Free Pulling The Dragon's Tail by Kenton Kauffman

process. Look at it this way. The
End-Date; that’s debatable. When, and how, even if, it will occur.
What kind of environmental catastrophes await, what to do to
prepare, how to delay it from occurring. What I am trying to say is
that the End-Date is controversial. There is no controversy with
CLUES. It merits an outstanding record of accuracy.”
    “Somehow that’s not reassuring, sir. We’ll search for the truth about each person’s psychiatric
condition unless we have to doubt CLUES. Taking care of our Big
Brother computer system is more important than Mr. Kristopher!” she
said with increasing exasperation. Taking the side of the patient
without the specter of CLUES looking over her shoulder somehow felt
refreshing. She was a knight fighting a noble battle against a
superior enemy. But she hoped she was not just tilting at
windmills.
    “Campbell, I don’t understand your antipathy
toward CLUES.”
    “I don’t hate it. But you’re attacking me for
even suggesting the possibility that CLUES could be mistaken.”
    “ And ,” bellowed the director,
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to suggest that CLUES could be
mistaken.”
    “Oh, yes,” Campbell said sarcastically, “Ugh,
the paperwork!”
    “I’ll ignore that,” he said pointedly. “When we
get that file back, the CLUES diagnosis for Mr. Kristopher will be
proven correct.” He tried hard to maintain composure, but his
breathing was becoming labored.
    Other staff members maintained an awed silence
as the two heavyweights continued to slug it out. The match went
back and forth between age-old tradition and artificial
intelligence.
    “So the damn computer system’s infallible!”
Devereaux charged. ”Have you lost your mind, Pablo?”
    “Have you lost yours, Campbell?”
    She opened her mouth, thought otherwise, and
finally leaned back in her chair. Sweat threatened to play havoc
with her mascara and her clothing sensors picked up increased body
temperature, excess cortisol secretion, and elevated blood pressure
readings.
    “No,” she said with some conciliation in her
voice, “I think I’m finally finding mine.”
    “Look, Campbell. We’ll sit down and talk when I
return the beginning of next week. We all have to find a way to get
back to one big happy family. I take pride in running this clinic
with that kind of atmosphere.”
    “Well, Director Martinez,” she dead-panned. “One
of your happy employees had a melt-down in front of our favorite
patient. Do you wanna have CLUES lead the interview or are you up
to it?”
    Keagan glowered at her. Then he sat up straight
and stiffly in his chair.
    “Yes,” said Martinez wearily, turning his
attention toward Keagan. Hitting a crisp drive straight down the
middle of the fairway with his state of the art golf club was going
to have to wait a few moments longer “Let’s review the video file
and hear your explanation, Keagan.”
    Everyone but Keagan winced as they heard his
diatribe replayed.
    “You know that verbal abuse of a patient can
lead to dismissal.” Campbell intoned.
    Keagan didn’t squirm. “Everything has a context
to it. At that point, our unit was in chaos. None of us had any
idea what this pathet…patient,” He took a deep breath, paused and
resolved to choose his words more carefully. “What this patient was
capable of doing. I drew on my twenty-six years of
psychiatric experience with patients like this, and then I made a
judgment call, that’s all.”
    While Keagan was attempting to justify his
behavior, Dr. Devereaux began to ponder the day’s events. She could
no longer deny that something was wrong with the state of the
world, at least her world. The past two hours had been shocking and
confusing. What else lay ahead?
    She suddenly remembered the RVT computer was
still in her hip pocket. Leaning back in her chair, she stretched
and yawned as nonchalantly as possible. Placing the RVT in her lap,
she accessed an experimental diagnostic program. The registry