The secretary who had recently started as an intern knocked on the door and walked into Blake’s office. She put a folder on the table and said, “Mr. Blake, the follow-up calls have all been finished.”
Blake got the folder and opened it to have a look. And he became serious.
“Nancy, this work is very serious. I hope you can do it carefully. If you just dawdle, you can pack up and leave now,” said Blake.
The secretary was so frightened that she almost cried. Her expression was a little confused. And she asked, “What’s wrong with my work, Mr. Blake?”
Blake’s facial expression was saying, “You know what I mean.” He pointed to the folder in his hand and asked, “Are you sure you have done all the follow-up calls that I asked you to do? Did you call each of them?”
“Yes, Mr. Blake. I called them all and I recorded the results of my calls on the document.” She pointed to the folder in his hand.
But Blake laughed ironically. “Nancy, this work is not a joke, and today is not April Fool’s Day! Everyone on the follow-up list is satisfied with our training. Okay, it may not be too surprising to have a one hundred percent satisfaction rate. But the key point is that everyone chose ‘passed’ as the result of the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. All of them passed the challenge. A pass rate of one hundred percent. Do you think that’s possible? Nancy, you must know that I can tolerate the inefficiency of my employees, but I cannot tolerate cheating. Honesty is of great importance.”
The secretary felt wronged. She timidly explained, “I confirmed with them again and again. But all of them told me that they passed that competition. It’s true. I didn’t lie to you. What I said is true. You can check the results with our clients if you do not believe me.”
On hearing the words of the secretary, Blake frowned. He had thought that she filled out all the forms with “passed” without making the follow-up calls because she didn’t take her job seriously. But he could tell from her expression that her words were true.
“Did every client finish the competition? No. That’s impossible. It’s the 24-hour Frogman Challenge, not a simple mass sports activity. A 50% pass rate would be a big surprise. How could it be a one hundred percent pass rate? Are the students in this training class all professional athletes of triathlon?”
Blake didn’t believe it. But he was softened, seeing the grievance of the young secretary. He decided to call to check on his own.
Let me pick a few clients randomly and ask them. The truth will show itself.
…
Half an hour later, Blake was stunned, looking at the phone on the desk. Everyone he called had passed the competition. For a moment, he didn’t know whether he should continue to make the next call or not.
Jesus! Each of them passed the competition! Has the 24-hour Frogman Challenge become easier? Why does it seem like a driving test, which anyone can pass?
Blake was a professional. He knew the difficulty of the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. The challenge was designed as the test for the Navy Seals. The fact that the average people could pass would be evidence to prove that Navy Seals were too unqualified.
It suddenly occurred to Blake that Dai Li had been in charge of the training.
How did Dai Li achieve that? Blake couldn’t help getting out his mobile phone and calling Dai Li.
…
“All passed? How did I do that? Just training! If one trains poorly, let him spend more time on training and eventually he will be able to pass the competition,” Dai Li said, relaxed.
“Are you kidding? Your description makes it sound as simple as shopping at Wal-Mart!” Blake snorted coldly, then lowered his voice to say, “Tell me honestly if you’re using something you shouldn’t use.”
Dai Li was slightly stunned. And after thinking for a moment he realized the indication of Blake’s words.
“You mean stimulants? Randy, as a former professional athlete, you should know that in the 24-hour Frogman Challenge, stimulants wouldn’t work,” said Dai Li with a smile.
“You are right,” Blake nodded and replied. The 24-hour Frogman Challenge was a physical test for the average person. It was not like the Olympic Games or the World Championship. For ordinary people, using stimulants made no difference. For example, an examinee who drunk a can of Red Bull before his physical test for a senior high school entrance exam would not experience any improvement in his scores. The only effect of drinking Red Bull would be to quench his thirst.
Blake added, “A pass rate of one hundred percent. It’s really a miracle. To tell you the truth, I would like to announce this result to the public. It will be great advertising for us, and we will win more customers for the next year’s training class.”
“Make it public then. Publicity is your job,” said Dai Li.
“But do you think anyone will believe it? That’s the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. I myself didn’t believe it until I saw the result of the one hundred percent pass in person. But we will be faced with questioning from all over Los Angeles. Everyone will take us as cheaters. But due to our protection policy of the privacy of our clients, we are not allowed to disclose the information of our clients. Therefore, our announcement cannot be verified by those who question. We will not be able to prove that the one hundred percent pass is real,” said Blake.
Privacy protection really mattered in America. China saw a weak awareness in privacy protection. In China, some training classes for civil service entrance exams usually announced the information of their students who passed the exams. Those classes wanted the whole world to know that some of their students were admitted by the Finance Bureau, the Construction Bureau, or the National Tax Bureau. Some high schools in China issued the list of their students enrolled by universities on their bulletin boards every summer at their gates. Students’ names, scores, and admission results, which were all private student information, were usually used as material to flaunt the achievements of those high schools.
But Americans put more importance on protecting privacies. A physical training center must keep the information of clients a secret. Leaks of the information could cause a lawsuit.
The 24-hour Frogman Challenge was so difficult that no one would ever believe in a one hundred percent pass rate. And the best way to prove its achievements would be to reveal the performance of its students, which was impossible given the privacy protection system in the US.
Announcing the pass rate without evidence would only result in endless questions from the outside. Such an announcement might operate as a disaster rather than an advertisement.
Dai Li knew Blake well, and he asked, “Since you called to say this, there must be a solution, right?”
“I have an idea. We can’t release the information of all the students, but we can publish the information of one or two of them. It’s not a difficult thing. What we need is only the consent of the chosen ones. But the chosen student should be as physically normal as possible. We should convey through him a message that our pass rate is real to the public,” said Blake.
Suddenly, Blake’s words reminded Dai Li of Hassel, the fat guy. Hassel’s shape made it impossible for anyone to believe that he could pass the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. From another point of view, the fact that he passed made it reasonable to say that all of the rest of the students passed.
Just like it was reasonable to say that the whole class passed the exam when the one ranked last in the class passed.
Therefore, Dai Li said, “There is a student named Hassel in the training class this time. He is a fat guy, and you can find his photo in the student database. I think he is a good choice for us to show to the public as a typical image.”
“Okay, I will get in touch with him at once,” answered Blake.
“No. Let me talk to him in person,” Dai Li said. Then he added, “Hassel will soon take part in a job interview. Maybe we can help him.”
…
“Coach Li, I didn’t think you’d call me,” Hassel said in surprise.
“Mr. Hassel, I think you haven’t taken part in the job interview for beach lifeguards, have you?” asked Dai Li.
“No, I haven’t. I am still preparing for the interview. It was scheduled on the morning of the day after tomorrow at first, but apparently the interview has been moved to next week since too many people have applied for the position. But I think I can hardly be chosen. The Monica South Cape Beach will only pick one person this year. And I am just one of the dozens of candidates. Too many people want to be beach lifeguards.” Dismay gradually filled Hassel’s voice as he replied.
“I have a plan that will bring you some fame and depict you positively. It may help you become a beach lifeguard.” Dai Li lowered his voice mysteriously and added, “If you are interested in it, please come to the training center so that we can have a talk in detail.”
…
In the Ironman Training Center.
Max had been waiting for the results of the follow-up calls for a whole day. But he hadn’t seen Jones yet.
It seems that I will not hear good news. Jones would have been here earlier if the results had been very good. Max had realized that the results of the class must be barely satisfactory, if not worse.
The 24-hour Frogman Challenge is very difficult. I shouldn’t expect much. I can accept it, barely, if 30% or 40% of the students can pass the challenge.
Thinking of that, Max decided not to wait any longer. He called Jones and asked him to come.
Minutes later. Jones turned up in Max’s office.
“Coach Jones, are all follow-up calls to the students in the physical training class done? How about the results? How many of our students passed the 24-hour Frogman Challenge?” Max asked directly.
“Well…” Jones finally plucked up his courage and replied, “None of our students passed the competition.”
“Pardon?” Max thought he had misunderstood Jones’s words.
“I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Max,” said Jones hurriedly. “It is just an accident this year. Next year! Next year I will certainly…”
“You just said that no one passed the competition? None of them?” Max didn’t care about the latter part of Jones’s words. He was still thinking about “none of our students passed the competition.”
“Sorry. But it’s the situation now,” Jones said awkwardly.
Max was shocked. He had predicted that the results this year would be bad. He had even prepared for the worst situation where just one or two students passed the challenge. There was really a “one” in the results. The “one” in “none”.
The next second Max looked at Jones in shock.
It would be incredible to find that all students passed, but none of them? That was much more incredible.
In his school days, almost everyone had gotten full marks at least once. But few had gotten zero, except those who handed in blank test papers. According to probability, the probability of avoiding all the correct answers was lower than that of answering all questions correctly. You could guess the right answers to one or two questions even if you learned nothing. Perhaps only the one who knew all the correct answers was able to answer all the questions wrong.
So, at that moment, Max was astonished. No one in the training class passed. That sounded like winning the lottery.
How bad was the training to make all of them fail in the competition! How did Jones do that? Max stared at Jones and he didn’t know what to say.
At that moment, there came a knock on the door. And then Max’s most senior employee, the coach with whiskers, came in.
He looked at Jones with a hint of disdain in his eyes, then he turned to Max and said, “I have just learned that the training center of Coach Li claimed that all of their students this year passed the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. That’s a pass rate of one hundred percent.”
“One hundred percent! That’s impossible!” said Max
On hearing of this, Jones was sweating like a pig.
..