The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) by Max Dane Page B

sure that at least one of his searches would’ve hit.
    ‘Well that sucks.’ He wasn’t sure if he said that, or just thought it.
     
    As he sat down in front of his
computer, he noticed that he’d received a phone call. Picking up the phone he
heard a message from his wife saying that Alex had thrown up at school this
morning. Apparently she had left work very early his morning to go get him and
take him home. Jean went on to ask if Alex had complained about his stomach on
the way to school.
     
    “Well that sucks.”
    This time he was sure he said it.
     
     
     
     
    At the Dane house, Jean was up before
Ryan the next morning. Alex had some sort of stomach bug, and would be missing
school again today. When Ryan went to the breakfast table to get some coffee,
Alex looked pretty miserable.
He couldn’t help but feel terrible; if only he’d paid more attention to Alex
yesterday.
    “Good morning, here’s some coffee for
you,” said Jean.
    “Thanks, Jean. How’s Alex doing?”
    “His stomach is much better, but now he
has a fever. It is going through his system pretty fast. I bet he will be
feeling better by this afternoon.”
    Ryan looked at him again, “I sure hope
so.”   
     
    “He missed the shots at school
yesterday, and now we’re going to have to take Alex to the doctor next week to
get his inoculation. By the way, I got mine at work yesterday, and my arm
really hurts. Did you get one?”
     
    He hadn’t even thought about getting
one.
“No, was I supposed to?”
    Jean said, “Well they’re saying on the
news, that adults could be carriers, so they’re getting us too. I bet you see
them coming around at work today, or tomorrow.”
     
    Ryan didn’t like shots. And even though
no one used needles anymore, the high velocity air-shot they used, still hurt
like hell.
    He grimaced.
    She knew him well enough to know what
he was thinking.
    “Ah, you big baby just do it and get it
over with.”
    Protesting he said, “But didn’t we get
our regular inoculations at the beginning of the year. I should already be
fully protected against everything.”
    “Well, you can explain it to the nurses
when they come around. But you better not be carrying any bugs into this house
Mr. Dane.”
    She looked serious.
    “Ok, ok. If they offer, I’ll get one.”
      With that he finished getting ready, and drove to work.
     
     
     
    When he stepped off the elevator and
onto his floor, he nearly ran right into several nurses pushing white carts to
the front conference room. Grimacing again, he headed to his office to put his
things down and read his mail. He had two messages waiting; the first was from
Ben letting him know that he could go to the labs today to talk with some
researchers. That was good news.
     
    The second message was from
IntelliHealth asking all employees to take time to get vaccinated against the
evil virus that would wipe them all out if they didn’t.
    ‘Damn, Jean nailed it,’ he thought.
     
    Picking up his coffee cup, he headed up
to the front to get his shot, and then to get some coffee. When he got to the
conference room where the nurses had set up shop, there was already a short
line of people waiting.
With a sigh, he stepped up to the end.
     
    Theresa came and got into line after
him.
“Always something isn’t it. They say we could be carriers. I guess the
trade-off for keeping us healthy, are all the shots.”
    “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
     
    While they waited, she asked about how
he was doing; did he like it here; was everyone being friendly. He said yes to
it all, and meant it. He really was having a good time. Just as he was running
out of things to say, the line cleared, and it was his turn.
     
    The nurse said, “Please hold your
identification chip over the scanner.”
    “I’m sorry, why do I need to have my ID
chip scanned?”
     
    The other nurses stopped what they were
doing and looked towards Ryan.
    “My understanding is that the CDC wants
statistics on how