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

would IntelliHealth have
records for everyone that had been vaccinated?” he said excited.
    Ryan thought about it, “I had to swipe my ID chip to get the shot. Did you
Jean?”
    “Yes, it was the first time they’ve
requested it that I can remember.” she said.
    She could see that he was focused on
this.
    It didn’t seem that important to her,
but she knew he would be stuck on this idea for the rest of the night, if they
didn’t talk it through.
    “What information did you find exactly?” she asked.
    “What I saw showed that IntelliHealth
has information on everyone who was vaccinated including their name, age,
address, everything .”
    She frowned, that was a little odd.
    “So, you’re saying the city must have
shared its data with IntelliHealth,” she said.
    “Yeah, maybe,” he said slowly, feeling
very much as if there was a clue here he was still missing.
    “But if it’s true, why would the city do that?” he said, “IntelliHealth just
provides the inoculations for the city to use, right? It would make more sense
for the city health department to keep tabs on the people inoculated.”
     
    She shrugged, “I don’t know. It does
seem a little intrusive.”
He paused and changed the channel, still perturbed.
     
    “I’m sorry Ryan, but why is that so
important?”
He put the remote down, and turned to her.

“If you believe it’s the same in all cities, then IntelliHealth must have the
most accurate census records anywhere, for the entire world.”
    “Now, I think I see your point. That
does seem a little odd.”

He turned back to the story on the news, and raised the volume.
    Rubbing his neck, she said, “Well, if
you wanted to see how close the numbers really are, I suppose you could search
the web for the official government census, and find the real number for
comparison.”
    “That’s a good idea,” he said getting
up immediately.

He went to their computer on the bar, and began searching.
He pulled up information from the local federal government website on the city
census. What he found, confirmed that the total number of people was about 2.3
million, and that apparently IntelliHealth had records for nearly all of them.
    “Jean, you had a good idea, and it
looks like it’s true. So why would IntelliHealth have that much information on
the city population? And, if it’s true, and it’s the same in any city, why
would IntelliHealth have that much information on the whole world population?”
    “OK, seriously Ryan, you sound a little
paranoid, baby.”

He sat back down next to her, “I know. My project at work is frustrating me.
Maybe it’s starting to get to me a little.”
    “Well,” she said, “I’m tired and I’m
going to bed. I’m sure it will make more sense in the morning.”

With a quick kiss, Jean went to bed and left Ryan still thinking about the
census numbers.
     
    After she left, he went back to his
computer.
With the data in front of him, he glanced back over the last several years. The
census for the city seemed to have slowed and leveled off. The data for the
current year wasn’t in yet apparently, but the trend he was looking at seemed
to suggest that the next entry would actually go down.
    Could that be true?
    He was confused.
     
    People were living longer, so at least
in the short run, the ‘death’ rate might seem to be falling. That should mean
more people were alive at the same time. If the birth rate was stable, and as
long as people weren’t fleeing the city in droves, then the census would
definitely go up.
So why would the census level off, or even fall?
     
    It had to be the birth rate.
    He began searching hospitals for public
data on deliveries for the last two years. He wasn’t coming up with much
information. There had been a flood of new fertility services. From
commercials, to electronic mail, to digital billboards, everywhere one looked
one could see a happy couple holding a new baby. It never occurred to him that
the opposite could be