Page 70 of Moon Tamed

“She’s making me give her a quarter an hour raise every time I prank Calden and she’s hit with the crossfire.”

“That was a good way to get a nice raise every year,” Mrs. Ericks replied. “Well done. Daniel gave me the preliminary information, and this should suffice as an introductory offer, but we’re scheduling a salary negotiation a month from now, Coraline. You’ll have a better idea of the work involved and what is a fair rate for the work. I recommend asking Calden for guidance, as he has experience negotiating salaries outside of the Hunters.”

“I’m happy to help you,” Calden confirmed.

My stomach chose that moment to growl, loud enough to catch the attention of everyone.

“And that is my cue to feed the hungover children and make sure they have their tea, else the whining will be most severe. Have someone in the tech department take care of moving everything into her new office. Make arrangements for her to have a supply of hummingbird feeders and nests. They will follow her, even if it means they have to cross the entire floor to do so. They’ve been charmed.”

“No, I’ve been charmed. I must do their bidding,” I replied.

“There has been mutual charming involved. You may as well find out if we have any more of those exotic birds requiring a larger habitat without a caretaker. Her new office has sufficient space for such a habitat, and that will lessen the blow of having had her cheetahs confiscated.”

“How exotic are we talking about?” I asked.

“Some talk, some eat meat, some are just feathered assholes with attitude problems. I’m sure we’ll have something entertaining in your office soon enough, set up in such a way they won’t bother your hummingbirds. Calden, show her to her new office while I figure out what I’m feeding you.”

“Just no prank brownies today, please,” Calden begged.

“I’ll take mercy on you, but only this once.”

The office Calden took me to had enough room for four people to fit comfortably, and it had an entire closet dedicated to file storage. A quick peek inside one of the many cabinets revealed empty space. “How long has this office been empty?”

“Years. Dad makes Hunters dust it and clean it when they’ve screwed something up. I expect that tradition will continue, as he does it for all the large offices. It’s a light slap on the wrist that gives the employee something useful to do while also suggesting attitudes should be adjusted. Don’t be surprised if Dad makes me clean your office whenever I step out of line. He will even wait until I’m in my best suit to do it, too.”

I couldn’t tell if Calden harbored some wishful thinking or if his father liked making him pay for dry cleaning. “I will work hard to avoid having to clean offices. That is not my idea of a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve filled in for janitorial staff often enough. I can do a great job cleaning. I just do not like having to clean at work. Cleaning at home is bad enough.”

He nodded, prowling around the office space and eyeing the blank walls. “Yeah, Dad is right about the size being fine for some of the larger birds. You’d have to take them out to the aviary or to one of the playrooms to let them fly around every day, but caretakers are paid extra to care for our feathered, furred, and scaled charges. We’re being saddled with most of the displaced animals that can’t be released, and we’ve had inquiries from other rescue planets about taking some of their animals from Earth. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks.”

“Oh! Is that part of why I need to be vaccinated?”

“Yes. Dad always meets the delegations at the spaceport, and while he tries to quarantine whenever possible, those near him need to be vaccinated. It helps prevent any diseases from spreading. While rare, we’ll lock down our floor if we think we might be spreading a sickness. Our floor will go home after the building is cleared, they’ll disinfect everything possible, and we will work from home until we pass our health checks. It’s happened once that I can remember, but we run exercises just to keep everyone fresh on how to do it. We’ll do a set of practice runs now that you’re going to be working for my dad.”

I raised a brow. “Is that normal?”

“Pretty much. Dad gets anxious, and the easiest way to stop that nonsense is to do the practice runs. The only abnormal thing about this is how quickly Dad is moving securing your employment. Under normal circumstances, he would have waited until after you had finished your temp assignment.”

When Sila found out the details, which I’d give her over my lunch break, she would kill me. I’d still help her set up the helpers faction, as I foresaw myself needing to recruit people when the going got tough and the rest of the Hunters forgot bringing in hired help would significantly simplify life for them. “I see. That’s fine, then. What do I need to know to do this job well?”

“You’re going to end up with at least ten dollars an hour worth of raises from prank incidents a year at a minimum. If you want dirt on my father for your report, you will check the petty cash fund, which he uses to fund his pranking. I pay for my pranking out of pocket. He uses petty cash, and he even gives accounting the invoices. He wants people to know he pranked them at their expense.”

“How much a year do you think he spends on these pranks?”

“Maybe a few hundred dollars? He doesn’t pull anything that expensive. If he wants to do something elaborate and expensive, I think he does it out of his pocket rather than petty cash.”

“That’s it? The biggest corruption you can think of is a few hundred dollars out of petty cash to entertain employees?”

“Basically.”

I bowed my head. “He has to be doing something unacceptable beyond working too much and annoying you with petty cash pranks.”

“Yeah. When I heard about the report, I couldn’t even imagine anything that would show up as a demonstration of corruption. He doesn’t handle any of the negotiations between other factions. He has one of the non-related employees handle the core negotiations, and he only shows up when the primary deal has been hammered out. He doesn’t want his politics to hurt the Hunters despite his politics hugely impacting how we operate.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to give you the kind of report you’re looking for, Calden. He does his job too well,” I admitted, bracing for his displeasure.

Communication made a difference, and I needed to clear the air, else it would eat me alive.

The silence stretched and deepened, and I tensed while waiting for the hammer to fall. “If you can wrangle his office hours versus his home hours, that would be enough.”

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