Following the Data

I had seven days. I needed to use them well.

The Strategy

Vikram's offer was tempting. Walk away, benefit from the system, pretend I never found anything.

But I knew what accepting meant: becoming part of the corruption. Every time someone was hurt by a modified record, I would be responsible. Every time the system was used for something worse than attendance fraud, I would be complicit.

I had to expose this. But I had to be smart about it.

Reporting to college administration would not work. Vikram had connections. The information would reach him before any investigation could start. Evidence would disappear.

I needed to build an undeniable case. Document everything so thoroughly that no cover-up could work. Then take it to someone with the power and motivation to act.

The Documentation

First: preserve what I had found.

I created encrypted backups of all my evidence. Multiple copies in multiple locations. Cloud storage under anonymous accounts. USB drives hidden in places only I knew. A dead man's switch of my own—if something happened to me, the information would automatically release.

Then I continued gathering.

The Network Analysis

The shadow server connected to something external. I needed to identify what.

Network analysis is tedious work. Hours of tracing IP addresses, analyzing packet captures, following connection patterns. But the picture that emerged was shocking.

The external connection led to a server cluster in another city. That cluster was registered to a company that provided "educational consulting services." A company whose client list included several colleges, not just Somaiya.

This was not a single-campus operation. This was a network.

The Financial Trail

Where there is corruption, there is money.

I could not directly access payment records. But I could analyze what I had: the transaction codes in the shadow server logs.

Each code followed a pattern. When I mapped the patterns, I found they correlated with dates. Semester start, exam season, placement season—each had distinctive code structures.

More importantly, some codes appeared in groups. Students processed together, often with sequential numbers. This suggested batch operations. Multiple clients paying at once.

I estimated the scale: at least fifty active clients per semester, paying an average of five thousand rupees per service. That was over two lakhs per semester from attendance fixes alone.

The premium services—grade changes, placement data—would be worth much more. Vikram was running a business with revenue in the crores annually.

The Victims

Corruption does not exist without victims.

I started identifying them. Not the clients—they had chosen to participate. But the people harmed by the system.

A student who lost a placement to someone with "insider" preparation. A researcher whose grant was denied because grades had been manipulated in ways that affected departmental rankings. A faculty member whose course evaluations were mysteriously poor after they raised concerns about data security.

The shadow system was not just helping some students cheat. It was actively harming anyone who got in its way.

The Allies

I could not do this alone. I needed people I could trust.

Carefully, I approached three classmates. Each was someone I knew to be ethical. Each had skills I needed:

• Riya: excellent at social engineering, could gather human intelligence
• Amit: security researcher, could help analyze the technical evidence
• Priya: journalism student, knew how to write a story that would be taken seriously

I told them only what they needed to know. Enough to help. Not enough to put them at risk if things went wrong.

The Clock

Five days into my week, Vikram reached out.

"I hope you're thinking carefully," he texted from an anonymous number. "Some opportunities only come once."

He was monitoring me. Maybe through the college network, maybe through the systems he controlled. He knew I was still active.

I replied: "Still thinking. Need more time."

"Three more days. No more."

The pressure was mounting. But I was close. The case was almost complete.

The Package

On day six, I finished compiling the evidence.

The package included:

• Technical documentation of the shadow server
• Network analysis showing the external connections
• Financial pattern analysis suggesting the scale of operations
• Timeline correlation proving systematic modification of records
• Victim statements from students and faculty who had been harmed
• Profile of Vikram Shetty and his continued access to campus systems

Everything was encrypted, organized, and annotated. Clear enough that a non-technical reader could understand. Detailed enough that investigators could verify.

The Recipient

The question remained: who to give this to?

College administration was compromised. Local police might be too slow, too easily pressured. I needed someone with reach and independence.

After careful research, I identified a journalist. A senior reporter at a major publication who specialized in institutional corruption. Someone with a track record of protecting sources and following through on investigations.

I prepared to reach out.

The Warning

On the night of day six, I received another message.

This one was not from Vikram's anonymous number. It came from my own college email—somehow, from myself.

"We know you're building a case. We know who you're planning to contact. Don't."

Attached were photos. Of my room. Of my hidden USB drives. Of the journalist's contact information on my laptop screen.

They had access to everything. My email, my camera, my files. The shadow system was inside my devices.

I had twenty-four hours until Vikram's deadline. And they knew my entire plan.

Data cuts both ways. The same trails that reveal them can reveal you.

Next: The cover-up—what happens when power realizes it's threatened.