Page 54 of Moon Tamed

Poor Calden. The longer I stuck around, the more I understood why he wanted his father to retire. Unfortunately, the more I saw, the less I felt I’d be able to find any actual dirt on the man. My report would pick apart every aspect of the Hunters and their base operations, but Earth’s evacuation would make a lot of my report pointless.

When the worst happened, Allasandro Stephans handled tragedy, stress, and disaster with grace. Some would abhor his choices, but while they surely disagreed with him, he did what he could to be fair.

Being fair always involved someone, typically the wealthy and powerful, being stepped on for the sake of others. Very little in life proved to be fair, but I found it admirable Calden’s father strived to create an impossible reality.

“It wasn’t your problem to solve,” I replied, shaking my head. “I recommend that you tell people that.”

“Your mother warned me to be careful when it came to serious talks with you. I seem to have misjudged her meaning. Is that how you got Calden to resolve that mess?”

“No, I just showed him how wretchedly cute bunnies are. I’m sure he spent most of his night trying to charm his furry friends.”

“I guess I better check on him, else I might lose my son to his bunnies.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Let him be unsupervised for a while. I’m sure his bunnies can keep an eye on him. And how much trouble can he get in when he’s playing with his new pets?”

“Having raised him, I’m confident in saying he lives to surprise me. The question isn’t if he’ll create trouble. It’s how much trouble he’ll create. He will find trouble, and his newest method of finding it is what worries me. I can handle old trouble. It’s the new trouble that gets me every time. Nobody warned me children never stop creating trouble. I know that falls into unasked for territory, but for some reason, I doubt your parents warned you about that.”

“They just tell me that I deserve to have three just like me. And when I think about it, that’s pretty cruel and unusual. Three of me? That’s more trouble than anyone can handle.”

“It amuses me how readily you acknowledge that you are quite the handful.”

I grinned at Calden’s father. “My parents raised me to be this way. From an early age, they made certain to tell me they wanted me to have a life full of joy and wonder, and that I should pursue happiness. They taught me the importance of paying the bills, but they also taught me a lot of other things. I learned to make happiness without money. For me, that means pulling pranks on my family, finding ways to attack their wallets in ways they’ll like down the road, and otherwise doing the things that make me happy. For me, happiness is a good book somewhere comfortable and safe, the ability to catch my own food, usually in the form of rabbit, and spending time with the people I like.”

“That reminds me. How much of a difference would it make for you, in your financial situation before working for me, to have an unlimited rabbit license?”

“It would have been a fairly significant difference,” I admitted. “I would hunt every weekend for certain, stock my freezer, and have ready access to food I might not have been able to afford. I’m as careful with my money as someone with a reading hobby can be, but there were weeks I only got to read something new because of the library.”

“Send me a mock budget of what someone in your financial bracket can expect for a month, one with the license and one without the license. Include the costs for someone to trap meat rabbits without your skill at a sling.”

I could do that easily enough, as I kept a copy of my general budget on my phone so I could reference it at any time. I would one-up him, however. I’d give him a copy of my yearly budget, which included things like how I needed to plan for larger expenses, including phones. I owned a baseline model that could make calls in a pinch, keep a copy of my budget, and access my bank account. It choked if I tried to run any games on it, and most of the time, it surprised me when it was able to do its job as a phone.

In good news for me, I did whatever I could to avoid using my personal phone for anything other than texting.

“You’ll have it by the end of the day,” I promised. He’d have it before lunch, as I could finish the task between checking up on my email, handling any unexpected emergencies, and preparing to delve into the depths of his work performance for my report.

“Excellent. If Sarai causes you any trouble, do let me know. Otherwise, don’t mind if she gets clingy. She’s a good enough worker, but she can get quite moody. Expect emotional whiplash.”

Ah. Every faction I’d ever worked for had a few people who slingshotted between moods, which could make the workday both perilous and interesting. Understanding that Sarai numbered among them helped.

I could handle unpredictable and moody. Most of the time, all I needed to do was make myself scarce when she was in a mood I disliked.

Doing something kind for her did not leave me obligated to become her best friend. As long as I wasn’t rude in how I avoided her, I could navigate the murky waters of office politics with a little work.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Do.” Calden’s father sighed, handed the cheetahs to me, and went off to join his son. “Wish me luck, I’m going in.”

I rolled my eyes, as the primary source of the morning’s excitement had already left the area. I did check the waiting area for the elevator to make certain the woman had gone upstairs before making the hike to my office.

Leita tamed the hummingbirds through offering them breakfast, although I acquired a flock of four before escaping the reception. I took a feeder for them, got them set up, and released the various beasts so I could start my day. The cheetahs went for their toys, the hummingbirds battled over who would get which nest, and I began the tedious process of checking my email.

Several thousand new invoices waited for me, and I questioned how the hell the faction had managed to accumulate them. While I understood that Earth’s evacuation created mountains of paperwork, I questioned the invoices.

Were there even thousands of employees in the building? Had someone just mass created invoices when I’d been out helping Calden learn he loved bunnies as much as he enjoyed eating rabbits? Had the faction paused recording invoices for the duration of quarantine?

I feared what the day would hold. I tackled the few other emails in my box, took the thirty minutes needed to compile my monthly and yearly budgets, listed additional expenses that didn’t readily show on the budget, and sent that over to Mr. Stephans before settling into the task of dealing with the fiscal disaster waiting for me.

To my relief, over half of the invoices only needed to be filed, as they’d already been paid. The ones that hadn’t been paid were due within the next two weeks and would likely crush the flagging sanity of the accountants responsible for them. From funeral expenses of faction members, some of whom hadn’t made it back from Earth, to care and vet bills for animals broken down into batches consisting of a hundred animals each, there was a little of everything I needed to address in a timely fashion.

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