War Room

Harmony House: Episode 23

“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, Scott Jenson was jolted awake by an urgent call from his brother Chris, who told him that Jessie and Deepu had been kidnapped by a terrorist group. The brothers answered a call from the kidnappers who revealed their mission to publicly call out GreenerTech for its humanitarian and environmental crimes using the Houze show as a platform. Meanwhile, the remaining contestants in Houze grappled with their friends' mysterious disappearance. Jayden, driven by intuition and concern, went outside to search for some clue about their immediate departure from Houze, only to discover Jessie's phone with a voice recording he stealthily recorded during their abduction at gunpoint.

Schultz insisted they establish a war room at FutureAbode’s headquarters. By early evening, the essential team was assembled around the conference room table except for Scott who was still wiring up an array of extra computer monitors along the back wall. After receiving the news from the Jensen brothers and listening to Scott’s recording of the conversation they had with the terrorists, Schultz had insisted they tell no one, not even their significant others.

Schultz was doing his best to present a placid demeanor while the mice running the maze in his head were scurrying at a frenzied pace. He was a man of many contradictions— wildly anxious but drawn to adversity. He was an idealist with strong convictions and yet he made reality TV shows for a living. That morning, his alarm had ripped him out of a recurring dream from his youth as an activist and documentarian. These dreams, like the shaky handheld footage he used to shoot, were both chaotic and perfectly focused, striking an improbable balance between danger and salvation. Normally, in the cold light of morning, he felt a sense of loss, a profound disappointment in the middling man he saw in the mirror. But not this morning. This day presented a crisis worthy of his skills.

His skills would be pushed to the limit having to work solo with no assistants. At least the Jensen brothers were solid, level-headed partners. He could not say as much about Baron’s daughter, Evangeline. But it couldn’t be helped. She was a primary stakeholder in this venture and cutting her out of this crisis remediation was impossible.

He took a deep breath, reviewed his outline of talking points on the tablet in front of him, and once Scott had taken his seat, began.

“Make no mistake, my friends. This is a grave situation from which we may not escape without casualties. It is our job to minimize them. Everything we do from this point forward has consequences. This is why there can only be the four of us in this circle.”

He paused and gave each of them a measured look. Evangeline nodded solemnly. Chris took a moment to meet his gaze but nodded as well. Scott was agitated. He fidgeted with a Leatherman tool, opening and closing the blade. Schultz reached across the table and touched him on the sleeve. Scott set the tool down and nodded.

“Scott, operations here must continue on schedule. You will need to delegate your supervisory responsibility. It must appear to be business as usual. The easiest lies to maintain are the ones that contain a kernel of truth. My team, like yours, understands that we are dealing with a strategic crisis and must be sequestered to figure out the future of this venture. There will be much speculation as to what the crisis is, but under no circumstances can we allow anyone to know what we’re managing. Not until we have more clarity ourselves. Do we all understand?”

“Yeah, yeah. We get it. Now, can we please talk about what we’re going to do with this video they just sent over?” Chris said.

“It’s lies. It’s propaganda meant to ruin my Daddy’s good name,” Evangeline said.

“Are you sure or is that just what we’re all hoping?” Scott said with more tact than Schultz had seen from the fiery brother in his past exchanges with their CMO.

“You’re both missing the goddamned point here. There are two people, real people that will be dead unless we get this right. That’s what we should be focused on,” Chris said.

“Quite so,” Schultz said. “But what we all must understand is that, while tempting, we cannot get emotional and jump too far ahead. To win this game, we must stay focused on the step in front of us and nothing more right now. So, your brother is right. Step one is to process this video. Please play it again.”

Scott swiveled his chair around to his laptop on the table behind him. A moment later, the large video display on the wall was filled with Jessie’s tired face. He appeared to be standing in the open field in front of Houze. It was the iconic landscape familiar to them all because it was used in the show intro. The angle of the camera from below gave the appearance that he was shooting it from a handheld device. He did not appear to be hurt and his voice, while stiff, did not sound as though he was under duress. The four of them listened intently to his message.

“I’ve got a little story to tell you today. I think you should know a little bit about the people behind this show…”

“Pause it,” Schultz said, and Scott complied. “This video is not what it appears to be. While surprisingly well-produced, it’s fake. Look carefully at this. They’ve tried to replicate the trees in the background, but if you look closely, you can still see some leaves. Those trees are bare now. Also, the lighting on his face is not right. It’s very good, but it’s studio lighting.”

“So, why does this matter?” Chris asked.

“It matters because it tells us some things. This is a sophisticated operation that has been months in the planning. It also tells us that their mission is specific. This is not some smash-and-grab kind of thing…” Schultz said.

“But why create the fake video,” Evangeline asked. “If they know they can make us play anything, why go to the trouble to make it appear like part of the show?”

“That. That is the right question to ask, my dear,” Schultz replied. He stood and walked over to the display. “I believe they don’t want to cause a panic by nuking our show with some horrid visuals of the dying African villagers. That would cause our network partners to pull the plug immediately. They want to tell their story, so they need to make it appear as part of the program.”

“Can we play the rest of the video,” Scott said. “I’ve still not seen it all the way through.”

“Yes,” Schultz said, returning to his chair.

“The people behind this show are the worst kind of hypocrites. Their mission is not to save the planet. Their mission, like the mission of any corporation, is to turn a profit at any cost. Let me tell you what those costs are.”

Jessie pauses and the angle of the camera shifts, implying that he switched the hand that was holding it before continuing.

“There’s a small village in Tanzania that doesn’t exist anymore because all forty-seven of its citizens, men, women, and children are dead. Each of them died a slow, painful death over the course of two years from a variety of cancers – bladder, kidney, and thyroid. Their deadly illness came from poisoned water. Water that was filtered using an early prototype that Cliff Baron’s company was testing. In case you’re wondering, that filtration technology is the same one used here in Houze and licensed to the developer FutureAbode.”

“Fucking liars!” Evangeline hissed.

Scott paused the video and turned to face her.

“Why would they lie?” he said. “I mean really. Why go to all this trouble and put themselves in a situation like this if this wasn’t real? Do you really know everything your dad did to amass his fortune?”

“He was a great man. He was a good man. He would never ever have allowed something like that to happen,” she said, her eyes welling with tears.

“Good people make bad choices all the time. Shit happens,” Scott said.

Evangeline looked down. Schultz felt a pang of sympathy for her. For all her privilege, she was not a lucky person. After a few seconds, Scott resumed the video.

“Don’t worry, the technology is totally safe now. None of us here in Houze will be getting sick. They sorted out the problem. That’s progress, right? Sacrifice a few expendable people for the greater good, the greater economic opportunity. My time’s almost up but before I go, I’m going to ask every one of you watching this show to do something. Go look up what happened in the little village of Mbeyo, that’s M-B-E-Y-O. GreenerTech’s done a good job of suppressing the truth, but if you search you can find it and you can read between the lines. They made a big PR campaign about their world-saving technology and then things went totally dark. Why? Stop looking to be entertained when what you really need to be is outraged.”

The video ended. The four of them sat in silence, each lost in their thoughts. Chris got up, filled his glass from a pitcher of water, and drank it all. He sat the glass down then walked over to the window that overlooked the factory floor and spoke without turning to face the others.

“He wasn’t reading. Jessie wasn’t coerced into making that statement. He’s no bullshitter. He’s so crusty, I don’t think he could be forced to be convincing, even with a gun to his head.”

“You’re right,” Scott answered. “He believes it. Whatever evidence they showed him, he believes it which means it’s probably true.”

“Which means, we’re fucked,” Chris answered. “We’ve got blood on our hands now. So what do we do?”

“For now, we have no choice but to play along,” Schultz said. “We will drop this content into the regular programming without comment. The public will decide what to do with it. Our first job is to keep Jessie and Deepu alive. Our second job is to keep both our companies from going down in flames.”

“But what about the other contestants?” Evangeline asked. “When they see this, they won’t play along. They know Jessie’s gone.”

“Quite right,” Schultz said. “We will have to change our strategy. It’s fortunate that we did not proceed with our original plan to air Jessie and Deepu’s exit.”

“But what are we going to tell them?” Chris asked. “How much is safe to say? We have to be careful. If we tell them everything, they’re going to freak out and leave. If we lie, they’ll know it and who knows what they’ll do. They’ve bonded now. This is not going to be easy.”

“Yes,” Schultz said. “This is the million-dollar question that we have to answer right now before we post this video to the world.”

“We tell them the whole truth,” Scott said, firmly. “No more fucking lies. No more half-truths. That’s exactly what got us all into this mess. We shoot straight and get them on our side. That’s it.”

“But what are they gonna do with this information?” Evangeline asked.

“I don’t know,” Scott said. “What would you do?”

“I’d want to do everything I could to make sure my friends didn’t die,” she said.

“That’s exactly right,” Schultz said. “Let’s call them now.”

“It needs to be a conversation,” Scott said. “They need to see us and we need to see them. I know the Wizard of Oz thing makes good theater for you, but not this time.”

“Agreed. Can you set up some way for them to video conference in from their devices?” Schultz asked.

“Yeah, that’s not complicated. Let’s call into the room and I can tell them what to do.”

Scott’s comment about Oz chaffed Schultz. It was annoying to have a client who didn’t understand the value of your service. No matter. He was a professional. He would be the one to land this plane. While Scott tinkered with his laptop and the video conferencing equipment, Schultz pretended to study something on his tablet, but this was just a cover to give him time to think. He raised his eyes just enough to study the composure of the others.

Chris was clearly angry which was understandable. His life’s work was about to be flushed down the toilet through no fault of his own. Evangeline was inscrutable and this was a problem. Schultz's business was to read people. He could not forget the last time they were all in a conference room and she had nearly brained Scott with a whisky glass. She was staring down at her phone which Schultz imagined to be an actual extension of her body, more important than her hand. But she was not engaged. Her eyes were looking through the screen into some other place. He had assumed her reaction to the news about her father was performative, but now he wasn’t so sure. He was shaken from his thoughts when he saw the large display flicker on showing the four of them around the conference room table. One by one video feeds for each of the four contestants stacked up along the right side of the screen. This was it. Schultz began to speak.

“Hello all, you might be wondering why you’re seeing all of us and why we’ve asked you to be on camera for this call. What we are about to share is of grave importance so please let us finish before you ask any questions. I promise we will not end the call until we’ve answered everything we can. Chris, would you like to start?”

“Sure,” Chris said, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “Hi folks, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but we’ve had an unexpected incident. This morning Jessie and Deepu were kidnapped from the field.”

Schultz expected a big reaction from the contestants and was flummoxed to see them nod as if they were being told it might rain. Jayden was the only one to show any emotional response to the news. Scott continued.

“We don’t know much about the kidnappers at this point, but we know they fall into the category of eco-terrorists. Their mission is not completely clear from what we understand so far, but what is clear is that they are well-organized and dangerous. We’ve been warned not to engage the authorities and to comply with their demands completely or they will hurt Jessie and Deepu.”

The four faces on the screen took this information in and Schultz could see them processing it but they still didn’t appear surprised. He broke in before Scott could continue.

“Excuse me, but may I ask why none of you appear to be surprised by this news?”

“We know,” Riley said. “Jayden and Cam went out and recovered Jessie’s device. He recorded their kidnapping.”

“What?” Scott said. “What did you find out?”

“Not much at all,” Riley said. “We just heard a woman’s voice threatening them with a gun while she tied their hands.”

“Can you tell us the rest?” Jayden asked, her voice urgent. “Please.”

“Yeah,” Chris said. “I received a ransom note this morning that had a link to a video. It was short, really just to prove they had Jessie and Deepu and to tell me to expect a phone call. When they called us they used a computer-generated voice. They referenced a couple of terrorist attacks in the past couple of years that they were responsible for where people died. And they said if we did not broadcast the series of videos they sent us every day then they would first torture Jessie and Deepu and eventually kill them.”

Jayden gasped and began to sob. She was no longer in the frame because Cam had pulled her to him to comfort her.

“So, what’s going to happen,” Fran asked. “The show’s over, right? I mean we’re not safe here. You should call the police or FBI or whoever…”

“We can’t do that,” Scott said. “If we don’t keep the show going. If they suspect in any way that we’ve brought in the authorities, they will kill them.”

“But how can we go on?” Cam asked. “How can the show just skip over the fact that two of us disappeared overnight?”

“They’ve thought of that,” Scott said. “They’ve got some kind of sophisticated video production set up. The first video they sent for broadcast has Jessie delivering a message and it appears that he’s standing in the field outside Houze on one of his normal outside breaks.”

“Jesus,” Cam said. “What’s the message that’s so important they’re willing to kill innocent people over?”

“Lies,” Evangeline said. “Fake news. They’re delusional crackpot conspiracy people who just want to destroy my father’s good name.”

“The jury is out on that,” Scott interrupted. “But honestly whether the message is true or false is irrelevant. If we don’t broadcast it unaltered, it will be as good as pulling the trigger.”

“It’s no question that we are not dealing with rational people here,” Schultz said. “So we must tread carefully and ride this out. That means the four of you will need to give the performance of your lives. It must appear to the world as if the game is still afoot.”

“But instead of Jessie shooting footage of grass, he’s going to be reading off some message in front of a green screen with a gun to his head?” Cam said.

“Yes, that’s about the size of it,” Schultz said. “All we can control is how the four of you play out the game. We are still working on what that looks like, but I believe it’s in all our best interest to wrap it up as quickly as possible.”

“So, we should continue to record our content and do the live streaming thing?” Fran asked.

“Yes, by all means,” Schultz said.

“But won’t it be strange if Deepu and Jessie never appear in them?” Cam asked.

“Not if you all work together,” Schultz said. “Imagine you’re all in the writer’s room now with the aim to make a believable show. Watch the videos they send us and find some way to play off them. Everything else about this show remains the same except for this variable. We can do this. You can do this.”

It was quiet for a full minute while they all processed this. Schultz's speech had a galvanizing effect on them. Then Chris spoke.

“What if the audience doesn’t buy it? What if the other sponsors pull out? What if we can’t continue the show?”

Schultz took a deep breath and spread his palms out on the table.

“We’re not in control. We can only do what we can do and pray for mercy.”

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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: