I appologize profusely to anyone who was offended. That was far from the intent of anyone involved. Honestly, the whole scenario seemed so outlandish to me that I thought it would be seen through almost instantly. I guess I'm better at wending a believable tale than I thought. And when it took on a life of its own (the hacking sub-plot was something I did not forsee), it was difficult for me to pull the plug.
I can see that I let things go on to long. And specifically for certain people for who only got the story, and the conclusion, sparsely through the day. I saw so many people go through the whole thing quickly, figure it out quickly, and be highly amused, that I didn't stop to think that stewing on it all day wouldn't be so amusing.
And lest anyone think this was a grand conspiracy against them, there were merely 3 people involved in the planning and execution (well, 3 in planning, 2 in execution, and 1 in the bulk of the execution). This was not designed to enrage anyone in particular.
Besides, would you have rather we used
plan C??