While this story draws on some real experiences, it is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real person or institution is coincidental and unintentional. Please do not construe this story as approving criminal behavior. The point of the story is that even very bad events can have positive outcomes.
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I had joined a large law firm in a medium-sized Midwestern city as an associate attorney about six years earlier. The firm had its offices in a downtown office tower that also housed the main offices of our major bank client. On the whole, life was good. I'd gotten to lead a few trials, was making good money for our town, and was dating an attractive lawyer with another firm.
I had always been an early riser. I had learned that I could get more done if I got into the office earlier than the partners who loved to lead unproductive meetings. I was usually in by 6:30 a.m. The managing partner, with whom I rarely worked, was also an early bird and insisted that the front doors on all five floors be open and the reception desks staffed by 7:45 a.m.
Despite the dominance of online databases such as Lexis and Westlaw, there were still times that us younger lawyers needed real books. Consequently, at about 7:45 a.m on a Tuesday in early September, I was walking from my office to the firm's extensive library to do some research. The front doors had just opened as I walked through the reception area. I glanced at Diane, the receptionist on that floor, who had a great figure and a reputation as a major prude.
Walking into the reception area from the opposite direction, presumably coming back from the library was Amy Rollins. Amy was an associate attorney a couple of years junior to me. Amy was about 5'9" with either dark blonde or light brown slightly curly hair. She had a rather full with cheekbones that became very prominent when she smiled, which she did a lot, and piercing blue eyes that could go from dreamy to fiery with her mood. While Amy always dressed very professionally, and well, she wore her clothes tight enough to hint at a very beautiful body. Amy was also very smart. We had worked together a few times and were friends. I knew that Amy was dating a doctor named Michael. My impression was that the relationship was, at least somewhat, serious.
Amy and I stopped in the reception area to chat for a moment. Amy was usually good for some amusing or ironic anecdote about some case she was working on. I didn't pay much attention to ding sound of an arriving elevator car until I heard Diane, sitting to my left and looking towards the elevators, uncharacteristically exclaim "shit!"
I looked to my right and saw five people standing in the area between the elevator banks. They were all dressed entirely in black including whatever they had over their heads to conceal their faces. Each one also had a gun. The sight was so out of place that I stood there dumbstruck. What I saw simply didn't fit with where I was.
A voice that I think was male said "don't move." The five came into the reception area. One each turned to face down the hallways leading into the reception area. The other three had their guns pointed at Amy, Diane, and me. I was beginning to understand that we had a serious situation. However, it still made no sense. Law firms don't get robbed.
The intruder standing in the center of the three covering us was tall and slender. The body outlined by the black clothing looked female. Holding her gun steady, she appeared to look each of us over very closely. Finally, she pointed at Amy and then at me with her free hand. She said, "You two: strip. Everything off. Now!" The voice sounded female.
The intruder's instructions produced a response from Amy: "Fuck you, that isn't happening."
I saw a small tongue of flame from the woman's gun a fraction of a second before I heard an incredibly loud blast. I had shot a little bit back in high school out in the sticks. I did not remember gunshots being anywhere near that loud. I smelled an acrid smell, gunpowder I assumed. I glanced to my left and saw a hole in the wall just to the left of Diane's head. I didn't have time to get scared before there was a second loud blast. I saw a badly splintered hole in the reception desk. Thank god it was a heavy desk or I think Diane would have been killed. Now, I was scared.
The female intruder angrily said, "I said STRIP! You two get naked or you're all three dead!"
I looked at Amy, who was standing four or five feet from me. She looked scared too. After a moment, she kicked off her high heels. I began to undo my tie.
My hands were shaking which made it difficult to unbutton my shirt and undo my belt. After taking what seemed like hours, I had stripped down to my boxers. Glancing at Amy, I saw that she was wearing only her bra and panties. Despite the scariness of the situation, I couldn't help thinking that Amy really did have a gorgeous body.
The woman intruder snarled, "Get the rest off!"
Amy said, "Not happening!"
There was a third explosion. I saw a jagged hole in the wall to Amy's right. The woman intruder said, "I said NAKED!" I pulled down my boxers. Frankly, it was embarrassing to be standing stark naked in the reception area of the law firm where I worked, even if I was at gunpoint. I'm sure that I was blushing. I stared at the floor.
After a few moments, I raised my head. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw someone peeking around a corner down the hallway. I hoped that someone had thought to call 911. I looked over at Amy. She was completely nude now. She held her head up. Except for the look of loathing on her face, she looked unbelievably beautiful. Her breasts stood up firmly, although they were, maybe, a bit too large for her body. Her waist was narrow. Her abs looked firm but not overly muscled. She had relatively long legs which were, well, perfect. Between her thighs was a neatly trimmed patch of light brown hair.
The intruders who had been guarding the hallway grabbed Amy and me by our arms and yanked us towards the elevators. The other three intruders clustered close around us. An elevator car was waiting with the doors open. This seemed odd until I saw the woman intruder insert a key into a slot on the elevator control panel. She turned the key. The doors closed and the elevator started down.
There was an unarmed security guard, an older heavyset man, standing in front of the elevator when the doors opened on the ground floor. Without a word, the largest of the intruders whipped the butt of his/her gun across the guard's face. The guard went down. Amy and I were pulled through the lobby and shoved into the back of a van waiting at the curb just outside the doors.
Four of the intruders climbed into the back of the van with us. Amy and I were pushed to the floor, which was cold on my bare skin. There was a partition blocking off the driver's part of the van and there were no windows in back. It was dark except for a few cracks of light along the bottom of the back doors. I started to say something and got a kick in the back. "No talking," one of the intruders said.
Knowing the street the van was parked on and the direction it had been facing, I was able to track where we were going for a while. The van got onto the downtown freeway system and then turned onto a spur that connected to the beltway around the city. We got onto the beltway heading towards the eastern suburbs. By the length of time that elapsed until we exited, I inferred that we had gotten onto one of the larger roads heading east from the beltway into the country and, ultimately, into the Appalachian foothills. I knew these roads. To my surprise, the van did not seem to be hurrying and we made several short stops roughly where traffic lights would be.
Although I had no good way to measure time, it seemed like we stayed on the major road long enough to put us pretty far out into the rural country east of town. While I could only see her outline, I felt Amy next to me still breathing hard out of anger, fear, or both.
The van finally turned what I guessed was south. I estimated that we were somewhere between 60 and 80 miles away from the city. The road we turned onto was winding. Amy and I bumped together many times. More than once, I rolled onto the boots of one of our captors. Rolling over the corrugated van floor was not pleasant.
After we had gone, I guessed, another 30 miles, the van turned left onto a gravel or dirt road. The road deteriorated the further we went. Amy and I were getting bounced hard on the van floor. I did get the satisfaction of hearing what sounded like one of our captor's heads hitting the van's sidewall.
Finally, the van stopped. It pulled forward slightly, and started backing up and turning. When the van stopped again, the back doors were opened. The kidnappers picked us both up and dragged us out of the van straight into a room.
In contrast to the dark back of the van, the room we were in was very brightly lit. It took my eyes a moment to adjust. Looking around the room, I saw a bed in one corner with a bare mattress and pillow but no sheets or blankets. Against a wall on the opposite side of the room was a commode with a couple of rolls of toilet paper sitting on the floor beside it. To the right of the commode was a sink. All the way to the right in a corner of the room was a shower head and what looked like a drain in the floor. There were no partitions screening off the commode or the shower.
Looking around the room further, I noticed that there were no windows or openings apart from the door we had come through. It looked like someone had put drywall up to cover all four walls from floor to ceiling. Then, I noticed the cameras.
There was a pointed at the shower mounted on the wall at about waist height and another on the ceiling pointing down towards the drain. There were a couple of cameras mounted a different heights in the one empty corner of the room, and a couple mounted on the ceiling over the bed. Looking up, I saw a camera mounted on the ceiling in the center of the room that appeared to have the ability to swivel so that it could aim at any part of the room. Looking around further I saw three or more cameras. There didn't seem to be any part of the room not in a camera's view.
In a considerably less aggressive tone than before, the woman captor said, "You've noticed the cameras. They cover the entire room. We will be watching you all of the time."
"Why are we here?" Amy asked, sounding a little hysterical.
The woman in black said flatly, "You're here to fuck. We want to watch you fucking. Others may be watching too." The woman pointed to a table by the bed. "There is a display there. When it beeps, we will be sending you a text message telling you what we want to see you do." The woman pointed to the corner of the room behind us. Turning, I saw what looked like a refrigerator and a chest of drawers. "There is food and drink there," the woman said. "You will not starve."
"When are you letting us go?" Amy asked.
"We do not know," the woman said. She nodded her head and the other four gunmen went out the door. I heard the van start up and saw it pull a short distance away from the door. The woman stepped into the doorway. "We will be watching," she said. "If you do not fuck," she said flatly, "we will come back and kill you." She stepped outside. I heard what sounded like an iron bar being put in place and a padlock shut.
