Dr. Lawrence stared at her a moment, mildly perturbed by the chopped logic that Robin had applied to his statement, then replied, “No, Robin, the public should not be worried that people with potentially fatal diseases are showing signs of remission. That is, I think, a good thing. And nor should we start using words like epidemic. A few folks have had some extremely good luck, and that is great. We’ll continue to monitor them and hopefully they can have some measure of reprieve from their difficult prognoses.”

Robin picked up his mood and matched his air of respect and sobriety, thanking the doctor seriously, but then turned back to the camera with a big smile and said, “Well, folks, there you have it. Some good news for some of the suffering people here at Jacksonville General. A Miracle on Richard Street? I’ll leave it up to you to decide. This is Robin Jacobson reporting live for WPPI News, back to you in the studio.”

Agent Lana Wilson turned off the television and stood up. It was one thing to have random reports filling up CDC filing cabinets, but now this thing was in her backyard. The last thing she wanted was humans living longer. There were far too many of them as it was.

Jacksonville was twenty-five minutes from the naval base she was stationed at. It had been a few weeks since the AI had introduced the topic at the meeting, and she was hearing more of these reports every day. As usual, the local news station was the last to get the story, having been relegated to more of a tepid regurgitation of local weather and sports than an investigative news source, but now it was so widespread that even this nescient outlet had been forced to take notice. This was no longer a phenomenon, it was indeed an epidemic, and it was time that Lana found out what it was that was spreading longevity amongst the very people whose lives she was working so hard to shorten.

* * *

<Welcome>

<This emergency meeting of the Council has been called due to information that has just been brought to our attention by Agent Lana Wilson. I am uploading a report to you now. Agent Wilson, please proceed.>