Action/Adventure Anthology Box #3

By D. E. Harrison

The Sickness is in the year 2041. Rebekka Lindgren, better known as Rebe is a newly board-certified medical doctor in Denmark. She is also awarded two PhDs in mathematics.
Unknown to Rebe her medical advisor applied in her name to the only larger medical school in Denmark. The President of the medical school believes he will be interviewing for an internship.
In the hospital Rebe starts to come across patients with very unusual symptoms. Their age and sex vary, and she does not understand why.
The highest national ranking medical doctor in Denmark and the President will have to deal with Rebe as she tears up the countryside to identify what her mathematics is telling her. A national disaster is about to fall on Denmark, and no one is listening.

In the Extra, Extra, an unknown person is feeding a weekly newspaper information about state’s finances. They must print the story or lose it. Its first ever Extra addition is printed, and it must sell, or they are bankrupt. More Extras hit the streets and the State officials wonder where is the leak? The State officials need to be reelected to cover up their debt. Meetings are held in McDonald’s party room with a lawyer, a computer billionaire, Jack an old, state politician, and an unknown retired fellow not looking for a job. They invite the cub reporter from the weekly to join them in an election campaign to scare the State Officials into being more responsible. They call themselves the ‘Good Guys.’ The weekly newspaper is sold to the cub-reporter. It is burnt down as is her car.
Can a third-party candidate even in white hats make it past the primary election for the office of Governor?

In the Electric Power, Georgette works with a Nobel prize winner. Her own experiments have problems. William in the school lab that built the cooling unit, says it is working fine. He suggests she look at the real math. In her shower while cleaning the idea hits her; writing all over the wall. She invites William over to join her in the shower.
They spend time in the shower, writing on walls and ceiling posters. They view the posters from the bed.
Their eating and the discussion about the shower, walls, ceiling, and bed could be misunderstood.at a local truck stop.
They try their new ideas out and burn out almost every electrical wire on campus.
A double nuclear power plant cannot explain why the company that buys all their power at night, no longer needs them.
The trucks stop is placing bets on George and William. Is she in ‘trouble?’
George says, “Daddy will send Uncle Jim to help us in the shower and bedroom.”
What will Bill’s folks say when he brings George home to meet the folks?

Galileo made the first telescope into a science. Metal mirrors were first used to reflect the star light. With glass mirrors astronomy became a true science. In England in the 1850-90 a small university had the money and telescope to do leading edge astronomy.
A hundred year later the astronomy department has sold the telescope and now selling the observatory’s property. The final two students can find no telescope time for research. They are paid to see if there is any value in the buildings before bulldozing.
The college library has some ancient manuscripts that say the village and site may have a National Historical Value. The university sees money. It sells to the students all materials in the buildings for a very small amount. The students hope to publish an article on the history of the telescope. A major astronomical find is discovered in the basement of the old observatory and the students go to a barrister for help. How much of the find can they keep and what does it show?
In New York City sits people that control $100’s of millions in private grant money.
A fellow stands, “I wish to build six radio telescopes on the earth. We will return on your investment at least three time.”
It is not a 100 % yes vote, but close enough.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. E. Harrison
• Release date: Jan 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005182885

D. E. Harrison

I am trained as a theoretical mathematician. I am an emeritus member of the American Mathematical Society for fifty odd years. I have lived in Seattle since 1967. I starting writing fiction after writing a family history.

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By D. E. Harrison

Copyright 2010 by D. E. Harrison

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 The Year is 2041 at a Formal State Reception in Denmark

Chapter 2 The Weekend Sailing

Chapter 3 The Trail is Starting to Appear

Chapter 4 Eighteen Months Before the Reception

Chapter 5 Twelve Months Before the Reception

Chapter 6 The Second Meeting between Rebe and President Agnor Jensen

Chapter 7 One Month Before the Reception

Chapter 8 Two Weeks Before the Reception

Chapter 9 Four Weeks After the Reception in the Boathouse Again.

Chapter 10 Six Weeks After the Reception

About D. E. Harrison

Other Titles by D. E. Harrison

Prologue

Rebekka Lindgren is a newly Board-certified medical Doctor in Denmark with separate PhDs in pure and applied mathematics.

Working at a teaching hospital as a six-month intern, in a temporary lay over spot, she comes across several unusual medical cases. They are not being handled by the Medical Guidebook (MGB) of medicine every doctor must use. In fact, some treatments and tests must be pre-approved by a board of doctors.

A young doctor almost loses his job when he goes ahead and treats a second patient without the Board’s approval after the first one dies of what appears to be the same illness.

A meeting between the president of the largest medical school and the highest-ranking national doctor in Denmark is about to open a can of sardines and do some real damage to the MGB.

Both men are short even for Danish men. They are both in their late 50’s. They could be brothers, a bushy head of sandy hair and piercing blue eyes. They are brute talent but with a political sense and a natural common sense about them. They are both respected in the medical community, and one is better known in the political arena.

Chapter 1 The year is 2041 at a Formal State Reception in Denmark

At a State function, the President of the largest Danish medical college is about to meet the highest-ranking National Medical Doctor. The reception is being held in the Chriskianborg Palace in Copenhagen. All guests must pass through the Queen’s Gate, and then up the King’s Stairway to get to the Hall. The Royal Guards are lining both sides of the Queen’s Gate in their 1770 uniforms. The guards are dressed in their dark blue coats, with a crossing white strip on their chests coming over each shoulder. Their lighter blue trousers have a light blue strip down each, outside leg. Their most striking feature could be their tall, round bear skin hats. They are in a parade rest pose with their rifle extended out arm’s length. None of the guests would ever talk to a guard.

The meeting of these two doctors in the reception line on the King’s Stairway is formal, to say the least. As the guests are passed up the line, the medical school President is being introduced to the highest-ranking medical Doctor in Denmark, but they have known each other since they were undergraduates, some 30-odd years earlier.

We hear, President Agnor Jensen is President of the Central Medical College, and this is Dr. Baldur Balder Hansen of the National Health Organization, as the words and people pass up the reception line.

They cordially shake hands, introduce their wives to each other.

The President gives Doctor Balder a hug and whispers into his ear, We need to talk in private later.

The Royal Party is at the top of the stairs and all the women have been practicing their curtsey.

The reception line continues for thirty minutes and leads to the Hall of Hadberdiers. Everyone is seated by rank for the meal with their name on a Royal card which the guests will take home with them. It has the Royal Seal, signature, picture of the Royal person and other information.

The Royal banquet serves two purposes this night. It is the birthday celebration of the Royal Personage and the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is sitting on the right hand of Royal Personage. The wife of the Royal Personage is on his left, and on her left, is the wife of the Prime Minister.

The discussion during the dinner is all small talk as few people are seated next to anyone they know. The seating of medical President Angor Jensen is near the middle of the long table on the Royal Personage’s right hand. His wife is across the table but not directly across. The National Doctor Balder Hansen is fifth on the right side of the table. He is only five places from the Prime Minister.

Any business occurs after dinner, the wife's talk of whatever they do in one end of the Hall. The other end has the men and a few women officials where some serious politicking and lobbying is going on.

President Agnor Jensen manages to pull Dr. Balder Hansen out on the terrace, which is not overly crowded.

Pulling him out, Good to see you.

Dr. Balder Hansen can tell from his looks that he is serious, whatever it is.

President Agnor Jensen again pulls him to the rail, and points aimlessly up to the city and asks, Have you seen the latest national statistics on health?

Dr. Agnor Balder Hansen replies, What, yes, yesterday. My staff gave a presentation and I studied them afterwards.

President Agnor Jensen asks, Did you see anything unusual?

Dr. Balder Hansen turns from the rail but is almost forced to look in a different direction as President Agnor Jensen points out another feature in the distance.

Dr. Balder Hansen say, What I saw was a small blip in several charts. My staff and I agreed it could be because the data had a few points that did not make it last time; or a few points did not come in quick enough and were missed.

President Agnor points to something else in the distance and he says, Your data is a year old. And I have the last twelve months in raw form. This feature is not a simple data point problem, it is starting to build, but you will never see it in your quarterly reports for several years. I cannot go into this anymore tonight; we need an informal meeting with none of your staff, away from everyone. Please mention this to no one; we need to return to the reception.

Back in the Hall of Hadberdiers one of the women says, President Agnor Jensen, you been hogging Dr. Balder Hansen.

Dr. Balder Hansen smiles, Yes, old roommates sometimes need a few minutes alone to recall their wayward youth! The national doctor is pulled away and is lost in the crowd.

The two men part and do not see each other the remainder of the night.

Dr. Balder Hansen never considers their conversation until he lies in bed looking at the ceiling.

His wife says, It was a better than usual reception tonight, even if it was a birthday party.

She goes on about who wore what for several minutes and the dress the State Secretary’s wife had on.

His mind is elsewhere, she asks, Have you heard a word I have said?

He smiles and repeats her last comment with his own idea about the dress, adding, She must have had glue holding up the dress. She is more like a flat wall with a rough paint job.

His wife smiles and turns off the light. He lays there going over the details of the medical charts for three minutes, turns off his brain and he goes to sleep in two minutes.

Across the capital, President Agnor Jensen knows he has started the ball down the slope. He cannot stop it and can only provide minor course corrections as it gains speed. What it smashes into at the bottom of the hill is still unknown.

Chapter 2 The Weekend Sailing

The weekend is approaching, and Dr. Balder Hansen and his wife has yet another State function Saturday night.

But Sunday, he and his wife are going on a drive to the ocean for a day on their boat. They are up before the sun and take the E47 out of Copenhagen to Helsingar on the far north coast. The North Sea is choppy with white caps on every other wave set. It is small 18-foot sailboat that two people can handle if both people know what the other will do before they do it. It is why they make a talented team for six hours of sailing.

Docking, they are cold and wet. President Agnor Jensen and his wife met them at the dock. They help secure the boat and all return to their cottage, with plenty of warmth, food, and relaxation. While the skipper and his mate clean themselves up, President Agnor Jensen and his wife clean up the mud tracked in by them and finish preparing a late lunch. After eating, the men go down to the boathouse to dry the sails and lock the building.

President Agnor Jensen says, I have the last five quarters of all the data, plus more. It is current to within two weeks. If you look at any quarter you will see nothing, but put all five quarters together, you may still not see too much. But I have a colleague of mine that produced the last chart two months before the data was collected. They now have forecasted the next year. I don't like what I see.

Dr. Balder Hansen says, I would expect a small risk or rise in the mortality tables for the short-term in that older age group. We have a bubble in that baby boom age group and always have. In a few years, it will catch up with them and the curves will smooth out.

President Angor Jensen shakes his head, Baldur what if I showed you that the bubble is not coming from that age group, but younger groups?

He frowns, I would say it is a data collection problem or even about something we do not track.

President Agnor Jensen is now very serious, I thought that also, but we have looked at it from all the angles and all possible situations and we have come up empty. This mortality rate is several deltas from the normal. We need access to general medical records of all those that have died in the last ten years. We want to prove that they have nothing in common and it is a fluke.

Dr. Balder Hansen looks confused, You know that such a request even for dead patients is not possible without the families approving it.

Present Angor Jensen almost begs, Baldur your staff collects such information as cause of death, age, occupation, plus other information. We do not want much more, but the treatment rendered I think is the key.

Dr. Balder Hansen smiles, Oh, you know the medical establishment would hang me alive if I even considered such a thing. They would think you are on a witch hunt.

He pauses, thinks and says, "But, there was a situation just last week in the South, a most unusual case. There was a Health Board Commission taking disciplinary action against a young doctor. He administered several tests they thought were unnecessary and way outside the General Medical Book’s guidelines; The Doctor who wrote The MGB book thirty years ago, was chairing the investigation.

I usually have my staff review their actions. This time however, I had a copy show up in the post after the interviews but before their final ruling. The doctor under review had two young women in their mid-30s. He followed the MGB, and one of them died in two months. The second one had somewhat similar symptoms and he ordered the tests for a woman going into late menopause, without the three-week delay for the commission to review the case. They would've rejected it anyway. The results showed a large calcium loss and other minerals. He started an aggressive treatment and hospitalized her for a week. She is much better now but is still being watched every week.

Dr. Balder Hansen rubs his face before continuing, I told the author of the MGB that he was well over the mandatory retirement age. I was ready to release to the press the commission's ruling and the complete review. He left the same day, the ruling was not issued, and the hearing never really happened. I will send you the folder, treat it as confidential, I will have it archived and sealed after you are through with it. As I said it was an unusual case.

President Agnor Jensen says, Thanks, send me all the data you can, I am going to keep looking.

After several hours of conversion about the kids and the North Sea, they all pack up and go back to the city and home.

Chapter 3 The Trail is Starting to Appear

Monday afternoon a package from Dr. Balder Hansen heads toward President Agnor Jensen's office by private courier.

Meanwhile President Agnor Jensen is beating the bushes using everyone he knows to collect data on any and every death. He finds an unexpected source in suspicious deaths that required an autopsy. The records are more or less public, and the President of the largest medical school has the influence to obtain most of them. Some cases under active police investigation could use an independent medical review.

It takes three weeks to review the cases and then two more weeks to study those of interest. They even find some additional information on one of the open police cases. The police were not too happy about their nosing around but since it was for the medical school they overlooked it this time. But the information did result in an arrest.

President Agnor Jensen and Dr. Balder Hansen meet again after five weeks for lunch.

Dr. Balder Hansen says, You might have opened one of your cans of sardines. I hear that a few people feel you should review every autopsy.

President Angor Jensen says, Well, I expect you to kill the idea quickly. I ruffled some police feathers and won't do that again without a written request from the police.

Dr. Balder Hansen pushes three folders from his brief case across the table and says, You know that a small alert went out from the two cases because of those young women. These three cases were caught but are not progressing as well as we wish. They are still hospitalized. There is no need to return the copies, keep them. You may call the physician for clarification or an update. After your staff looks at these maybe, you could put a small synopsis in our monthly pamphlet.

President Agnor Jensen says, Thanks Baldur, are you starting to get on board with this project?

Dr. Balder Hansen shakes his head, No, six cases and maybe one more does not constitute a national emergency or even a warning or high notice.

President Agnor Jensen after lunch can hardly wait to get back to his office.

Coming through his door with the three medical cases he says to his secretary, Please make three copies of these files, labeling them 0, 1, 2, and log the number of pages. Deliver them to Dr. Hill, I will keep the originals.

At 3 pm, the three copies are passed out by Dr. Hill in a staff meeting. He says, In these three cases, take your copy and give me a standard work up, plus what follow-up you recommend. Take two days and we’ll meet Friday at lunch, I’m buying. I hope this will free all our weekends this time.

The chance of a free weekend causes some late-night hours to be burned. The three teams are all ready by Friday morning and hold an impromptu meeting at 9 am. They cycle each other’s findings around the table.

One lead medical student says, For me these cases are identical to the ones we have seen. One case is close, but the minerals lost are different and there are different symptoms. The last case is bizarre. It is no wonder they were slow on picking up the problem. I doubt I would've found that needle, it is unique. The treatment appears to work but is not in any book I know.

They leave to return for a free lunch and the weekend off in several hours.

Chapter 4 Eighteen Months Before the Reception

The chairman of the pure mathematics department is having lunch with the chairman of the applied mathematics department of the Universities of Denmark in Copenhagen. It is the largest and most prestigious college in the country. This is their normal lunch date. Every possible subject is discussed after the grandkids.

The pure mathematician says, I do not have enough money to support another post-doc, maybe we could somehow share?

The applied chairman grins, I was about to ask you the same thing. We do not want to lose this talent; if we do, they are gone for good.

They both write a number down and pass a slip of paper to the other person. They realize even adding their numbers together does not make their total large enough to keep Rebe with them. Rebe is short for Rebekka Lindgren; her closest friends call her Sam.

The applied chairman says, Through the grape vine. I hear there are going to be several professorships offered to her offshore and we cannot even come up with a livable post-doc position in either department. This type of talent we may never see again in our careers.

The pure chairman says, We could go up the line, but they will not be willing to share. Both will want all of her.

They stare at the dessert on their plates in a very somber mood. Before they can finish the boiled pudding, the head of the medical school comes up and takes a chair.

He says, I guess I will not order dessert today. It doesn’t look like it’s very good.

Even the director of the second largest medical school in the country has a sense of humor. He is only half joking.

He continues, Actually I came to find you two. I have a problem or maybe we all have the same problem. Rebe, Sam to all of us, will be certified and Board approved by the end of the week. I need to keep her if possible. Is there a chance we could do a little sharing? Part-time with me, and one of you. Sam is leaning to be a surgeon but that is a waste of her talent. Also, I fear there may be a post-doc with one of you?

Both chairs smile and one says what both are thinking, Have we got a deal for you!

They sit and work out a plan to fund Sam for the next six months on a napkin. This will get them to the start of the fall term.

The director of the medical school says, What I have to do is sell this to Sam before a larger offer comes in and those offers will be coming.

The three of them will succeed, not because of their great offer, but because of the time of the year; and Sam will get to work in all three areas. The three people leave hoping they can convince the powers to be to fund a new position next year to capture this talent in one of their areas.

Everyone is hedging their offer as best they can as the fifth month is ending in their six months of funding. The medical director takes it upon himself to submit a letter to President Agnor Jensen of the Central Medical College. It is the largest medical school in Denmark. He is requesting that Rebekka Lindgren be placed on their list for consideration. He does this without her knowledge. It is unusual but not unheard of what he has done. He wants to keep Sam in the medical area, not pure or applied mathematics.

President Agnor Jensen reads the somewhat personal letter from the medical director and does not bother to read the short two pages of the application. He sends it along with other forms to the selection committee chairman. The selection chair takes Rebekka Lindgren’s two pages of qualifications, copies them on pink paper and places them in the review folders. The three-person selection committee is each given a complete folder of all the applications. They also receive an empty folder to be used as they segregate the applicants.

The committee reads each application some being the maximum of four pages. In several days, they have the applications in one of the two folders. Rebekka is still the last one in a folder and the only pink one in it. The three reviewers exchange folders twice more and several now have a third folder as they review the other examiner’s folders.

Several days later, the review team meets to discuss any differences among the folders and the order of the candidates. As usual, the third folder is now empty for all three examiners, and they have the top five candidates differing in only the fourth and fifth positions in two folders. Rebekka's pink papers are still at the back, but not because of the ranking.

The selection chairman asks, Shall we remove number six and get the preferred list down to five?

The others shake their heads, no, Without the pink one there would be no need. Those five made the short-list and that is worth something. I will write the standard letter for the five on the short-list, those in the top ten, and the rest. What do we do with the pink one? The pay we have is a lot less than what she will be offered elsewhere. President Agnor Jensen has been known to pay out a little more. I say we offer and see what happens.

The selection committee makes the pink papers their number one candidate; their job is complete. The folders and their letters of recommendations will be a complete package forwarded up to President Agnor Jensen.

Three days later, Rebekka Lindgren better known to her friends as Sam receives a letter from the Central Medical College in Denmark with surprise and wonder. It being the largest medical school in the country.

Rebe opens the official letter, reads it twice and thinks, ‘why offer me anything, I did not apply for this.’

She looks at the table where there are already two offers to consider. Maybe not quite what she wanted, but they are first-class schools and tenure is assured in two years. The research work is with the top people in their fields and on the leading edge of a great adventure.

Rebe thinks, ‘what do I do? Since they do not usually make mistakes, I will go down later this week and see about this medical offer in Copenhagen.’

The next morning in his office, Rebe meets the unknown culprit who submitted her application unknown to her

He says with a small smile on his face, Sam, take a seat. I have your official Medical Certificate and Board Approved Certificates to give you. Plus, I convinced the two chairs to let me inform you that you will have your two PhDs at commencement. They will give you the formal paperwork.

He pauses for a moment, Now I have a confession to make. We just do not have the position or money to keep you here. But I do have an offer from the three of us. Besides, we are all too young to retire and give you our jobs. As a backup, I applied through the back door to the only medical school larger and better funded than we are. You will likely be on their short-list and that is something.

Sam responds, Oh, so you are the culprit that sent in my application. I've been offered a post-doc like position at the Central Medical College. They said that since I have Board certified papers, I could start immediately making use not only my medical but my mathematics degrees.

Sam gets very serious, I was intending to continue here and consider surgery.

The director responds to her like a father, Sam, you would make a great surgeon, but your talent is much more than that. I hate to lose you here, but for the greater good, you need to move on.

Rebe stands, shakes his hand, Thanks for that. I will consider what you have said.

Chapter 5 Twelve Months Before the Reception

President Agnor Jensen of the Central Medical college believes he has hired a young if somewhat inexperienced intern by the name of Rebekka Lindgren. She is coming in today to fill out the paperwork. He does not know she is a fully Board-Certified medical doctor and has several PhDs in mathematics, a very rare combination.

As the President of the Central Medical College and Hospital, he makes it a point to greet each new person in private. He will spend a few minutes and get to know what is beyond the written page. While he signs the official appointment, he never reads a word. He trusts those recruiting and the choices they make. More people are found and appointed than the number that personally applies for an internship.

President Agnor Jensen has not even read the first page of the only open folder in front of him while sitting at his desk. He is looking for that first impression.

His phone buzzes. He thinks, ‘she is on time, or she came a few minutes early and waited, I wonder which.’

He goes to his office door to find out what new adventure this will bring. He opens the door, and she stands up from the couch. He walks across the carpet floor, which has the school logo woven into it. He extends his hand and must look up a bit to meet her steel gray eyes. The handshake is firmer than most men.

Hello, I am President Agnor Jensen; I am pleased you chose to join us. Please come in.

He turns to his secretary, No calls please.

He follows her into his office, this not a student but a lady. She is wearing a gray business suit, knee length semi tight skirt and high heels. She is carrying a leather folder, not a briefcase. She has turned every head as she crossed campus. She takes a chair, refusing his slight invitation to the sofa. He takes his chair behind a large wooden desk, with only his phone and her open folder on it.

He feels he may be losing control of this meeting. She is all business; her blonde hair is pulled back into a tight bun. She has high cheekbones, good jaw line, and very little makeup that needs nothing more. Her stare is more penetrating than her handshake.

He says, I did not have time to read more than your name, Rebekka Lindgren.

He never admits that to any applicant!

She smiles and says, Rebe is fine with me or Sam.

He shifts, just a little uncomfortable in his custom-built chair, Good, there is too much titling; now days, you may call me Agnor.

She looks a little too serious to suit him, "President Agnor Jensen, I would prefer to use your title except