Chapter 4
KEIR
On Monday morning I walked into Control. As usual, it was noisy with a lot of chatter and the clicking of fingers on keyboards. I glanced around the room at my nav team, noting my newest, Fallon. A couple of my seasoned staff were standing over him talking and pointing at his computer screen.
He nodded and typed a few things, looking like he'd always worked there.
Like he belonged. I hoped it would remain that way.
New genius talent could be mercurial. There were always unexpected distractions to look out for.
Their minds focused quite well, but if they found another interest they could easily leave their past interest behind.
At least, that was the case with many I had known.
Boredom was one of the factors to fight when you dealt with big talent.
I walked up to Fallon’s station. “Good morning.”
Fallon glanced up and saw me. “Good morning, sir.”
“How's the briefing going?”
“Very well.” He glanced at the other two.
“Thank you, Clea. And Drake. He needs to be settled in as quickly as possible,” I said.
“That's not a problem so far,” Clea replied. “He already knows his way around the computer. And he understands everything we've shown him so far.”
“Stuff it takes a week for other new techs to learn,” Drake added.
“I knew I made a good choice when I hired him.”
A tinge of pinkness showed at the tops of Fallon’s cheeks. “Thank you, sir. I'll work hard to make sure you haven't wasted your time with me.”
A little humility went a long way. But a lot would be selling him short.
I knew he could do the job, but not only that, go beyond the description and give me the safety net I liked to have when things were happening quickly on Christmas Eve.
I didn't want him to think he couldn't do more.
He was young. Even though he was a reindeer shifter, he was outside the culture he was raised in.
His self-confidence might need a little boosting.
“I know I haven't wasted my time. I look forward to working with you.”
His reindeer-brown eyes flashed. He started to smile, then ducked his head. So young.
“Yes, sir.”
A surge of excitement quickened inside me. It was for the math, I told myself. I wanted to see what he would do with the programs he was given to work on and improve. But it was more. That “more” was something I couldn't afford to think about. Not now. Preferably, not anytime.
This cute young shifter was of great value. I could already see it. Just because my alpha side had begun to react to him didn't mean I would do anything about it. Ever.
We were here for the math. Anything else was dangerous territory.
Santa wanted upgrades on every system. No small task.
We'd spent most of the year rewriting thousands of pages of programming. Now we were in the test phase. Tomorrow afternoon the sleigh would be test driven on ground by me with four of the nine flying reindeer team. We wouldn’t actually fly.
But I needed to be moving as the systems were double and triple-checked on the sleigh’s dash.
If nothing major popped up to fix, actual flight testing would happen next week.
By lunchtime, I returned to the control room to check on my team. Updates had been flying across my computer screen all morning. I could barely keep up with them.
As I walked in my gaze immediately fell on Fallon. I told myself he stood out because he was new. I wanted to make sure everything was going well for him. But I couldn't ignore the way my blood flowed a little faster in my veins to see him, and how my stomach gave a little quiver of pleasure.
There was nothing I could do about my attraction accept ignore it.
I walked up to Clea. “I see it's been quite a productive morning.”
She glanced up, eyes widening. “It's that new guy. He can read programming faster than anyone I've ever seen. On top of that, he keeps catching the most miniscule of errors. That's why you're getting flooded. We're making the changes as fast as he sends his suggestions to us.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It's quite humbling to the rest of us, but he doesn't seem to realize it yet.” She gave a little smirk.
“How are the others doing?” I'd hired two other new team members a week ago. They had settled in but I still asked for daily updates on them.
“Great.” Drake chimed in this time. “But not like Fallon. Where did you find him?”
“He sent in a cold call application.”
“ Good thing he did. He's found enough errors to make tomorrow's test a fail if we hadn’t corrected them. Even though they're minor, the cumulative effect would have caused glitches. Too many. Santa would never be happy with this new system.”
“I'm glad we're getting the work done."
Clea nodded and got up from her chair. “It's my lunch hour,” she said. “I'll put in extra hours this evening if we don't have everything in order.”
“But with Fallon, I think we will,” Drake added. “He's already a great addition.”
I watched Clea leave, then walked over to Fallon and stood behind his chair. The code on his screen moved quickly. Was he really reading that fast?
“How's it going?” I asked.
He jumped as if startled. “Sorry, sir. I didn't see you there.”
“You looked very focused.”
“I am. The program I'm looking through right now is awesome. I'm blown away by the attention to detail and how much work went into it. I'm finding a few hiccups but that's it.”
“I know. They all come through my computer screen when they're validated by Clea or Drake. You're catching things most people don't see until the very last minute when something goes wrong.”
“You mean like the day before Christmas Eve?”
“I mean on Christmas Eve. Sometimes even while Santa's in flight.”
His mouth dropped open.
“It looks like you're fitting in quite well. I spoke with Clea and Drake and they’re very happy with your work and it's only been half a day.”
He looked down as if slightly embarrassed.
In that moment I noticed how young he was compared to all of the others.
Most people who worked on my team had spent many years in school full time and still needed training to fit in with this job.
Fallon had been taking classes part time while holding another job and he was only twenty-two. He hadn't graduated yet.
Some people were born with gifts. I wondered if his family even knew how talented he really was.
“It's lunchtime now. Everyone gets an hour.”
“I was going to skip lunch. I'm right in the middle of this doc.”
“Working on an empty stomach can fog the brain. Did anyone show you the lunchroom? And there's a cafeteria one floor up. The food's excellent.”
“No. HR gave me paperwork. I read the stuff about what was required from me. But I didn't really look at the stuff about breaks and time off. Not yet.”
It was easier to skip meals when young. But I didn’t want that to be the habit here.
“I'm glad to hear you're so focused but it's my job as your boss to make sure you’re properly treated within the guidelines Santa sets for all workers in his corporations. Skipping lunch is not an offence, but it is severely frowned upon.”
His face fell. “I didn't realize.”
“Now you know. Would you like to accompany me upstairs?” Immediately, I asked myself what I was doing. But it was just lunch. And the new omega on our team didn't know where to go.
“With you?”
“Yep. I've worked here for fifteen years. Stick with me. I know my way around.”
He stood, stretching his arms and casting a sheepish smile my way. “All right. Thank you.”
It wasn't too far to go. The stark white staircase to the upstairs curved, lending its shape to the idea that everything here was made from ice. It wasn't. But it was beautiful and the walls had glitter in them to make everything sparkle.
Fallon himself seemed to sparkle. He wore a beautiful Christmas sweater with patterns of Christmas trees and snowflakes against a brown and white background.
The tones brought out the sheen of his hair and eyes.
He had on thick black wool trousers that we're almost too short at his ankles.
Almost. That tiny imperfection made him look even cuter. I could see he wore white socks.
Did I worry about fashion sense? In my line of work, I dealt with physicists and mathematicians.
If I cared, I'd have to go into another line of work.
The only person who needed his suit to be perfect was Santa himself on Christmas Eve.
He had a new one made every year. And every year the faux fur seemed furrier and the red velvet softer.
Just as we worked hard to do our jobs well, Santa was impeccable in his role.
We reached the cafeteria where the atmosphere was bustling with activity. The scents that wafted over the room already had my mouth watering.
A growling sound came at my side. Fallon’s stomach. I chuckled. “That's proof positive you're hungry.”
Fallon put a hand to his stomach. “Everything smells so good.”
“Today's Monday. It's the faux turkey and gravy special. I highly recommend it.”
“The morning went by so fast. I didn’t realize I was hungry until now.”
“Let’s fill up.”
We got our trays and plates of food and moved to an empty table. People were looking. I always got stares because I was the boss which was why I ate in my office most days. I didn’t want my team to feel uncomfortable.
Today was about Fallon, not me. I needed to make sure he had everything he needed. Now that I had seen what he could accomplish for the team, I couldn’t afford to lose him.