The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) by Max Dane Read Free Book Online Page B

If he could identify a field entry that didn’t
match, they could analyze the content later.
     
    “Jim, that’s really clever. Did you
find any exceptions?”
    “Nope, not one.”
    Jim leaned back in his chair again, and
smiled.
     
    “Ok, well that’s weird,” said Ryan.
    “I agree. It’s a good strategy, but so
far, it hasn’t yielded any results.”
    “You’ve given me some things to think
about. Thanks Jim, I really appreciate it.”
     
    Headed back to his office, Ryan began
to look at the problem the way Jim had. It was a strong point Jim had made
about comparing like fields without worrying about what was in them. Ryan
thought it made sense that Jim, the consummate programmer, would prefer to look
at the form of the data rather than the content. Still though, he couldn’t help
but feel that Jim’s method was missing something important. There was another
element to this picture.
Even so, it was a good start.
They would need to try this approach, very carefully, many more times.
     
    Looking at the clock, it was time to
go; he wasn’t going to find it today.
    Ryan headed to the garage and went home
for the weekend.
It was one of his best in quite a while.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    It was Saturday morning, and Jean
brought Alex’s backpack to the kitchen table for the usual weekend exploration.
     
    Mondays found Alex’s backpack nearly
empty, but by Friday it would be full again. Homework got returned, lunch
leftovers stacked up, toys got traded at recess, and notes from the school and
PTA waited to be read.
Today was no different.
Jean had just thrown away all the leftover food bits when she came upon his
take-home folder with the school and PTA notices in it.
     
    There was another fundraiser coming and
they were looking for volunteers. Also, there would be pictures taken next
week. She had to remember to dress Alex next Thursday. There was a note
regarding a new vaccination against some virus called ‘Rn186’. Apparently it
could cause some sort of genetic disorder that wouldn’t impact them until they
were teenagers, but the government had recommended protecting the children
against it now.
She called to Ryan, who was in the laundry room.
“Hey Ryan, you need to make sure you get Alex to school on time next
Wednesday.”

After a few minutes, Ryan made his way to the kitchen.
    “What?”
    “Ryan, you need to make sure you get Alex
to school on time next Wednesday,” she repeated.
    “I always get him to school on time.
What’s so important about Wednesday?”
    “Apparently they’re vaccinating the
kids again for something else.”
She couldn’t quite remember the name.
“The note is over there if you want to look at it.”
    He picked up the note while she was
talking, and finished her thought, “Rn186.”
    “Yeah, that’s it. Also, he has pictures
on Thursday, so you have to help me remember to get him dressed Thursday
morning. No videogame t-shirts,” said Jean.
    Ryan remembered the last round of pictures at school. Alex had worn a Rusted
Stakes shirt, and he had been the one who missed it.
Jean was mad for a week.
    “Okay, I’m on it.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Monday morning arrived, and Ryan was
once again at his desk looking at very many lines of ‘X’s. He spent the whole
day identifying specific fields on which to try Jim’s comparison idea. Only
this time it would be with the fields he had hand picked.
     
    He wanted to run comparisons within
each of twelve patient treatments where an error had been found by the hospital
staff. Each of these treatments was known to have an error, and each had
thousands of records to compare against. He was casting a wide net. He spent
all of Monday and most of Tuesday putting together a list of the field ID
numbers to take to Jim.
     
    Tuesday afternoon arrived, and Ryan
returned to the programmers’ area again to see Jim and maybe David. Both were
there when he arrived, and looked like they were having a heated discussion
about