There were three rules and I had broken two.

I exhaled deeply, knowing the Investigations panel already had me on a tight leash. One tighter than that around the neck of a bristling Rottweiler.

The bespectacled bourgeoisie and smug turned bureaucrat, Ahmed Musa, scoffed. "So you broke two of the rules in the Facility Construction and Maintenance Act gazetted in April '88, my friend."

The gaunt and grim-faced engineer Adeleke Seun, who sat beside Musa, furrowed his brow. His gravelly voice sounded like one soaked in oil. "As an experienced government contractor, how could you break these rules and think you could get away with it?"

I paused momentarily. Eyes scanning the four man panel made up of three stern-faced men and a lady ensconced behind a massive walnut desk. The panel sat within the dimly lit basement of the glass and steel boxlike structure of the Central Bank.

The buxom quingenarian, Chinyere Malu - precisely the only thorny rose among the panel chimed. "That happened to be the first rule. Registering a fake organisation under the CAC."

I shifted my eyes to her, an impassive look etched on my face. A strategy designed to conceal my obvious guilt. "You are right, Madam Malu."

The portly man, Benekumo Oki, sat beside her, clad in an immaculate pinstripe suit. He contorted his face to a wry grimace. "Secondly, you contacted the Ministry's Quantity Surveyor in order to obtain figures for the project. We have pictorial evidence, timestamps and transcripts from the telecommunications outfit." He paused and rifled through some papers that cluttered the polished desk.

My heart beat spiked. I could feel the pressure building.

"You are all right but I did it for a good reason." I said. My voice, curt.

Ahmed enquired, arching a brow. "What reason could that be?"

I leaned in. "Then the third rule is what we have to consider."

I slipped on my bifocals and skimmed through the pages of the gazette with my finger darting across the page like a pointer. "Here it is. That the contractor is by obligation allowed to break the aforementioned rules if the alleged company and his liaison with an official of the tenders board is for the overriding public good.”

Members of the panel focused on me sternly. It appeared like I was taking them for a ride.

Scores of thoughts flooded my mind like a deluge as I sought a way to make my narrative tick and wriggle out of the panel's vice grip. A grip that was stifling every inch of my breath.

"You see, the company in question was registered by the CAC when I convinced them of the type of technology I was deploying in the rehabilitation of flexible pavement - the Geo-Informatics System. It's a pavement rehabilitation using layered satellite imaging, digital terrain models, and dynamic load transfer analysis. Not stuff your average QS knows. I guess Seun would totally agree with me.”

Members of the board looked on, transfixed.

Then respite -.

"You are right, I happen to have read of the GIS method. But I have never seen it in reality." Seun said.

Chinyere tightened her jaw. "While my instincts tell me something fishy is going on. I think your analysis is apt, especially with the remark by a seasoned engineer like Seun."

Ahmed's eyes roved across the desk. "I think that's all for now, you are free to bid for the job, Dele."

I muttered a brief and curt "thank you" and lurched to my feet. My rear, damp.

It worked.

And somehow, that was the safest lie I could tell.