Dagny is Wrong After All

Dagny Taggart was pleased with herself.  She had beaten them all and proven them wrong, her John Galt line was up and running and in 45 minutes all of her naysayers and detractors would be humiliated when the Taggart 251 pulled into Colorado City Station to the cheering crowds.  Or at least they would be humiliated if they were honest men of character and not filthy parasites.  

As Dagny made her way towards the pristine locomotive the thought of her victory almost forced her to betray her feelings about it, and smile, but she caught herself and managed to quickly turn it into a sneer which she was able to direct at Lillian Rearden.  As she entered the nerve center for the train she noticed a gauge that was not near to red-lining.  “This will not do”, she groused to herself as she moved over to the control panel to modify the air intake modulator for the secondary motor, “I will have this train at its maximum performance to prove those people wrong” she added more vocally.  

“Not if you release our fuel car as you're trying to do Ms. Taggart” replied the engineer who looked up briefly from her calculations to finally acknowledge Dagny.  “In fact if it is all the same to you I would just as soon have you move away from the controls before you hurt us all and cause a major environmental disaster” she continued absentmindedly.  Dagny Taggart was not a woman who took to criticism well and she wasn't about to let this go easily, “Vera, look at me when I dress you down”, she scolded in anger forcing Vera Flannigan to look at her with exasperation.  “I am Dagny Taggart, my family built this Railroad empire, and trains are in my blood, how dare you suggest I don't know the control panel of a train better than any person currently living”, Dagny was livid and her voice was rising as she continued “if I say this is an air intake modulator that is what it is!”

Dagny turned back to the control panel and reached for it again but to her surprise Vera responded.  “Rail Marshall, remove Ms. Taggart from the control center”, Dagny was flabbergasted that she had heard those words spoken and it caused her to pause in her motion towards the modulator.  However that was nothing compared to the shock she felt when the Rail Marshall had the unmitigated gall to lay his hands on her and actually forcibly move her back towards the cabin door.  As Dagny was forced unceremoniously through she heard Vera continue with ire “My family has been running trains just as long as your family has been building rails, and I have been a successful engineer since you were 11-years-old Dagny.”  Dagny couldn't believe what she was hearing and Vera kept talking “Why don't you keep to the board room and let someone competent actually run the train.”  Well that was just too much for Dagny and she strained against the Rail Marshall as she turned and responded “Vera, that is insubordination I want you off this train when we get to Colorado City, I will run this train back to New York myself, and you can be sure no one in your family will ever run a train for Taggart Transcontinental again!”

As Dagny made her way back through the cars of the train her anger only grew and she was finding it more difficult to school herself to placid indifference.  In the observation car she encountered Hank, who nodded curtly at her in greeting, but then noticed her agitation and came to see her.  After she explained to him what had transpired in the control center, he let out an expletive and comforted her with sage words “Moochers are everywhere now, it is incumbent upon us to fight them where ever we find them... time was a person knew how to treat there betters.”  At Hanks wise and comforting words Dagny relaxed realizing she had done everything right as always and sensing her relaxation Hank motioned her to the window where the Rearden Bridge of the John Galt line was coming into view.  “In less than a minute Dagny you and I shall both be forever vindicated, when we are safely on the other side of that bridge.”  Dagny was almost surprised to hear a note of pleasure in Hanks voice as he said those words and was slightly taken aback when he acknowledged his hatred and contempt for the cowardly regulators and journalistic moochers who lacked the fortitude to be on the train with Dagny and Hank just because they were convinced it would never make it across the bridge.  She had to admit she also wanted to have them on board as well so she could look at them smugly right now as the train began to cross this brilliantly designed bridge.

Suddenly Dagny heard a creak but she dismissed it as nerves, than the train lurched and she began to experience vertigo, but that wasn't possible she was on a Taggart built rail line built with Rearden metal on a bridge designed by the same man; there was no way that her senses were properly reporting the information around her.  The last thought she comforted herself with before she blacked out from hitting her head on the ceiling of the train car, was that the screaming passengers were only attempting to unnerve her and the sticky fluid she felt on her scalp was nothing more than a condiment someone had the unmitigated gall to throw at her for effect, but she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.  Just then the blackness closed around her and she recalled nothing more.

                                                                ~

“Damn it there is no god after all... she's coming 'round.”  The voice was unfamiliar to Dagny and the explosion of pain in her temples as she struggled valiantly to regain full wakefulness, nearly knocked her unconscious again.  Perhaps Dagny Taggart had finally encountered an obstacle she couldn't overcome through force of will, the pain and sensation was overwhelming, and her last thought before choking on vomit and passing out yet again was that she would prevail in the end and show biology who was boss of Dagny Taggart.

                                                                ~

Shaniqua Garrison had been an attractive women in her youth, but four children separated by twenty years and two marriages had taken their toll on her.  It wasn't as if she lacked a handsome face and trim physique at least for a woman pushing her mid-fifties, but stress and other annoyances of life had left their mark on her.  It didn't help much, that she was a senior emergency surgical nurse for over thirty years either.  Shaniqua Garrison had seen much tragedy in her life, she'd served three tours in the war back when she was young, she'd volunteered to go help out after the nuclear meltdown of the USS Freedom aircraft carrier years later; she'd gone to help pick up the pieces in New Zealand after the great 10.9 earthquake, not that there had been much left to pick up and she was still haunted by the image of those six children who'd been fused together by the open magma flow that went through their school, she hadn't thought something like that had even been possible.  She'd also been to the gulf coast fourteen times for the increasingly deadly and frequent hurricanes... yeah right global warming is a hoax.

However, she'd never felt such sense of terror and disgust and frustration as she had when the Rearden bridge crisis happened.  Train accidents weren't supposed to be so deadly, but the hubris and vanity of one Dagny Taggart had made it all so much worse, she'd bribed, threatened and cajoled until she had built that unsafe monstrosity in the most dangerous and unsafe location, all because it was convenient for her.  When the bridge collapsed and the train fell that should have been it, the poor souls on that train should have been the only victims, but instead they took out a power station.  Then there was the resulting fire, ever since climate change had started numerous large wild fires were common here in Colorado every year, in fact there had been a dozen of more than a hundred-thousand acres burning at the time, but this fire had to take the cake nearly five-million acres burned a full tenth of the state taking out Colorado City, Colorado Springs and the southern suburbs of Denver in Douglas and Jefferson counties.  

In all thirteen-hundred sixty-one people had perished including one-hundred forty-three fire fighters, thirty-seven EMT's and forty-nine field medics and nurses including six whom she called friend; over two-hundred thousand people had been displaced by this catastrophe including her idiot first ex-husband whom she had been compelled by her eight year-old daughter (by her second ex-husband) to show kindness to and take in; more than two-million people had no power and little water for three weeks; oh and of course those poor Arizona golf courses had to go without water when the Colorado river was diverted for more important purposes, Shaniqua had never liked the Arizona snowbirds but she learned to really hate them when they complained about their newly imposed watering restrictions so that eastern Colorado didn't die of dysentery.  In sheer magnitude it wasn't the most horrible disaster she had ever dealt with, but it was certainly the most personal.  

To add insult to injury the wicked woman who was responsible for this mess had survived the collapse of the bridge, along with perhaps half of the hundred and fifteen people who were on the train with her.  She'd been brought into Denver General where Shaniqua worked, only an hour after the calamity started and after five months in a coma and several massive invasive surgeries and amputations, she showed signs of coming out of it after all.  That was three days ago, but she had relapsed into unconsciousness because of what had to be the tremendous pain.  So Dr. Lorca had ordered an increase in her pain medication which seemed to be doing the trick.  So this time however, Dagny Taggart was going to stay awake and Shaniqua Garrison who had the misfortune to draw nursing duty for Taggart by virtue of being the least angry and homicidal towards her, had been in the room both times she woke up.

                                                                 ~

Dagny Taggart carefully climbed her way back from oblivion, it still hurt but it was manageable, this time she would be able to cling to wakefulness and then there would be hell to pay for the indignity she has undoubtedly had to endure because of this prank.  As her eyes opened she recognized the antiseptic walls of a state-run hospital, how was it possible that a woman of her stature and importance had ended up in such a low facility?  How wrong had that prank gone, how long had she been unconscious? “Dzzz Mzzz vvvvz...” Dagny stuttered and her mouth and throat felt a flame with new pain what was wrong, she didn't make unintelligible sounds, she had meant to say “Did Ellsworth Toohey eat crow”, but nothing was coming out.

“Ms. Taggart, my name is Shaniqua Garrison” a curt no-nonsense voice responded to her mumblings, “I am a senior surgical nurse here at Denver General”, oh no it must be worse than she thought I had to be transferred all the way to Denver, “I will crush those pranksters when I get out of here” Dagny thought to herself.  She turned her head slightly to look at Nurse Garrison, she'd had the firm no-nonsense voice of a competent practitioner, someone Dagny would have expected to be able to trust with her care, but upon seeing those drooping hardened features and that air of privilege that always surrounded the self-entitled government employed scum she knew she had misjudged.  Nurse Garrison continued her introduction thus “you've been comatose for five months Ms. Taggart, please don't try to talk I have ice chips here for you so that you may begin to get moisture back into your mouth and throat.”  Dagny was going to have to suffer the ministrations of this parasite at least until she could regain the use of her words, and could once again start giving well deserved tongue lashings to all the people who would undoubtedly need one.  As Nurse Garrison began delicately placing ice chips on Dagny's tongue she mentioned “I've informed Dr. Lorca that you are conscious again, however your brother James suggested that they would both need several hard-drinks before coming to deal with you.”

It was unprofessional of Nurse Garrison to mention that part, but she knew James, and wouldn't be surprised if he had not only said it but instructed this discomforting woman to pass on that tidbit to her.  Despite the ministrations of this parasite Dagny's mouth and throat were starting to moisturize enough that she was willing to try speaking again “'Ank... I wa't 'Ank Rear'en, 'Ames ca' go 'ew 'Ell!”  The parasitic woman gave Dagny a look of mild annoyance and then schooled her features to stoic professionalism again before an attempt at pseudo comforting she told Dagny “I am sorry Ms. Taggart, but Mr. Rearden didn't survive the crisis, in fact he died in the initial train crash.”  Dagny was shocked by this news but she was in too much pain herself to keep it off her face, furthermore what had this woman meant by calling it a crisis, even if the train had crashed which was of course impossible what could that have done to trigger a crisis.  Sometime these parasitic people were so hyperbolic about everything, and what's more she was making absurd claims that Hank had died that was so unlikely, but the woman persisted in telling her self-amusing lies “his lovely wife Lilian took custody of his remains after she recovered from her own injuries and buried him three months ago.”  

That was it, the last straw, enough was enough Dagny wasn't going to put up with this nonsense any longer!  She was going to get out of here and she was going to set everything to rights.  As she adjusted herself to swing herself off the bed she discovered that left arm had been restrained, it wasn't responding to her, and she was experiencing an extreme case of “pins and needles”, why couldn't she move her arm? “Release me right 'ow” Dagny demanded of Nurse Garrison and was relieved that most of the words were the coherent words of a grown woman and not the gibberish of a toddler learning to talk.  Nurse Garrison was slowly letting her anger get to her and it was evident in her response “Honey, to whose care exactly?  I don't think even your lying, no good brother wants anything to do with you right now, and who can blame him.”  Dagny was also losing control of her temper but was sure her voice was level and controlled as she replied to Nurse Garrison, “I will 'ake care of myself, I 'eed 'o wa, release the restrai's o' my left arm, I ca't move it!”

Dagny was appalled at the look of bewilderment and then amusement that crossed Nurse Garrisons face before she replied, “Honey, you don't got no left arm, you aren't restrained, you can't move it because it isn't there, and you lost both of your legs so good luck taking care of yourself!”

This made Dagny furious, treating her like some stupid child, as if she wouldn't realize she didn't have an arm or legs “You lis'en ew me you pissan', I 'ave a'vance' 'egrees in Chemical Sciences, I think I woul' know if I 'in't 'ave a limb!”  Nurse Garrison was glaring bemusedly at Dagny but she continued on, “if I say I 'ave a' arm tha' I ew!  Release me!”

Nurse Garrison closed her eyes took a centering breath “Ms. Taggart,” said through clenched teeth before relaxing and continuing “phantom limb syndrome is a well-known phenomenon in cases like yours, all you need to do is look down and see your arm is missing.”

Dagny was livid and shouted at Nurse Garrison “Phantom limb syndrome is an absurd quackery invented by egg-head parasites, I don't need to look down to see I have my arms and legs, I feel them therefore they are there!”  Dagny took a silent moment to self congratulate that she was finally able to say all of her letters.

However when Dagny looked up at Nurse Garrison all she could see was the murderous hatred in the obtuse woman's eyes.  All pretenses of civility and professionalism were gone as she shouted at Dagny “You self-centered BITCH!”  Then she struck a pose of smug superiority and continued “More than thirteen-hundred people died because of your reckless vanity and smug self-superiority complex, including six friends and colleagues of mine.  I had to explain to my five-year old why his teacher and three friends were dead and why I had to take care of the soulless bitch who was responsible, so that she wouldn't die.  A quarter million people were displaced and are homeless because of the largest industrial accident in history all a result of your corner cutting greed and narcissism.  Tens of thousands of people became very ill as a result of the poisoning of the water supply.  You've done enormous environmental and economic damage and disrupted food and medicine supply chains for months if not years, and perhaps the worst indignity of all... one of those displaced people was my idiot ex-husband and I couldn't think of a good reason to give my eight year-old daughter for why her older sisters' father couldn't move in with us, and now I have to live with him again!”

As Nurse Garrison took a breath, Dagny began her rebuttal “The price of success...” was all she managed to get out before Nurse Garrison continued “Shut up, you get to listen now.  I am your nurse because despite my personal loses because of your bad behavior, every other nurse here has even more reason to hate you, I got off easy.  I thought five months would be enough for me to let go of my anger at your carelessness but I didn't count on your being a narcissistic sociopath, I might have been able to feel sympathy for you and your plight.  But you have the unmitigated gall to not shed a tear at the news of the death of your lover and boldly refuse to accept you lost your limbs and insist I am lying to you when you can clearly see I am not, or would be able to if you opened your eyes... I can only be done with you.  I don't know if I will be back, I certainly hope not, saving your life was a tragic mistake!”

As the obtuse parasite “Nurse Garrison” stormed out of the hospital room Dagny redoubled her efforts to escape her restraints, she was not about spend another night in the care of these delusional psychopaths.  

                                                                 ~

Agent Marcus Briggs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not looking forward to this interrogation.  He was a counter-terrorism expert and was going to be interviewing the final living participant of the Rearden Bridge crisis, a somewhat pointless exercise nearly six-months after the fact, he knew the interview would be a formality, if the crisis had been an act of terrorism as opposed to incompetence everyone involved was either dead or in some way incarcerated.  This interview was a result of the paranoia that permeated the top brass; coupled with the political maneuvering of the political and chattering classes hoping to use the crisis to distract the politically disinterested.  Ms. Taggart  had been interviewed already, several times, by both law enforcement from every conceivable agency and by more than two dozen psychiatric experts.  The conclusions were fairly uniform, she suffered from narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and dissocial personality disorder, in layman’s terms she was crazy and evil.  

However the shrinks had all concluded the best way to pierce her delusions was to appeal to her violent sexual fantasies, which is why Marcus Briggs was here, in addition to being among the best counter-terrorism experts at the FBI he was a hulking six-foot four-inch, two-hundred-forty pound mass of muscle, with the caramel colored skin tone that many white women preferred in black men, and was determined by the women in his office to have both a handsome yet hard and stern face.  As an interrogator Marcus had done many questionable things in his past but he was particularly unnerved by this forthcoming interrogation because, Ms. Taggarts apparent  sexual fantasies so closely mirrored his own undisclosed kinks, the ones he most wanted his own husband to do to him, but for which he was too ashamed to admit to.

Marcus Briggs screwed up his courage as he strode confidently, perhaps even arrogantly into Dagny Taggarts guarded and sequestered hospital room, “Ms. Taggart” he practically hissed out as he approached her bed.  “Release Me!” Dagny shouted at Marcus by way of greeting.  Marcus had, had significant training in psychology when he had been in medical school, and so was aware of the dissociative tendencies people occasionally experience when they lose a limb, but he had never heard what could happen to a person who already suffered from several severe psychiatric ailments prior to their amputations.  He could potentially use this to his advantage, he thought to himself, a way to arouse her inhibition, without truly violating her.  He disdainfully looked her up and down, and replied nonchalantly with a simple “No”.  

“Are you a quack doctor or another parasitic lawman?” Dagny spat at him.

“Yes”, Agent Briggs responded condescendingly to Dagny.  “I am Agent Marcus Briggs of the FBI, I hold doctoral degrees in physics and sociology, masters degrees in mechanical engineering, transportation engineering and materials science, as well as an MD”, Agent Briggs paused for effect to make sure his credentials sunk in for Dagny, than continued “I am aware credentials don't mean much to you Dagny, but I am as close as humanly possible to being as smart an Übermensch as you and your friends wrongly believed you were.”  He parted his lips slightly showing his perfect teeth and turned his mouth up into a slight and almost menacing grin.

In a gruff but almost sultry voice he asked her “what else where you planning to do with Rearden metal, Dagny?”

“I am not impressed”, Dagny responded quietly, but the look of awe and desire in her eyes and the breathlessness of her response betrayed her lie.  It was time for Agent Briggs to turn up the power, he placed one hand in mime fashion around the most likely location for Dagny's nonexistent imagined wrist, while using the other to start stroking the air near where he hoped she believed her non-existent thigh would be, when she squealed in anticipation and submission he knew he had her, he rose up over her and looked down on her with a mixture of indifference and domination “What else was Rearden planning on doing with the metal Dagny, tell me.”

“Yes, yes I will Agent”, Dagny cooed at him, “He just wanted to make the world a better place he was hoping to replace all traditional steel products with his brilliantly reinforced metal.”  Dagny was perplexed at why this powerful domineering man wouldn't understand such an obviously beneficial idea.  She looked longingly and desperately into his eyes, pleading for him to explain what obvious failing she had missed.

Agent Briggs was in the back of his mind becoming disturbed by this interrogation, but years of training allowed him to bury that feeling and keep presenting himself to his suspect as he now had to think of her as the cool and domineering interrogator he need her to believe he was.  Despite finally breaking into her true inner psyche Dagny still plead ignorance of what was wrong with Rearden Metal, it was written all over her face.  “What did you know about Rearden Metal before you decided to invest in it?”  He asked her almost absentmindedly, he knew the answer to this from the records kept by both Rearden and his conversations from Jim Taggart, Dagny's slimy but in a normal sane way, brother and business partner.  That is part of the reason he knew this to be a futile exercise, but he persisted.

“Honestly,” Dagny started and there was almost a sense of contrition in her breathy voice, “he described the formula for the metals' lattice structure to me over a brief phone conversation, it sounded plausible and since he was selling it so inexpensively I accepted his word.... oh my god I let my desire for Rearden the man cloud my judgment and he took advantage of me didn't he!?”

This was unexpected for Agent Briggs, everything he understood about people with violent sexual fantasies suggested they wouldn't become this kind of simpering submissive mess, but he was going to use it to his advantage.  Never-the-less he took pity on Dagny and gave her a useful piece of information, “no I don't believe he did Dagny, he honestly believed the metal was what he was advertising to you and the world.”  He noticed the tears welling up in Dagny's eyes as they talked about her now dead lover Rearden, with her epistemic bubble pierced now, she was able to recognize and accept the he was really dead, which made the next thing he told her a knife twist “the autopsy of Reardens corpse revealed that he had several undiagnosed subdural hemotomas, one in his anterior cingulate cortex, caused serious confusion and made him error prone especially in conjunction with the hematoma in his visual cortex, another in his cingulate gyrus was impeding his emotional expression.”  He knew this was painful for Dagny who was not someone accustomed to feeling pain physical or emotional but he pressed on hoping to either get useful information out of her or in hopes that this could soon end.  “Dagny, Rearden was a genius, he just couldn't communicate it.  It took several months of hard work by the best cryptologists in America but we were able to unscramble most of Reardens notes; the metal was supposed to be reinforced with a brilliantly designed C60 nano fiber which interwove with the normal crystal lattice of the steel making it both tensilly very strong and also very flexible.  For what it's worth the real Rearden metal will be put into production sometime next year, by Lilian.”  

At the mention of Lilian Rearden, Dagny's eyes went dark and her face became a mask of hurt and anger she responded angrily to Agent Briggs “and why wasn't the metal prepared correctly by Reardens people prior?”

Agent Briggs realized as soon as he had said her name he shouldn't have mentioned Lilian, but he was still going to be in control here, he tightened his now throbbing and spasaming hand around Dagny's imagined wrist and let the fingers of his other hand slightly graze the real flesh of Dagny's pelvic stump.  He screwed his face into one of determined disinterest and replied “because Rearden couldn't communicate and fired people who questioned him.  His plant manager learned the lesson of watching his four immediate predecessors being fired for asking for clarification from Reardens illegible and impossible to understand notes.  He did his best to give Rearden what he thought he wanted, but Rearden Metal was too complex he had, had to ask for some clarification, but had to make do with what he could cobble together.  It was Mr Plinny the plant manager, who was the whistle-blower which alerted the State Science Institute to the danger of Rearden Metal.”

Dagny looked hurt and confused and responded “I talked to Dr. Stadler months ago, he told me the inquisition against Rearden Metal was politically motivated, I don't understand why he wouldn't have warned me?”

Agent Briggs felt a tinge of real sympathy for this poor woman as she struggled to understand, “Paranoia is a common side-effect of severe cases of dementia.”  Agent Briggs released Dagny's imagined wrist and turned so she couldn't see him massaging his hand and continued hautily “Dr. Stadler understood that his fellow scientists were trying to undermine him and get rid of him but didn't understand why, so he told you what you wanted to hear, in hopes you would help him overcome his perceived tormentors, unfortunately they were only in his mind.”  Agent Briggs turn back to Dagny and again took hold of her imagined wrist and concluded with “and you were too oblivious and self obsessed to take note of his pleading.”

Dagny swallowed hard and nodded.  She knew what was coming next and decided to show some continued self-control by beating him to it, “so who sabotaged the bridge and how?”  She asked hoping that she sounded more confident and appealing to this domineering beast of manliness.  

Agent Briggs sneered down at Dagny, grateful that she was moving the interview along, “It wasn't sabotaged Dagny” he responded coldly, “it was built as close to the specifications as could be expected again given the illegibility of Reardens notes and designs.”

“Then why did it fail?”  Dagny asked with genuine curiosity.

Agent Briggs had to smile in a genuinely humorous way at the answer he had to give, “because it wasn't built in a five-dimensional Hilbert space” he quipped.  

“Why?” Dagny asked perplexed.

“Dagny, I am sure you know the answer to that” Agent Briggs responded with genuine exasperation, “because we lack the science and technology to build in higher than three dimensions and can't access mathematical abstractions like Hilbert space.”

“I don't understand...” Dagny was becoming very agitated, “Hank told me the bridge was combination of two previously designed bridges, why would it need to be built in five-dimensional Hilbert space?”

Agent Briggs knew the interview was coming to an end and he released her imagined wrist, and applied a face of genuine sympathy for Dagny, “It was a suspension bridge Dagny” he started and had to school his features because it had been tragic even if the cause was sort of funny “mixed with an Einstein-Rosen bridge.”  At her confused look he took pity since she was primarily a chemist by education and elucidated “he was trying to build a wormhole.”

As he turned to leave he saw her nod in understanding as to what had gone wrong, so terribly wrong.  However before he could reach the door he heard her ask “the crisis... tell me how the bridge going out could cause a five-million acre wildfire?”

How did she know about that, as far as he knew no one had briefed her on the details of the crisis.  He stopped in the doorway, he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of believing he cared about her, he hoped he could explain this quickly.  “The news reports got muddled Dagny” he started with a sigh of regret.  “The train hitting the power station created a massive fireball that was further fueled by the oil in the tanker cars from the train... the fireball went down the river valley at hundreds of miles an hour creating lots of wild fires as it went.”

“Still five-million acres...” Dagny asked.

“It wasn't the only disaster to occur that day” Agent Briggs responded with trepidation, she deserved to know she wasn't the only person responsible for all of that death and destruction even if the full details were being kept “confidential”.  “Dagny, it was you friends, the one you named your rail line for and the Argentine playboy Francisco d'Anconia.”

“I never met John Galt”, Dagny responded, “I only heard whispers of his existence and thought it amusing to name the line for him.”

“I see” Agent Briggs sighed lightly, knowing he should have asked Dagny about Galt in his interview.  “Galt and d'Anconia weren't the great physicists that Stadler had told them they were” Briggs thought this was perhaps the most disturbing part of what happened, “Rearden was really a genius, but was suffering brain damage, Galt and d'Anconia were a pair of self-righteous jack-asses who had confused science fiction novels from the golden age, for physics textbooks, which is surprisingly a common phenomenon.  However most people don't have the financial resources of Francisco d'Anconia.”

Agent Briggs knew he needed to be more careful here the temptation to revel classified information was quite high in this discussion.  He closed the door to Dagny's hospital room and turned back to face her.  “Galt, d'Anconia and Danneskjöld were better at philosophy than at physics” Briggs told her matter-of-factly, “we think they were trying to build a separatist community to overthrow America.  It was a place called Galt's Gulch and it was near enough to your failed Rearden bridge, that it was able to supplement the disaster.”  Briggs had almost certainly revealed too much now, but if he didn't continue she could conceivably ask someone else about it and inadvertently reveal Galt's plan to the rest of the world.  “Like I said, they were bad at physics, they thought they could build a perpetual motion, free energy machine.  They brought it online or at least Galt did the day of the Rearden bridge crash... it exploded an hour later, I mean after it was turned on; the fire it caused quickly merged into and magnified your train crash fire... it was a multi-source fire, we've just let the public believe you were the only source, we don't want questions about how Galt was able to do what he did.  He died by the way.”

“Good” Dagny responded with venom, “that sort of incompetence doesn't need to pollute the world.  What about Francisco?”

Agent Briggs harrumphed at the thought of Francisco d'Anconia “He is in a nearby psych-ward, pending the results of this interview.  He of course is faking his insanity, unlike you.”

“How dare you” Dagny shouted at Agent Briggs, “Francisco d'Anconia is no more insane than I am, which I am not!  However, if he were faking insanity for some purpose he would do so flawlessly and you would never be able to tell!”

Agent Briggs smiled inwardly at himself as Dagny Taggarts epistemic bubble reasserted itself, and he left her to her ranting.

                                                                 ~

Dr. Barney Dévèlmen, was in the chambers of Federal District Judge Anita Lucero along with Federal Prosecutor Farrah Charles and the Taggart family lawyer Winston Tsar.  This was going to be an interesting discussion, the kind of theoretical discussion he usually preferred but rarely got to engage in with his clients or students.

“Can we try her?” Judge Lucero asked the assemblage.  

“Of course we can” replied Winston Tsar, “the question isn't can we, it is should we.”

“I get the feeling you have more self-serving concerns Winston” Farrah retorted sharply.

“They aren't self-serving Farrah, I really believe I have a shot of clearing Taggart Transcontinental of indemnity for Dagny's hubris,” Winston responded “but not if I have to go down in flames defending Dagny from criminal negligence prosecution.”

“I am sorry Mr. Tsar” I chime in, “but I have to agree with Ms. Charles, you are still being self-serving.”

Winston Tsar gives me an angry reproachful glare as Judge Lucero speaks again “Dr. Dévèlmen... Barney what about my question?”

I think for a moment or at least give the impression of deep thought, mostly to set a stage of anticipation than give my pat answer “Anita you've known me a long time, you know what my answer is.”

Anita is exasperated but asks her question anyway “Is Dagny Taggart competent to stand trial?”

Immediately both Winston Tsar and Farrah Charles practically shout their response in unison “No!”  Farrah continues after sharing a smile with Winston “Of course she isn't she has been examined by dozens of therapists and psychiatric professionals from my office, and those hired by the Taggart family and even third-party analysts assigned by you.”  Farrah paused took a sip of coffee and continued, “clearly the one thing Winston and I agree on is that Dagny Taggart is crazy as a loon and every report and diagnosis we've gotten back confirms that.”

“Barney do you concur?” Anita asks me and I respond with a shrug “Dagny has multiple psychiatric issues, but like most people who have those issues and especially those who are prone to violence and criminality, she knows the difference between right and wrong, which is the standard you are supposed to use to make the determination.”  I stop, waiting for her, to see if she will let the debate die, or if she will prompt me to make the arguments one more time even though she knows them as well as I do.  Today she has chosen to hear the arguments it seems, perhaps for the sake of Winston and Farrah, whatever the reason she indicates I should continue, “It is the wrong criteria though, she has a better sense of right and wrong than anyone else you will ever meet, but like most severe psychopathic typologies she has a twisted and distorted understanding of right and wrong, perhaps it's even better to say an inverted sense of right and wrong.”

“I don't see how that is a reason to not proceed?” Farrah asks me.

“Ms. Charles” I start with some disdain, “Ms Taggarts condition isn't any different from that of every person who is ever prosecuted for violent crimes in this country.”  Farrah seems inclined to start a protest but I don't let her I continue “Furthermore decades of evidence conclude that the condition is common among those who are most successful in business, at least in a milder strain.  Ms. Charles not prosecuting her makes a mockery of every equally disturbed individual who was tried based on the whim of the presiding judge and their limited understanding of the cognitive evidence being presented to them.”

“Prosecuting her leaves open the charge that successful business is crime though” Winston responded aghast.

“A sentiment I happen to know Barney holds very deeply” Anita responds quickly to prevent me from getting on a soapbox and preaching and for which I give her a dirty look in gratitude.  “That leaves the question of what to do ladies and gentlemen.  What are our options here?”

Winston and Farrah hesitate and start examining what appear to be very interesting patterns on their shoes, so I start the discussion myself, “This would have to be a capital case Anita, the American people have already footed a bill of several million dollars to save Dagnys life” I pause a moment to stare daggers of anger at Winston who has thus far successfully been able to argue that neither Taggart Transcontinental nor the Taggart family are responsible for paying Dagnys medical bills and that since James Taggart had been able to quickly drain her coffers by virtue of her investment in the Galt line she was illiquid and couldn't pay for herself, not that she would, “is it right to make the people pay tens of millions more for a prosecution which would, after twenty grueling years be decided by our blood-lusting supreme court that she can be executed?”

Farrah gave me a disdainful look and replied “Dr. Dévèlmen you are arguing both sides of the fence here, if we don't prosecute her we deny the legitimacy of our entire criminal justice system and if we do we over-burden the American people, can you really have it both ways?”

“Yes, of course” I respond “I want to make sure we understand what the playing field really looks like.  I am hoping to use this as an opportunity to redress the many failings in our system.”

“Good luck Dr. Dévèlmen” Farrah shakes her head at me, “the American people are angry.  They don't want justice, the want vengeance, so they are willing to foot the bill, I think.”

I smile deviously at Farrah, “now who is playing both sides of the fence?”  She is about to protest but I stop her again and continue “and for what it's worth it's my considered experience that Americans have never understood the difference between justice and vengeance.”

“Enough” Anita asserts, trying to regain control of the discussion “I want to know what options we have available to us.”

“Prosecute her, under an insanity plea” I tell the group.

“Where do you expect to find an impartial juror?” both Anita and Farrah respond.

I nod sagely and reply “That's a good point, the sectors of the Colorado economy affected by the 'Crisis' weren't large or revenue generators, but they were integral to the world's economy.  With food prices nearly tripled as a result and construction and manufacturing down twelve percent world-wide as a direct result, there is no one anywhere who wasn't a victim.”

“Accept her admission of guilt and place her in permanent psychiatric custody” Farrah asserts boldly.

“Will the American people really believe, though, that such a punishment would really be the most fitting for someone of Dagny Taggarts personality?” I ask Farrah half mockingly.

“I don't understand...” Farrah replies.

“Dagny is a strident individualist” I explain, “placing her in psychiatric care would, for her, be much worse than execution, and would in fact be along the lines of the punishments of Sisyphus and Tantalus.  I assumed you were attempting to appeal to the American peoples' vengeance-lust.”

“I am thinking that might run afoul of the eighth amendment” Anita points out.

Winston had been standing dejectedly for most of this discussion but he suddenly brightens up and shouts “d'Anconia!”

“He only has the mild form of psychopathic disorder common among business people, I am sure he can be prosecuted without question” I interject “and we still haven't figured out Dagny.”

“Francisco d'Anconia can't be prosecuted” Winston corrects me with almost smug glee, “State, won't allow it they are trying to rebuild relations with Argentina, he will probably shortly be deported back there.”

“Alright,” Farrah starts, “but what does that have to do with Dagny Taggart?”

“It's a perfect solution!” Winston is jumping with giddy excitement, “d'Anconia has claimed that he and Dagny are married.”

“So what” Farrah interrupts, “we already know he is lying there is no record of the marriage and Dagny hasn't corroborated the story at all.”

“She also believes her rail-line anthropomorphized and tried to overthrow the government” I point out to Farrah.  “She isn't the most trustworthy source of information.”

“May I finish” Winston interjects snidely, and we return our attention to him, “thank you” he says angrily than continues “accept the bogus claim and send Dagny to Argentina with d'Anconia, let her be their problem, it isn't like she can do any damage any more.”

I ponder this idea thoughtfully for a moment than ask “what about the American peoples' vengeance-lust?”

Winston gets a devious grin and replies “leave that to me, I can play off of typical ignorance of foreign geography and politics, let the American people think that Argentina is some sort of third-world banana republic like they think Paraguay or Colombia are... and hold your objections I know none of them are... but we or I let the people think she will get far worse in Argentina than we can do to her here.”

The room is quietly thoughtful for several minutes, until Anita speaks again “are there any other suggestions?”

When nobody replies she thanks us and dismisses us, telling us she will give us her decision in the next few days.