National treasure

Sandy was the ambitious type. Her ambition could not be tamed. If others dreamt of big things, Sandy thought of bigger things. Sandy believed that nothing was impossible to achieve.

She was a builder. She picked interest in tech at a very young age and all she ever wanted to do was build stuff. As a kid, Sandy would take things apart and fix them, sometimes even making them better than they were initially.

Sandy's parents were proud of her, even though she had given them a lot of worry in the past. One time, while she was building stuff, she caused a fire that almost burnt their house. Another time, she caused a power outage in the entire area.

Sandy was miles ahead of her peers. She got to the university when her mates were just starting college. Sandy always had this dream of building something Iconic. Something revolutionary. One fateful day, Sandy came to the conclusion to build Artificial intelligence that tracked every financial transaction that happens on the internet.

No matter the kind of transaction, if it was digital, the AI could find it. With such an AI, fraud can be identified instantly. Financial theft could be tracked and identified immediately without stress. That was Sandy's goal. It seemed impossible to achieve, but that was what motivated Sandy to push even further.


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Sandy worked day and night to build this AI. What he didn't think about is that it was the kind of innovation that would disrupt business as usual for a lot of powerful, bad people. Even governments could get interested in such an invention if it worked.

Sandy invested her time and effort into building this AI. At some point, she needed more money to complete what she was building, so she had to take some freelance jobs online to get the funds she needed. Sandy was barely getting any sleep. She was trying to juggle between building her AI and doing side jobs to raise money.

One evening, her mother walked into her room.

"Sandy, you're always on your project. You barely get any rest. Take a little break before your body breaks down" her mom said.

"I'll rest soon mom. I'm so close to finishing this" Sandy replied.

"Alright, but come eat dinner at least" her mom said.
"I'll be there shortly" Sandy replied.

The next day, Sandy's best friend, Claire, came to visit her. Claire observed her friend hadn't been around much lately and it only meant she was working on some project really important to her. Claire decided to go find out what it was.

"Hey Sandy. I haven't seen you much lately. What have you been up to?" Claire asked.

"I've been building AI. A special kind. The type that can track every financial activity online, including government spendings. It would be able to spot fraud immediately. It can trace anything financially" Sandy said.

Claire was in awe after hearing this.

"You're crazy if you think you're going to pull off something as big as that" Claire said.

"I'm not crazy. You just have a small mind" Sandy replied.

"I am building something iconic and I'm almost done with it. I just need to bring it online" Sandy said.

Sandy eventually concluded her work and brought the AI online. She tested it and she could see all financial transactions happening online in real time. That's how she was able to figure out a major financial fraud happening within the government.

She decided to give an anonymous tip to the authorities. The fraud was caught and some of those involved were indicted but it was much bigger than that. Some corrupt people who were very powerful in government were involved. This was the kind of operation that was supposed to be executed silently and cleanly. They wondered how on earth the fraud was found out.

So they pulled some strings and were able to trace it to Sandy. One night, while Sandy was working home after getting some groceries from the supermarket, she noticed two strange men behind, following her. She hastened her steps but the men did so too.

She ran and the men ran after her. Sandy was able to find a place to hide and she lost those men. She realized this could be as a result of the tip she gave. She knew she was in trouble because of the AI she built, so she decided to go straight to her uncle who was in the police.

"Sandy, what's the matter? You sounded scared on the phone" her uncle said.
"I'm in trouble, uncle" Sandy replied.

Sandy narrated everything to him. Her uncle was stunned by the fact that Sandy was behind that huge discovery that shook up the government.
Her uncle disclosed this to trusted people in the government and her AI became a national asset. The powerful bad people were found out and put behind bars, Sandy was employed by the government, she was being paid millions and her AI was used by the government to watch out for more cases of financial fraud.



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5 comments
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Really enjoyed this story. Sandy feels real and her determination stands out clearly. I liked how her “I’m not crazy” moment tied naturally into the plot. Thank you for sharing

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I think Sandy was crazy enough to think bigger than she should even though she thinks she isn't crazy, lol. As a tech person this story resonates with me because sometimes we find ourselves thinking of building the next big App. And sometimes it seems crazy. Thanks for sharing friend

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Your piece was ambitious but needed more developmental depth.There is too much telling and not enough detailed story. We need more dramatisation and less summary of action. Your piece would also benefit from a light edit. In The Ink Well, we should all strive for quality submissions, and this includes taking the time to proofread and edit to catch grammatical inconsistencies and easy to fix spelling errors. Spend a bit of time on your next piece developing your characters and showing progression of the story through character interactions, dialogue, and sensory details.

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Noted.
I'll implement all the changes to my subsequent stories.
Thank you.

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