Van der Heijden’s mouse clicked. Next question. And the next. Twelve minutes in, the CEO was almost laughing with relief.
“You’re not here to sail, meneer. You’re here to point at a screen. I’m the captain. You’re the autopilot.”
He looked at the photo on his desk—his son, Lars, eight years old, missing two front teeth, holding a paper boat he’d folded himself. “Vaarbewijs4all,” Lars had written on the side. “Daddy’s boat school.”
Finn had a choice. Feed the answer. Keep the money. Stay safe. Vaarbewijs4all
Finn de Vries, 42, ex-ferry captain, current one-man online exam factory, leaned back and rubbed his eyes. Vaarbewijs4all was his third act after the shipping company went bankrupt and his wife left—taking the dog and the decent cutlery. The business was simple: help rich hobby boaters cheat their way to a Dutch boating license. For €299, you got a tablet, an earpiece, and Finn’s voice murmuring answers from a rented storage unit three kilometers away.
Question one appeared on Van der Heijden’s screen: A starboard hand buoy with a red light flashing at 60 flashes per minute indicates which side of the channel?
Finn pulled up the exam interface on his secondary monitor. He’d hacked the CBR’s practice environment years ago—knew every question, every trick image, every poorly translated buoy question designed to fail foreigners and stressed-out executives. Van der Heijden’s mouse clicked
He hated it. But it paid for his son’s therapy sessions.
“Someone who knows that a man who cheats for a living still has a conscience. Prove me right, captain. Or prove me wrong—but I promise, your son’s school fees won’t be your biggest problem tomorrow.”
Finn muted Van der Heijden’s earpiece. Then he unmuted the room’s microphone—the one he’d installed to record proctors, but never used. Twelve minutes in, the CEO was almost laughing with relief
Then Finn’s screen flickered.
“Take the real exam next week,” Finn said. “You might surprise yourself.”