Omake Chapter: The doctor is in, Part II
1020hrs, 20 July 2012, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
"Modern medicine is a negation of health. It isn't organized to serve human health, but only itself, as an institution. It makes more people sick than it heals." Ivan Illich
"Sickness is the first warning that we have made a wrong judgment. A healthy person is never unhappy." George Ohsawa.
Dr. Kobayashi looked around the decrepit facility that he was standing in. The tall, white building in the middle of nowhereland, Japan, hidden by mountains and forests was quickly being overcome with weeds and organic growth; vines scaled the walls, rusting equipment sat in rooms slowly falling apart, almost all the windows were broken…this was the facility he was supposed to meet someone at? Five stories of ruined dreams and broken visions were all that remained of this facility, and it wasn't impressing Dr. Kobayashi in the least bit.
A car rolling up the long, winding road brought him quickly back to reality. It was a fancy Toyota Century, so whoever was coming here to meet him, must be really important. Kobayashi straightened his suit coat and walked over the limo, which had just pulled next to his more modest Mazda Versia.
The person who got out of the car was certainly not what he was expecting. A woman, in her mid-thirties and dressed impeccably in a skirt suit.
"Hello," she said to him, politely. She bowed very deeply, showing off some cleavage that was most certainly deliberate on her part. "My name is Beryl."
That's certainly an odd name, Kobayashi thought as he bowed back. They exchanged business cards before getting onto the business of the day.
"Thank you, Dr. Kobayashi for coming out here on such short notice," Beryl said to him. "Mr. Tanaka would have come out himself, but he's such a busy man, so please accept me in his stead."
Dr. Kobayashi simply nodded his head acknowledgement, then continued to stare at the abandoned facility.
"What's this all about anyway?" he asked suspiciously.
"We've got a new program coming up in the next year or so, and this will the headquarters for it."
Any time a high powered executive (or in this case, "Executive Assistant") started to use the words "New Program" (or other buzzwords…"Restructuring" "Reorganization" "Elimination of Waste" "Right-sizing"), it was time to be very scared.
"What exactly is the program about…?" Kobayashi asked again, not exactly pleased that Beryl was evading his questions.
Beryl smiled at him, creepily. Dr. Kobayashi didn't know what to think about her; she was so enigmatic and unreadable that trying to get the normal non-verbal clues out of her was basically impossible.
"Well, if you join up, then we can tell you everything about it."
And that's the big catch, Kobayashi thought to himself.
"What's the catch for joining up with you guys, hm?" Like hell I'm going to be working for some big mega corp, he thought cynically.
It was like Beryl could read his mind. "Oh, no. No no nooo," she chuckled back. "You're not working for our company. This is an official government project. We just own the building, but we'll be transferring it over to government custody soon."
That just made Kobayashi more suspicious. "Why isn't someone from the government out here then?"
"They're a bit busy with other things right now. Still trying to pick up the pieces from the tsunami and all that. Something about a vote of no confidence too, so that's been taking up the PM's office for such a long time." She forgot to mention the part that the PM didn't even know about the program yet. The pieces were all starting to fall into place.
He sighed. A creepy, unmarked facility in the middle of nowhere, plus a government project that was going to start soon? This was taking him back to Italy.
Again, Beryl read his mind. She brought up his personnel file on her iPad, pulling it out of her purse with great gusto, and read out loud to him.
"Hmm. This program in Italy that you were involved in? Tell me how that went?"
Kobayashi's heart stopped for a second. "No one is supposed to know about that," he growled. He didn't like to be blackmailed, and this was where it was going.
"Oh, we don't know much, since you left fairly early on before they got serious and started making cyborg warriors and all that good stuff."
She tapped on the iPad again.
"You need the work. Your talent is being wasted on hospitals that don't understand your genius. They only care about treating the symptoms," Beryl said, trying to tug at his emotions, "With this new program, you could help so many people."
Helping people. That was what Dr. Kobayashi was all about. It was so difficult trying to explain the nuances in brain surgery and in general, how the brain worked in general. If only I could make people understand…
But first, he had to get a little bit more information about what they knew about him.
"So, what else do you have on me?"
"Let's see. Born on 11 November 1960 in Osaka, completed undergraduate degree in Biology at Waseda University in 1980…hmm, it looks like you were roommates with our General Ishimura."
"Did he recommend me?" Kobayashi asked.
"He did put a good word in for you, but other than that, he was not involved in the interview process."
"Good." He really didn't want anyone pulling favors for him, then calling it in later. But a good word here and there wasn't bad either.
"Graduated top of your class. Accepted and graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1984. Completed internship and residency at Johns Hopkins University in Neurological Surgery. Applied and worked in the Neurosurgery department of St. Luke's International Hospital in Chuo, Tokyo until 1994. Worked at various hospitals until 2007, when granted a work visa in Italy, where you worked for the government doing Neurological research until 2009. Worked at the research department at Tokyo Medical University, but quit for personal reasons in May of this year. Divorced of January of this year, after a marriage of ten years. No children. No living relatives."
She looked up from the tablet computer, and smiled at him. "So you see, Dr. Kobayashi, we know your past, and certainly know what you're capable of. All that's left is to sign the paperwork, if so desire."
Dr. Kobayashi just stood there, looking at the woman who had just raddled off his entire professional and personal history.
She had a point. Perhaps he could make a difference, and the work he could do for the government would be better than just working for some hospital or research at some no-name medical school.
"Fine." He tapped his foot impatiently, but he was certainly leaning toward joining up with this program…whatever it was. "A couple more questions."
"This program will be addressing the needs of Japanese self-defense, and the modification of volunteers to be able to defend Japanese interests here and abroad. That's all I'm allowed to tell you unless you sign the papers."
Just like in Italy, he groused. "But they are volunteers, correct?"
Beryl was evasive, as usual. "In a manner of speaking, yes."
Kobayashi didn't like that one bit, but they had too much on him, and he needed the work. Beryl pounded the final nail in the coffin, however.
"Compensation will be set at 20,000,000 yen per year. Again, this is a government job, not a Nakanishi one."
That certainly set it for him. The divorce had bankrupted him, and morality aside, there was no way a person like him could take up work at a host bar or something other than medicine.
"Where do I sign?"
"Right here." Beryl turned her iPad around and revealed a page that basically said that legal action could be taken against him if he revealed and blah blah blah, been there, signed it before. She gave him a stylus to sign, and after a moment of hesitation, Dr. Kobayashi signed the electronic document.
"So…now that I'm in…what was this place beforehand?"
Beryl tapped furiously away at the unseen icons, saving his signature and making sure that it went through. After she finished, she looked up at the building for a second before speaking.
"This building used to belong to a very special division of the Nakanishi Group. The Nakanishi Biological Research Laboratories."
That caught Kobayashi off guard for a second. "Wait, I thought you guys were just into tech and banking."
"Well, we need to expand our horizons," she said. "Or tried to. It didn't exactly work out for us, as you can see here." She cleared her throat before continuing on. "Anyway, about five years ago, there was a terrible accident here. An explosion."
"An explosion?" Kobayashi looked at the building again. There didn't seem to be any damage to the building, so it must have been small.
"It was mostly confined to the basement, but we lost many good researchers. I'm afraid that's all we know, besides the one who caused it, and he's long gone."
"Could…could it happen again?" he asked.
"No, from what little we know, the head researcher was trying to come up with some way to help improve his daughter's health, and for children in general. But something went wrong, and most of the data was lost. Hence, what you see here." She gestured toward the building.
"I hope you plan on cleaning the place up," Kobayashi commented, taking a closer look at the facility. The front of the building had a place for cars to drive in, under a concrete roof, to disgorge their passengers. The entrance was a pair of broken double glass doors, and from what he could see from his position in the parking lot, there was a reception desk and several hallways leading off from the lobby.
"We're just having our contractors come in a spruce the place up. They'll be done within a month."
"Hmm." Kobayashi walked around a little bit more, examining the building before continuing on.
"What exactly is this project that the government wants me for?"
"Very good." More tapping on the iPad. "The program will be called "SAILOR-SF, short for the Systematic Awareness Intelligence Operational Recon Service Force. A couple of operatives will be tasked with defending Japanese interests abroad and…"
"What does that have to do with me?" Kobayashi interrupted. He didn't like where this was going.
"Ahem." Beryl didn't like to be interrupted, but answered his question nonetheless. "You will be tasked with improving performance via neurosurgery, and overall, you will be in charge of the project."
"The entire one? Even the 'operational' side of things?" Kobayashi was really regretting signing that document now.
"No, that will be left up to someone from the JSDF. But this will be your project. Your responsibility. You can make a difference, finally."
Yeah, in terms of body count, Kobayashi ironically thought. This was heading into legal grey area that was such a part of government work, but there was no other choice other than to plow forward and hope for the best.
"Do you have any more questions for me?" Beryl asked.
Kobayashi had plenty of questions indeed, but he knew that he would get no straight answers from this Beryl person. Perhaps a phone call to General Ishimura of the JASDF would help clarify some issues. And since he was now working for the government, it would help that he could get some political support on his side, just in case he needed it.
"No, I do not."
That certainly seemed pleasing to Beryl.
"This has certainly been a productive day," Beryl beamed at Dr. Kobayashi. "How do you feel about working in a month or so?" That coincidentally happened to be the time the contractors would be done cleaning the place up.
"Sounds good to me."
"And to sweeten the deal…" She went over to the car and pulled out a briefcase. "Here's a 300,000 yen advance, along with details of a bank account in Switzerland."
These guys must have really wanted me in, Kobayashi grimly thought to himself, taking the briefcase and bowing deeply.
"Thank you for your generosity. I will do my best to uphold your trust in me."
Beryl nodded. "We know you will." She checked the time on her iPad.
"Oh dear me. I have an appointment at 1300 in Tokyo, and I must be to the airport soon. Someone from the government will be in touch about your living arrangements here."
"Thank you." Kobayashi bowed again.
"It was my pleasure." Beryl bowed, and then hurried over to the Toyota Century, yelling at the driver to get a move on. The limo spun its tires as it accelerated out of the facility, leaving Dr. Kobayashi to wonder what the hell he had gotten himself into.