Pursuing Other Opportunities

Elwood Vilmont, hypercompetitive businessman, and the CEO of Redhouse Consulting, has brought his senior managers to Layoko Lodge for a “team building” exercise. As a part of the agenda, the group plans to spend three days rafting the Chilko river, including running the famous White Mile.

Vilmont’s crew of misfits, however, seem to be able to do little but whine and complain. When their CEO is unexpectedly kidnapped, the senior managers of Redhouse waste no time in leveling accusations at everyone, including each other. Matt Lively, who witnesses the kidnapping, sees little alternative to plunging into the harsh British Columbia wilderness in pursuit of the criminals and their prisoner.

Sandy Lively, watches police descend on the Layoko Lodge like a horde of locusts. She hopes beyond reason that somehow her past – including the outstanding warrants in Minnesota for espionage and murder – will somehow escape the watchful eye of Royal Canadian Mounted Police detective Jari Kuparinen.

But the situation progresses from bad to worse as an old enemy shows up from Sandy’s past, raising the stakes for everyone involved. Will she ever see Matt again? Will Kuparinen discover her secret, arrest her, and turn her over to the FBI? Or would she simply be the next murder victim in a bloody series of killings?

PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES mocks the "team building corporate retreat" so common in large corporations. It also explores the corrosive political environment present in the higher echelons of many large companies, and describes what can happen when an unexpected vacuum occurs within that structure. Finally, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES explores the difference that one or two truly brave people can make when the world seems to be crashing down around everyone's ears. I've tried to provide a variety of typical senior management "types" that the corporate refugee will find familiar and entertaining.