Beethoven Virus Ch. 01

"And I agree that he meant it as an insult." said Seth Warner. To Roberts he asked: "Who are these guys?"

"This man is Jeff Woolsey, the CEO of BigBenefitInsurance." said Alton Roberts, indicating the distinguished man. "This snot-nose asshole is David Palmer, the most despised actuary for BigBenefitInsurance. He's been sued multiple times------"

"Let's not get into accusations of that kind." said Jeff Woolsey.

Shanice fired back: "Oh, so your snot-nose asshole can accuse us of deliberately messing with our patients's prescriptions, but we can't call him out for cutting off people's insurance? You're a God damn hypocrite! And both of you can kiss my ass!" Murmurs of agreement started up.

"Mr. Woolsey, let's step into the hallway." said Seth Warner angrily. To the rest of the guests he said "This tour is over."

They went into the hallway, where Seth Warner turned on David Palmer and fronted him: "Who the fuck do you think you are to accuse my employees of malfeasance of that kind?"

"Again, Mr. Warner," tried Woolsey, "it's a misunderstanding, and I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it sounded... right, Mr. Palmer?" That was a 'hint'. Palmer ignored it.

"Mr. Woolsey," Palmer said loudly and snottily, standing face-to-face with Warner and not backing down, "I meant every word that I said. I suggest we drop University Hospital and any of its patients from our coverage until they either guarantee that system cannot fail, or do away with it."

"What the hell is going on here?"

Everyone turned to see a very tall, raven-haired woman in a doctor's coat over her dress coming up, and a very tall, broad-shouldered man with strawberry-blonde hair and wearing the uniform of a Police Officer right behind her.

Dr. Laura Fredricson said "We can hear you all the down the hall, and so can the patients."

"So what?" shot back Palmer. "Your Hospital Administrator is running an unsafe operation in this Hospital. And worse, he lets you be on Staff here, after being referred to the State Medical Board twice! It's only a matter of time before we get your license revoked, you fucking bitch."

To Woolsey he said "If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll be going, and writing up my formal complaints to the State Medical Board."

He turned to go... and ran right into the red crowbar I'd extended across his chest. "What the fuck?" he gasped.

I said "I'm Commander Don Troy of the Town & County Police. Show me your ID."

"Fuck you." said the snot. Astute Detectives will quickly realize that was a 'wrong answer'.

I moved in front of him, and pushed the crowbar into his chest until his back was against the wall. "Let me explain something to you, punk. It is the law of this State that when a Police Officer asks you for your ID, you show it. If you refuse, you can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor or felony crime."

"You have no reason to hold me, nor to see my ID." tried Palmer.

I replied: "I'll ask you politely one more time. Show me your ID. If you refuse, or even say one word before showing it, I'm going to smash your face into the floor, pull your arms behind you and cuff your hands together, then literally drag you out of here and to Police Headquarters, where you will be fully booked and placed in a holding cell with some really bad people until you are arraigned, which may take 72 hours. So... what will it be?"

"My God, Commander, there's no reason------" started Jeff Woolsey. He shut up when I turned and glared at him.

"Mr. Woolsey, the Commander is correct." said Seth Warner. "My wife is a Police Detective, too. The Commander has made a reasonable request to be shown your employee's ID... especially after your employee pretty much threatened this Hospital as well as Dr. Fredricson."

Palmer had not moved, and Woolsey finally said "Show him your ID, Palmer." Palmer begrudgingly got his wallet out, took out his ID, and almost flipped it at me, but held on to it. I grabbed it out of his hand, handed Laura my red crowbar(!), then took out my Police iPhone and photographed the front and back of Palmer's license, which was from our State.

I handed the snot his license back, then said "Now get out of my County. If I see you again, I'll shove that crowbar all the way up your faggot ass, just on account of your goddamned bad manners."

"Did you hear that, Mr. Woolsey? All of you?" Palmer said. "Did you hear that cop threaten me?"

"Let's go, Palmer." said Woolsey, putting his hand on Woolsey's shoulder and pretty much pushing him down the hallway to the elevator. He did not speak further to any of us.

"Seth," I said, "you do have every patient's prescription on paper, don't you?"

"Yes sir." said Alton Roberts, who had come out into the hallway and watched the spectacle, as had Shanice the Pharma Tech. "It should be printed on every patient's chart in their rooms."

I turned and said "You need to make sure. Seth, you need to make sure that every patient has a paper chart with all their proper information on it, and you need to do it tonight. Laura, you need to back that up, and make sure all is good, as well."

"Yes sir." said Seth as Laura nodded. "But why? Do you think that little shit will try to do something to us?"

I said "I will not be surprised at all, not one little bit, if a team of auditors come in here tomorrow morning and crawl through this place with the equivalent of microscopes and tweezers. So be ready."

As Laura walked me down the hallway towards the exit where my Police SUV was parked, she said "I think we're in good shape. The Federal FDA and DEA came through here just a few weeks ago, and we were in full compliance." (Author's note: 'Who Watches The Watchers', Ch. 01.)

"It won't hurt to make sure." I said. "I dunno, maybe it's Alice funeral that has me down, but I've just got a bad feeling about all this..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When I returned to Police Headquarters, I'd barely made it to my office when Lt. Mary Milton knocked on my door. I had her come on in and take a seat. She refused my offer of coffee, so I poured some for myself in my Airborne School mug, and sat down behind my desk.

It is good to be the Police Commander. When I took those photos of Palmer's license, they went right to Intel Branch. Intel Branch knows that when the Police Commander is photographing an ID, it's a 'BFD'. So they began processing the photos and getting data on the subject of the photos immediately.

After opening pleasantries, Mary said "We've got some stuff on that guy whose license you sent us the photos of. His full name is David Becerra Palmer. He's a Junior Vice President at BigBenefitInsurance and Senior Vice President of its subsidiary, BigHealthBenefit Insurance. He started out as an actuary for them, then became a processing Agent."

Mary: "What turned up in our checks on him is that there have been almost twice as many complaints about him with the State Insurance Commissioner than all BigBenefitInsurance's other Agents... combined. And he has been sued by more of BBI's customers than all the others put together. The other lawsuits had about a 25% success rate, and a further 30% were settled before trial. Almost no one settled when Palmer was the main defendant, and BBI lost 75% of those cases."

"That bad, huh?" I said.

"Yes." Mary said. "This guy is just amazingly cruel. He's------"

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

The door opened to reveal Teresa Croyle, in uniform. I said "I could have sworn I told you to take a couple of days off."

"Yes sir, you did." Teresa said as she came on in and sat down in the other hot chair. "But I heard there was a little problem at my Hospital?"

"We were just talking about that." I said. "You ever heard of a guy named David Becerra Palmer?"

"Oh geez." Teresa said witheringly as she rolled her eyes. "Have I ever. As you know, I've been running the Trust Fund for the Hospital since it was set up. We're getting donations from all over the place; even St. Jude's, who has several outlets besides their main hospital, gives us a piece of their donations from this area."

Teresa: "It's set up that parents and/or their insurance can pay part or all of their child's treatment. Anything they pay helps us save money that we can apply to other children, of course. Well, most of the other insurance companies are decent about paying at least basic expenses, while we take care of the experimental stuff... but not BigBenefitInsurance, and especially not David Becerra Palmer."

Teresa: "He has canceled the insurance of families whose children are dying of rare diseases, especially if those families dare to enroll their children in our experimental programs. You remember Beverly, the Flower Shop lady, and her daughter Sarah?" (Author's note: 'Centuries', Ch. 01.)

"Yes." I said. "Little Sarah died just before we went out to your hometown, where you found out you were an heiress."

Teresa nodded. "Yes, she's the one. Well, the asshole that canceled Beverly's insurance just as she desperately needed money to pay for Sarah's treatments? David Becerra Palmer."

I said "That fits. The asshole was railing about the Hospital pharmacy's automated drug dispensary system. He was complaining that it wasn't guaranteed to be mistake-free... as if anything ever is."

Mary Milton said "That's what we were finding also, sir, ma'am." She reiterated the lawsuit stories for Teresa's knowledge, then said "A lot of the families that didn't settle with BBI, but pressed the lawsuits to trial, did so not because of the monetary gain, but to have it on record that their children died because of Becerra's actions denying them potentially lifesaving treatments... because he said the treatments were not fully guaranteed to work."

Mary: "In spite of the Court rulings, BigBenefitInsurance actually promoted Palmer, and brought him into their junior leadership. I guess causing children to die makes him good Swamp Frog material."

Teresa said "I heard something else about him that fits with all that. Someone connected to the insurance industry said that whenever BBI really wants to fuck over someone, it's David Becerra Palmer they bring in to do the dirty work. My conclusion as a Detective is that BBI must really want to fuck over University Hospital, if it was Palmer they brought in on that tour to bitch and moan about the pharmacy's operations."

I nodded and said "And he may have slipped up and told us what it was really about. When he saw Laura, he immediately started whining that she'd been brought before the State Medical Board twice before, never mind that the charges were false both times and she was cleared both times. That pissed me off, not only because Laura's my wife, but because I sensed a sinister intent behind it. And Jeff Woolsey, the BigBenefitInsurance CEO, was not only there, he didn't reel in his boy Palmer. Quite the opposite, in fact; he seemed to approve of Palmer's actions."

"We'll keep looking into it, sir." said Mary. "But so far, that's all I've got."

"That's good information, Mary." I said. "I appreciate it. You can go. Teresa, stay here a moment." Mary exited the office. I turned to Teresa and said "How was the funeral?"

Teresa said "Incredibly sad. And that's one reason I disobeyed you and came on in. I had to have something to do. If I had just gone home, I'd be curled up in a ball, crying my eyes out."

I nodded. "It's okay that you came in. Sherlock Holmes told Dr. Watson that work is the best antidote to sorrow." (Author's note: 'The Empty House')

Teresa said "I was told you watched the funeral with the Cancer Kids at the Hospital, and answered some tough questions with some sage advice. The Sheriff would say I'm kissing ass, but I'm not. I mean this. You take the hard challenges head-on, you beat them, and you help others beat them, too. And that's why a whole lot of good people love you and respect you, and why a whole lot of bad people hate you."

"Like I told those kids," I replied, "if I leave the world no poorer when I'm gone, I'll have done my job..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5:30pm, Monday, March 29th. Dr. Jerry Hinton and his brother Dr. Chris Hinton were relatively young but highly accomplished transplant doctors. Like renowned cardiologist Dr. Richard Searles, they were certified to conduct not only heart transplants, but transplants of other organs, such as complex liver transplants.

They had been brought on because it had been believed that Dr. Richard Searles would leave University Hospital for California, where his fiancée Mia McNamara was a celebrity actress. But Searles and McNamara had broken up, only to reconcile and get engaged again, so he was still on Staff at the Hospital.

Eight year old Tommy Hillman had been a classmate of Carole and Marie, but was now in University Hospital, fighting for life. He'd contracted a rare disease that at first had been thought to be hepatitis, but ended up being far more virulent and had just about destroyed his liver. A transplant was needed, and very soon... as in weeks, maybe days.

Dr. Jerry Hinton came into Tommy's room, where he and his parents were. "I have some good news." he said. "A compatible candidate for a liver for Tommy has been identified. He's a twelve-year-old boy that had been riding his bicycle when he was struck by hit-and-run driver's vehicle. He suffered massive head injuries and is brain-dead, and they're working through the legal issues to have him taken off life support at Midtown General Hospital. He is compatible in every way with Tommy, and would give Tommy the best chance of a full recovery."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" said Mr. Hillman.

"Well, I'm very sorry for the family of that poor boy." said Mrs. Hillman.

"Of course." said Dr. Hinton. "Things like this are gut-wrenching, I know. Our Catholic Chaplain, Father Romano, is available if you'd like to speak with him."

Dr. Hinton continued: "I also need to tell you that BigBenefitInsurance begrudgingly approved of the operation, since the compatibility between the donor and Tommy is as good as it can possibly get. But they're balking on paying for a helicopter life-flight to bring the liver up here from Midtown General; they want to use commercial vehicle transportation. The Teresa Croyle Foundation stepped in, and they're going to pay the difference between the costs. And if BigBenefitInsurance won't pay anything, the Foundation will cover it all..."

Part 4 - It Begins

5:20am, Tuesday, March 30th. The ringing of my Police iPhone awakened me, and if it had not, the redoubtable Bowser's furious barking surely would have. I heard Carole hushing Bowser as I answered the call: "Troy."

"Commander, this is the Duty Desk at Police Headquarters." said the Duty Desk Sergeant. "I'm sorry to disturb you at this hour, but University Hospital called. All of their computer systems have been shut down, and all of their files have been locked out."

"Okay." I said as I worked myself into a sitting position, which awakened Laura. "Call both Lieutenants Myron and Mary Milton, and have them go to the Hospital. And while you have him on the phone, have Lieutenant Myron Milton put our Police systems in whatever fail-safe he has, just in case someone tries to attack us, too."

"Wilco, sir." said the Duty Desk Sergeant, and we disconnected the call. I got on up.

"Trouble?" Laura asked.

"University Hospital." I said. "Looks like it may be some kind of computer virus attack. I'll take the dogs out, then go on over."

After dressing, I took the dogs out to do their business. The most very suspicious Bowser did not like it when I got phone calls in the night and then dressed and hurried away, so this was to fool him into believing that things were 'normal'. And it seemed to work. Bowser did not appear worried when I left after taking him and Buddy back inside...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When I got to University Hospital, it was practically on lockdown. Everyone had to show ID to get in or out. I showed my ID as I went in via the Emergency Room entrance, then headed down to the I.T. room, which was part of the Administrative offices on the first floor.

It was quiet but very tense in the Hospital. The morning routine had not really gotten started yet, but nurses were milling frantically about without seeming to be doing anything. I knocked on the door of the I.T. department, and the door was opened for me.

"Hi, Commander, I'm Marty Steen, Chief Information Officer." said Marty Steen. He was short, slight, and stereotypically geeky. He appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s. As I came inside, I saw three I.T. techs at their booths, which were cubicles with walls no higher than their desks so that one could easily see them. They also appeared to be relatively young, in their twenties. And they looked very nervous as they worked at their stations.

"Have you informed Hospital Administrator Warner about this?" I asked.

"Not yet, sir." said Steen. "I wanted to be sure this was a real problem, first, and not just a glitch or a prank."

"Go ahead and call him." I said. "He needs to hear it from you before the Press ambushes him." Steen wasted no more time in getting out his cellphone and making the phone call.

At a bench near the back of the room were two stations, and my Lieutenants Milton were there, furiously typing. "Whaddya got?" I asked as I came up to them. "Is it bad?"

"Yes sir, it's bad." Mary Milton said as Myron stared at his monitor and typed furiously on the keyboard some more. "We're locked out, and all the systems are either down or can't be trusted to operate. It looks like a ransomware attack."

"It's worse than that, sir." said Myron. "The Hospital has good ransomware protection. This is unlike any ransomware I've ever seen. It wormed in, took all the patient data, then set itself up to control access. The password is an eight-phrase passphrase, and each of those slots is 64-bit. Not even the Government's best computers at a trillion calculations per second could break this for... decades."

"And that's the good news, huh?" I said sardonically.

"Unfortunately, sir, that really is the good news." Mary said. "Literally every piece of Hospital equipment that is connected to the system is infected. Not only will they not work properly, any one of them can and will totally re-infect the whole system if they try to run. So we're going to have to disconnect every piece of equipment, scrub their software and maybe hardware, and that's once we've isolated the virus code."

"That's gonna cost." I said. "And speaking of cost, is 'Teresa's Trust' threatened?"

"Yes sir and no sir." said Myron. "The worm tried to get to it, but it's not on the Hospital's systems, and the only connections are bank transactions. It's behind the bank's firewalls, which weren't breached. But it was the first thing the virus looked for when it activated itself."

"Hmmm, that's a 'strangeness'." I said. "Has there been any attempt to contact us with a ransom?"

"Not that we know of, sir." said Myron. "But we immediately took the email system offline, and we haven't been able to access anything that came in, so far. I'm attempting to isolate a space where we can look and see if anything came in."

"Do you know how they get the virus into the systems?" I asked. "By email or internet?"

"We don't know for sure, sir." said Mary. "The email antivirus system isolates and contains any code that attempts to write itself in, but like Myron said, this virus is a game-changer in the the world of security technology."

"Sir," said Myron, "I think I've got something. It looks like a file was uploaded that had the malware on it... on Wednesday, February 10th."

"Whoaaaa..." I said. "That was when the Whiskey Convention was going on. And if memory serves me correctly, the FDA and DEA did an audit of the Hospital at that time." After a pause, I said "Okay, keep at it, and let me know if you find anything significant, or a ransom demand. I'm going to go liaison with the Hospital Administration, and with those who will have to deal with the rabid animals that call themselves 'the Press'..."