Ransom Notes and Breadcrumbs

Harmony House: Episode 22

“Harmony House” is a serial novel with episodes released every Tuesday morning. You can read the setup for the story or start from the beginning. Each episode comes with high-quality audio narration for you to enjoy on the go with the Substack mobile app.

Previously…

In the last episode, Jessie and Deepu were forced into the back of a Jeep with bags over their heads. Their three masked kidnappers drove them to a house where they were locked in a windowless basement room with only a mattress on the floor. Before locking them up, the leader of the group made it clear that their mission was to use the platform for the TV show to expose GreenerTech’s environmental and humanitarian crimes. He also made it clear he would not hesitate to kill Jessie and Deepu if they did not cooperate.

Scott Jenson was just beginning to fall asleep. He had never been able to sleep during the day, but after the night they had, he was trying to make an exception. The blackout shades were drawn, the white noise machine was on, and the room was cool the way he liked it.

When his phone vibrated on the nightstand, he had been able to ignore it. But a moment later it began blaring the red alert sound clip he had programmed to be reserved only for urgent calls. He rolled over, cursed loudly, and picked up the device. It was Chris, of course.

“What now?” he growled into the phone.

“We’re fucked. Come out and let me in. I’m outside.”

A few minutes later they were sitting at Scott’s kitchen table staring at Chris’s phone in anticipation of a call from some fucking kidnappers. They were in a goddamned hostage situation? He was still reeling from the whole lock-out thing.

“And we have zero idea who these guys are or what they want?” Scott asked.

“That’s right. I’ve got one of your guys trying to trace who posted the video, but I don’t think whoever did this is stupid. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have used this,” Chris said tossing an envelope on the table.

Scott opened it and pulled out what appeared to be one of the glossy promotional mailers for their show that had gone out to nearly a million U.S. households. It featured a montage of photos of the six contestants, but with a thick red marker, someone had drawn a box with an x through it over two of them, Jessie and Deepu. There was a QR code and a message pasted along the bottom of the card using letters clipped from magazines, ransom style. It read:

t H 3    G @ M e    i 5   0 v 3 r

The thirty-second video at the web address behind the QR code was the first thing Chris showed Scott when he came in the door. In it, Jessie and Deepu were bound and gagged and kneeling in a dimly lit room. The camera zoomed in tight on both of their faces. A gun was pointed at Deepu’s head. His eyes were closed, and he was trembling. A gloved hand came into the frame and pulled the gag down so Jessie could speak. He stated his full name and social security number. He opened his mouth wide so the camera could zoom in and show the silver crowns on his back molars. In a strained voice, Jessie delivered the final part of the message, reading from a script somewhere above the camera.

“Chris Jenson, CEO of FutureAbode. You will receive a call from a blocked number at exactly 12:30 PM. Answer it unless you want our blood on your hands.”

Scott set the flyer down on the table beside the phone where the time displayed: 12:28 PM.

“Why didn’t you call the police right away? They should be tracing this call. They should be processing this for fingerprints,” Scott said pointing at the flyer.

Chris broke eye contact and looked out the window. “I want to um… know what we’re up against before we bring anybody else into it.”

“Jesus, you want to try to spin this.” Scott leaned back, shaking his head.

“No, no. I’m just trying to be cautious. What do you think these crazy people will do if we get the police involved right away? What kidnappers were ever pleased to have the police involved?”

Maybe he had a point. It never seemed to work out well in TV shows when the police got involved. But this wasn’t a TV show. Well, actually it was a TV show. Scott would have laughed out loud at the absurdity of the situation but nothing about this was funny. They were in way over their heads, and his little brother was trying to manage the situation like it was a bad customer review. There was a clear advantage from a publicity perspective to resolve whatever this was quietly. The phone began to ring, vibrating loudly on the table between them. Chris tapped the answer button and put it on speaker.

“Hello, this is Chris Jenson,” he said.

The voice that responded was not human. It sounded like a stock, computer-generated voice used in one of a thousand text-to-speech programs. Scott pulled out his phone, opened the voice memo app, and hit the record button.

“Chris, I represent a group of climate crisis warriors. You may have seen our work before. The attack on the Uniglobe Oil drilling rig off the Gulf Coast. The destruction of the Bridger Co. pipeline in Alaska last year. We are committed to the cause of cutting the heads off corporate snakes that have been poisoning our planet for decades. While we value human life, we are not afraid to sacrifice a few lives for the greater good. Now, before we continue, do you understand who you’re dealing with?”

The Jenson brothers stared at each other, their faces mirroring the same look of utter bewilderment.

“Yes, yes we do. Yes, I do,” Chris said. “My brother Scott is here with me. Why us? We’re on the same side as you.”

There was a delay before the computer voice responded, likely a lag in the voice-masking program they were using.

“No, you’re not on our side. You and your company are profiteers, no different than the rest. You are the people who show up after a hurricane and sell water to the survivors for ten dollars a bottle. We did not pick you at random. We’ve done our research. You are not the saviors you present to your gullible consumers. But you know this so I will not waste more words except to say that you made a deal with the devil when you shook Cliff Baron’s hand.”

Scott watched all the color disappear from his brother’s face. What did the deal he struck with Cliff Baron in that sweat lodge over a year ago have to do with any of this?

“All you need to know right now is that this ridiculous game you’ve spent a fortune to create is going to be put to good use. Our demands are simple. You will broadcast everything we send to you on your little show, or we will torture and kill the two men we have kidnapped and broadcast that to the world. You will receive a new video every day no later than 10:00 AM. You have one hour to broadcast the video, or one of these two men will lose a body part. If you engage the authorities intentionally or unintentionally, we will kill both men and send the video to all major news outlets. Do you understand the terms?”

Before Chris could respond, Scott tapped the mute button on the phone.

“What the fuck are we going to do?” he hissed.

“We don’t have a choice, do we?” Chris replied. “We have to go along with this, at least for now…”

“I’m waiting for your confirmation,” the voice said.

Scott nodded and unmuted the phone.

“Yes, yes we understand and we will comply. Just don’t hurt them,” Chris said.

“What proof will we have that they’re alive and okay if we do what you ask,” Scott said.

“You will receive a video clip of both men daily, once you’ve completed your part of the arrangement,” the voice responded.

“How does this end?” Chris said. “Assuming we do everything you ask.”

“Jessie and Deepu will be released unharmed.”

“How can we just believe that? It’s better for you if they’re dead,” Scott said.

“It’s never better when anyone dies. We have taken precautions to remain anonymous to our prisoners because we have every intention of setting them free unless you do something foolish. You will receive the first video tomorrow morning.”

The call ended and the Jenson brothers sat for a long time before either of them spoke. Scott felt like he might throw up. He rose and went to the sink where he splashed his face with cold water. Why was this happening? It was surreal. But hadn’t all of this been surreal since Chris had come back from closing the deal with Cliff Baron? After that, everything had taken off and they had just been holding on like a rider who once held the reins but was now being dragged behind the horse.

“How are we going to do this?” Chris asked. “I mean, how can they expect us to keep this under wraps? It’s a goddamned TV show! There’s too many people involved.”

“I don’t know but we have to figure it out. This is a nightmare.”

“We can’t do it without Schultz’s help. He runs this show. He manages all the content. If he knows, his people are going to know. That’s too many.” Chris was up and pacing across the kitchen.

“Agreed, he has to be involved, but let’s not get carried away. We do this one careful step at a time. First things first. We have to talk to him and make sure he’s alone when we do.”

“We should go out and look for them,” Jayden said again, this time with more urgency. She had been trying to convince the others all day.

“You saw the message,” Fran said. “They forfeited. They’re out of the game. Is it weird? Yes, but what other explanation is there?”

“It’s not right. Something bad has happened. I can feel it,” Jayden said. “They wouldn’t just quit without telling us and they wouldn’t both just decide to quit on a whim.”

“We don’t know that,” Cam said. “The most obvious answer to something unknown is usually the right one. Oppenheimer’s razor or something like that, right Riley?”

Riley didn’t respond except to shake his head. He was standing at the window looking out across the field in the direction where their friends had disappeared. The other three were sitting at the kitchen table together. That morning, all their devices began blaring the alert and countdown when Jessie and Deepu had failed to return. The four remaining contestants had been glued to the large window looking for their friends to come running across the field. After twenty minutes, the alerts stopped, and their devices were ominously silent for a full hour at which point, Riley had left to look for them. He returned ten minutes later with nothing to report. Then they had received a message.

10:02 AM UPDATE: Jessie and Deepu have left the viewable boundary, and we are trying to locate them. The rules of the competition hold. By not returning to Houze in their allotted 15 minutes they have both forfeited the game. You are now four.

It was going to be dark in another hour and Jayden couldn’t shake the squirming feeling in her gut. The others seemed to be taking this radical new development in stride. Fran actually seemed happy. Jayden was an intuitive person and while she didn’t know Deepu that well, she knew Jessie and he would not just give up.

“If anything,” Riley said, breaking the silence. “This is some skullduggery on the part of the producers. You heard what the Brit said. They were going to make things harder. I think Jessie and Deepu are fine, they just happened to pick the wrong time to go outside.”

“But why have we seen nothing about it all day?” Jayden asked, rising from the table to face Riley. “Wouldn’t we see some kind of big send-off tribute? It’s kind of a big deal, two contestants leaving.”

The silence that followed was proof that she was right. Something was off.

“But if something bad did happen to them, surely they would tell us. I mean for safety reasons,” Cam said.

“It depends on how bad,” Fran said. “If something really bad happened, they’d have to cancel the show, like the time that girl got attacked by a shark and lost her leg on the Australian season of Betrayed.”

“You’re right,” Cam said. “Legally they would have to.”

“I’m not so sure,” Riley said. “You guys are thinking about real TV shows run by big companies that do this all the time. These guys are different. This show is more like a really expensive infomercial. My point is, I don’t think they know what they’re doing.”

“So, something bad did happen to our friends and they’re not telling us. That’s what you're saying?” Jayden asked, unable to keep her voice steady.

Riley didn’t answer right away. He looked back out the window. The shadow of Houze was a long, dark trapezoid tapering into the field of grass, golden in the last rays of the sun that was setting behind them.

“Yeah,” he said, finally. “I think that’s right.”

“So, what do we do?” Cam asked.

“There’s really nothing we can do right now but wait,” Riley said. “If Jessie and Deepu are hurt or in trouble, I’m sure the producers are doing everything they can.”

“Well, I can’t just sit here any longer without doing anything,” Jayden said, stepping around Riley to grab her coat from the couch. “I’m going out there before it gets dark. Jessie said he was going to gather walnuts.”

“I’ll come with you,” Cam said, getting up.

Wanting to make the most of their fifteen minutes, they jogged across the field heading in the direction where Jayden had watched Jessie and Deepu disappear over the rise. The air was crisp, and it felt good to be outside, away from the claustrophobic space made even smaller by her growing anxiety. At the edge of the woods, Jayden began to look up, scanning the trees. She was not an outdoorsy person, but she knew what a walnut looked like. She and Cam split up so they could cover more ground quickly.

The smell of the damp woods and the growing darkness made Jayden’s heart quicken, not just out of fear, but from the memory of skin-on-skin warmth and the exhilaration of being held in a strong, capable embrace. Jessie was okay. He had to be.

Just as she was about to give up and head back, she stepped on something that felt like a small rock, but it rolled under her tread. She bent and picked up the walnut. Holding it, she walked toward the trunk of a large tree just inside the dark shadow of the woods. Her feet rolled across more nuts. Bending over so she could see in the fading light, Jayden scanned the forest floor looking for anything that might be a clue as to what happened to their friends. She called out for Cam to join her in her search, but before he could make his way over, she saw something with a faint orange glow in the clutter of dead leaves. She moved closer and saw that it was a small knapsack. Jessie’s knapsack. She picked it up. Inside there were a few handfuls of walnuts. When she jostled them, the contents of the bag were illuminated by the screen of Jessie’s device.

“What’d you find,” Cam asked, out of breath.

“It’s Jessie’s bag. His phone’s in here. Oh my god. What happened to them?”

“Here, lemme see it,” Cam said, taking the device from her. “It’s locked, but it’s still working. We should get back to the others.”

Jayden was crying as she hugged the knapsack to her chest.

“Come on sweetie, we need to get back,” Cam said, putting an arm around her.

There was no wind as they crossed the field. The crickets were gone and there was no bird song. The quiet stillness made them slow their pace and turn their faces up to the open sky where stars were beginning to poke through the velvety scrim of darkness. Jayden’s heart was heavy with worry for their friends, but especially for Jessie. The strong feelings she had for him were surprising to her. He was not her type and yet she felt a powerful need to protect him which was funny. He was so tough. But she knew he wasn’t. He was fragile and needed someone to tend his heart which he had managed to keep beating all on his own somehow despite his terrible loss.

Cam reached for her hand as they walked, and she was glad. As beautiful as this vast emptiness was, she had a feeling that she might just float away into it without some anchor to hold her. In the city, she never experienced this feeling of vastness or stillness. She never looked up.

They made it back to Houze with two minutes to spare. Riley and Fran had been watching their return through the large window and when Jayden and Cam were inside, they simultaneously peppered them with questions. In response, Jayden held up the knapsack.

“This is all we found,” she said. “Jessie’s phone is in here, but it’s locked. They’re in trouble.”

“Can I see that?” Riley asked, holding out his hand for the bag.

He pulled out the device and studied the screen for a minute while Cam explained that there had been no other clues except a pile of walnuts spilling out of the bag.

“Were there any tracks you could see?” Riley asked without looking up from the device.

“Shit, I didn’t think about that,” Cam said. “Maybe? The ground was still pretty wet but it was covered with leaves.”

“That’s okay, it’s not like tracks would tell us much anyway,” Riley said. “I need to find a way to unlock his phone. Maybe there’s something there.”

He moved to sit on the couch, the device still in his hands. Jayden had no clue how his brain worked but she admired it. How was he just going to figure out how to break into a locked phone, especially one that belonged to a guy who made his living building software for phones? After a minute he looked up.

“I won’t be able to do it. There’s no way. Without his face to unlock it, I’d have to guess a six-digit password in three tries.”

Riley looked back down at the phone and apparently noticed something he hadn’t previously. He pulled his device from his pocket and compared the screens.

“What is it,” Jayden asked.

“The little icon in the status bar. It displays whenever the device is transmitting data.”

Riley unlocked his device and tapped on something.

“He sent me a message,” he said. “It’s an audio stream. Must have just gone through when you brought his device back in network range.”

Suddenly Jayden heard Jessie’s voice. It was muffled but distinct. He was talking to someone that sounded like a woman who was threatening him. The conversation was short and hard to hear as the four of them huddled close, pausing, and going back repeatedly to try to decipher what was being said before their voices faded when they were forced to leave with the woman.

“How did he do that?” Fran asked.

“He used the direct streaming feature, same as the one we use to record ourselves,” Riley answered.

“So, the producers have this too, right?” Fran asked.

“Um, no. I don’t think so. It looks like I was the only recipient. Probably because we had a DM thread that was already open. I would have been the easiest person to send it to. I don’t think he had much time.”

“Who is this crazy woman?” Jayden asked.

“I don’t know. You heard what I did,” Riley said.

“She did say something that might be a clue,” Fran said. “Something about being on a mission and about Jessie being the only person who could understand it…”

“Yeah, I got that too,” Riley said. “I don’t know what it means though.”

“It’s climate change. That’s the mission.” Jayden said.

“That seems right,” Riley said.

“So, these are like eco-terrorists or something?” Cam said.

“Maybe. It’s a good guess,” Riley said. “But I’m not sure what they expect to gain here.”

“That’s obvious, isn’t it?” Fran said. “They want a platform.”

“Well, that’s just fucked up,” Cam said. “I mean of all the reality shows to hijack, they pick the one that is actually trying to promote a solution to the climate crisis?”

No one had a response to this. It didn’t make any sense.

“The woman was trying to sound scary, but I didn’t really buy it,” Jayden said, breaking the silence. “I mean, she didn’t sound like a terrorist or anything.”

“Yeah, maybe not but she definitely had a gun,” Riley said.

“But maybe she won’t be the kind to use it,” Jayden said, almost pleading.

“You’re right,” Riley said. “Let’s hope that’s the case.”

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Who’s Who in Harmony House?

Having trouble keeping track of who’s who from one week to the next? It’s tough when you only get to visit once a week. I made a little cheat sheet just for you: