Chapter 40: Camp

An announcement landed in every inbox at . on a Wednesday.

"Subject: End-of-Year Relaxation Camp — Mandatory Attendance"

Kai opened it.

The language was clean, corporate, and slightly too cheerful for the firm that had spent the year redlining force-majeure clauses and burying residual heat under fluorescent lights.

"Team,

In recognition of a demanding year and the successful close of several major vendor cycles, leadership is pleased to announce the first Meridian Capital End-of-Year Relaxation Camp.

Dates: Thursday–Sunday, final week of December

Location: Pinecrest Lakes Retreat (2.5 hours upstate)

Attendance: Required for all full-time staff on floors 19–30

Transport: Company coaches depart from the lobby at seven thirty a.m. Thursday

Return:Sunday evening"

The program will include structured downtime, team activities, optional wellness sessions, and informal evening gatherings.

Detailed itinerary and packing list are attached. Dietary and accessibility needs should be submitted to People Ops by Friday.

This is not optional. Calendar holds have been applied.

We look forward to closing the year together.

— People Ops, on behalf of the Executive Committee"

Kai read it twice.

Around him the floor did the same thing it always did with unexpected news, keyboards slowed, a few chairs rolled back, low voices started moving between desks.

Priya appeared at the edge of his cubicle with a coffee she had not asked for.

"You saw it."

"I saw it."

"Mandatory. Upstate. Four days." She kept her voice flat. "No one asked for this."

"No one asks for most of what happens here." Kai closed the email. "You going to submit dietary needs?"

"I’m going to submit the minimum required and otherwise pretend it’s a long weekend I didn’t choose." She glanced down the aisle. "Marcus is already in Legal arguing about whether the coaches count as work time."

"Do they?"

"Technically yes. Practically no one is going to win that fight." She left the coffee on his desk without waiting for a thank-you and walked back to her own seat.

By ten thirty the floor had divided into quiet clusters.

Marcus stopped at the quiet intern’s desk with a folder under his arm that had nothing to do with the camp. He spoke without preamble.

"You’re going."

"It’s mandatory."

"That’s not what I asked." He lowered his voice. "The retreat has shared cabins, a main lodge, and an open schedule after 8 p.m. People Ops is calling it ’informal evening gatherings.’ You and I both know what that language has meant in this building."

Kai kept the soft hands on the keyboard. "It might just be a retreat."

"It might." Marcus did not look convinced. "I’m submitting the form. I’m packing light. And I’m not drinking anything I didn’t pour myself."

He left.

Sloane came up from Compliance at eleven with a short stack of signature pages.

She set them on the desk, waited until Kai looked up, and spoke in the same even tone she used for retention notes.

"You’re on the list for Cabin 7. So am I. So is Priya. Marcus is in 9 with two of the vendor-relations analysts. The cabin assignments went out in a second email five minutes ago."

Kai opened the new message.

She was right. Cabin 7: the quiet intern, Priya, Sloane, and two junior associates from the floor.

Cabin 9: Marcus and three others. Okonkwo’s name did not appear on any cabin list. Jupiter Owl’s did not either.

Leadership had separate lodging at the main lodge.

"Shared rooms," Sloane said. "Bunk-style. No private baths. The itinerary has optional yoga at seven a.m. and a ’fireside mixer’ on Friday and Saturday nights. Attendance at the mixer is encouraged but not required."

"You’re going to the mixer?"

"I’m going to the retreat because it’s mandatory. Everything else is under review."

She tapped the signature pages. "These need to be back by three. And if anyone tries to turn the cabin into an extension of the parking level or the club, I’m walking to the main lodge and sleeping on a couch. Clear?"

"Clear."

She left.

At lunch the break room carried the same low-level static.

Two analysts near the window were already comparing packing lists.

Someone from Accounting had printed the trail map.

A woman from vendor relations said she was bringing extra earplugs and a travel lock for her bunk. No one said the words "black ribbon" or "mask" or "exhibition glass", but the knowledge sat under the conversation like a second agenda.

Priya found Kai at the coffee machine.

"Cabin 7," she said.

"I saw."

"Sloane already issued the warning. I’m not planning anything. I’m also not going to be surprised if the fireside mixer turns into something People Ops didn’t put on the itinerary." She poured coffee she did not want. "You’re still under the arrangement."

It was not a question. Kai kept the soft voice level. "Yes."

"Then keep your head down and your door locked if the cabin has a door. Four days is a long time for residual heat to find a new room."

She walked away.

By three the forms were in.

Dietary requests had been submitted.

The packing list had been downloaded by most of the floor. People Ops sent a follow-up email confirming coach assignments and a reminder that "relaxation" did not mean "unprofessional." The wording was careful enough to make several people smile without humor.

Kai stared at the calendar hold that now blocked Thursday through Sunday of the final week of the year.

The arrangement with Okonkwo had no clause for a mandatory retreat.

The coastal house and the third night and the woman who still did not fully know what she was tangled in sat three days behind him.

The club sat further back than that.

The parking level sat further still.

The building was packing for a long weekend in the woods with the same people who had already learned how to burn residual heat under fluorescent lights and

behind frosted glass and under masks.

His phone stayed silent.

Ethan, three blocks away , received the same announcement on the personal account and read it twice.

He sent a single encrypted line.

"Mandatory retreat. Final week of December. Shared cabins. You saw it?"

Kai’s reply came three minutes later.

" I saw it. Cabin 7 with Priya and Sloane. Marcus in 9. Leadership separate. Arrangement doesn’t cover this."

"Then we handle it the way we’ve handled everything else. One day at a time."

"One day at a time."

Kai locked the screen and returned to the Northline file that still needed a final polish before the end of the day.

Around him the floor continued its ordinary afternoon, keyboards, low calls, the quiet logistics of people who had just been told they would spend four days in the woods together and were already deciding what to pack and what to leave behind.

The year was ending.

The camp was coming.

And the building that had spent twelve months learning how to hide its second circulatory system was about to put that system on a coach and drive it two and a half hours upstate with no fluorescent lights to hide under and no abandoned office to lock.