Brian shakes his head ”Oh by every means join us, and if you are doing this for my own account, enjoy John..”
John shakes his head
”Just my job, i won’t lose sleep over you Brian, i am just telling you that i would keep an eye especially on you because we all know how ignorant you are of things, i don’t even know why you are even going, what do you know about things like this?”
”Whatever i don’t know according to you John i guess it would be way higher than what you do but…in any case, enjoy your supervision, i may just be here for the ride, or a tour, who knows, don’t let me keep you from attending to supervisory matters” he smiles
”are you mocking me?”
”The car was quiet before you showed up John” this was Boma
”So, i should keep quiet? You don’t see how he is insulting me? At this very moment as your supervisory even for a day i demand respect from each and everyone of you and if any of you don’t like that you are free to leave now or go run it by Mr Emeka, i don’t care, so whatever i say goes…understood?”
”John you are not the boss of me” another guy,
”See, you are not only a thorn in my flesh though” Brian chuckles
”Well we would see about that wont we now?”
”John relax, okay” Boma tells him shaking his head as the car begins to move
”you be quiet Boma” John snaps,
Boma shakes his head ”Whatever”
Brian leans back resting his head to the seat and chooses to ignore him the rest of the trip and maybe the entire day too.
Whatever John was doing here, must be because Emeka wants him to, but why? Of all people why pick a dauce to supervise people he has no idea what they are doing, John wasn’t no Tech/Software dude, he was nothing other than an administrative staff, nothing more.
Brians, oh well. He is just going because the guy had asked for him. He frowns remembering his conversation with Emeka this morning when he called him, he was going to ignore him after the incident of yesterday but he decided to go.
”you were looking for me?”‘ he had said when he enters his office
”I guess greeting your elders isn’t part of your vocabulary?” Emeka turns
”I don’t think you called me here to add my greetings to your collections of greetings this morning, but never the less, goodmorning, so why did you call me here?”
”what nonsense did you spill to Mr Dickson Layefa yesterday for him to think you are smart not stupid?”
Brian smiles ”Nothing other than what i know and have interest in”
”since when do you know intelligent stuff Brian, other than drawing circles on paper that is?”
Brain shakes his head, he is standing towering over Emeka who is seated.. he leans backwards resting on the wall
”Since because i know, i don’t have to tell you everything about me, and those thing you say is circles on paper is giving the company good ratings in the designs apartments last i checked, again, why am i here?”
Emeka sighs ”Look, i will not have you take your ignorance to another company just to prove your relevance to your father. You and i know that all that sob story yesterday was a farce, a lie, we both know the truth, you just as stupid as rich kids come, useless to self too other than spend money and act stupid, i am sure all those mumbo jumbo you said to Dickson is just to look smart, maybe read it of some news blog.. doesn’t mean-”
Brain sighs
”if it bothers you so much why not let me make a fool of myself then, after all i wasn’t the one who wanted me there, if by listening to me and Mr Dickson sees some knowledge in my words it is left for him to decided and i have no plans to ruin the company’s image, or to prove my relevance to my father, he already knows my relevance, this is nothing other than i heard something i once took an interest in, gave an insight and he wanted to see me and asked i come with the team you were sending, it shouldn’t be a problem because i am not going there to do anything other than honour the invite, and if you think i am stupid and not smart and only know how to draw fancies for designs, then you shouldn’t be worried, because i would also be useless to Mr Dickson right?”
”Atleast we have an understanding in that” Emeka smiles
”Can i leave now?”
”Sure , i don’t need you at the moment ”
Brian nods turning, then he stops ”Why did you tell him, what was your reason, what did you think he was going to do? ”
”I didn’t tell him and even if i did, you wanted to leave right, you wanted your father to take you out of the company didn’t you, you were being rebellious when you came because that is what you wanted is that not so? To piss everyone so bad, be a nuisance and cause alot of problems so that your father would gets so frustrated that he would yang you and send you back overseas where you get to spend the money and all, but oh wait, maybe he would just yang you out and toss you away, not that i care but, but.. you wanted to be removed right? So why does it matter if i told him or not?”
”i wanted to leave and didn’t want a part in his desire to teach me valuable lessons that were for my own good, that was before, now..i told you, i have changed and i believe that what my father wants me to learn is important and i am doing me this time, not him, and i would appreciate it if you try not to meddle.. i know you were the one who told him after you promised holding it as leverage over my head to do the project, that’s fine. Thing is, i like what i am doing, i design, so…be rest assured that it would come out right. Also, i don’t plan to cause any problems for my father nor for anyone anymore, i intend to do my job here in this coming…intend to do me, so you can stop waving my father over my head please.. and maybe you can get off my back. I also intend to give you the respect accorded to you and your office so i would appreciate it if you left me do my job atleast for once, i don’t want trouble neither do i want to give it, so this is just Brian, the PA, the design guy and whatever else, just Brian ..nothing more.”
”if you think i believe that you are high, you will slip and when you do i will be there, you want to leave the company right? Maybe i should help you”
”what is that supposed to mean?”
”You can leave Brian, the other team members are waiting for you”
Brian stares at him, shaking his head he leaves. Something was just unsettling about Emeka, too unsettling.
****
”Brian, coming?” Boma alights as did everyone else, Brian is booted out of his thoughts , he looks around, the car had stopped
”Oh yeah, i didn’t realise that we have reached, thanks man” he alights and they begin to follow the others.
Someone greets them at the entrance of the Alkeda IT Company and asks them to follow her, it was a relatively huge company on its own having its own staffs, a group of people are waiting for them when they enter another office, Mr Dickson Layefa stands up to receive them.
”Welcome gentlemen, glad you all can make it.. ” he shakes all of them, frowning when he gets to John ”and you are? I do not remember you”
”Morning sir, my name is John Efegor, i am here to supervise them” he shakes the man’s hand
”Supervise them for what actually? They are grown ass men, i didn’t ask for a supervisor, who asked you to come? The only person i added to the team was that young man over there, er..what is his name, Brian..Brian Andrews” he points to him
John’s jaw flexes, he keeps his smile, but it is fixated
”Yes sir, Mr Emeka wants to be apprised of everything and wants to make sure that they are of best behaviour, because despite that they are adults, some can act very immature as children so it is mandatory for me to be here to keep him in check”
”Him? You are assuming one person specifically?”
”i mean him, them, whoever ”
”Fine, fine, you are already here, gentlemen ” Dickson turns to his people ”these are the interns one of you will be working with for the next couple of weeks, and follow me while i take you round what we do and what we hope to achieve, whoever gets picked would work with an assignment from my company , and would have access to whatever he needs to make this a success, please come, we would do a test run and then we progress”
Dickson walks before them, they follow and then the interns,
***
After the tour, he leaves them with a par of four interns each, giving them task to complete,
”Brian, this is your team of four, i want you all to come up with something for me, anything simple really, i want to see how you all can work together, ” he turns to everyone ” there is a project placed infront of you, you can rewrite the programme , you can rebuild it from scratch, change the software, twig it or i don’t know whatever you like… there is an app, there are robots and machines, you pick. Point it, how creative can you all get, how fast can you walk and how you are able to deliver. You all are the tech experts in your field, i am sure you can be able to come up with something worth smiling about.”
”Excuse me Sir, but i thought i was just here for the tour, i am not an expert here”’ Brian calls his attention, as he looks apologetically at his four interns assigned to him
Dickson walks up to him, John follows, standing close to listen
”You told me about something yesterday, which means you know a little, why not give it a shot, you never know what you could achieve”
”i took the course up out of boredom”
”And yet you learnt a little, give it a try, i believe you know more than you let on, your interns ” he says walking away
John is staring at him ” you can just go to the car and wait, instead of embarrassing yourself and the company, you don’t know anything and yet you are here” he spat, the interns look at him
Brian smiles ignoring him ”Okay fellas, goodmorning, ignore the big pole of distraction here” they laugh ”My name is Brian and let’s try not to make me look like a fool okay?” he smiles at them,. They laugh again ”so, robots or apps?
John sneers at him, he walks away to take a seat as he keeps his eyes on him.
****
Three hours later, Dickson walks back into the room, John was sleeping on the chair unaware when he strolls in.
Dicskon takes a long look at him and shakes his head
“And a supervisor he says,what is he supervising ? Sleep? ” Dickson walks away shaking his head
“So, how are we doing ?” He asks taking a walk around them, going to team by team, commenting, being impressed by what he saw.
Each team had Computers surrounding them,gadgets and tools, the Tech instructors infront of them,they seemed pretty immensed, building ,creating ,tuning and twigging.
“Oh this looks really great,isn’t that the app we had for Cash regulators? It seems different, what did you do? ” he asks the Tech lead on it
“Well, easy, we create merchant check points at different locations in town for cash back as well as depositing cash. From this app you can basically do anything cash, without having to go to your bank, we developed a software that can enable you have plugging for different banks, gives you access to the nearest merchant and piggy-vaults around town. The only useful information the app needs about the customer is erm… phone number,facial recognition and last digit codes of your card pin, it is safe and secure and one can’t easily have access to your money when making transaction and even when you misplace your card,thus the facial recognition taking optical snaps shots unaware of the user. So it’s safe and secure. With this app it cuts across all works of life,the highs and the lows and while you make transactions you save money, those extra bank cuts wouldn’t be there ,why?because you are dealing with people like you not the bank directly. Safes times too”.
“I see,and it can be used now?”
“Well yes,you can try it. It is in the testing changes. Three hours wasn’t enough but at this point since its only us who is allowed this test yes you can. ”
“Okay, let me try,what do I do first.”
“Here” the tech says as his intern come around him. “Stand infront of the computer there and it would scan you”
Dickson does so
“One of the interns wrote the senor code for optical lenses, plus having the camera features already imbeded it was easy,also.. they created a thumbprint with by editing the Html and rewriting it. Which means that, it’s you and you alone who can operate your profile when you are signed it. , it’s able to also tell the different with thumbs even from twins, ”
“Oh really nice,really nice, please show me what else this does.” Dickson was excited
****
It’s another hour when he comes to Brian,he was the last team.
Dickson rubs his hands , John who had been sleeping was nuged awake when he almost crashed to the ground . The interns are laughing at him. .
“So much for supervising ” Boma teases him
“Are you mad?” He yawns getting up and looking around he is growing. ..
“What is going on?”
“What is going on is that. .we are almost done here, he is onto the last team and seems pretty impressed with everyone. ”
John turns to look at the the direction of Dickson,he gets up walking towards him
‘Where are you going to?”
“To see how that fool makes a complete fool of himself. ” he throws off his shoulders walking away to them.
Dickson smiles , “So what have you got to show me?”
Brian who had been staring down at his group of four as they carried in a circle turns to look at him, his smile apologetic
“Nothing much though, just the simple running around thingie. I actually didn’t do anything ,they did all of it”
“No you helped,the directions and instructions you gave helped ” one girl says .
” I didn’t think I could do it but he just said , try not to think too much, sometimes you don’t know if you could do it if you don’t try.” She smiles at Brian.
Dickson nods ” well that is nice of you Brian, encouragement is a good motivator. So..what do we have here?” He turns around walking to their middle.
“Well, it’s a machine , ” Brian says scratching his head
” I can see that , but what does it do ” he says frowning . All he could see were different pasts of machine pulled apart and scattered on the table.. “but I don’t see anything ” Maybe Emeka was right, this boy knows nothing. He hadn’t even tried to work on or build anything.
John chuckles behind him..
“You call that a machine, a machine or scattered parts ” he laughs loudly holding his tummy. .
“Do you mind ?” Brian turns to him
“Me? Of course I do mind but it is hilarious ” he bursts out laughing again ; it catches the others attention as they turn wondering why John is laughing, they walk towards them.
Dickson shakes his head turning away from John, he smiles at Brian
” well I think you made an effort,like you said you don’t know much so… I guess this is all you could come up with but don’t beat yourself up for it okay,I am sure they were able to learn from your encouragements and sound advice ..”
Brian frowns ” Thank you Sir but we haven’t shown you what we made..yet”
“Made?” John steps forward touching one machine on the table ” all I see here is waist of time and energy that should he exerted into something more useful like remaining back at the company. ” he sighs turning to Mr Dickson
” I am so sorry Sir for that he has done , if I have known he was coming I would have made sure he didn’t so he doesn’t come to embarrass the company as well as himself and-”
“John , no one asked for your opinion and no one made you Mr Emeka’s spokesman ” Boma scolds him
“if Brian is here is because Mr Dickson saw a potential in it and even if he couldn’t deliver on it,it doesn’t mean he didn’t imbibe knowledges on them. ”
‘But he was a great Tech instructor; just wait you will see what we did” another intern says ,the remaining three of them nods in agreement.
“Sir?” John continuous ignoring Boma,he would deal with him later. ” you see, Brian is nothing other than a PA and an occasional architecture designer ,doesn’t mean he is smart enough to know…know coding and software . I know he must have lied to you just to get here and-”
Brian chooses to be quiet ..letting John talk.
“And ,to think he wasted your time and this interns it’s really unforgivable; I would have to call Mr Emeka now and let him -“.
“I don’t like you very much ,what is your name again ?:
John frowns ” but I just told you my name a few hours ago .”
“Right, it was probably as irrelevant as your presence ,I would appreciate it if you stop talking and if you can’t you can go back to sleep or go back to your bus. I called five persons here or needed five person’s here and included Brian because of what we spoke about and was impressed with him enough to give him an invite. Doesn’t matter if he wasn’t able to achieve anything; it still doesn’t give you the right to mock and laugh at him . People like you bring people down when they are trying to be good and that is just wrong.”
John is taken aback ” But sir?”
“Let it be John ” Boma tells him ” you don’t need to rub it in the guy’s face ,he did say he didn’t know much.”
Brian is still quiet ,he didn’t have much time for drama this days.
“Well thank you for your kind words Sir , do appreciate it . But if you allow me,we can show you the little we came up with if you don’t mind step this way.”
John scoffs shaking his head ,Boma shakes his head at him, John turns his head away
“I wonder the nonsense this fool wants to show us”
“Sometimes it is better to give another a chance , a benefit of the doubt before assuming they can’t amount to nothing John,you of all people should know that” Boma tells him
“when we get back I will deal with you, for now shut the hell up !!” John folds his hands
Dickson sighs , well, he might as well see it ” okay Brian ,go ahead.”
” Thank you” Brian nods to his team as they move back.
“Tekena, do you mind putting in your last code, once he does that? Everyone else’s fix in your last codes , remember it is all connected so it would work seamlessly ”
“Can you all kindly move back please ?” Brian tells them, they do.
The other team members come to see what is happening ,waiting,watching .
“Watch the pieces of scraffle on the table and the pulled out piece by price mental and the scattered machine on the table. ” Brian tells them
Everyone is whispering as his four interns all bring out their phones ,
“Should we connect it to the WiFi connected to the acting device now Mr Brian ” one of them ask him
“Yes,” he also brings out his phone. ..
“One my mack, you edit the Html and fix in the last software codes to decrypt it and then you send play,it should be done seamlessly and together okay? ”
“Okay!!”
“Look whatever you want to do you are wasting out time !” John is impatient
“I am sorry one more word from you and I would ask the security to send you out.
John is tight lips, his frown deepness.
Brian is talking
” okay,go please and we are ready.”
As soon as they each put in the last codes on what looked like an app builder machine on their phones ,they press send. And waited.
Nothing.
A few seconds pass as they stare at the table.
Nothing. .
“Er what is going on?” Layefa turns to Brian ‘ it didn’t work, what you wanted to do”
“It is working ”
“But I don’t see anything ”
“Wait for it Sir, it’s sensors connecting ,give it a second ”
“Useless,incompetent fool. Useless!! Arrant nosense , imagine I told you-”
The cluck sign of moving machine was what stopped John on his tracks .
“What in the world ?” He began
All eyes were glued to the table as the once shattered machine parts are clicking ,as though being pulled , towards a force.
And they were. Suddenly the body parts of the machine forces itself up, and slowly it’s parts scattered about and had no purpose suddenly begin to align and fix themself’s to it ,it looked as though they moved on the own accord.
In five minutes it were a fisted hand that could cover the human hand in one
“Oh ,a robotic hand ?” Dickson asked with raised eyebrows
“More like a robotic shapeshifter ” another intern says with a smile. .
“What do you mean?” Dickson is curious
“Oh you wait for it, it’s coming, why don’t you shake it ” Brian urges.
Reluctantly he reaches for the machine and stretches out his hand to it.. it moves side to side as though sizing the hand up.
Everyone laughs ,then it opens its fist and grabs Dickson’s hand in a right handshake,firm,robot firm and not squashy firm..
“Oh wow!! How is this happening ?” Dickson laughs asking. .
“Put in the second code Tim” Emena nods to him and as soon as he punches it in and presses send
The hand suddenly holds tight to Dickson’s hand ,restructuring itself until it claspes his hand like a glove ,only machine like .
“Oh wow!! ” everyone exclaim
John is speechless ,how..how is he doing that , Brian didn’t know nothing ,nothing but how come he knows this.
By the time they were done ;the hand had changed into five different things including a picture frame with a face in it,it used the reflection of Dickson’s causing it to show in screen, a toy car and then when Mr Dickson was asked to put his hands fisted together toward it, it restructures itself into handcuffs ,and clasps down.
“Wow!! This is awesome ” everyone is clapping and cheering , Dickson is impressed ;
“I would clap but I am being handcuffed by a …I don’t know what to call this..”
“Shapeshifter-botics ” one of the interns offers .
Brian laughs ” whatever you guys call it is fine by me, ”
“Send encrypt codes for disbanding Tekena”
And within minutes Dickson’s hands are free, and within another few minutes the shapeshift botics scatters itself and back to what it looked like before. .. with itself part separated again”
“Wow Brian , this is amazing;really creative and different. So how.. what did you guys do”
“Well,we used basic things, magnetics; the machines of course, they brought in old robots parts from the “Toss out ” cartons they had to we rewired them, but via coding. And then also with WiFi we channeled it connection each phone to give specific codes for each act. Of course Tekena wanted the handshake, Tim the handcuffs and then the other two picked the handglove and frames. What we started with creating the exact feature like a dormy inside the app to tell it what we want, it’s a computer so it takes what you give and gives out the same way. So after that we manually override the dormant primal codes especially from its source,weren’t outs with encyptment and decrypt keys , so that the app which we built and installed on our phones can be used separately without disruptions .
What this…according to my amazing team here” he smiles at them “This shapeshifting-botics can be used as a disguise in homes and offices. ..with the magnetic pull and sensor recognition , you can put it anywhere in your house scattered and once you punch in the codes and press send , the pull would cause them to find each other and for instance you have a bugler , you can send it which act you want like the handcuffs ,all the bugler has to do is touch it;one touch and is held down and the magnetic pull would drag him to the ground till the cops show up. Good thing is that you can fix in so many this into it that is feasible that is, you don’t expect it to materialise into food so ”
They all laugh..
“Well I am impressed Brian,you did good”
“No they did it,I only stood and watched ”
“Oh don’t be modest Mr Brian , you practically wrote and rewrote the codes and created the software programing that we edited in the hmtl,and imbeded the java and Bluetooth sensors, we just helped ” they say
“Well it looks pretty good Brian,you are talented like this and yet you are hiding away in designs department ? Boma shakes his head
“Oh well, I think ..I think this is just perfect. Everyone did a perfect job and I must confess I love it all,but this..this stood out pretty much and I like it ” Dickson smile turning to Brian
“You are full of surprises son , a word please ?” He beckons to Brian as he walks away,John who had been speechless suddenly recollects himself and follows them.
Brian and Dickson stop,Dickson turns to see John standing beside him.
“Yes John? ”
“I want to supervise all that concerns the company’s staffs so that they do not go out of line”
“Well you can go supervise the others, if you don’t mind I have to talk business with Mr Brian here”
When John doesn’t move Brian turns to him. .
“You can be a little less obvious ? ”
“Can you no address me that way”.
“Please can someone call security for me?” Dickson’s patience was running thin
“Yes ” someone disappears out the door,John turns sharply ..
“Sir,for me?”
“Yes , now take a few steps backwards
Please before they come and bundle you, my business talk is only for the one I choose and I will have a talk with your Boss,I have no idea why he sent an ignorant and incompetent fool along ”
John boils as he opens and closes his mouth, he takes a few steps backwards and waits.
The security came ,he looks at Dickson who tells them to escorts him out for being unrully and disturbing the peace . He could struggle and make a scene , but that wouldn’t be for his own best interest. He sighs as his hard features are not missed. .he looks to stare at Brian,and the bastard as a smile tugging at his lips.
“Damn you Brain, my time is coming ,you just wait” they leave.
Dickson turns to Brian and continues to talk .
****
TO BE CONTINUE ON MONDAY
