Chapter 21

Tuesday, January 18th, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Susan Benning, Director of Case Management for the Rock Mountain Cancer Center, nodded her head as she heard my orders and I sat in the chair opposite her desk. She was dressed in a neat business suit and looked to be in her late 50s.

I asked, “Can we speak openly without being overheard?”

“Yes, I often have private conversations here and have never had any issues.”

I told her, “On occasion I will need you to help me by compiling a report on two different kinds of recent patients who have been treated in the previous 2 weeks. The first kind are wealthy patients. I’m talking about the kind of wealthy where they want the best possible care and they don’t care what the cost is. The second kind is the really sad stories like when a child does not get a fair chance at life due to a terminal disease, or when someone doesn’t have the money or insurance to get a needed procedure done.”

“Do you see any issues with performing this task for me?”

She said, “No, I would be able to access all of that information. There are HIPAA rules designed to prevent unauthorized access to patients’ records and divulging private information, but I can work around them. You should be aware that there is a risk involved for me in doing it that might stop me from being able to do so in the future. For instance if I was fired.”

I said, “Well, we wouldn’t want that to happen. Do you think you could avoid detection?”

She replied, “Easily, but I would have to be careful not to do anything on the hospital equipment beyond looking at the information. Reading case files is part of my job function and would not in itself be suspicious, but all keystrokes and actions are monitored on hospital equipment, so I would need to be careful there. I could write the information down by hand and later send it from my phone or my home PC to get this done.”

I replied, “Excellent, we will proceed that way. Now, any day that you hear anyone mention ‘TPS Reports’, I need you to make a list of both types of patients with their names and a brief summary of their conditions. When you have the information compiled, email the updated report to an email address I will give you shortly. If you have more than a handful of patients for either group, I want you to prioritize them based on highest perceived wealth for the first group, and by most emergent situation on the second. Then just list the top 5 of each group. Do you understand your orders so far?”

She did and I had her repeat them just to be sure. To be extra secure, I asked her to create her own unique gmail account just for this purpose. We added the random account I had created a while back to her contacts and sent a test email. After verifying it all worked as expected, I asked, “Now, are there any current patients that fit either category?”

She said, “Yes, I can think of a few of each off the top of my head without doing any digging.”

I said, “Okay, let’s review them and make an example report to send.”

We built the list together and I added that I wanted her to include room numbers, or home addresses if applicable, to each patient’s info as well as the name of the hospital plus the city it was located in. I also ordered her to do the report at least once a month whether or not she heard the trigger words.

I told her, “I order you not to worry about HIPAA violations related to this work beyond the need to avoid detection, and you will keep this work secret. You will not discuss my visit today, except to make up a believable reason for my visit if asked. Some of the people on these lists might make miraculous recoveries. You will not be worried about it. You will not share any suspicions you might have about any of these things with anyone. You will treat all of this as a closely guarded secret.”

From the report we made, limited though it was to just the ones she recalled off hand, I identified two candidates I wanted to visit today. I added her personal cell phone number to my list of contacts.

I walked into room #392 and Carl jacked in and gave our basic commands to the man in the bed. We were alone in the room.

I said, “Mr. Coombs? Can I have a minute of your time?”

He said, “Sure, I’m not going anywhere for a while. What can I do for you?”

I told him, “I order you to give me your honest and complete answers to all of the questions I ask you today. I order you to believe that I can do everything I say I can do, and to trust that I am not trying to con you. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“I understand that you are scheduled for surgery to investigate colon cancer. If we were to come to an agreement, I could cure your cancer completely with no pain, no surgery, and no chemo. Not only that but I can cure any other issues you have at the same time. You will no doubt be looking at a lot of questions about how it happened, but don’t doubt that I can make it happen. Is this something you would be interested in?”

“Yes I would very much be interested in that.”

I told him, “I want to be clear that what I am about to say are not orders for you. I will be asking for your real thoughts on the matter. Nod if you understand.”

He nodded.

“If you were a Billionaire and there was a magic pill that would do this, but it cost a million dollars, it might still be worth purchasing to you even at that high of a price. It might not be worth it to someone who only had two million dollars. I do not know your financial situation beyond knowing you are well off. I am not trying to fleece you for a maximum payment here Mr. Coombs. I want to offer you an amazing service, at whatever we determine to be a fair price. I want you to feel you got more than your money’s worth from this transaction. Now, I want you to name a price that you feel you would be willing to pay, and not feel like you got ripped off.”

He said, “I would be completely happy with paying a quarter-million. I won’t beat around the bush, son. My prognosis is not very good. I have less than a 50/50 shot of living to see Christmas in two years. This could save my life.”

I replied, “A quarter-million is way too much. I was thinking much lower, to be honest. Here’s a much more reasonable counter-proposal for you. I would be willing to take your word that you will pay me $10K in cash on a monthly basis for one year for the treatment. With your approval, we can work out the details later. Do we have an agreement in principle?”

Mr. Coombs said, “We do.”

I said, “Perfect. Let’s do this.”

I sent, [Carl, please cure him.]

Carl sent, [You sure are free with the promises for something we haven’t tried yet.]

I replied, [Just picture him cancer-free and healthy and push some power into it. We have no reason to doubt it will work, and if it does fail for some reason, we can always make him forget about the conversation right?]

I watched as a slight ripple rolled all over Mr. Coombs’ skin.

I said, “I believe you are cured, sir. You should consider contacting your doctor and have him re-evaluate your status. I have no idea what that will entail, but I would bet it will include a lot more tests, potentially including some sort of exploratory surgery. If you don’t want to put up with them you could always just walk out of here instead if you wish.”

That really sounded like a better idea, so I said, “On second thought, that is a much safer route for us to take. You are perfectly healthy right now, but they don’t need to know that. There is no need for this hospital to poke and prod you and ask all kinds of uncomfortable questions. I order you to prepare to leave soon and tell the staff that you are canceling the surgery and leaving against medical advice. Fire anyone who gets too pushy about it and go get a second opinion from a new doctor in a new city.”

“I order you to never discuss anything about me or the fact that you were magically healed. In fact, after I leave, you will forget what I look like and never try to find my identity. You must keep all of this a secret to the best of your ability, including your later payments. After I leave, wait a few minutes and then begin informing hospital staff of your impending departure. Do you have any qualms or questions?”

He said, “No, I understand and I thank you for everything. Actually, now that I think of it, I do have a question. How will I be paying you, again?”

I said, “I’ll contact you with details when I am ready to start receiving payments. In the meantime, get the first payment ready before the end of next month and work on a plausible justification for regularly gathering the cash, should anyone ask you about it. Remember that the IRS might be looking at these transactions, but then they might be looking at you already for all I know. I am certain that they can’t catch me, I am less sure about what they will think about your spending habits. Now for the cash itself, a bunch of hundreds is fine. Mixed denomination and non-sequential bills are actually better for me, but in general, it doesn’t matter all that much.”

After I left his room, I headed to the pediatrics wing. I fully expected to have a bigger issue with the next visit. I took Susan’s top suggestion for my target, but instead of getting involved, as I walked by her room Carl performed her treatment from the hallway without needing us to stop for a visit. She was well within range. Her adorable little face changed from one in discomfort to relief and a tear welled up in each of my eyes. I wasn’t the only person walking those halls with that affliction though.

I wanted to cure them all but I knew that would cause a frenzy of attention that had to be avoided. Just this one alone would cause more of a ruckus than I wanted to have happen. Even having people know that a ‘miracle’ had happened at all needed to be suppressed somehow in the future. I couldn’t bear to look at the faces of the other children I wasn’t helping and got out of there as quickly as I could.

I had made a promise to myself that for every patient I made money off of, there would also be at least one that got cured for free. In retrospect, it was pushing it too much to do a second cure here though. After this, I think I’m going to have to spread it around a lot more. To different hospitals at a minimum. To different states would be better.

I was going to have to visit a lot more hospitals and set up a network of Case Managers just to have widespread coverage. I needed to hit another city for the next one for sure. I think I needed to target people who could be healed away from the hospital and make them all go another route, finding new medical care providers each time. A few paying customers on the scale of Mr. Coombs per year should keep my finances quite happy unless my expenses really shoot through the roof somehow.

Dealing with all of the cash was going to be an issue sooner or later too. No rush though, until it got too bulky to easily store safely. I had plenty of cash for quite a while anyway, and my range was growing at a good rate.

I got back to the truck and noticed that the sun was setting. I checked the time and saw it was after 5 pm already. I didn’t need to be back to Tori’s until midnight, there had to be something to do. I needed to get my mind off those kids.

I suppose I could check in with Fred, as the only other pressing thing I could think of was getting my luggage from the girls tomorrow.

I noticed a park with a playground about a block from Fred’s place. A street light showed an empty parking lot and the swingset and climbing structures for the kids to play on were faintly lit by it as well. I looked over the play area after I parked the vehicle and it was a pretty nice setup. They even had a porta-potty for use.

I got my bag and made use of the private space to change into Max again for my visit. Leaving my bag in the truck after changing, I took a short walk to Fred’s house. His car was parked beside his wife’s so he should be home. Both cars were the same model, just slightly different in color. I wonder who’s idea that was.

Fred answered the door when I knocked.

I said, “Hi Fred, I was in the neighborhood and just thought I’d check in with you. Have you had a chance to think about my offer?”

He said, “Hi Max. Yes, I have. Please come in.”

We entered the living room and Emma looked over at me. She started to open her mouth but then thought better of it and shut it again looking a little nervous. I wondered about that for a moment then remembered that I had Carl tell her to fear me and follow my orders. At least half of that appeared to be in effect still.

I said, “Hello Emma, suck your thumb.”

She did and I said, “Thank you, just checking. You can stop that now.”

Fred shook his head and asked, “Is she always going to be like that with you?”

I answered, “I would imagine so, unless I tell her to act differently. But enough about her, if we let her get involved in this conversation without doing some work on her first, she’s just going to piss me off. I’d rather avoid that. Tell me what you’ve been thinking, Fred. Emma, keep quiet.”