The setup was everything I'd imagined it would be.
Both curved monitors glowing softly in the dim room.
The PC tower humming with the quiet confidence of serious hardware doing exactly what it was built for.
The mechanical keyboard catching the warm lamp light just right.
I sat in the new chair, fresh coffee steaming beside me, and just took it in for a moment.
Three months ago I was sitting at a dusty laptop in a room that had given up on itself. Wearing a blazer that meant nothing. Missing deadlines for a life I'd stopped believing in.
Now this.
I exhaled slowly.
Then opened Fix It.
The dashboard loaded across both screens clean interface, quest log on the left, client requests on the right, the system's status indicator pulsing a steady blue in the corner like a heartbeat.
Two pending notifications.
The first was a five star review from Meridian General.
Dennis had written four paragraphs. I skimmed it, smiled, closed it.
The second one made me stop.
It had come in at 2:47am.
While I was sleeping on my new mattress for the first time, dead to the world, the request had arrived and sat quietly in my dashboard waiting.
No company name. No profile photo. Just a username
Mr. Grey.
I leaned forward.
The job description was three lines long.
"System compromised. Data at risk. Standard channels not an option. Need someone who knows what they're doing and knows how to forget what they've seen. Budget is not a concern."
That was it.
No technical specifications. No location. No contact number. Just those three lines and at the bottom a figure that made me set my coffee down very carefully.
₦4,500,000.
For a single job.
I stared at it.
System alert, the system said. Quieter than usual. Anomalous request detected.
"I see it."
Analyzing. A pause longer than normal. Username Mr. Grey created 48 hours ago. Single purpose account. No history. No reviews. No digital footprint beyond this post.
"Someone made the account just for this."
Yes. The budget was posted openly but the technical details were deliberately withheld. Whoever this is they want to vet you before they tell you anything real.
I read the three lines again.
Standard channels not an option.
"They can't go to official IT support," I said. "Or the authorities."
Which means either the problem is illegal, the data is sensitive, or both.
"Or they just don't trust anyone official."
Also possible. Another pause. Brandon. Four point five million naira is not a casual posting. Someone with that kind of budget has options.
They chose Fix It specifically.
I sat back in my chair.
"They found us through the hospital."
Almost certainly. Word travels in certain circles. The system's tone was measured. Careful in a way it usually wasn't. I want to flag something.
"Go ahead."
In my assessment this client is either exactly what they appear to be a wealthy private individual with a sensitive problem and the means to solve it quietly or they are something considerably more complicated. A beat. I cannot determine which from the available data.
"First time you've said that."
Yes, the system said simply. It is.
I looked at the figure again. ₦4,500,000.
Then I clicked reply.