"That is exactly what I am asking. However, given the technology exists today to support it, and given enough monetary and manpower resource, I believe it is achievable," Jordan insisted.
"So you have this chip in your possession?" Gamache asked.
"I do."
"And do you own the intellectual property for the chip?"
"I do."
"And you would be willing to allow us to reverse engineer the chip for the purpose of mass producing it. Do I understand you correctly?"
"You understand me perfectly well. I will caution you, however, that under no circumstances can this chip be damaged in any way during the reverse engineering process. I understand the semiconductor manufacturing process substantially well enough to know how a functional module is created with several masking levels, but you will not be able to physically dissect or change my chip in any way, or we will lose our only stencil for duplication. Is that clear to everyone?"
"So, what do you anticipate the demand for this chip to be, Dr. Lewis," Gamache asked.
"There are tens of thousands of people out there today, and hundreds of thousands more to come in the future who suffer from partial or complete spinal cord injuries. If these chips can eventually be made at a cost-efficient price, the return on investment will be continuous and astronomical."
A silence fell over the room for several moments. Finally, Gamache stood and shook Jordan's hand. "Dr. Lewis, your proposal has given us a lot to think about. I will convene a task force on Monday to consider your request then I will schedule a follow up meeting to discuss our decision."
"I appreciate your consideration, Mr. Gamache."
CHAPTER 32
Jordan and Chuck pulled up to the farm house just as Maggie and Jessie galloped into the barnyard on Shawny. "Whoa, boy," Maggie said and the steed came to a stop beside the truck.
"Hi Daddy," Jessie said. "Maggie and I have had a wonderful afternoon. Maggie let me help a baby horse be born."
"Dixie foaled? She was a bit early. Is everything okay?" Jordan asked Maggie.
"The foal is small, but she'll make it," Maggie replied.
"Maggie let me name her and said she could be my horse," Jessie said, her excitement evident in the lilt to her voice.
"Really?" Chuck said. "Owning a horse is a big responsibility, Jess."
"You can bring me by a couple times of week to brush her and feed her, can't you, Dad?"
"Well, I guess. If it's no imposition on Maggie and Jordan, that is."
"Not a problem, Chuck," Maggie said. "Jessie is a joy to be around."
"So what did you name this baby horse of yours?" Chuck asked.
"Foal, Dad. It's a foal, not a baby horse," Jessie replied, rolling her eyes.
Jordan had to look away so as to not laugh out loud.
"I stand corrected," Chuck said. "So, what did you name her?"
"I named her Jezebel, after me… get it? Jessie-Bell?"
"Seriously?" Chuck asked.
"Come on, Chuck. It's cute," Jordan said.
"What if it was your daughter, Lewis?" Chuck said, trying very hard to keep the smile off his face.
"Well, I don't have a daughter yet," Jordan said, winking at Maggie.
"Some day," Maggie said contemplatively before changing the subject. "So, how does goulash sound for dinner?"
"Really?" Jessie exclaimed. "I love goulash. My mom used to make it all the time."
"With sausage in it?" Maggie asked.
"Yes… exactly! Can I help?" Jessie asked.
"Sure you can," Maggie said. "Jord, you're on salad duty."
"Got it," Jordan said. "That's one dish I can't possibly burn."
"I'll give you a hand, Jordan. I can slice cucumbers with the best of them," Chuck said.
* * *
"So, Jordan, how did the meeting go with the semiconductor guys?" Maggie asked around a bite of goulash.
"I thought it went well. They didn't commit to anything. A few of them even complained that what I wanted was way beyond what the technology could support today, but after I offered up the chip we currently have as a prototype, they were at least willing to consider it. They owe me an answer next week."
"You aren't actually going to give them the only chip you have, are you?"
"I won't actually be giving it to them, just lending it so they can study it and figure out how to reverse engineer it. I made it clear to them that they couldn't damage or alter it in any way."
"What if they can't build you what you need?" Maggie asked.
"Then we'll have to figure out how to take what they can build and adapt it. There's a way around everything if you work at it hard enough."
"But will it work the same way as the current chip?" Chuck asked.
"It should be similar. I may have to adapt the algorithm to make up for the differences, but I think it's doable."
"If it's doable simply by making adjustments in the software, then why push them so hard to make a more advanced chip?" Chuck asked.
"Because the chips readily available today will run out of steam must faster than a more advanced one. Keep in mind that the chip inside the device was made eighty years from now. The one unknown in this whole thing is whether or not the software program, which was also written eighty years from now, will work with a less powerful chip. Bottom line… the more powerful chip we can get our hands on, the more likely our chances for long-term success."
"Wow, Jess, you're doing a good job on your goulash. Would you like some more?" Maggie asked.
"Yes, please."
Chuck narrowed his eyes at his daughter. "Who are you and what did you do with Jessie?" he said. "Sweetie, you never ask for seconds."
"Birthing foals can take a lot out of a person. It builds up an appetite, isn't that right, Jess?" Maggie said.
* * *
Jordan helped Maggie clear the dinner dishes and began rinsing them to put in the dishwasher. Maggie came up beside her and took the dish out of her hand. "Let me do that, love while you go entertain, Chuck."
"I'll help you, Maggie," Jessie said as she wheeled her chair up to the open dishwasher door.
"I'll tell you what, I'll rinse and you can load. Sound like a plan?"
"Works for me," Jessie said.
Jordan kissed both Maggie and Jess on the cheek then grabbed two beers from the refrigerator and went to join Chuck in the living room. She handed a beer to Chuck. "They kicked me out of the kitchen," she said.
"Thanks," Chuck said. "Jordan, I can't believe the change in Jessie. Since she's met you and Maggie, she's full of life, she seems happier, she's eating better. She's a totally different girl. I can't thank you two enough for everything you do for her."
"Jess is a sweet little girl, and a pleasure to have around. You can thank Maggie for the turnaround. She and Jessie have really hit it off. She'll make a good mom some day."
"So, you and Maggie plan to have kids?"
"We've talked about it. Maggie has it all pretty much planned out… a boy and a girl."
"Jordan, this is going to sound a little off the wall, but if there's anything I can do in that respect…"
Jordan frowned. "Anything you can do?" She stared at him like he had antennae growing out of his forehead.
"Yeah, you know, if you need anything to make that happen."
Suddenly, Jordan's head snapped back. "Chuck, are you volunteering to be our sperm donor?" she asked incredulously.
"And what if I am?"
* * *
"What a beautiful Saturday morning," Maggie exclaimed as she stood in the kitchen doorway and looked at the sun filled barnyard. She pushed the screen door open. "Feel like taking a walk with me?"
Jordan looked up from her computer. "Where are you going?"
"Just to the end of the drive. I forgot to check the mailbox yesterday."
Jordan closed her computer and took Maggie's hand. "I can think of nothing better to do then to take a walk with my best girl. Well, I can think of one other thing we could do, but I'm not sure my incision is healed enough for that yet."
"You're incorrigible," Maggie said.
Jordan hip-bumped Maggie as they walked down the mile-long driveway, hand in hand. "I had an interesting discussion with Chuck after dinner yesterday," Jordan said.
"Yeah? What about?"
"He volunteered to be our sperm donor."
Maggie stopped dead in her tracks. "He what?"
"He volunteered to be our sperm donor. He's very impressed with the way Jessie has attached herself to you… and with the changes in Jessie since we've come into her life. He seems to think that you'll make a good mom, based on how you are with Jessie. Then he said if there was anything he could do to help us with that, he'd be willing."
"Jordan, are you ready to have kids?" Maggie asked.
"Well, I'm thirty-three and you just turned thirty-one a few weeks ago. I say if we're going to do it, we shouldn't wait too much longer."
"I know we talked briefly about it, but I didn't think we might do it this soon. I mean, you're in the middle of this implant project. Wouldn't having a baby be a distraction?"
"Mags, if everyone waited until the time was perfect to have a baby, there'd be no people on the earth. Any time is a good time. Since I'm older than you, I thought I might go first. Then in a couple of years, it will be your turn. I'm sure Chuck won't mind being the frozen pop for both."
"How long have you been thinking about this?"
"Chuck only mentioned it to me last evening, but I had a heck of a time falling asleep last night because I couldn't get it out of my mind."
Maggie stopped at the end of the driveway and faced Jordan without releasing her hand. "Do you really want to do this?"
Jordan could see the excitement in Maggie's eyes. "I do. I would love nothing more than to start a family with you."
"Okay. Let's do it."
Jordan took Maggie into her arms and kissed her tenderly. "I love you Margaret Michele Downs."
"And I love you too, Jordan Marie Lewis. Now let me get the mail so we can head back and start making plans to turn the guest room into a nursery."
CHAPTER 33
On Monday morning, Jordan met with her team for the first time. She stood at the head of the conference room and introduced herself to each member as they entered. Finally, all six members of the team, as well as herself and Chuck Malone, were present and accounted for.
"Good morning," she said. "As you know, my name is Dr. Jordan Lewis. I have a PhD in Kinesiology from Johns Hopkins University and a specialty degree in spinal cord injury treatment. This kind man to my left is Mr. Charles Malone. Mr. Malone has graciously agreed to fund a private foundation for the development, generation and testing of a new approach to spinal cord regeneration."
Chuck waived to the group.
"Chuck, please call me Chuck. I am looking forward to knowing each of you better and to working with all of you toward this common goal."
"Thank you, Chuck. Now before we begin with any of the details, I would like to go around the room and ask each of you to introduce yourself and to give us a little background on your credentials as well as your specialty field. Julie, if I could ask you to begin, please."
"Thank you Jordan. My name is Dr. Julie Hoffman. I am a neurosurgeon, specializing in spinal cord injuries. I have a private practice in Burlington, as well as admitting rights at the University of Vermont Medical Center."
"Jason," Jordan said.
A thirty-something African American man in a white lab coat worn over well-pressed dress pants, button-down shirt and tie, stood and introduced himself. "My name is Jason LaPine. I am a graduate of Stanford University. My degree field is Neurology and my specialty field is in synapse development."
The next person at the table stood and introduced himself. He was a middle-aged man with a graying goatee. "Good Morning. My name is Wendell Graham. I have spent the last twenty five years as an Emergency Room doctor and my specialty field is traumatic injuries."
"Welcome, Wendell. Next please," Jordan said.
A young woman stood up. She was Asian-American and had shoulder length black hair and wore rectangular tortoise shell glasses. "Hi. My name is Carrie Alexander. My degree is in Computer Science and my specialty is in Programming."
The next person at the table was a young man wearing a lab coat over jeans, a Nirvana T-shirt and sandals. "Jackson Callahan, at your service. My degree is also in Computer Science and my specialty is in code development."
"Finally, last, but not least," Jordan said to the final member of the team.
"Good Morning. I'm Tom Lawson. My degree is in Material Sciences and I have extensive experience in semiconductor manufacturing and in medical implement development."
"Semiconductor manufacturing and medical implement development," Jordan repeated. "That's an odd combination."
"On the surface, yes," Tom said, "but so many medical implements require a marriage between computer chips, software, and packaging, that it's become a pretty substantial degree field."
Jordan nodded her head. "So let's see, a Kinesiologist, a Neurosurgeon, a Neurology/synapse expert, an ER and trauma doc, two computer programmers, and a materials scientist. That sounds like a pretty well rounded team to me. Welcome to all of you."
Jordan turned on the projector then got up from her seat and walked back and forth across the front of the room. She could feel all eyes follow her as she moved. Finally, she stopped and faced the group.
"I stand before you, a paraplegic. Seventeen years ago, I suffered a complete SCI at the L1 vertebrae as the result of a horse riding accident."
Everyone in the room sat forward in their seats and displayed some sense of surprise… all except Dr. Hoffman.
"How is that possible?" Jason asked. There is no synapse activity in a complete SCI."
"Jason, you are absolutely correct. From the time I was sixteen, until just recently, there was no synapse activity at the injury site, but there is now."
All eyes and ears were on Jordan as she walked across the front of the room once more.
"Dr. Hoffman, could I ask you to explain these fine folks, what you found when you examined my injury recently?"
Dr. Hoffman rose and faced the room. "As late as two weeks ago, I ran x-ray, MRI, CAT scan and ultrasound tests at the site of Dr. Lewis's SCI. All tests confirmed that nerve and tissue re-growth was evident over the injury site, and that synapse connection was present and active."
"Thank you, Dr. Hoffman."
Jordan advanced the slide and displayed the recent x-ray results evaluated by Dr. Hoffman. "This slide shows the calcified bone fissures at the injury site. This next slide displays the MRI and CAT Scans side by side highlighting a tangle of wires surrounded by tissue growth across the injury site." Evident in all of the images was an outline of the implant device.
Wendell Graham raised his hand.
"Yes, Dr. Graham?" Jordan said.
"I'm sure this question is on everyone's mind… the wires and the box seen in all of the images. What are they?"
"They are the reason we are here today," Jordan said. "You see, team, I was indeed a paraplegic, but due to that box and those wires, I was cured."
Jordan reached into her pocket and extracted the implant device. "This is the box you see in the images. Dr. Hoffman can verify for you that it was removed from my body a little more than a week ago. It was removed for two reasons. First, I no longer need it. It did its job and promoted the re-growth of nerves, tissue and synapse connections over the injury site. Second, and more importantly, it was removed so this team could use it as a template for creating more devices like it."
"How does the device work?" Jackson Callahan asked.
"Good question, Jackson. The wires you saw in the images are actually a series of electrodes that were surgically implanted on each side of the injury site. Next, both autologous and endogenous neural stem cells were injected on each side of the break. As you know, stem cells are very mutable, especially when excited. We achieve maximum mutability by applying a continuous wave electrical charge from the battery pack to the electrodes. This electrical charge encourages the stem cells to adapt to their surroundings. They essentially develop into spinal nerve cells and grow toward one another from both sides of the injury until they create a synapse in close enough proximity to allow nerve impulses to pass from one neuron to the other. As the nerves grow they weave a bridge over the injury site and mend the break in the spinal cord while reestablishing the lines of communication between the nerve endings. Once that bridge is woven and feelings are restored, the implant is no longer needed and can be removed, just as this one was removed from me."
"How long does this process take?" Dr. Graham asked.
"Mobility is established immediately upon insertion of the device. The electrodes act as a synthetic bridge over the injury site. As long as the bone structure is intact, the device will allow the recipient to walk, run, jump and essentially move normally, however, until the nerve growth has had time to bridge the injury site, there is essentially no feeling below the injury. As the nerves grow toward each other and synapses are restored, feeling below the injury will gradually return until one day, the device becomes redundant. That process of re-growth is dependent on how fast the recipient's body allows it to happen. For that reason, it is difficult to put a time frame on it."
"So you basically want us to reverse engineer and remanufacture the design and functionality of this device, Tom Lawson said. "Isn't that piracy?"
Tom's comments caused a wave of discontent to descend over the room.
Jordan gave the team a few minutes to settle down before answering the question. "Ordinarily, Tom, copying an existing device would be considered piracy however, since I own the design and intellectual property for the device, it is not a matter of piracy. Instead, it is our effort to recreate and improve the design and functionality of the device."
"You own the design of this device," Jason said.
"Yes, I do."
"Then why don't you just submit the specs to a manufacturer and have multiple copies built yourself? Why does it need to be redesigned?" Tom asked.
"Because the specs no longer exist."
Jordan held the device in the palm of her hand for all to see. "This is the only one in existence and it will be used as a stencil to create more. Tom, you will be in charge of working with WorldWide Mainframes to design and build computer chips comparable to the one in this device. I will tell you right now the technology used to build this particular device is far superior to anything we have today. Your challenge will be to come as close as possible to the form, fit and function of the chip inside this device, as well as develop a battery pack that charges itself through kinetic energy produced by the human body."
Jordan walked clockwise around the room, stopping to address team members as she went. "Carrie and Jackson, I actively worked with programmers such as yourselves, to write the algorithms that make this device work. Your task will be to write and test seamless code that will minimize clock delays to the nanosecond level such that any inconsistencies in the timing is indiscernible to the human consciousness. In other words, this device has to produce smooth, non-jerky movements in the recipient."
Jordan walked further around the table. "Wendell and Jason, as neurologist and trauma doctors, you will be responsible for redesigning and adapting the device for use in human beings. You both will be responsible for carrying out several clinical trials with non-human subjects. When the time comes to test the device on a human subject, you again will carry the baton."
Jordan turned to Dr. Hoffman. "Finally, we get to you, Dr. Hoffman. As a neurosurgeon, you will be responsible for inserting prototype devices in our human and non-human subjects, as well as monitoring the health of the recipients through the testing process."
Jordan returned to the front of the room and faced the group. "As for myself, since I have experience is nearly every aspect of this process, I will assist wherever necessary… except maybe with the chip design and manufacture. I will supply the specs for the chips, but, Tom, you'll be pretty much on your own relative to driving it to completion.
"I won't lie to you. This is a very big project with colossal challenges; however, if we are successful, many thousands of people will reap the benefits of our work. This team will go down in the history books as responsible for curing complete spinal cord injury paralysis. None of us will work in a vacuum. Although each of you is responsible to driving specific tasks to completion, we are a team and will lend our expertise to each other when needed. If we encounter a situation where skills are needed outside of what the team is capable of, we will seek that skill and contract it out. We have an internal target of entering beta testing within twelve calendar months. The biggest challenge toward that goal will be acquisition of adequate computer chips.
"Mr. Malone here has offered not only to fund our research and development, but to grant each of you a very generous salary. This is your chance to accept this challenge, or to walk away."
Jordan sat back down at the head of the table and waited. She purposely did not make eye contact with any member of the team so as to no intimidate anyone. After ten minutes of silence, she looked around the room once more then stood at the head of the table. "I will interpret your silence as an agreement to accept this challenge. Welcome to the team. We begin at eight tomorrow."
Chuck walked Jordan to the front lobby. "You were very impressive in there, Jordan. You really know your stuff."
"I am passionate about my work, Chuck. People like Jessie deserve no less."
"It appears we have a pretty capable team. I'm willing to bet they're shitting their pants right now over the challenge you threw on the table, all but Dr. Hoffman, that is."
"You could be right, Chuck. This is probably the biggest challenge any of them have ever faced, but I have confidence in the team. By the way, I noticed you had a problem taking your eyes off Dr. Hoffman during the meeting."
Chuck blushed profusely. "Ah… oh, hell, Jordan. You're into women. Don't tell me you didn't notice how attractive she is. Do you know if she's married?"
Jordan grinned. "Yes, I did notice, and no, she isn't married."
Jordan shoved her hands deep into her pockets and realized she was still carrying the implant around with her. She withdrew it and gave it to Chuck. "Could I ask you to put this into the vault when you check on the renovations? I don't like carrying it around with me. I don't want to risk losing or damaging it."
"Good idea," Chuck said as he accepted the device. "I'll do that right away."
"So like I was saying, I don't believe in doing things half-assed. There are too many people depending on us to do the best we can. Imagine implanting a device into Jessie that wasn't as good as it could be. I just couldn't do that in good conscience."
"I agree with you, Jordan. I am trying hard to treat this like a business proposition but my daughter's future is on the line. Being a parent is difficult sometimes."
"Speaking of being a parent, Chuck, I spoke to Maggie about your offer to help us out."
"And?"
"And we would be honored if you would be our donor."