Beethoven Virus Ch. 01

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

6:30am, Tuesday, March 30th. When one came in through the lobby, the main hallway went left (north) towards the E.R. and the Maternity wing, to the right (south) towards the cancer and hospice wings. The admin reception desk was to the left. There was a hall that extended straight down to the back side of the Hospital, where a small Japanese Garden had been created in the 'back yard' area. A nurses station was at the intersection of the hallways, on the right (south) side of the hallway going straight back. The main nurses offices and the medical staff offices were behind that station.

Across from the nurses station, sharing a wall with the lobby, was a waiting room. I was in there, using my iPad connected to my Police iPhone as a 'hot spot'; the Hospital's wifi was shut down, and I wouldn't have trusted it anyway.

As I was putting out instructions and coordinating things, Hospital Administrator Seth Warner came in, accompanied by his lovely wife, Senior Detective Joanne Warner. Like a good MCD Detective, she was dressed in plainclothes, a navy blue skirt and jacket with a light silver-blue blouse... and her badge and service weapon on her belt under the jacket.

"Hi Commander." said Seth Warner. As we shook hands, he said "The Hospital CIO, Steen, called me. He said it looks bad, and that your people are on it already. I'm not sure what I'm paying him for, if his software protection is so bad, and he and his people can't handle it themselves."

"It may be unfair of you to blame them, Seth." I said. "Myron and Mary Milton are here, and they're extraordinarily good, as well as experienced in dealing with virus attacks against the TCPD's systems. They're telling me that this is unlike any ransomware attack they've ever come up against. And it may be too soon to call it 'ransomware', because we haven't heard about a ransom yet, but I digress."

"How bad is it?" Seth asked.

"Bad." I replied. "The patient files are locked out. Every bit of equipment attached to the system is infected and can't be trusted... and will have to be taken off the system and completely (air quotes) 'cleaned' before it can be used again."

"That'll cost a fortune to replace the electronics or completely replace the equipment, either way." said Seth. "But I'm less worried about that than just keeping our operations going, and getting our patients cared for properly------"

*Whirrrrrrrrrrr*

TCPD Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone drove in and parked her wheelchair right in front of me. She had been followed in by her husband, FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone.

"Hi guys." Tanya said. "Captain Thompson just got here, too... and so did Bettina. Our Officers are keeping her outside, but she already knows about the virus."

"How did she find out so fast?" Seth Warner angrily asked.

"Welcome to my world, Seth." I said. "That bitch always seems to know ahead of time, as if------" I stopped, remembering the time Tanya's wheelchair had been found to be bugged, and the enormous rift between me and Jack that had resulted... and was still an underlying problem between us. (Author's note: 'Cool For The Summer'.)

I hastily continued: "Okay, Tanya, get with Captain Thompson and get ready to make statements to the Press... but only as I direct, and only what I tell you you can tell them. Seth, I'd appreciate it if your Public Relations people refer anyone asking anything to the TCPD Public Relations Department."

"Sure." said Seth Warner. "And we need to have a meeting, to coordinate our actions."

"We will." I said. "Why don't you and Joanne go to the I.T. Department and get up to speed on what's going on. Tanya, you go ahead and get with Captain Thompson. And call the Chief and Sheriff, and let them know what's going on, if they don't know already. I need to have a word with Jack, here." Tanya bid us adieu and drove out smartly.

"Jack," I said, "a few weeks ago you told me the FDA and DEA had audited the Hospital. I asked you for the names of the Agents that conducted that audit, but never got those names."

"Uhhh, I didn't get them either." said Jack, looking like he'd just been slapped in the face as the memory came back to him. "Is that important?"

"Very." I said. "Myron has traced the file that introduced the virus. It was uploaded to the Hospital's servers... 'injected' would be a more proper term... and it was uploaded on February 10th, when that Federal audit was going on."

"You think a Federal Agent did this?" Jack asked.

"I think it's verrrrrry possible that a Swamp Frog was among those Agents." I replied. "And after the problems we had with the Swamp Frogs at that time, then them trying to frame Wes Masters, then that whole 'Lost Greuze' situation... yeah, it's a starting point for me."

Jack said "Okay, I'll get on the horn and start pushing some people's buttons. In the meantime, is there any help I can get you? Ashton Cardigan has one hell of a cyber-warfare team."

"Thanks." I said. "But let's see where we are, first. Myron and Mary Milton are on it, as well as the Hospital's IT team. And I have an ace up my sleeve..."

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

I had called TCPD Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle and asked her to come in... wearing civilian clothes. Ten minutes later, at 6:40am, she came hurtling in through the E.R. entrance and down the hall, in a dark blue dress and jacket, and medium heels. Her badge was on her belt, and her gun was holstered under her armpit under the jacket.

"I've called for a double contingent of Uniformed Officers to report here." Teresa said. "Mostly for security, to very physically push Bettina back if she keeps up her shit out there, and the rest------"

"Hold on." I said. "What is Bettina doing out there?"

"She had her KXTC van blocking the driveway to the E.R. area, and where you and I parked." Teresa said. "I had to stop, and she and her cameraman ran up, shoved the camera in my face, and Bettina shoved a microphone at me and began yelling questions."

"Uh oh." I said. "Did any Officers come to help you?"

"Not that I needed them, but yes." Teresa said. "But not before I turned on the 'ink pen', then got out of the car, grabbed the camera out of Scott Turnbull's hands and threw it to the ground, then slammed Bettina chest-down onto the hood of my SUV. I told Turnbull he had five seconds to move that KXTC van all the way off Hospital property, or else Bettina would be under arrest and so would he, and that their van would be impounded and not returned until their trials were over."

"Sounds like my Crowbar Clan Iron Wolf at work." I said with a smile. "So what happened?"

"The other Officers got there, and Turnbull turned the van around." Teresa replied. "He stopped and said he couldn't take Bettina out if I didn't let her go, so I threw her into the side of the van, and she went down in a heap. Officer Lisa Burrell helped her up and escorted her to the shotgun seat of the van, Bettina got in, and they drove off... to the southside parking lot."

"Yeah, that was dirty of them." I said. "If that had been an ambulance instead of you, I would've thrown Bettina in jail, fer damn sure."

Teresa said "I think Bettina and Turnbull moved the van when they saw my Police vehicle coming up the drive. Anyway, the Officers outside briefed me on what they knew. So I called for the extra contingent, and we're really going to beef up security at all the passes. Lieutenant DeLong is in tactical command..."

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

7:30am. The first potential disaster was looming.

I was called up to the Pharmacy, and Teresa came with me. Chief Pharmacist Alton Roberts, Pharmacists O.E. Lockhart and Max Smith, and several techs were standing there as the machines sat idle and the computers were shut down.

"We don't know what to do." said the lead tech Shanice. "The dispenser machines are down, and so are the computers. We can't fill the prescriptions."

"Do you have a printed list of the patients and their prescriptions?" I asked.

"Yes, Commander." said Alton Roberts, pointing at a pile of papers. "We printed them out last night, in case that little jerk Palmer called in the State or Federal dogs to audit us. But that list is the only one we have now, and we can't even make copies of that list. The copier here was connected to the wifi, and it's corrupted now. The big copy machine in the Records Department was also connected to the system and isn't working."

"I'm on that. Give me ten minutes." Teresa said as she fished out her cellphone and moved to the door to make a phone call. As she did that, I took charge and addressed the pharmacy people.

"Mr. Roberts," I said, "while we're waiting for a copier, why don't you get everyone setting up to manually put each patient's prescription on a tray------"

"Manually?" asked Shanice. "Are we allowed to do that?"

"You know," I said, "I grew up in a small town called Apple Grove. When I was a kid, we went to the local pharmacy to get our prescriptions filled. It was a small pharmacy in a small town, and they didn't have the fancy computers and the machines. They read the prescription... I don't know how, what with the chicken scratch the doctor's wrote in... but they poured some tablets onto the tray, counted off the number of tablets, poured them into the prescription bottle, poured the rest back into the bigger container, then gave the patient their filled prescription."

I continued: "So now, we're going back to those days, when prescriptions were filled by hand. And we will get the children in this Hospital the medications they need, and in a reasonably timely manner."

"I didn't sign up for that." said Shanice. "I'm outta here." She began walking towards the door."

"Shanice," I said as she was about to pass by me, "I would be very disappointed if you walked away from our cancer children when they need you the most."

"I'm sorry, Commander," Shanice said, "but the insurance company might come in and put me in jail... they may put all of us in jail."

I said "The insurance company does not have the power to arrest you. They would have to ask me and my Police Officers to do it. And what I like most about my job, Shanice... is that I can tell the insurance company, and the little snots like the one that was here yesterday, to pound sand. Well, I can tell them even worse, but I won't say that in front of you and all these upstanding pharmacy people." There were some chuckles at that, attempting to relieve the tremendous tension everyone was feeling.

"Dr. Roberts!" I called out. "From where did you get your degree?"

Alton Roberts replied: "The University of Georgia Pharmacy School."

I said "That's what I thought. And I happen to know that the UGA Pharmacy School is one of the very best in the Nation. So I have full confidence that you will be able to lead your people into getting this job done, amirite?"

"Yes sir." Roberts said. "All right, guys, let's get going. Are you with us, Shanice?"

"Aw, what the hell." Shanice said. "Who needs a job these days, anyway?..."

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

It took twenty minutes, which would earn someone a 'talking to' from the TCPD Operations Commander, but the TCPD's mobile copy machine was delivered to the Pharmacy room. Ranger Terry Halston set it and its accompanying laptop computer up.

"I've set it where neither the computer nor the copier can access wifi." Ranger Halston said. "Of course the Hospital's wifi is down already. All you have to do is run the papers through ten at a time, and it'll print copies."

One of the techs was assigned the manual copying task. Others set out the trays where the machine would've delivered them. The copy of each prescription was put on a tray, then the pharmacists went through filling the plastic cups or setting down a syringe one-by-one. Then doctors and nurses converged to deliver the drugs to their patients.

All-in-all, they were only forty-five minutes behind schedule. And suitably forewarned, they started early on the next round, and would deliver those pharmaceuticals on time.

"Well done, sir." Teresa said. "You got Shanice to stay, got Dr. Roberts's ass in gear, and got them to get it done."

"Psychology, Commander Croyle." I said. "I've learned a few things... listening to my wife talk in her sleep." A rare sound came out of Teresa's potty mouth: an actual laugh.

I then said: "By the way, where did that copier come from?"

"Oh, that." Teresa said. "I thought you knew. When we set up the mobile Court last summer to process the violent protesters, we had some problems getting paperwork printed. We were going to the copiers at First Precinct and County Jail, since the Courthouse was too far away. I talked to Tanya about getting a mobile copier, and it came in about two months ago. Judge Watts is getting one, too, for when his mobile Court deploys."

"Outstanding." I said as we went down the stairs to the first floor.

A command post had been set up in the E.R. doctor's lounge, which was across the hall from the I.T. room. We went inside to find Police Chief Moynahan, EMS Chief Leonard R. Cordell, Sheriff Griswold, Hospital Administrator Seth Warner, his wife Detective Joanne Warner, Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone, Captain Damien Thompson, Second Precinct Lieutenant DeLong, and FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone in the room.

"Get some coffee, Commanders." said Chief Moynahan, pointing his thumb behind him at a coffeemaker with two pots in the corner of the room. Then he indicated a chair at the table set up in the middle of the room, to his left as he sat at the far end. "Commander Troy, have a seat herrrre, next to me." I sat down with my cup of coffee. It tasted awful, and my face showed it.

"Hospital coffee is as bad as hospital food, Crowbar." the Sheriff growled.

"No doubt about that, Sheriff." I said.

"Where are we on all this, Commander Muscone?" the Chief asked.

Tanya drove over and parked herself at the table, then said "First, we've implemented our three-tier access plan. The first tier is the entrances to the parking lots and the ambulance driveway to the E.R. area. The second tier is to the walkways leading to the Hospital entrances, and the third tier is the entrances themselves."

Tanya: "The Press is being forbidden access to the grounds, and especially to the Hospital itself. We set up our Press Relations tent at the end of the walkway to the southern parking lot, and Captain Thompson is there. Bettina has been screaming at him all morning, until his patience finally snapped and he told her he'd arrest her if she said one more word to him. She said she was going to call Katherine Woodburn, and Captain Thompson said he'd arrest her, too, if she badgered him like Bettina was doing."

Everyone in the room laughed, then I said "What about KFXU and the other networks?"

Tanya replied: "KFXU's van arrived about 7:30, and Priya was much nicer to Captain Thompson than Bettina has been. Apparently KFXU didn't know anything until they heard Bettina's 7:00am report, though Bettina and KXTC had the story even earlier than that."

"So Bettina knew ahead of time?" Teresa asked, her voice full of venom.

I said "Probably, but maybe not. One thing Bettina and KXTC like to do is (air quotes) 'recruit' people to call them when something breaks, and they'll pay a hundred or more dollars for good tips like this one would be. So maybe Bettina got a call when this thing first broke. Of course, I cannot adequately express what my disgust would be if she really did know about this ahead of time and said nothing, putting our child cancer patients at mortal risk."

Chief Moynahan said "Let's move on. What is going on inside the Hospital, Mr. War-nrrrr?"

Seth Warner said: "All our computer systems are offline, and our wifi has been taken down as a precaution. All surgeries have been postponed for the day, as the equipment is infected with the malware. The Emergency Room is taking patients, but we are not admitting anyone else, such as for those previously scheduled surgeries that are being postponed."

"If I may add something." Tanya said. "Nextdoor County Hospital and Coltrane County Medical Center are satellites of University Hospital, and they've reported that their computer systems may also be compromised. So we can't send patients there.

Seth Warner said "That's correct. Right now we're referring all but E.R. patients to Hamilton County Regional Hospital, or to go across the State Line to Hammondsville, though their hospital hasn't been updated nor renovated significantly since 1979."

"Blessing in disguise." I said. "Our technological advances are great, and they save many lives... but as we can see now, they can be taken advantage of, and leave us potentially crippled. By the way, Seth, which doctor is the Chief of Staff around here?"

Seth replied: "It was Dr. Cordell, who did that job concurrently with his job as Hospital Administrator before I got here. After he left, Dr. Morgan and Dr. Fredricson have put in some extra hours helping out with that, but we don't really have an official Chief of Staff... it'd be a full-time job in itself, and most of our doctors, especially the newer ones, are here to work on their research under the Croyle Foundation grants."

Teresa said "We can talk about that after this crisis is over. But yes, for now there is something of a vacuum, there."

Dr. Cordell said "I'll take charge of that while this crisis is going on."

"Thank you, Admiral." said Seth Warner.

"Okayyyy, let's get hopping on this." Chief Moynahan said. "Commander Croyle, since you are a Hospital Board member, I'd like for yoooo to be our liaison with Mr. Warn-errrrrr."

"Yes sir." Teresa said, her face showing no emotion. My face did, and it wasn't because of the coffee. But I said nothing for the moment, seeing and feeling the Chief's eyes on me... and the Sheriff's eyes on him.

"Mizzz Muscone," said the Chief, "continue to oversee the Public Relations aspects, and also help with the equipment issuuuues. But please don't give away all of our equipment."

"Yes sir." Tanya said with a grin as she made notes.

"Mis-ter Crowbarrrr," said the Chief, "I'm sure yoooo will be seeking out the perps that did this. I also want you to be our liaison with the FBI on this. If it's found to be something across State lines, we'll have to have their help. And just like in kidnappings, the FBI is who we go tooooo when there are ransoms to be paaaaaaid."

I nodded, then said "If this is what I think it is, I'll need to call Commander Croyle in, in her capacity as Board Member and the Administrator of 'Teresa's Trust'." That was becoming our new name for the trust fund.

"What do you think it izzzz, Mr. Crowbar?" drawled the Chief.

"It's going to be a ransom." I said. "I'm expecting we'll be contacted soon..."

Part 5 - The Ransom Demand

8:50am, Tuesday, March 30th. I went into the I.T. Room, where Lieutenants Myron and Mary Milton were working furiously, with the help of the Hospital I.T. techs led by Marty Steen.

"Anything new?" I asked.

Mary said "We created what we call a 'bubble' for Marty to look at the emails. Marty, you have anything on that?"

"No." said Marty Steen, looking up from the laptop he was using. "Some of the data is pretty corrupted, and it's hard to read, but I can see enough that so far none of the emails involve a ransom."

I said "I doubt they'd send a ransom note weeks before the attack. If you don't find something within, say, 72 hours from when the virus activated, don't waste any more time on it."

Mary said "Yes sir. Myron, what do you have?"

Myron did not want to be disturbed as he seemed to be staring right through his monitor screen as he typed furiously. Without looking up at me, and his sentences breaking as he concentrated on his typing, he said "Once we started shutting down everything, the virus essentially... stopped replicating and spreading. But every time... we try to open a link to anything, it... attacks that link."