
“Let’s say that that scenario never happened and we built a fleet of these invisible, flying, invincible tanks. Are you saying they would never be used? Not now, but say 20 years from now with a different President? ‘Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Would it never be used to enslave the world?
“Now who would be in control of these all powerful tanks, some General? Would absolute power never corrupt? If we built such a tank, wouldn’t it eventually cross the Rubicon, or the Potomac?
“And are all tank crews honest? What would happen if there were a renegade crew in one of these super tanks? A flying, invisible, tank in the hands of criminals.
“My position is that if we would sell them to you, we MUST sell them to Britain, France, China, Cuba, Russia, North Korea, and all other countries. Just to keep world balance.”
Charlie Haines paused then in a deeper voice, “Or we could opt not to sell those tanks to anyone. We will not sell in order to protect our cities, to protect the American values, our way of life.
“As I told you, as I told various presidents, told prime ministers, kings, and all the generals, I will not produce weapons of war. I’m also hesitant about producing weapons for ‘peace’ too. ‘Weapons for Peace’ what a concept? Oppression of a people would be too easy.”
The Vice-President looked agitated, “But you’re exaggerating, all we wanted was … What the fuck?”
The Vice-President drew back in his seat wiping his face with his shirtsleeve. A dog shimmered into existence on the table wagging his tail. The dog was hovering four inches above the conference table, and then disappeared. He was visible for only two seconds.
The image of Charlie Haines went blank. Donald Gartner stood up, “I apologize for the frankness of the discussion. Can I suggest you consider what Dr. Haines said? If you want to present an alternative proposal or even an alternative vantage point, that would protect the United States and not harm it, I’ve been told he will discuss it with you.”
The Vice-President appeared shaken, “What was that thing?”
Don said, “You mean Sniffer? It’s Charlie’s dog.”
Phyllis appeared at the door, “Mr. Vice-President?” With Don standing and Phyllis at the door, it was clear that the Vice President was to leave.
After the Vice Present and his Secret Service detail left, Roderick turned to David, “Can you make tanks like Charlie described?”
David had a half-smirk, “Ask Drusilla to show you C H’s ‘King Omega’ line. However, the car I drove to Malcolm’s gravesite was relatively silent, invisible, and invulnerable. With a day’s work, C H could rig the firepower too. In a week, he could produce an invisible self-guided missile-like device, the size of a
deck of cards that could destroy a city the size of New York. But like C H said, he has no interest in doing that.”
“And what was that remark about Algonquin Oil?”
“Oh, it is just one of the companies that bought the presidency. There are too many of those companies for me to trust most politicians. Me, I avoid politicians. I’d rather spend my time flying. On the other hand, I would value your thoughts on what Chamberlain said. As Phyllis said when you first joined, we welcome other opinions. We don’t have any yes-men here. One of the magic things about opinions is they often bring out a perspective that hadn’t been considered. And circumstances do change”