The media coverage intensified. News anchors debated whether Blake was exploiting child labor or teaching valuable lessons about overconfidence.
Hour 16: Maya discovered something troubling in the hospital management system. Not just simple errors, but fundamental security vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to access patient records.
«Mr. Blake,» Maya said quietly. «Bad people could break into your hospital computers and steal sick people’s information.»
Blake dismissed her concern. «Our security protocols are industry standard. You wouldn’t understand enterprise cybersecurity.»
But Dr. Carter ran deeper diagnostics and went pale. «Blake, she’s right. We have massive security holes.»
Hour 20: Maya was running on determination alone. She’d found over 600 errors, but Blake kept moving the goalposts.
«Even if you find 1,000 mistakes,» Blake announced, «that doesn’t prove you understand our quality assurance processes, our testing protocols, our deployment strategies.»
Maya looked up with tired eyes. «I understand that your computers are scared and confused. They just want someone to give them clear instructions.»
Hour 22: Maya made her final discovery. Hidden in the deepest layers of Mathcore’s code were systematic backdoors. Someone had been secretly accessing their systems for months.
«Mr. Blake,» Maya’s voice was small but urgent. «Someone’s been stealing from your computers.»
Blake rushed to see what she’d found. His face went white as he realized the implications.
Hour 24: The deadline arrived. Maya had identified 847 distinct errors across Mathcore’s entire infrastructure. More importantly, she’d exposed a massive data breach that could have destroyed the company.
Blake stood before the room, his earlier confidence completely shattered. The eight-year-old he’d tried to humiliate had just saved his billion-dollar empire from catastrophic failure. But Maya wasn’t done revealing Blake’s incompetence.
The biggest surprise was yet to come. The automotive executives waited for Blake’s response. Six million viewers held their breath. Maya sat quietly, exhausted but victorious.
«Well, Dr. Blake,» Toyota’s CEO asked pointedly, «does the child get her $100 million?»
Blake’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. He was about to face the most expensive decision of his life. But first, Maya had one more devastating revelation that would change everything.
What happens when an eight-year-old discovers that the real problem isn’t incompetence but something much worse? Blake stared at the evidence Maya had uncovered, his face cycling through confusion, fear, and desperate calculation.
The backdoors she’d found weren’t random security flaws. They were deliberate, sophisticated, and placed by someone with intimate knowledge of Mathcore’s systems.
«Ladies and gentlemen,» Blake announced suddenly, his voice regaining artificial confidence. «I need to make an important clarification.» The room fell silent, sensing a dramatic shift.
«These aren’t programming errors,» Blake declared, pointing at Maya’s discoveries. «These are evidence of corporate sabotage. Our systems have been deliberately compromised by external hackers.»
Confused murmurs rippled through the crowd. The livestream comments exploded with speculation about corporate espionage and cyber warfare. Maya looked up from her workstation, tilting her head with innocent curiosity.
«Mr. Blake, why would hackers make the same mistakes your programmers always make?»
Blake felt a chill run down his spine. «What do you mean?»
«The backdoors use your company’s coding style,» Maya explained with devastating simplicity. «Same spacing, same variable names, same comment format… even the same spelling mistakes.»
Dr. Carter rushed to verify Maya’s observation, her fingers flying across the keyboard. Her face went pale as she compared the malicious code to Mathcore’s internal documentation.
«Blake,» Dr. Carter’s voice trembled. «Maya’s right. This matches our internal programming standards perfectly, down to the specific formatting rules we use in our training materials.»
The room buzzed with uncomfortable realization. If the sabotage matched Mathcore’s internal standards, it couldn’t have come from outside hackers. Blake’s desperation peaked.
«That’s impossible. External attackers could have studied our code patterns, reverse-engineered our methodology…»
«Mr. Blake,» Maya interrupted gently. «The bad code was written at the same time as the good code. Look at the timestamps.»
Dr. Carter checked the file creation dates. Her gasp was audible throughout the room. «The vulnerabilities were coded simultaneously with the main systems. This wasn’t external sabotage, Blake. This was internal incompetence.»
Blake realized his lie was crumbling in real-time. The backdoors weren’t evidence of criminal conspiracy — they were proof of systematic training failures within his own company.
«Even worse,» Maya continued with childlike honesty, «your training program taught people to write code this way. You’ve been teaching the wrong methods for years.»
The automotive executives exchanged horrified glances. They weren’t just dealing with security breaches. They were dealing with fundamental educational failures that had infected Mathcore’s entire development process. Blake’s assistant whispered urgently about stock prices plummeting as investors realized the scope of the company’s institutional problems.
Maya looked at Blake with curious innocence. «Why did you try to blame other people for mistakes your company made?»
The question hung in the air like a sword, waiting to fall and destroy what remained of Blake’s credibility. How do you explain lying to a child who’s already caught you in the lie? Blake’s lie hung in the air like poison gas.
Six million viewers had just watched a billionaire CEO try to frame hackers for his own company’s failures. The livestream chat exploded with accusations of fraud, incompetence, and corporate deception. But Blake wasn’t finished destroying himself.
«You know what?» Blake’s voice cracked with desperation. «Even if Maya found real problems, she doesn’t understand the business implications. Fixing these systems could crash our entire infrastructure. We could lose everything.»
He turned to the automotive executives with manufactured authority. «These aren’t just technical issues. These are carefully balanced systems that have worked for years. One wrong change could trigger cascading failures across multiple industries.»
The fear campaign began working. Several board members nodded nervously. Toyota’s CEO looked uncertain. BMW’s technical director frowned with concern.
«Think about the liability,» Blake pressed his advantage. «If we implement untested changes based on a child’s suggestions and something goes wrong, we could face lawsuits worth billions. Entire hospital networks could fail. Traffic systems could collapse. Financial markets could crash.»
Dr. Carter started to object, but Blake cut her off. «Sarah, you’re a brilliant programmer, but you don’t understand corporate risk management. The legal department would never approve experimental fixes from an unauthorized consultant.»
The room’s mood shifted. Blake’s business argument sounded rational compared to Maya’s simple technical logic. Several investors pulled out their phones, probably calling lawyers and risk assessment teams. Maya watched the adults argue about her like she wasn’t there.
For the first time since this started, doubt crept across her young face. «Maybe,» Maya said quietly, «maybe Mr. Blake is right. Maybe I don’t understand enough about grown-up business.»
Blake pounced on her uncertainty like a predator. «Exactly, Maya. You’re incredibly bright for your age. But real-world systems require more than just technical knowledge. They require understanding of regulations, compliance standards, operational procedures, and risk mitigation strategies.»
The eight-year-old who had been so confident suddenly looked small and overwhelmed. The adult world’s complexity was crushing her simple certainty. Rosa moved protectively toward her daughter.
«Maya, we don’t have to do this anymore. You’ve already proven you’re special.»
Blake’s smile returned as victory seemed within reach. «Perhaps it’s best if Maya focuses on her education. Leave the professional work to professionals.»
But Dr. Carter knelt to Maya’s level, speaking gently. «Maya, you found real problems. The question isn’t whether you understand everything about business. The question is whether the problems you found are real.»
Maya looked at the screen showing system performance metrics. Numbers don’t lie. Data doesn’t care about corporate politics.
«The computers are still confused,» Maya said softly. «They’re working harder than they need to because the instructions aren’t clear.»
«But what if fixing them breaks something else?» Blake pressed. «What if your changes cause accidents? What if people get hurt because we listen to someone without proper training?»
Maya’s eyes filled with uncertainty. The weight of potential consequences was too heavy for an eight-year-old’s shoulders. Blake sensed complete victory.
«Sometimes the safest choice is to leave working systems alone, even if they’re not perfect.»
The room fell silent. Blake had successfully weaponized adult complexity against a child’s simple logic. But then Maya looked up with the devastating honesty that only children possess.
«Mr. Blake, if the computers are confused, won’t people get hurt anyway?»
The question hit like lightning. Blake realized he’d just argued for maintaining dangerous systems to avoid the risk of fixing dangerous systems.
Maya continued with innocent wisdom. «Isn’t it scarier to keep broken things than to fix them?»
Dr. Carter smiled despite the tension. «Maya’s right. The real risk is doing nothing.»
Blake felt his psychological victory slipping away. The child’s logic was too pure, too correct, too impossibly reasonable. Maya stood up straighter, her confidence returning.
«I don’t know about business, but I know the computers are asking for help.»
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