CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The team were given a champion's welcome when they arrived in Lagos a week after the final and the state governor who was represented by the state minister of science and technology came to meet with them at the MMI airport, they were awarded accolades and gifts for making the country and the whole Africa continent proud. The minister in his brief speech remarked, "...we would love to see the Tech Minds participating in several global competitions to bring the limelight to the expanse technological field of the new Nigeria. It is obvious we will need people like you on the good side of technology to curb the activities of the bad guys who seek after the vandalism of our technology through several dubious means including indiscriminate hacking and phishing. Thanks once again for making the country and its citizens proud and finally, welcome back to Nigeria...". The speech led to a prepared state dinner and the whole team had the opportunity to meet with the state governor himself who was fortunately present at the dinner. A whole week after their arrival to the country, the press and the media kept coming over and over again to the Tech Minds facility to interview the winning team and get clues of their individual history for a page on Wikipedia. A month later after the victory in China, when the whole noise and excitement had simmered down, Jay-Dee who everyone had now believed he was totally changed decided to take the Tech Minds on a whole new different path...the path they did not like too much...
The Tech Minds had woken up one morning to begin the work of the day; the production crew manned the production floor and the training sessions had began in full steam when the shocker came, Jay-Dee called an emergency meeting, this time he wasn't with the usual six members of the board, so they believed he was up to something discreet.
"Good morning Tech Minds, I called this brief meeting to give you some bits of information I believe you need to hear...", he did his trademark pause but this time he used the period to bring out a piece of folded paper from his trouser left pocket, "this paper contains a bit of statistics connected with the financial audit of the Tech Minds bank account recently prepared by an external auditor showing the income and expenditure of this project since it began operations some years ago. I would love to read all the financial terms to you but allow me to just tell you the crux of the matter in a simple term, we are running out of cash!. Yes, the expenses are biting hard on the income and according to the auditor, "if you don't do anything about this decline, I'm sorry but you should be out of business in a matter of two months...", his words not mine. Look around guys, it takes a lot of capital to run this facility; the salaries that have to get paid every month, the feeding, clothing and maintenance expenses are all proof of the small fortune that goes down the drain each month and trust me, you do not want to know how much that 'small' fortune cost..."
Steve and the rest of the Tech Minds became apprehensive at this speech, what was Jay-Dee trying to say?, what's the whole point of boring them with these financial stuffs?, did he want to shut down the project?, is that what he was trying to say?
"Not to prolong matters, allow me hit the nail on the head, the Tech Minds project is coming to an end!...", it was like a bombshell was dropped right in the middle of the hall, everyone was either too shocked to react or the angry to speak. The bold ones muttered some incoherent insult to calm-looking Jay-Dee who had actually planned the whole thing carefully and had seen it coming, "I know it might sound painful and irrational but that's the only way out of our financial inadequacies. If we decide to ignore the auditor's professional warning and continue with the project, after a while, this facility would be so torn, dilapidated and lacking in quality that you would all wish you never trained here. In two months, this facility would halt its production and training programs and won't be responsible for your up keeps anymore and survival would be based on how smart you've become. To butress my point, let me show you a little something to prove I'm not the one that instigated the sudden dissolution of the Tech Minds...", he brought out a drive from his pocket and inserted it into the laptop that connected to the the hall's video projector, in response to this action, a video began to play on the white screen...the video was that of Mr Chris seated on his office seat making a slow silent speech, Jay-Dee tapped a button to increase the volume of the video as Mr Chris's voice filled the whole hall, "good day my valiant Tech Minds, if you are seeing this video today, it means only one thing, I've departed this world a while past and now Jay-Dee, my able assistant has now taken up the mantle as your new leader. Tech Minds has a long history I haven't shared to anyone in a long time, the reason was simply because people would think I've lost my mind. It was a project I intended to bring to life because I saw what my mates and contemporaries didn't see, greatness and freedom through technology. The future was bright and could only be brought to reality if we train you guys to rule the world of science and technology and because I had the dream, I worked towards it with all my might but sadly I wasn't blessed with the needed financial resources. In a bid to actualize my dream, I took a huge loan from a bank in England and I signed a deal with them that I would repay this debt a few years after I lived the dream of setting up the Tech Minds. Unfortunately, I was unable to meet up with the ultimatum and I've instructed my personal assistant Jay-Dee who I handed over the reins of this project to, to initiate the production sector of the project to offset the debt to a minimal level, I'm pretty sure by now, the debt would have been reduced to a survivable level but I know the program is now at a time during which the expenditure of this facility had eventually caught up with the income and this would result into a sad reality, the end of Tech Minds. I'm sorry things have to end this way but it gladdens my heart that you all have earned the life experience and skills I wanted you to earn during the training period, it would be instrumental for you as you leave the facility. I hope you understand, that would be all for now", Jay-Dee went over to the laptop and switched it off before moving back to the podium to continue his speech that now had solid evidence " as you can see that this development had been in the cold storage all this while and we had just waited till now for the financial heat to thaw it out, thanks for your hard-fought understanding, that would all for now, you can now resume to your positions...".
Everyone was still shell shocked as they dragged themselves out of the hall sadly, shutting down the Tech Minds would mean them returning back to their struggling backgrounds and no one loved that anymore now that Mr Chris had made them experience the good side of life and now Jay-Dee who they had all thought had taken over the whole attributes and enterprise of Mr Chris was now the one breaking the bad news and telling them it was over, would Mr Chris have really wanted this?. The next few weeks were tough for the whole group, they did their assigned tasks wearily and desperately waited as the clock kept ticking, in another couple of weeks time, it would be time for them to decide if they are going to leave the facility to search for greener pastures or continue living in the facility but won't be dependent on the estranged management for survival. That meant they would have to rely on their training and skills to eke out a living at least till they find another lasting means of dependability.
"Wake up...", a voice commanded as it tried tapping Steve out of his snores.
"What's that?, can't I enjoy my last days here in peace?", Steve complained half-asleep.
"Get up bro, we've got something to show you!...", now that was another voice. Steve who was now fully awake recognised the two different voices; they were John and Mark and they stood right at the side of his bed!. What did they want from him in the middle of the night now?.
"What's it guys?, can't I sleep in peace now?, what's it that you want to show me that can't wait till morning?, I just hope it isn't..."
"Shushhh!...", John whispered, "keep your voice down, we don't want any trouble tonight, we just want to show you something important"
"So important it can't wait till morning...", Mark added. Something was up with these guys, they were unusually friendly to Steve tonight.
The trio of them crept out of the room and made their way to Mr Chris old office which now served as Jay-Dee's personal storeroom where he kept obsolete equipments and discarded files, he used another more comfortable space as his office and personal chambers. The lock on the door came off as they headed straight for the large cupboard and off came the padlock again...
"See...", Mark began as he ransacked the dusty cupboard, "we knew Jay-Dee wasn't telling the truth the moment we saw the video of Mr Chris!"
He shuffled the folders and brought out an old leather briefcase, dropped it carefully on the table and started to pick it's numeric lock while Steve just stood confused
"You see...", seeing Mark was still busy, John picked up from where Mark stopped, "Jay-Dee isn't who we thought who was. After the competition in China, you would think he had changed for the better but it was just under false pretence that he did all what he did during the whole tour..."
"Done!...", Mark sighed as the numeric lock paved way.
"Here...", Mark pointed to the bunches of paperwork in the rusty old briefcase, "...is a proof of what we are saying, go through them and see for yourself"
Steve moved forward and examined the documents in the briefcase slowly, it contained information about some kind of sponsorship plea from the public offering to bring the Tech Minds back to the world stage. There were also copies of receipts that indicated the generosity of the government through their regular bumper donations. As he checked the last of the folders, he found invitation letters to tech conventions and competitions including an all expense paid trip to Paris on a vacation and training tour proposed by SevereTech Industries all turned down by Jay-Dee for the reasons best wildly known to him. Steve was beyond shocked, why did Jay-Dee turn down all the charitable efforts of these benevolent guys who saw talents and wanted to help revive the Tech Minds and bring it back to where it belonged on the global stage?
"Why?...", Steve managed to voice out after a long period of sustained silence, "why did he decline all these requests?, we needed all these benefits, why did he decide to hide it from us?"
"I was hoping you would ask. Myself and Mark had been noticing Jay-Dee the moment we arrived from China. We monitored his outings and his mails but after he noticed someone was spying on him online, he blocked us out and that was a step to prove our suspicions. Also, sometimes ago when Jay-Dee announced an impromptu emergency meeting when we were supposed to be on lunch break, we saw him receive some corporate guests we believe were from the government, so we stalled them and eavesdropped on their discussion in Jay-Dee's office, that's when we discovered they had wanted us to represent Nigeria on another competition themed 'Africa's Tech Leaders' which was to take place in Cairo, Egypt. Shockingly, Jay-Dee turned them down on the excuse that we were busy with a tour after which we would begin compulsory training lessons on advanced coding, they resorted to pleading but it fell on Jay-Dee's deaf ears. I later found out Nigeria came sixteenth place out of the twenty-four countries that were represented in the competition,the result could have been better, if only..."
"Jay-Dee is keeping us here for a reason!...", Mark pointed out, "the reason?, we don't know particularly but according to our observations and findings, the only motive stopping him from releasing us to the world to utilise our talents is the motive of greed. He wants us to himself and sooner or later, you will find out that he had being 'breeding' us for what he intends to obtain from us. We have something he needs; rare technological information and highly developed digital skills and he knows if he allows us to go for all those tours, conventions and competitions, we could realise enough to live and comfortably survive on our own and then, he wouldn't be able to keep us under his wings anymore!"
Mark arranged the folders back into the briefcase and fixed the lock back on, then he went behind the desk and brought out a old laptop we all recognised, it was Mr Chris's.
"Remember the speech we were shown the other day?...", John asked as Mark worked on reviving the system, "...Mr Chris's parting speech, it pleases me to tell you that particular speech was doctored!", now the real bombshell just dropped, no way that speech was falsified, Steve thought, he was a tech genius and he did not suspect any form of falsification in that speech, or maybe he was just blinded by the emotions that kept rushing to his minds when the projector was running.
"Alright guys...", Mark reacted playfully, "...we've got hands on the evidence we've all wanted to find here"
They watched a whole new different version of Mr Chris's parting speech and it did not contain any part when he mentioned offsetting meagre debts or handing over to Jay-Dee or the untimely end of the Tech Minds, in facts, Mr Chris had mentioned his partnership with SevereTech since they were his major sponsors and had advised them to work with the technology industry in the future 'as long as we wanted'. It was now obvious that Jay-Dee had worked so hard at falsifying Mr Chris's original touching speech.
"You see Steve...", John continued his intriguing explanations, "during the speech we were shown the other day, we noticed some irregularities and we did our findings, Mr Chris never ends any of his speech with 'that would be all for now', instead he uses encouraging words like 'stay strong' or 'I love you all', but now we can all see the truth right before our eyes".
Steve gathered all the energy he could muster as he spoke, "we can do something about this, we can alert the rest of us, we can expose this cheat!, we can..."
"Forget about 'we' Steve, John and I are leaving tomorrow", Mark announced, "it's two months already, the stated deadline has elapsed and the last thing I would want to do is to help Jay-Dee with any of his dubious schemes. We had a life before we joined Tech Minds, we are returning to that life, things are better there"
Steve knew there was no going back on this decision so he decided to let it go, he would deal with Jay-Dee himself. They packed up the laptop and left the storeroom just how they met it but they were not the same people that had broke into the storeroom, they encountered what they never knew they would encounter in a commom storeroom, and now...they were changed persons, Steve especially!
The next morning was an eventful one, John and Mark announced their intention to leave to the rest of the group and luckily, they were not the only ones that made that decision, most of the other guys decided it was over with the project and packed up their bags leaving a tiny number in the facility, people like Steve...those that had absolutely nowhere else to go!.
"Good morning Tech Minds, or should I say the rest of the Tech Minds...", Jay-Dee started right after the whole lot of the Tech Minds had vacated the facility, "...I appreciate your courage and your faith but I guess this is where we draw the curtains on this program. You mates have taken the decision they believed to be wise and here you are now, you've taken yours but in all things, know this for sure, neither myself or the board would be responsible for your daily upkeep, you will have to earn your survival in ways I would explain to you personally, that's only if you are interested. No more training or workout sessions and as long as you stay on your lane, we would have no trouble with ourselves, meanwhile, you are free to live here at the facility, the space is all yours, enjoy!", he took a gleeful look at the sad group and dropped the mic, he must had thought it was game over for Steve and the rest but no!, Steve wasn't ready to give up now!.
The whole Tech Minds group were now down to thirty-two from about an hundred and ten and at first most of them resorted to living on their savings but after a week, they reasoned survival couldn't be sustained by their exhausted savings so most of them gave in and began to 'work' for Jay-Dee, the work they did?, nobody knew but they were rewarded with survival and not just any kind of survival, it was a life worth more than mere surviving. Kate and Steve and a couple of determined guys remained undaunted, instead they did menial jobs around their environment for pay lower than their pocket money when the Tech Minds was still standing but they did not care, they were fine by it. Day by day, the number of people that defected and started to work for Jay-Dee increased while the rest that were standing with Steve and his unwavering decision decreased. After a month, the only guys that hadn't started working for Jay-Dee were just Kate and Steve!.
Then an idea came to Steve's mind, instead of working hard with their hands and bodies for pay lower than expected, why not use his brain and work smart?. He developed an online website and named it 'Steve's Key' and what he did was offering to help those who lost their valuable accounts and informations through hacking or forgetfulness for a little amount of money as pay for recovering their accounts, this 'little' pay wasn't so little and would definitely solve more of he and Kate's survival problems. Steve's Key survived the teething stages and eventually became famous for its efficiency and speed of recovery. Steve got more clients by the day and his bank account was flowing with milk and honey, the struggle for survival became a thing of the past and the both of them lived comfortably even larger than Jay-Dee's guys. This made Jay-Dee unhappy, he needed Steve to work for him, Steve had the brain and skills more than all his guys combined and the result he was getting from thirty workers weren't as optimum as he had expected, he reached a definite decision, he needed Steve to be a part of his selfish personal project!
Jay-Dee devised a plan, he knew that Steve wasn't going to work for him no matter how the conditions worsened. Steve's huge pay was seeing to it that the living condition of both himself and Kate remained standard. So Jay-Dee cooked up a scheme as crooked as he was and set it into motion. One day as Steve was working for an important client who just got his Facebook account hacked, Jay-Dee barged into the room, gun in hand, shivering Kate, his captive!.
"Hello Steve, I see you've been working"
"Jay-Dee!, have you gone mad?, what's with the weapon?, drop the gun now!"
"It's not that easy Steve, I will drop the gun only if you agree to work for me, that all"
"Work for you?, never!", Steve spat.
"Okay then, Kate would have you reconsider that decision, a gun's pointed to her head right now so she's thinking of your stupidity, you wanna let her die just because you won't work for me?, huh, think it through again Steve, are you really sure you want that?"
"Don't listen to him Steve...", Kate shrieked, "he's going to use you, he does not deserve you, don't accept to work for him, he's a maniac!", Jay-Dee hit her with his free hand and she screamed loudly.
"It's alright Jay-Dee, I will work for you, whichever work that you are doing, just don't hurt Kate", Steve decided calmly
"Okay boy, you've made your decision, now you work for me and the slightest reluctance I observe in you, I won't touch you 'cos I would still need you, it's your Kate that would bear the grave consequences, so don't try messing with me, do you understand?"
"Yeah, I understand", Steve had never wanted to work for Jay-Dee but he had partially seen it coming; as long as he resided under the same roof as Jay-Dee, he couldn't be totally free from his schemes.
'Work' wasn't work per say, Jay- Dee had recruited Steve and the rest of the ex Tech Minds to illegally hack into people's bank accounts and transfer their hard-earned funds into Jay-Dee's encrypted account, those that had no cash to offer, Jay-Dee instructed Steve to hack into their media space and gather highly confidential information about them which would he used as blackmail, anyhow they did it, money would be the end product of it. Steve hated the job and even though he did it so perfectly and left no trace of his actions, he still regretted the day he joined the 'workers' and agreed to help Jay-Dee, if not that Kate was involved, Steve would stand his ground against all odds and say 'NO!', no matter the consequences, it was far better to endure than the suffering he was inflicting on his victims. Business was booming for Jay-Dee since Steve joined the bandwagon, millions of naira were made every week and Jay-Dee was living fat of Steve. Kate tried convincing him to stop but he knew if he did, Kate wouldn't be there by his side anymore to comfort him whenever he needed her so he refused and reluctantly continued his hacking adventures for Jay-Dee without receiving any pay from him, he refused to be a total part of the illegality and besides Steve's Key was still givingl.
Steve had worked for Jay-Dee for over a month and was already sick of it, he had seen his online victims run into depression while others had commit suicide when they had their personal information leaked and their bank accounts emptied, the dailies were bombarded with regular shocking news about the 'anonymous' hacker who had caused a streak of physical, emotional, mental and most importantly, financial damages, he had to find a way of escape from the clutches of Jay-Dee's evil grip if not, he would go down in history from being one of the smartest tech genius to mount the podium in an open global competition to being one of the greatest criminals that ever worked on the computer system!. He struggled day and night to bring up a way of escape and as the saying goes, 'necessity is the mother of invention', after being pushed to the wall, Steve came up with something risky, the only way out was a slim chance....he was ready to take any chance at all...