Our Cover has been Blown

Friday 7:55am  Dr. Kalpana Kelkar’s phone intercom flashed on and Crystal’s voice came over, “Are you there yet?”

  “Yea, whatsup?”

  “MJ is taking your patient back but I’m afraid someone followed them into the back office.”

  “Got it” she replied, grabbing her stethoscope. She glanced down at the result of a blood count and made a note to herself to repeat another set of labs as she made her way down the hallway. After setting her laptop down at the nurse’s station, she pivoted and followed two sari-clad Indian women. The women walked in unison, trailing behind the family being led into an examination room.

  Dr Tricia Sias, new to the practice, turned her head down the hallway, curious to see why Kalpana had abandoned both her stethoscope and her laptop behind. What she saw left her speechless...

  Kalpana reached into a pocket of the lining of one of the woman’s saris. She retrieved two knives and, without hesitation, flung them straight ahead. Anticipating the move, the Indian women parted and leaned outward, avoiding the sharp blades that whizzed past their shoulders. The knives narrowly missed the family who’d been hurried into one of the examination rooms and struck the man instead.

  He writhed and twisted against the steel that pierced his shirt sleeve and pant leg, anchoring him onto the wooden door (and putting unnecessary holes and scratches into the vision chart). In a flash of swirling colored saris, the Indian women rushed forward, detached him, and then escorted him out the back door.

  Kalpana glanced over her shoulder and found Tricia looking both stunned and confused. “I guess Badaracco hasn’t updated you yet?”

  “What? What just happened?”

  “Talk to Badaracco...”  And with that, she opened the door of the exam room and entered with a cheery “Hellooo, how is everyone today?”

  Tricia returned to the nurses’ station with her mouth dropped open. “Did anyone see that? What’s going on?” The pitch of Tricia’s voice was higher than normal and a pink flush colored her cheeks. Blank faces returned her gaze. ‘Didn’t anyone see Dr Kelkar just now?…”

  MJ came from behind and took in the situation. “Dr. Badaracco has not talked to you yet? Don’t worry... everything will be fine.” She retrieved Dr. Kelkar’s abandoned laptop and headed back down the hallway.

8:20am  Dr. Susan Badaracco left the exam room shaking her head. “I had to explain that french fries don’t count for a vegetable...again” Iris motioned urgently toward the waiting drug rep who slid forward with his laptop open and ready. Susan groaned when she recognized him but then scrolled through the information on his screen.

  “Will you be signing?” he asked.

  “Of course.” Challenge accepted. This was no ordinary drug representative and Susan motioned to Dr Marla Conger before entering the next exam room, where twins with sore throat awaited her. “I just signed, you’re up next.”

  Marla also read the information, nodded to herself, and then signed with her finger on the pad before entering the room to start her nine month well visit. The rep turned on his heel and drew the laptop up to his chest as Tricia approached. “You must be Dr. Sias, I’m afraid that I don’t have you in my system yet.”

Tricia frowned. It appeared he was hiding something from her but what?

8:30am  Sensing something amiss but unsure what to do next, Tricia walked into her next exam room (a thirteen year well visit who also wanted to get her opinion on hoover boards)​

  Susan finished reassuring an anxious mom and then rushed down the hallway to the office of the clinic administrator. Lisa Hobbs invited her in. “We have a problem,” she began.

  Lisa responded before she could finish, “I’ve been waiting for you. I have something to show you...” She pressed a few buttons on her computer keyboard and the shelves behind her swung inward. Her door lock engaged just as the stairs appeared. The two of them descended rapidly.

  “I don’t have much time,” Susan said.
  “Who does?” replied Lisa.

  Lisa tapped a few more strokes on another keyboard and a world map appeared. Routes were highlighted and one destination, in particular, drew their attention. Highland Village.

  “When is the shipment due? How much time do we have? How good is our intel?” Susan fired off questions as Lisa highlighted each section of the map.

  “It appears shipments have already started to arrive”. Lisa replied as she keyed up another screen. Both women sighed when they saw the list with multiple drop dates.

  “Well, that explains today’s earlier visitor.” Susan watched the map blink out as she entered the termination code and then ascended the stairs with Lisa close behind.

  “Why are we the last to know, how come the Indians have such good intelligence? They were already here today, helping us out again.”

  Lisa shook her head but didn’t answer, instead pushing on a hidden button. The shelves swung forward and clicked into place, once again camouflaging the staircase and its entrance into the chamber below. The door lock disengaged and Susan walked out on her way to check out the eight year old with abdominal pain (who had no idea where the remainder of the Halloween candy went). Lisa remembered something and called out, “Have you brought Dr. Sias onboard?” But Susan was already gone.

8:55  When Leigh Gistinger logged on for the morning, she noticed that she already had an urgent message. Leigh, timeline has moved up considerably, will need your input by noon meeting today. She read the enclosed information then reviewed the lipid panel for her first patient of the morning.

  Lisa Spangler also received an urgent message. Shipments seem to be originating in China. Will need to reach out to your Chinese contacts to explore the situation further. She pulled up a new computer screen.

9:00am As Leigh walked into her first visit for the day  (triplets that needs sports physicals), Mel Calhoun was pulling up factory locations and shipping lines. She copied this information to the appropriate parties.

Noon  Sarah Caudle was the last one to finish seeing patients for the morning. She entered the office and pulled up a chair to the conference table. Marla barely waiting for her to sit before beginning, “Lets start with a quick reminder. Our team had made significant progress and were fully expecting to finish this assignment in 2012 when bankruptcy proceedings successfully put an end to worldwide production. As you recall, a buyout by Apollo Global Management enabled flow of goods again starting in mid-2013.” She sighed before adding, “Recently been sold again. Leigh?”

  Tricia interrupted before Leigh could begin, “Excuse me but what are we talking about? I thought we were reviewing the work up for newborn rashes.”
  Leigh gave her a sympathetic look before beginning, “I want to point out the gravity of the situation. My investigation on the internet shows that the ingredients are coming from oil fields in China, phosphate mines in Idaho and gypsum mines in Oklahoma. Other ingredients, a total of thirty-nine, are used for the production of sheet rock, shampoo and rocket fuel. This is a very real threat to our kids!”

  “Are we talking about drugs, is that what we are talking about?” Tricia tried one more time.
  Susan held up her index finger, motioning that she would explain later. “Other updates?” she asked.

  Sarah pulled out the folder that Mel had worked on and reviewed the list. “I think I have this.” She pointed out the local warehouse locations. “I will, of course, have to drop by after hours to handle the situation. I already have a team on standby.”

  “Charles called and we're making progress too” Marla added.
  “I didn’t notice any computer problems,” said Tricia “What’s he working on now?”

  Marla made some adjustments to her computer screen before looking up at Tricia and replying. “He’s working on the firewall at Apollo Global. We’re making significant headway and expect to have altered the shipping manifestos by tonight. Hopefully diverting future shipments.
  “He’s working on the firewall....” Tricia murmured and then fell silent.
  Missy took over, “I’ve come up with a new angle to approach this. I’m going to broadcast some information concerning a possible link to autism.”

  “Brilliant,” said Marla, “it’s conceivable, if we’re talking maternal diet. Conceivable...get it?”

  “I thought the proven health risks were scary enough.” said Leigh.

  “They are but we agreed to stay ahead of this. If there’s any possibly link...are you doing the usual Missy?

  “Yup, this afternoon you can expect to see studies on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. I would like to drop an article on Wiki... Marla can you help with that?”
  “I’m all over that, send me the copy of the information” she replied with a grin, “Gotta get back to work now”. Marla stood up, glancing at her schedule as she walked out the door. Providers scrambled when they too, noticed the time and realized that they had patients waiting for them.
  Tricia grabbed Sarah’s arm as she attempted to exit.

2:00pm   “Seriously, what is going on...”
  “Susan still has not had the talk with you yet? Umm, Kids First is not exactly a front business since we are really a pediatric clinic but we do have other skills that we utilize...Sarah paused when a knife flew past her and anchored into the eye chart... again.

  Before Tricia could blink, Sarah ran down the corridor and then up the hall wall. For a moment, her body was horizontal to the ceiling. Tricia stared wide-eyed and narrowly missed the second knife as it, too, shot past her. Sarah leapt from a Spider Man-like crouch and landed on the back of tall stranger. The two of them stumbled, off balance, until Sarah used one leg to kick off the wall and launch the two of them into an exam room.

  Stephanie sauntered by, nodded at Tricia, and then closed the door, dampening the scuffling noises from within. Further down the hallway, she shook her head when she noticed the knives. “Need to get Mel to order another eye chart,” she murmured.

  Tricia froze for a moment as she watched the weapons slide into Stephanie’s pockets. When Stephanie turned the corner and disappeared, she propelled herself into room where Sarah had disappeared.

  “I love this new sports tape! Sarah smiled up at Tricia as she finished tying up the last knot on the now scowling man. “Now, I better get back to work.” Sarah grabbed her laptop from Jose just as Angie and Joy entered the room.

  “Are you going to...” started Dr Sias.

  “This is nothing compared to giving shots to a eight year old,” answered Joy as both medical assistants pushed the struggling man toward the back door.
2:15pm   “The new face recognition software is not working.” complained Lucia as she entered Lisa’s office.
  “What happened? I thought we had the bugs worked out.” Lisa replied.
  “The new employee tried to frisk one of pregnant moms. And don’t get me started on the metal detector, do you know how many false alarms we’ve had with piercings?”
3:00pm “Siblings who claim they can only walk backward since their mother forced them to eat vegetables, hmm, interesting case.”  Kalpana leaned back into her chair and took a sip of her afternoon coffee.

  “So you look like you have a few minutes to explain to me WHAT IS GOING ON??” Tricia’s voice rose to a yet unheard higher pitch.
  “Oh yeah, sure.... Where do you want me to start?”

  Angie’s voice interrupted her over the intercom. “Did you see the stat labs you ordered?”

  “No, let me check on them” Kalpana replied, with her fingers flying over the keys. Tricia pulled closer to Kalpana, a silent reminder that she was not going anywhere until she had answers. Kalpana finished and then looked up to Tricia. “You know that Indian dancing group I belong to?” she started.“We don’t just dance...”

3:20   Missy looked up when Susan walked into the back office. “You still haven’t talked to her yet, have you?”

  “No time yet, should I have Lisa talk to her?” Susan replied as she grabbed the phone.

  “Wouldn’t do that if I were you....she’s still trying to clean up the Cuban problem and it has been a bit of a delicate situation, remember?”
  Susan nodded, “I better make time myself...” The phone intercom went off. Iris was letting her know that her next patient was ready. She passed by Marla on her way out of the room. “Still doesn’t know…” Susan said.

  “You loser, when are you going to tell her?” Marla laughed.
  Tricia walked in and saw Marla bent over her desk scribbling notes.

  “Can you please explain what is going on?” Tricia begged.
   “Sure” said Marla. “Let me remember, I think we started the computer charting in 2001. Soon after that I started dabbling in running reports. I started to see some interesting trends based on an entirely innocent observation. Well, maybe not 100% innocent. See, I wanted to test some of my computer skills so I kinda hacked into a company. Really, it wasn’t NASA or the CIA or anything. In fact, it was a bit of a joke a first. Then, what I uncovered was not so funny. Distribution of shipments were corresponding to...”

  “Dr Conger!” Joy’s voice sounded over the intercom, “did you realize that you had a patient in room N?”
  “Drat, I’ll finish with you later or you can catch up with Badaracco.” Marla edged around Tricia as she headed to the door.
4:00pm​   Tricia walked toward her desk after completing well visit in time to see Sarah getting ready to leave. Sarah had changed clothes and appeared to be ready for a work out.

  “Crossfit tonight, Sarah?” Tricia asked.

  “Well, kinda. I’m meeting up with our Crossfit team and we will be running by a certain warehouse to remove a shipment that arrived this afternoon.
   “Your Crossfit team is even involved...involved in what exactly?” Tricia asked.

  “Well, we all have our roles but our training makes us uniquely able to do heavy lifting while also addressing any obstacles that may present themselves.

  “But what are you actually doing in the warehouse?” Tricia asked but Sarah had already slipped out the back door.
  Mel walked in to see Dr Sia’s head cradled in her hands. “Cheer up,” Mel said, “it’s really all about the kids and doing whatever we can to keep them safe”.

  “Safe from what??” Tricia looked up in time to see Missy’s approach.

  “I guess you could say we will do anything to keep kids save from any danger. We have formed a team to make us more effective. While Marla can delve inside the internet, I like to think I work kinda on top of it...like creating a spider’s web of connections. We recognized the power of social media and are capitalizing on it.

  “Unfortunately, our work towards protecting children has made us a bit of a target,” said Leigh as she sat down to join the conversation.
4:10   Jose popped his head in the door, “Dr Sias, your 4:00 patient arrived a bit late and your 4:20 arrived a bit early, who do you want to see first?” Tricia looked backward at Missy and Leigh as she walked out. “Can we finish this conversation later?”

5:50pm  Crystal had been suspicious when she checked in the new mom consult. First, she did not look pregnant and second... something just did not seem right about her. Crystal logged her into the schedule but also typed a quick message to the back office. A message that Dr Sias, now really on the lookout for suspicious activity, couldn’t help but notice.
  Think we have trouble with Dr. Sia’s new mother consult.
  Tricia had no idea what to do with this information. She shrugged her shoulders and went to the next room.

  Susan finished working with her last patient of the day. She stopped by the nurse’s station to give Iris some last minute instructions. It was there that she saw the message flashing on the computer screen.

  Several things happened at once.

  Kassie was walking the new mom down the hallway as she explained about the medical practice. Caught up in her story and eager to point out the decorated exam rooms, she did not see the woman pull a small pistol from her purse.

  Dr Sias opened the door just as the two women were passing by. She saw the side profile of the woman...with a gun in her hand—aimed at Kassie’s back. Instinct, and possibly a little frustration, took over. She stepped forward (while closing the exam door behind her).

  Without pausing she lifted her laptop and slammed it onto the woman’s outstretched arm. The gun tumbled and came to a rest on the carpeted floor at the nurse’s station. Lisa Spangler, on her way back from the break room, reached down and palmed the weapon. She locked it into a nearby (childsafe) cabinet before returning to her desk.
  Joy and Angie appeared from nowhere. In seconds, they had tourniquets tightly bound around the woman’s wrists and a roll of gauze jammed in her mouth.

  Susan looked up at Tricia and smiled. “You’re going to fit in just fine....”
  “FIT INTO WHAT?”

The above story is based on facts. Not many facts actually but just a few…
From Wikipedia:
Twinkies were created during the time of the Great Depression as a snack cake. They were originally made by Hostess but then purchased by private equity firms Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos. These firms paid $410 million dollars to save the company and return Twinkies to our grocery shelves. Apollo has since sold Hostess for 2.3 billion dollars.

Urban legends claim that Twinkies have an infinite shelf life but the company reports it is only 45 days.
In 1978, Daniel James “Dan” White murdered the mayor of San Francisco. He claimed to have been overcome by depression and was consuming a large amount of junk food and soft drinks. During the trial, there was testimony that said that elements of such a poor diet could worsen existing mood swings. This came to be known as the “Twinkie Defense”.

Kid’s First cares about what kids eat but we haven’t formed a secret squad to defeat the importation of Twinkies (yet)… despite the fact that the list of ingredients is a bit concerning.