Team Building Read online

  “Welcome, Selena Stark,” said the words and the voice. “Please get comfortable. We’ll begin in a few more minutes. I can play music while you wait. Do you have a preferred style?”

  “Amy Winehouse?”

  “I have a very nice playlist that includes Ms. Winehouse,” said the voice. “I hope you enjoy it.” And then the music began, growing louder, but comfortable.”

  I tried to let the music relax me. It didn’t work, but I tried.

  And then there was motion to my left. I looked to see Ava McConnell settling into place. She glanced over at me but then didn’t spare another look. Ava was in Marketing. We didn’t interact often, and I wasn’t sure if she even knew my name.

  It was several songs later that the music faded. I hadn’t paid much attention, but I looked around. It appeared we were evenly distributed, and no one was to my immediate right, but Natasha Fischer, the Director of Operations, was in the next seat over. I was nearly positive she didn’t know my name.

  In front of us, Tara was standing on the stage along with the two Altered Events employees. “It’s time to begin,” Tara said, her voice coming in via the headset. “I imagine some of you are looking forward to this, each of you for your own reasons. I imagine many of you think this is ridiculous. I know of three of you who very nearly quit rather than attend this weekend, and I suspect the actual count is somewhat higher. Four of the men quit. I was somewhat surprised none of you did.”

  She paused, her head bowed. She didn’t look up. “I hope this is a positive experience not only for the company, but for each of you as individuals.” She looked up. “Altered Events is able to learn quite a bit about you. I will not be learning specifics. If you say terrible things about me or about the company, I won’t hear about it. You’ll be scored in a variety of ways, and I’ll see those for each of you, but you can badmouth me all you want. Now, you each have a choice. Do you want me to participate, observe, or leave?”

  The three choices appeared on my visor. “Selena,” said the computer voice. “You may use the trackpad built into the right armrest to make your selection.”

  I stared at the choices then set my fingers on the trackpad. I moved them around, making sure I was doing it correctly, and a mouse button appeared. The choices highlighted as the mouse moved over them, and I picked the top. “Damned right you get a taste of this,” I muttered. I tapped “Participate.”

  From the looks, it took a half minute or so for everyone to vote. One of the women standing beside Tara said something to her, and she nodded. “It appears, by a narrow margin, I will be participating. Before I take my seat.” She reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew her phone. “Everyone. I want them off. They go off now, and I want them off the entire weekend. If you need to leave it on for emergencies, raise your hand, and Altered Events will make an arrangement with you.”

  I pulled my phone from my purse and turned it off. I didn’t pay attention to what anyone else did. But then Tara said, “Some of you have purses. There is a storage cupboard built into the back of each seat. Stay in your seats, but we’ll go around and stow your things for you.”

  I didn’t really like parting with my purse, but when the Altered Events woman stepped to my side, I handed it to her. “Don’t worry,” she said. “They lock. We’ve never had theft. Not once.” She took the purse and stepped behind me, slightly jostling the lounger, then saw to Ava’s purse.

  I watched Tara as she took one of the loungers, the one next to Mary. She settled the headset in place.

  Then the two people from Altered Events were back on the stage. One said, “All right. We need you to get comfortable.” She posed. “Arms on the arm rests, please, and legs uncrossed. The chair is going to do something surprising.”

  “Oh, god,” I said. But I did what I was told. After the briefest moment, from the sides of the armrests, metal cuffs flipped out, over my wrists, and locked in place. Another pair grabbed me just above the elbow.

  I stared, but then the voice said, “Relax, Selena. We’ll take good care of you.”

  I searched with my eyes. Tara had been locked in like the rest of us. Ava was locked in. Natasha had her arms held above the armrests, but I watched as she lowered them. She flinched as the chair locked her into place.

  It took another minute, but no one required force or demanded to leave. And then from in front, the woman said, “All right, ladies. Prepare to be altered. It’s time for some fun!”

  The visor went black; I could no longer see out. New music began, and then lights began to play before my eyes.

  I tried to fight it, but I don’t think I did any better than anyone else did, and it wasn’t long before I entirely zoned out.

  I have no idea what they did to my brain. I think I spent some of the time talking, but I have even less idea what I might have said.

  Chapter Two

  “It’s time for our first event,” said the woman, some time later. How much later? I have absolutely no idea, except we’d get dinner after the event, so it couldn’t have been more than an hour or two. “There are four teams, and you will meet your team members shortly. You have a puzzle to solve, and you will each play a part. You are playing against time, and winning or losing will control how you are Altered for the next game. Good luck, ladies! Begin.”

  The lights came on. I looked around, and we weren’t in Conference Room Blue anymore. Well, I didn’t think they actually had moved us, but it didn’t look like the conference room.

  It looked like some sort of dank dungeon. It was musty besides, and I didn’t want to be here. I definitely didn’t want to be here.

  I got a look at the rest of my team members. There were eight of us in total, still locked in our loungers, but now the circle only large enough for the eight of us. They’d taken our shoes from us, and while I’d been zoned out, they’d locked our legs to the chairs. My team had me and Candace, one of the graphics designers, Ida and Diane from Sales, Janet from Marketing, Keesha from Accounting, and Florence and Gena from Support.

  “Listen up,” Ida said. “I intend to win, so ignore the distractions and let’s do this.”

  “It’s a puzzle,” Janet said. “That woman said it’s a puzzle. I don’t see any puzzle.”

  I didn’t say anything. But we had another thirty seconds before suddenly there was a grinding sound from all around us. And then all of our loungers were pulled backwards, slowly at first, then faster. Behind each of us, the wall opened, we were each pulled into individual cells. Before me, the rock wall slammed down, blocking me off from everyone else.

  I heard a few screams, and my heart was pounding out of my chest. Then Ida said, “Grow a pair, Florence. I know that’s you screaming.” The screaming faded. “God.”

  I looked around. My cell wasn’t empty. There was writing on one wall and a map on the other. I didn’t recognize the map, and the writing was gibberish. Great.

  “The teams are not exactly the same size,” said the voice my ears. “Each team has exactly three objectives per person. You will be rewarded for completing objectives. Any team that does not complete at least two objectives per person when time has run out will be punished. Have fun!”

  “Have fun?” someone echoed. “Is she kidding.”

  “All right, no screwing around,” Ida commanded. “I’m in some shitty room. On the walls are shelves, and each shelf has something on it. Over my head is a robotic arm, and using the trackpad, I can move the arm. Directly in front of me are more shelves, empty, seven in all, and each of them has one of your names. I think I’m supposed to move stuff to the empty shelves, but I don’t know who is supposed to get what. Diane, what’s your room like?”

  “Who appointed her God?” someone muttered.

  “I heard that, Janet,” Ida said. “Someone has to lead this lot, and after seeing your sales numbers last quarter, you don’t think I’m going to listen to you, do you?”

  There was muttering. Each of us was in an identical room, but the clues were dramatic
ally different. The only other person who had writing was Florence from Support, and she had numbers, not letters. Keesha from Accounting announced, “Nothing,” she said. “I’m in an empty room. But I’m taking notes.”

  “How are you taking notes?” Ida asked.

  “I have a keyboard,” she said. “And Notepad.”

  We finished describing our rooms, and when once we did, Gena said, “Hey! We’ve got two points.”

  “How did we get that?” Janet asked

  “I have a point for note-taking,” Keesha said.

  “I got one for cooperation,” Ida announced.

  * * * *

  We worked at it. We got a few more points. I zoned out a little, looking back and forth from the letters to the map. I wondered whether the letters were an anagram, but there weren’t enough vowels. But then I had my first useful idea. “Ida, do you have anything that might be used either for making or reading a map?”

  “How the hell should I know?” she asked.

  “A protractor,” I prompted. “A compass. Either type of compass.”

  “What do you mean either type?”

  “One points north,” Candace explained. “And one draws circles. Maybe you have a rule or something that might serve as a straight edge.”

  “I have a compass thing,” Ida said.

  “Yes!” Candace exclaimed. “Can you move the compass to Selena’s shelf?”

  “Just a minute. This robot thing is clumsy.” It took her a minute, but then a shelf appeared on the wall underneath the map, and on it, sitting upright, a compass.

  “It worked!” I said. And then, before me, the map rotated. “The map just changed. And, oh shit, I got a point.”

  “Congratulations, you,” Ida said. “Does it say where we’re supposed to go?”

  “I have no idea.”

  It was several minutes later when Keesha said, “I don’t know if this matters, but Florence has a lot more numbers than Selena has letters.”

  “How many more?”

  “A lot more, like, six times as many. Not quite. Five and a half. About.”

  “That doesn’t sound useful,” Ida said.

  “It might,” I said slowly. “Is there a pattern?”

  “I’ve been looking for a pattern for a half hour,” Florence said. “There are a ton of ones and twos. One, one, seven, five, two, one…” She read about ten numbers.

  “Hang on,” I said. “There’s a pattern. You said there was a one, a one, and two more numbers.”

  “Seven-five.”

  “And then a two, one, and three numbers, and then a one-two, and that was as far as I got.”

  “I don’t see it,” she said.

  “One plus one is two, and there are then two more numbers,” I said. “Then two plus one is three and three more numbers. Does that pattern continue?”

  “Yes,” Keesha said three seconds later. “All the way to the end. What does it mean?”

  “The first two numbers are the number of digits of the remaining numbers,” I said. “So a pair of one-digit numbers, then a pair with two digits and one digit.”

  “I see it!” Keesha exclaimed. “But what are they?”

  “Map coordinates,” Gena said. “They could be map coordinates.”

  “I just got a point!” Florence said. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Robbed,” Gena said. “I was robbed.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ida said. “Figure out where we’re going, egghead.”

  “Keesha,” I said. “Just extract out the pairs.”

  “On it. Just a second. Okay, I have fifteen pairs.”

  “Oh fuck,” I said.

  “What?” Ida asked.

  “I have fifteen letters.”

  “Bingo!” Gena said. “Keesha, read off the pairs.”

  Keesha did. At first it didn’t make sense, but then Candace asked, “Keesha, what’s the range of values of the first number in each pair?”

  There was a pause. “Oh shit. One to fifteen, and no duplicates.”

  “Order!” I said. “That’s the order. Okay, the pairs could match my letters, and then they get ordered, or we might have to order the numbers first, and my letters are already in order. Let’s try that first. What’s the value for order one?”

  “We got another point,” Janet said.

  “Mine, for the map.”

  I worked out the points. It didn’t make sense, not at first. It was five more minutes before I said, “Give me the numbers again, in ascending order, Keesha.” She did, and I looked at the places visited by traveling the map. I began laughing. “The first letter of each place spells out Teamwork Matters.”

  And I got my third point.

  * * * *

  We needed 24 points to win and 16 to avoid punishment. And we got stuck on 15. Diane hadn’t earned any points yet, and while I’d been wracking my brain, I hadn’t had a single useful suggestion for her. And then the voice said, “Time is running out. Diane has the key to any further points. If you want a clue, there must be a sacrifice.”

  “What kind of sacrifice?” Ida asked.

  “One of you will be the sacrifice. One of you will accept Alteration,” said the voice.

  “Take Diane,” Ida muttered. “She’s been worthless, anyway.”

  It took me three seconds to decide. “I’ll be the sacrifice.”

  “So be it,” said the voice.

  The map disappeared. The writing disappeared. The score on my visor disappeared. But the rock door to my cell opened upwards, making a horrible grinding noise, and then there was a roar.

  A shape appeared in the doorway, a huge, hulking shape. It stepped closer, grabbed my feet, and used them to yank me, still in the chair, from the cell.

  I began to scream.

  * * * *

  The creature dragged me… somewhere else. I was out of my mind in panic. It dragged me to another room, loomed over me for a moment, and then I passed out.

  I probably didn’t really pass out. I probably really zoned out. But it felt like I passed out, and I don't remember anything for a while. I have no idea how long.

  Chapter Three

  When I came to awareness, I was kneeling, my head bowed. I was wearing a dirty, torn shift that barely covered anything. And reality was new.

  “A gift, for me?” Ida asked.

  She was seated, and I was at her side, facing her, kneeling to her. And I belonged to her. I belonged to her, and it was forever. I remembered I had offered to sacrifice myself, and that I would be Altered. I’d heard of things like this, but it had always been some sort of urban legend, someone Altered to become a permanent sex slave, or worse.

  I belonged to her, and that was part of my reality. That I was supposed to belong to her was another part of my reality.

  “Kiss my feet, slave,” Ida ordered. Without a thought to disobey, I leaned over and did so.

  She was dressed quite elegantly, including a pair of beautiful, strappy heels, and she had the most delicate, most lovely feet. I took my time, kissing them, one, then the other, then each toe, one after another, until she said, “That’s enough.”

  “Yes, Ms. Graves,” I said, kneeling upright again.

  “Call me Lady Ida,” she ordered.

  “Yes, Lady Ida.”

  After that, she largely ignored me, except when she wanted something. I stood and poured water for her, then knelt again. I did this. I did that. In between, I knelt. A few times, she did things to me, little things. She pinched my bottom. A few minutes later, she did it again, and after that, she either pinched or swatted it, any time it was convenient for her. After the fourth or fifth time, she asked, “Do you like that, Slave?”

  “Yes, Lady Ida.”

  “I thought you might,” she said.

  I wasn’t the only new slave. I didn’t see who they were, but there were three or four others. I didn’t see how they were treated. It just didn’t register with me.

  Ida could have been worse. I think the reason s
he wasn’t was because she just couldn’t think of anything. At one point, she asked, “What else should I make her do?” If anyone offered suggestions, I didn’t hear them.

  Eventually she handed me a foot and ordered a massage, then the other.

  And then two women from Altered Reality were there. “It’s time for us to take her away.” That didn’t make sense.

  “Can’t I keep her?” Ida asked. “She looks good on her knees.”

  “Sorry,” one said. And then they each bent down and grabbed me by the arms. “Come with us, Slave,” one said.

  And my reality shifted. I no longer belonged to Ida. I belonged to them. I rose as they lifted, and then, my head bowed, I let them take me wherever they wanted.

  Once we were out of the room, the one on my left said, “That was cruel, giving her to the person she most feared.” The two talked, and I didn’t understand where they were taking me until we reached my room. I might not have recognized, but I saw my purse sitting on the desk.

  “Kneel,” one said, and I lowered myself, facing her.

  Then the other stepped closer, and she used her hand to lift my chin. She was stunning, absolutely beautiful, and I thought I was in love from one look. “This is your reward, Selena. Please kiss me.”

  It was a request, but suddenly I wanted nothing more. I lifted my head further and gave a little mew of pleasure. She lowered her lips to mine, and I closed my eyes.

  We kissed, and it was the most magical kiss I’d ever received. I mewed again, and behind me, the other knelt, pressing into my back, running her hands over me. I mewed more pleasure, and again, and I would have happily given them both anything they wanted.

  Then the one I was kissing pulled away, but she caressed my cheek, her fingers lingering, and I froze, looking into her eyes. “I’ve been Altered, too,” she said. “Evie and I both have. That kiss was amazing for me, and Evie is entirely blissed out from touching you. Do you feel rewarded?”