Chapter 10 - Fifty WitnessesWhile administrators argued behind closed doors, the students decided they were finished waiting.
Brooke created a group chat called:
THE FIFTY
Marcus changed the name ten seconds later.
THE FIFTY + LEO
Leo changed it back.
Brooke changed it again.
He gave up.
Their goal was simple.
Collect everything.
Every video.
Every screenshot.
Every upload timestamp.
Every interaction with athletics staff.
Every suspicious recruitment conversation.
By midnight, patterns emerged.
Seven affected students had received strange emails in the previous week encouraging them to “avoid last-minute portal traffic.”
Nine reported unusual Wi-Fi interruptions during practice uploads.
Three had been approached by people associated with athletics asking whether they were applying to Apex.
Sofia remembered something important.
A week earlier, Graham Pike had attended an economics networking reception.
He asked her directly about Apex.
“How strong do you think your application is?”
Sofia had assumed he was making conversation.
Then he asked whether she planned to submit early.
“I told him I always submit on deadline day because I keep editing.”
Leo looked at her.
“Did he ask where?”
She thought.
“Yes.”
Everyone became still.
“What did you say?”
“That I’d probably use North Hall because our senior seminar meets there.”
Brooke whispered, “He was scouting us.”
Other students began remembering similar questions.
Where would you submit?
What time?
Which building had the fastest Wi-Fi?
The affected students had not been chosen randomly.
Someone had mapped the strongest candidates.
Then manipulated them toward the same location.
Brooke created a timeline.
Three weeks before deadline: Graham Pike begins asking applicants about submission plans.
Two weeks before deadline: Nolan Price clones Leo’s authentication token.
Six days before deadline: several applicants receive messages encouraging North Hall use.
Deadline day, 11:58:49: traffic is rerouted.
11:58:52: Trent receives fiber-box photograph.
11:59:04: Trent grabs Leo’s crutch.
11:59:18: Node A-17 fails.
Noon: fifty applications fail.
12:00:27: anonymous accusation blames Leo.
It was almost elegant.
Until Trent overdid it.
Leo stared at the timeline.
“They didn’t need him to break my crutch.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“They needed him to break the box.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Leo replayed the footage.
Trent grabbed the crutch because it was available.
He could have used anything.
A fire extinguisher.
A chair.
His foot.
But humiliating Leo drew every camera toward the scene.
“That’s why we have evidence,” Brooke realized.
“Exactly.”
If Trent had simply damaged the box quietly, the outage might have looked technical.
Instead he created fifty witnesses.
Marcus laughed.
“So the guy who thought he was helping the conspiracy wrecked it because he needed an audience.”
Leo nodded.
“Arrogance is inefficient.”
The group’s investigation spread.
Students outside the fifty joined.
A journalism major requested university financial disclosures.
A law student reviewed recruitment policies.
A statistics student compared candidate rankings.
By morning, more than two hundred students were helping.
The administration tried to discourage speculation.
That only made people more curious.
Then a journalism student named Rachel Kim found the first financial connection.
Coach Voss’s nonprofit youth foundation had received a $250,000 donation.
Source:
Holloway Development Charitable Trust.
Date:
Six weeks before Apex applications opened.
Another student found payments from the Westbridge Athletics Foundation to Nolan Price’s old consultancy.
The consultancy was supposedly inactive.
Payments totaled $180,000 over two years.
Professor Ward stared at the figures.
“He was being paid.”
Leo nodded.
“But for what?”
Then Brooke entered the room holding her laptop like it was on fire.
“Guys.”
She turned it around.
A whistleblower message had been sent to the student newspaper.
Attached was a spreadsheet.
Title:
APEX WESTBRIDGE PRIORITY LIST
Names.
Scores.
Notes.
Some highlighted green.
Others red.
Ethan Cole — green.
Two other football players — green.
Sofia Ramirez — red.
Priya Shah — red.
Daniel Kim — red.
Brooke Jensen — red.
Marcus Bell — red.
Leo Mercer wasn’t listed as an applicant.
His name appeared separately.
TECHNICAL RISK — NEUTRALIZE ACCESS
Nobody spoke.
Brooke looked at Leo.
“Neutralize access?”
Leo’s face remained unreadable.
Professor Ward whispered, “They knew you might detect the routing.”
“Yes.”
“And Trent…”
“Was supposed to distract me.”
Then Leo saw another name at the bottom of the document.
Authorization initials:
EH
Everett Holloway.
Beneath them:
GP
Graham Pike.
And a third set.
NP
Nolan Price.
The conspiracy now had a document.
But the final column was more disturbing.
EXPECTED VALUE — MERGER PLACEMENT
These students were not being favored just because they played football.
Someone expected them to receive positions after the Holloway-Apex merger.
Positions where they could influence contracts.
Leo looked at the list.
“This isn’t recruitment favoritism.”
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Professor Ward nodded.
“It’s corporate infiltration.”
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