Wanda nods. "I'll make the necessary bookings."
Winston thanks you and Wanda for your time, and wraps up the meeting. He's eager to leave for his own vacation.
The next couple weeks pass uneventfully. The atmosphere at MetaHuman in August, when almost half of the staff is on vacation, is markedly different from the rest of the year. The offices are quieter; the stress of the previous months seems far away. You could almost forget the specter of the company's shareholders, waiting and watching for your ultimate success or failure.
Electra is the first of the senior staff to return from her vacation. You'd half expected her to come back to the office with a suntan, but she is as pale as ever. You hand over the company's reins to her, and she promises not to let MetaHuman fall into ruin in the three days until Winston returns and takes the responsibility of day-to-day management back from her.
Eighteen hours later, you are checking into a luxury hotel in Dubai. The hotel's manager greets you in person, and you are assigned a personal butler for the duration of your stay. The butler shows you to your suite of rooms where, on one corner, you have a view of the Burj Khalifa, and on the other, a view out across the ocean. You also find several slim folders detailing the seminars and courses you are due to attend over the next two weeks.
The following few days are intense. You attend a series of lectures by some of the world's leading business minds, each one followed by lengthy question-and-answer sessions or complex role-playing exercises. In the evenings you prepare detailed case studies charting the progress of several major companies—including MetaHuman—over the last one hundred years or more, identifying key turning points and moments of particular crisis or prosperity. The work is grueling but fascinating; by the end of the first week you feel you have gained a far deeper understanding of the principles and processes involved in successful international business.
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