Chapter 16 - The Interview ListTwo days after the outage, Apex restored all fifty applications.
Three days after that, interview selections were released.
Students gathered again in Engineering Auditorium 2.
Nobody wanted to check alone.
Brooke refreshed her email.
Nothing.
Marcus refreshed.
Nothing.
Sofia stared at her phone.
Then it buzzed.
She covered her mouth.
“What?” Brooke demanded.
Sofia turned the screen around.
CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR APEX GLOBAL FINAL-ROUND INTERVIEWS.
The room exploded.
Her parents were watching through video call.
Her mother began crying.
Then Priya shouted.
She had one too.
Daniel.
Brooke.
Marcus.
More notifications arrived.
Of the fifty affected applicants, nineteen advanced to final interviews.
Without the sabotage, they had always been that strong.
The three athletes on Everett’s priority list?
Ethan Cole did not advance.
Neither did one of the others.
The third barely made the cutoff.
Not because they were punished.
Apex had deliberately ordered evaluators to judge applications without knowing who had been involved.
Leo respected that.
He was standing near the back when Camille Ross entered.
She found him.
“Why didn’t you apply?”
“To Apex?”
“Yes.”
“Not interested.”
“You’re a computer engineering senior.”
“I know.”
“You just performed incident reconstruction that impressed our security division.”
Leo stared at her.
“Are you recruiting me while everyone else is celebrating being recruited?”
“Yes.”
“That seems dangerous.”
Camille smiled.
“We have cybersecurity roles.”
“I thought this was executive leadership.”
“We have both.”
Leo shook his head.
“I already have plans.”
“What plans?”
“Graduate research.”
Professor Ward, standing nearby, pretended not to listen.
Camille handed him a card.
“Plans change.”
Before Leo could answer, Dean Bell entered with Agent Ortiz.
The room quieted.
Ortiz approached Professor Ward and Leo.
“Nolan Price surrendered this morning.”
Leo felt something inside him loosen.
“Where?”
“Washington field office.”
“Is he cooperating?”
“Extensively.”
“And Everett?”
Ortiz gave the careful expression investigators used when they refused to reveal too much.
“I can say search warrants are being executed.”
That afternoon, federal agents entered Holloway Development headquarters.
News helicopters circled the building.
Boxes of records left through the main entrance.
Graham Pike’s home was searched.
Coach Voss’s office was sealed.
University servers were imaged.
Westbridge’s board held an emergency meeting.
By evening, two trustees resigned.
One had received consulting payments from Holloway Development.
The other had repeatedly intervened in athletics disciplinary cases involving Trent.
Brooke read the announcement.
“So when Trent blocked your ramp sophomore year…”
Leo nodded.
“Probably why nothing happened.”
“And all those complaints?”
“Likely buried.”
She stared at him.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Brooke looked ashamed.
“I used to think you were just difficult.”
“I am difficult.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
She sat beside him.
“Why didn’t you tell everyone?”
“I did.”
“What?”
“I reported it.”
“No, I mean publicly.”
Leo looked at the auditorium filled with students celebrating.
“People prefer believing a problem is small until it affects them.”
Brooke winced.
“That sounds aimed at us.”
“It is.”
She nodded slowly.
Fair.
The fifty students had ignored harassment until their own futures vanished.
That truth remained uncomfortable.
But instead of defending herself, Brooke said:
“We were wrong.”
Leo looked at her.
“We watched.”
“Yes.”
“We laughed sometimes.”
“Yes.”
“You should be angry.”
“I was.”
“Was?”
He looked around.
“Anger is expensive.”
Brooke smiled faintly.
“You sound eighty.”
“My knees feel ninety.”
She laughed.
Then his phone rang.
Trent.
Leo almost rejected it.
But security had approved contact because Trent was now cooperating with investigators.
He answered.
“What?”
Trent sounded different.
Quiet.
“My father was arrested.”
Leo stood.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
Brooke’s smile vanished.
Trent continued.
“They’re saying conspiracy, wire fraud, computer fraud and obstruction.”
Leo looked toward Agent Ortiz.
She had already received the update.
Trent whispered:
“I thought I’d feel better.”
“You won’t.”
“How do you know?”
Leo stared at his old broken crutch displayed inside an evidence bag on a nearby table.
“Because consequences aren’t revenge.”
Trent stayed silent.
Leo continued.
“They don’t make what happened disappear.”
“Then what do they do?”
“They stop people from pretending it didn’t matter.”
Trent breathed out.
“Yeah.”
The call ended.
Outside, reporters gathered around campus gates.
Inside, nineteen students prepared for interviews they almost never received.
And for the first time since Hallway A, Leo felt the story changing.
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It was no longer about what Trent destroyed.
It was about what everyone else chose to rebuild.
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