"Hey, Tom? The phone's for you," said the assistant. "It sounds pretty important."
"Thanks Janet," the man replied.
Tom's assistant then closed the large wooden door to his office. Tom Farms was the owner and CEO of a manufacturing company. The company had been started by his great-grandfather many years ago, and had been passed down to him. Now in his early forties, Tom had become very comfortable in the game of U.S. capitalism and markets. He had political friends, competitor "frenemies", and his small group of millionaire buddies that he liked to play golf with every other weekend.
Tom picked up the phone while clearing his throat, then spoke into the mouthpiece, "Hello, this is Tom."
"
I know who this is,
" the voice on the other end said. The sound was unnaturally raspy sounding.
"Uh, what?" Tom asked.
"
You're Tom Farms, owner of the Farm's company.
"
Tom stuttered while chuckling, "Yes. That's me. What's this all about?"
After a few seconds of nothing but the raspy voice breathing, the voice spoke again, "
Tom? You know you fucked up right?"
"Beg your pardon?"
"
You fucked up Tom. Big time... Do you know what happens when you fuck up?
"
Tom scoffed and replied, "Okay. I think we're done here. Nice try though."
Just as Tom was going to hang up the phone, he heard the voice say, "
Do you know where your wife is?
"
Tom tried not to show the hint of fear that was just created to the caller. He pulled out his smartphone and dialed his wife's number while trying to stall the person on the other end.
"Of course I do," Tom said, "Who is this?"
The cell phone connected to his wife, and as he covered the landline phone with his shirt in a crude attempt to mute his voice, Tom talked into his smartphone instead. "Ashley? You there?"
After a moment of silence on the other end, Tom spoke again, "Ash?"
The reply he got back had given him goosebumps, because it was the same voice from the landline.
"
Ashley can't talk right now. Can you leave a message?"
Tom threw both phones on the desk and stood up to run out to his assistant.
"Janet!" He spoke in a panic that caused his assistant to know instantly that something was wrong. "I think something bad has happened. I need some help in here."
Janet stood up quickly and stammered, "Wha- what? Who? What's going on?"
Tom replied, "I'm not sure. I just need my lawyer, and maybe someone from the police as soon as possible. Also, call Bill for me will you?"
Janet was visibly confused and fumbled with the phone on her desk for a second in panic as she went to start making calls.
Tom closed the door to his office again and by the time he got over to the landline to pick up the phone, the voice was still speaking.
"
Tom? You there buddy?"
"Yeah. I'm here, asshole," Tom said, beginning to get angry. "If this is a joke..."
"
It's not a joke, Tom,
" the voice said, "
We are quite serious.
"
The CEO of Farms knew what was most likely happening here, if it wasn't a prank. Tom took a huge sigh and said to the stranger, "So how much do you want? It's money you're after, correct?"
Without getting a reply, he started to lose his temper and raised his voice at the phone while spit flew across the mouthpiece, "How much!?"
"
Calm down, Tom. I'll explain what happens next,
" the raspy voice says, "
I'm going to message you a link to your email. I just need you to pull up the website on your desktop computer that you have in that fancy office of yours. Got it?"
Tom bit his tongue. He wanted to reach through the phone and strangle whoever was on the other side.
"Okay."
He clicked on the email that had just popped up from ufuckedup@farms.com. It only had a link in the subject area. He clicked on it, and after a few seconds a webpage loaded. The webpage was extremely plain. It only had a black square in the center of the page which took up most of the space. Around the black square was just a lighter gray color. There was nothing else to look at, except for a message from the website that popped up asking to approve the terms to continue, and he did.
Tom grumbled at the person on the other end of the phone before saying, "Okay. I clicked on it but there's nothing there."
Seconds later, it's evident that the black box on the page was actually a video player, because the image of Tom's living room was now being shown. In the image, was Tom's wife, Ashley. With the camera facing her directly, she was bent over the back of a couch and had a painful expression on her face. Even though the context was missing, it was evident that she was naked, and with a naked man behind her. From the camera's viewpoint, Tom could tell that her arms were being held behind her back and he could see her busty bare tits hanging down over the back of the couch.
"Oh my god," Tom caught himself saying out loud. "Ash?"
Next, the image started to move as if someone had pressed play on the video elsewhere. The proof of what was happening in the scene became clear to Tom. A man was fucking her from behind for the camera while holding her arms back. Her head and boobs were bouncing around wildly while she was at the mercy of the man fucking her from behind.
In between the aggressive thrusts from the man behind her, Tom could hear her saying through the subpar audio of the video, "Tom?! Tom?! This is what happens-" Suddenly, the video disappeared and the screen was black again.
Tom stood up again and bashed the phone against his desk a few times before shouting through it, "Listen, you cock-suckers! You won't get a dime if you do anything else to her! You fuckin' hear me?"
After a few more seconds of silence, the voice returned, "
Tom. You listen to me. We've made it extremely simple for you. You play by our rules and this will all be over. If you don't, then things will only get worse for you and your family.
"
"Family? What the fuck are you talking about?" Tom asked the voice.
"
Tom. We aren't stupid. We know that you have three grown daughters. Two still in college, while the third graduated years ago and got married, right? It's a shame that you couldn't have more boys, you know?
"
"If you hurt them, I swear to god," Tom said.
The voice replied, "
Tom. Are you ready to play? This is the only way.
"
Just then the door to Tom's office opens again. Janet comes in and says just loud enough for you to hear her, "I called them all. Bill didn't answer, but everyone else is on the way."
Tom waved and covered the phone again, this time with his hand. "Call the police again and tell them to get to my house right now. My family is being held hostage," he told his assistant.
Janet's eyes grew wide in shock and she nodded before closing the door again.
"
Tom, the page has a quiz for you,
" the voice said.
Tom looked back at his computer to see that a multiple choice question was now on the screen. It read:
You were the CEO of Farms when the latest recession hit two years ago. Did you:
A) Take a massive pay cut to help out all of the employees in your company?
B) Seek assistance or guidance on how you could better help the local people as a multi-million dollar company?
C) Lay off 1,500 workers without giving them compensation or a chance of rehiring while continuing to play golf with your rich friends every other weekend?