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 pagesof 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?”
