Peter Keller has spent years surviving Meridian Group by doing what the system rewards: staying polite, staying useful, staying controlled. Then a meeting with HR, a fire in a city trash can, and a burn he can feel but never explain shatter the routine he has built his life around. The more Peter digs, the worse the shape of the truth becomes. Meridian has not been managing his "temper." It has been measuring him.
Tracking his sleep, his medication, his relationships, and every moment the heat in him slipped the leash. Somewhere inside the company is a file long enough to hold a life-and a plan for what to do with people like him when they stop fitting the story. Now Peter has one chance to choose what kind of weapon he becomes. But the people who made him useful are already moving, and the next fire they're preparing will not be an accident.
Peter Keller has spent years surviving Meridian Group by doing what the system rewards: staying polite, staying useful, staying controlled. Then a meeting with HR, a fire in a city trash can, and a burn he can feel but never explain shatter the routine he has built his life around. The more Peter digs, the worse the shape of the truth becomes. Meridian has not been managing his "temper." It has been measuring him.
Tracking his sleep, his medication, his relationships, and every moment the heat in him slipped the leash. Somewhere inside the company is a file long enough to hold a life-and a plan for what to do with people like him when they stop fitting the story. Now Peter has one chance to choose what kind of weapon he becomes. But the people who made him useful are already moving, and the next fire they're preparing will not be an accident.