You smile as you think about the bonus that will be waiting for you upon your return to company headquarters. Getting out of your taxi, you take the elevator in the Hyatt up to your room to relax and enjoy a night on the town before catching your flight back over the pond to your home town on the west coast.
The next morning, you sit at your computer doing what most of us do daily, checking email, before heading to the airport for you flight home. The usual junk mail is being deleted when suddenly a window pops open on your screen with a message. You realize immediately this is new, not normal, and that somehow, someone has hacked into your system. Then, you read the message.
Mr. Smith, we know about the woman you were with last night. If you don't want your wife to know, we suggest you meet with our agent in the men's bathroom next to the China Airways ticket counter before boarding your plane today.You swallow hard and feel the sweat beads beginning to form on your forehead. You think about your wife of 15 years, and your two children - ages 6 & 10 - and wonder whether this is just a spoof, or you were being watched in your room last night. You have a life changing decision to make.
Upon arriving at the airport you decide you're going to risk not going to the designated meeting and board your flight; nevertheless, you can't get rid of the gnawing thought of whether there's any real truth to the message that appeared unexpectedly on your laptop yesterday. It haunts you all the way across the Pacific.
After deplaning, you call home to let your wife know that you'll be there soon. She sounds happy to hear from you and tells you she's looking forward to having you back home. A sigh of relief comes out of you with the conclusion that the message back in Beijing was just a spoof.
But when you get home late in the evening you settle into bed and your wife wants to show how happy she is for you to be home. Again, you have another question to deal with... was the woman in Beijing the other night "clean" or not? You decide to tell her that you're too exhausted; tomorrow night. Her reaction is clearly not good, as she turns over with her back to you and goes cold.
The next morning, you leave the house early to arrive early in anticipation of accolades from your boss, but once you arrive the receptionist outside your office informs you that your supervisor wants to see you as soon as possible. You wonder what this might be about, as this is not a normal request.
In the meeting, you're told you are being fired because the company has been contacted by the company in Beijing, where you just came from, informed the CEO of your company that the woman you had a one night stand with before leaving Beijing was the daughter of the very man you were negotiating with and demands that you be terminated.
When you get back home your wife is furious. She keeps screaming about the woman in Beijing, and it finally dawns on you... the pop-up message on your screen wasn't a "spoof" after all. You ask her how she found out. She picks up a letter off the counter and hands it to you. It's from your doctor's office telling you that you need to come in for an appointment; it's suspected you may have an STD based on information which appeared in you medical file. After being kicked out of the house and getting a hotel room, you lay down on your bed and ponder how this all could have happened.
Unable to sleep, you get onto you laptop again and come across this article in the Wall Street Journal, and it hits you. It suddenly makes sense. Your life has now been ruined by the very people who were going to make you rich.
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