The experts

Jason continued his presentation, wowing everyone in the room. Of course Jason did not reveal the meaning behind the TE abbreviation of the name and only explained that healer was the Greek translation of his name. "As you can see on the website and the registration at the Chamber of Commerce, the CEO has been listed as Jack Smith, combining the two most common names in the UK. My company mainly focuses on software development, cyber security and security soft- and hardware. The IT field is a fast growing field and has provided us with many successes. The past year we had a gross net profit of 54 million pounds and the year before it was just over forty million pounds." As he went through slide after slide, showing one chart after another Jason showed the financial state of his company during the past few years as well as the predicted profits for the next two quarters and the five year plan.

"A profit of 1 million pounds was surpassed one year after I started the company and the last three years the profit has increased exponentially. For the next five years, we plan on expanding our hardware products with laptops and computers for company uses as we are known for our good firewall and anti-virus software as well as our VPN services. We will also invest in artificial intelligence software development to improve our security software and help us test and develop all future software." After he had told all he needed to tell he turned to face them all again from the center of the stage and said, "That concludes my part of today's presentation. Thank you all for your time and attention. I look forward to working with you all starting September." The room filled with applause, some genuine and others resentfully or out of obligation. Not wanting to break the mask they had built so hard to create.

As Jason walked off the stage, the first external expert came to the stage to present his findings. During his walk to the back of the room, where the other candidates were seated, he walked past his father and grandfather. Both of them gave Jason an approving nod and smile. His grandfather even giving him a thumbs up, something that didn't fit his character at all. Making Jason almost crack a smile. Something he could not afford to do in this setting with all his major enemies present. Once Jason had taken his seat, Stephen wrapped up the presentation. "Thank you Jason for that clear presentation. I think we can all agree that you have achieved some impressive results at such a young age. Now it is time for us to hear whether these results are the real achieved results and if you have been abiding by the rules for the past years. For that we welcome the experts hired for this selection day." The first expert entered the stage from behind a black curtain and introduced himself and his credentials before revealing his results.

The expert was very positive about Jason's company and backed up the story he had told himself. The second expert was no different, making the results Jason had achieved irrefutable. The only thing that the experts had in their report that hadn't been in Jason's presentation was a minor fall. The exports both revealed a sudden drop in the profits, when examined weekly instead of quarterly. The drop seemed to be due to the loss of an investor in one of the weeks in the previous quarter. Though the drop hadn't affected the overall results for the year nor for the quarter the drop had occurred in, it posed a minor reason for concern as it was something they couldn't really explain. Anything like it couldn't be found during all the years the company had been active, leaving them puzzled. When this was revealed, Jason's eyes narrowed. Feeling annoyed that it had been found out, blaming himself for not being the one to include it into the results as it now seemed that he was hiding something, and wondering how he was going to explain it without revealing any weaknesses.

It was customary that the candidate would be given an opportunity to provide an explanation for the results that had been found if deemed necessary and it would allow the other people present to ask him questions regarding the findings and his own presentation. So, after the experts were done presenting their results, Jason was called back to the front by Stephen. Jason was sure that after he had walked back up that stage a question about the singular drop would be asked. Even if the others didn't, his own father would have to in order to maintain his impartiality as the current CEO. With Stephen's sharp mind, he quickly put two and two together when he saw the expert reports and could pretty much predict the reason for Jason's error. Sadly it couldn't have happened at a worse moment as especially the last two years were analyzed in dept and there had been but one change in his life in that period. He hoped that Jason had thought of a good explanation as the truth wouldn't be too flattering.