Liam pressed the enter key, and the screen was filled with an image of a yellow sign with black writing. It said, ‘Zero Days Since Last Incident’. He hollered with laughter as he looked up at the project manager.

  “Best to just get you one of these signs for your office, eh? Idiot!”

  Jonathan lurched towards his coworker, and the man in the chair kicked off hard against his desk, sending himself rolling across the floor on the chair.

  “Dickhead,” Jackson barked. “Everything is hilarious, isn’t it? How about trying to help?”

  Liam rolled towards the door and opened it.

  “Time to go, buddy,” he said. “Come back next time you can’t work out how to switch on your monitor.”

  “You useless prick,” Jackson yelled. “Why don’t you just f…”

  “Bye now,” Liam cut in, waving towards the door.

  Jackson stood motionless for a moment, looking the jovial techie dead in the eye before walking past him, out into the stairwell and back up to the office.

  SEVEN

  Jonathan huffed his way back upstairs to the office, seething at the IT guy’s shitty attitude.

  All he could do was head to his desk, hunker down, and try to think of a way to put right everything that had gone wrong. His years of work at InnovaTech and the reputation he had built through long hours and hard work were crumbling around him.

  As he walked into the office, Jackson saw the brassy blonde software engineer, Atkins, perched on the edge of Thompson’s desk. She was leaning over, gesticulating in a way that looked neither professional nor businesslike. Her voice was a harsh shriek.

  “Sounds like a you problem,” Jackson mumbled to himself, managing a smile despite his own situation.

  Mark was raising his hands defensively, trying to cut in with some kind of explanation, but Karen Atkins kept on firing her verbal shots.

  Whatever he had done to piss her off this time had set her on the warpath.

  Jackson gave Mark a nod as he took his seat back in front of his monitor. He could duck down, slip in his earphones and focus. All the time he had spent opposite Thompson had trained him to block out the background noise and concentrate on what needed to be done. The only problem now was that he didn’t have a clue what he could do to put right his mistake.

  If only he’d spotted that he hadn’t added the attachment. It was such a rookie error. How could he have sent the document without double, no triple, checking? Thompson. That was how. Pressuring him the whole time; crowding him when he was finalising the email. Thompson had distracted him; everything was that asshole’s fault.

  Jackson sat, staring into space as the thoughts enveloped him.

  The sight of Thompson riled Jonathan. For a young man, he didn’t make much effort with himself. Always the same suit, navy blue, off the rail. That floppy brown haircut made him look as though he’d kept the same style his mother had chosen for him when he was a kid. There was nothing original or interesting about him.

  “Earth to Jacko!” Mark called from across the desk. “You still with us, mate?”

  The blonde had left, and Thompson clearly had nothing better to do with his time now than to goad Jonathan.

  Jackson pretended he hadn’t heard, which was his default position when Mark started to make wisecracks. Unlike Thompson, Jonathan was serious about his job at InnovaTech. He was a professional - highly qualified with years of experience. Thompson was a smarmy little upstart who…

  Something clicked in Jonathan Jackson’s brain, and he snapped to attention, glaring over at his colleague.

  Mark had been standing behind him when he sent the document.

  He was a nosey shit, and there was no way that he wouldn’t have noticed that the attachment was missing.

  Mark Thompson had to have seen the error that Jackson was about to make.

  He had to have seen it, and he had to have kept his mouth shut as Jackson sent the email off to the most important potential client in the company’s history.

  Mark Thompson had screwed everyone.

  And he was going to have to pay.

  As Jonathan looked at his coworker, he saw the young man’s expression change. It switched from the usual sarcastic grin to a perplexed frown to a concerned grimace as Jackson stood and sprinted around the desks.

  Within a matter of seconds, the older man was standing beside his colleague, looming over him, mouth open, about to speak.

  “Mate…” Mark began.

  Jackson shook his head.

  “Don’t,” he said. “Don’t say anything. You slimy piece of shit.”

  Around the office, the project managers’ colleagues stopped typing and the usual background murmur of conversation ground to a halt. All eyes turned to the two suits, who appeared to be about to go to war.

  “Keep your voice down, man,” Mark said, rising to his feet. “Everyone is looking. How about we take this…”

  “Outside?” Jackson barked, reaching out towards Mark, as though about to push him back down into his seat.

  Thompson jerked backwards and sat in deference. The last thing he needed was to get into a fight with Mr Protein Shake.

  “No,” Mark said with measured calmness. “A meeting room, maybe. Somewhere private?” He looked around, indicating the spectacle that the two of them were becoming.

  “Outside would be more apt, I think,” Jackson said with the air of someone who had never been in a physical confrontation with anyone in his life. Still, he leered forward, causing Thompson to push back in his chair, moving away from his irate colleague.

  Jackson lifted his arm and stepped forward.

  “Mate…” Mark said again.

  “You…” Jonathan stopped, his hand raised midair, the promised blow hanging. “You knew. You did, didn’t you?”

  Thompson didn’t break eye contact. The adrenaline flooding his system gave him eagle-eye focus. He couldn’t let his concentration slip. He had to keep the situation under control.

  He said nothing.

  “You knew.” Jonathan’s voice became higher, the agitation turning his gravelly tones into a child-like squeal. “You bloody knew.”

  Mark Thompson’s face was fire truck red, his veins pulsating in his temples, despite his attempt to stay calm.

  “Did you think I wouldn’t work it out?”

  Mark licked his lips as though they were painfully dry.

  “Do you know what you’ve done?”

  Jonathan’s voice was almost a scream now.

  Mark cleared his throat and said, so quietly that Jackson could barely hear him, “It was your mistake.”

  He looked the older man in the eye and tilted his head before adding, “…mate.”

  Jonathan Jackson lurched towards his colleague with full force, aiming a punch at his face. Mark launched his weight against the floor, shooting his chair back into the gangway between the rows of desks, away from the falling blow.

  As Jackson righted himself, a booming voice sounded out across the office.

  Unmistakably, it was Richard Thornicroft. And he was not happy.

  “You.” That was Mark. “You.” And Jackson.

  “You, you, you,” Richard pointed at various members of staff as he spoke. “My office now.”

  Mark stood, holding his hands in a melodramatic pose towards Jonathan. Before following Thornicroft’s directions, he leant towards his keyboard to lock the computer.

  “Leave it,” Richard barked. “Now.”

  “Sir,” Thompson said, in submissive deference.

  Jackson was rooted to the spot, stricken with a sudden inability to move.

  His mouth hung open.

  “Jackson! Shut your bloody mouth and go!” Thornicroft snapped.

  At his boss’s command, Jonathan jumped to attention and bowed his head, thinking better of speaking another word, and followed the stream of staff into Thornicroft’s office.

  EIGHT

  The ambiance of Richard Thornicroft’s office should have been one of comfort and hospitality. To one side, there was a line of ceiling-to-floor windows, which let in light throughout the working day and gave an impressive view of the city by night. The facing wall was lined with certificates and awards won by InnovaTech and its employees over the years. Thornicroft was rightly proud of all they had achieved. The Tursten Mitchell contract would have been the cherry on the expertly crafted cake. Now, all hope of winning the trust and business of the renowned international organisation was lost.

  Thornicroft stood at the head of the long board table and eyed his staff, letting his gaze fall steadily from one to the next. Before him sat the two project managers, Thompson and Jackson, along with five of their colleagues. Atkins, the software engineer, had been summoned to join them, along with Sarah Collins and the intern, whose name none of them could bring to mind. Sitting nonplussed between Jackson and Liam, the IT support, was the research analyst who Jonathan had spent so much time with whilst working on the Tursten Mitchell brief, Michael Chen.

  “This is ridiculous,” Chen said, leaning across to whisper to Jackson. “I don’t have time for this. It’s nothing to do with me what you suits get up to on the floor.”

  Liam nodded in agreement with the sentiment. “I keep myself to myself, you know. Whatever you’ve messed up,” he directed the words at Jackson, “it…”

  “Sounds like a me problem,” Jackson said in a flat, unamused tone. “Yes. I get it.”

  “It was him?” Sarah piped up from across the table. “What did you do?”

  “What didn’t he do?” Mark said, with a trace of laughter in his voice.

  Thornicroft banged his fist on the desk before him, bringing an instant silence to the room.

  “Have you all quite finished?” he boomed. “This,” he said, indicating each of them with a wave of his hand around the room, “is exactly why you are here. All of you.”

  The sheepish intern was a vivid shade of red, her eyes cast down at the table in front of her. The other members of the team looked at each other in curious disgust and distrust.

  “I thought you could sort out these petty little squabbles, but obviously I overestimated you,” Thornicroft continued. “Thompson. Jackson. The two of you have caused irreparable damage to this company.”

  Jonathan raised his hand and opened his mouth to speak, but Thornicroft cut him off.

  “Save it,” he said. “Our reputation…my reputation…is on the line. Our company motto is…well, why don’t one of you tell me?”

  Sarah’s eyes flickered, but before she had a chance to speak, the intern gave her response, her eyes not looking up from the woodwork before her.

  “Innovation unleashed. Solutions redefined,” she said, before glancing an empty-eyed smile at the HR manager.

  Sarah responded with an acidic glare.

  “Right, yes,” Thornicroft said. “And I don’t see any innovation or solutions here. All I see is immature infighting and…” He shook his head as he looked again from one person to the next. “…toxicity. That’s the bottom line. I have built this company from nothing, and I’m not going to let your pathetic bickering bring it down. I should have stepped in sooner. I saw the warning signs. I’ve heard the way you speak to each other and the way you speak to me about each other.”

  Around the room, the coworkers exchanged looks of suspicion.

  “Oh, I’m sure that you speak to each other about me, too.” Thornicroft let his words sink in for a moment before continuing. “Yes. That’s it. You take a good long look at each other. You’re all to blame for what has happened. All of you.”

  Again, Sarah looked as though she wanted to speak, but again, she remained silent. She turned her gaze away from her employer and picked up a pen from the table, desperate for distraction.

  “All of you,” Thornicroft repeated.

  “Sir, I…” Mark stood as he spoke, bringing himself to eye-level with Richard.

  Thornicroft moved his hand in a patting motion. “Sit down, Thompson. I can see you quite well enough.” When Mark didn’t immediately fall back into his chair, Thornicroft locked eyes with him and spoke again. “Down, Thompson.”

  “Sir,” Mark deferred as he returned to his seat.

  Jackson made a sharp noise that could almost have been interpreted as a laugh, and quickly reached for a glass of water, covering up his slip with the pretence of a cough.

  “This,” Thornicroft said, “is exactly what I mean. And it stops now.” He bent to the desk before him and handed a bundle of documents to Sarah. “Pass them around,” he barked.

  Sarah handed the pile to Chen.

  “No,” Thornicroft said. “Take one for yourself, too.”

  With a look of surprise, Sarah slid one brochure from the stack and let Michael Chen take hold of the others.

  The pile of papers made its way around the table, dwindling as each member of the meeting took their copy.

  “Azure Haven Retreat?” Liam said. “What’s this? Jackson messes up, and we get sent on holiday?”

  “I didn’t…” Jackson’s protest was cut off.

  “A holiday,” Thornicroft said with an unimpressed smile. “You could see it like that. I prefer to think of it as an investment. I employed you, each and every one of you. I was the one that interviewed you, brought you into this company, and tried my best to support you. And look what has happened.”

  The group was silent as they each flicked through the glossy leaflets. On each page were photographs of idyllic pale beaches, clear azure ocean that had doubtless given its name to the resort, and vibrant palm trees.

  Intermingled with the tropical images was text that described exactly what Richard Thornicroft had in mind for his employees.

  “Have you seen where it is? I can’t possibly…”

  “You’re all going to go. No excuses.”

  “But my kids. I…” Karen began.

  “I’ve spoken to your, er, ex-husband. Everything is arranged.”

  “Arranged? What do you mean? I can’t just…” Karen’s indignant tone made her usually refined voice break into a high-pitched squeak.

  “You can, and you will.”

  “But I…” Karen knew it was pointless to continue, so she bit back the rest of her protestation.

  “There are two options,” Thornicroft said, turning his eyes to look around the room as he spoke. “And this goes for each of you. You commit here and now to making a change, to packing a bag and going to Azure Haven Retreat, or your employment with InnovaTech will be terminated.”

  “I don’t think you can do that,” Karen said.

  Sarah was already shaking her head. “I’m afraid he can,” she said. If anyone knew about the ins and outs of their contracts, it was the human resources know-all.

  “You knew he was going to do this?” Karen hissed at the admin worker.

  Sarah bit back a smug smile, and instead shrugged. Even though spending a week team building with the office snakes sounded like hell, at least that hell was on a tropical island.

  Mark rose slightly in his seat, as though he meant to stand, and then settled again before speaking.

  “Why would anyone not want to go?” he said. “It’s ridiculous that you are even thinking of…”

  Richard shook his head, and Mark fell silent.

  “Some of your colleagues here have commitments, Thompson. They will leave behind people they love, and you need to respect these differences. We aren’t going to have any more of this blinkered mindset.” Mark turned his eyes away, as Thornicroft pointed at him. “You will use the time away to get to know each other better, and to learn to understand each other. But most of all, you will develop the team-working skills that every one of you is sorely lacking. There is no room in this organisation for the kind of toxic behaviour that has been festering here. It stops now.”

  The room was silent. The seven coworkers couldn’t bring themselves to face Thornicroft, or each other. Each of them knew that something within the organisation was broken, but none of them had considered that it could have been them.

  “Go home,” Thornicroft commanded. “Pack what you need for a week away. A car will arrive for you at six am.”

  The expressions on the teams’ faces ranged from indignance to irate resistance to resigned acceptance. Each of them knew, though, that there was no escaping their fate. If they wanted to remain at InnovaTech, they would have to attend Thornicroft’s planned retreat.

  Hell might be other people, but perhaps in paradise they could work out their differences once and for all.

  It wasn’t as though there was any other option.

  NINE

  The team arrived at the airfield the following morning in a dull, uninspired trickle. Jackson was the first to reach the strip, a single cabin bag by his side. Then Atkins and Thompson showed in a shared car, followed by each of the others in turn. By seven am, each of the team was present, apart from Sarah Collins.

  “Does she live out of town?” Jackson asked, looking at his watch.

  “That a Rolex?” Liam said, craning his neck to see. “Ah, good fake. Nice. Must have still cost a couple of hundred?”

  “It’s real.” Jonathan snapped his hand away. “Piss off, will you?”

  With a mock gesture of surrender, Liam raised his hands and laughed, turning his head.

  No one answered Jackson’s question, and the six of them stood on the tarmac, watching the road in for Sarah’s arrival.

  “I really don’t have time for this,” Chen sighed, shaking his head.

  “That’s your catch phrase, isn’t it?” Liam joked. “The number of times I’ve heard you say that.”

  Chen was stone-faced. “Because it’s true,” he said. “I actually have an important job to do. Just because I’m not out there on the front line, bringing in clients doesn’t mean that what I do is any less critical to our success as a business.”

  “What is it that a research analyst actually does?” Liam tilted his head.