A Fluffy Tale
Ann Somerville
These stories are a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
‘A Fluffy Tale 2: Warm and Fuzzy’ Copyright © 2011 by Ann Somerville
Cover image © ginvin2010 - http://us.fotolia.com/id/23006627
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For more information please visit my website at http://logophilos.net
Smashwords Edition 1, January 2011
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Published by Ann Somerville
Chapter 1
As Daniel opened the front door, Kani popped his head out of Daniel’s pocket and chirped.
“You smell pizza too?” Kems never ate but for some strange reason Kani found the scent of cooking pizza irresistible. To Daniel, it meant food, and he was starving. Something healthier for supper might have been better, but the relief of not having to cook after an exhausting day, and knowing Dee would have just pulled out one of the frozen ones they’d made in bulk last week, made it difficult to feel really guilty.
“Go find Veen and Lili. Go play,” he said, putting his kem on the ground and patting his little grey bottom. Kani squeaked and scampered off up the stairs.
He opened his mouth to tell everyone he was home, but Dee bounced out of the kitchen before he could make a sound. She came to a halt and put her hands on her hips. “Well?” Her kem, Lili, perching on her shoulder, put her head up with an identical expectant expression on her furry little face.
“I start next Monday.”
Dee yelled and ran for him, Lili jumping off with a squeak before she was squished in a sibling sandwich. Daniel caught Dee up and swung her around. “You did it,” she bellowed into his right ear. “Proud of you!”
“Thanks, Dee. Where’s Alex?”
“Alex!”
Daniel stuck a finger into his now deafened ear and let her go so she could shout up the stairs. “Daniel got the job! Come down.”
Alex thundered down the stairs and jumped straight at Daniel. “Really? Are we going to be rich?”
Daniel grinned and ruffled his brother’s red hair. “Not quite, squirt. Who’s hungry? I’m starving.”
“We’re having pizza,” Dee confirmed. Veen, Lili, and Kani tumbled down the stairs, and Kani squeaked excitedly as the magic word ‘pizza’ was mentioned. Dee bent and picked up her kem. “Daniel, you should call Grandma.”
“I will, but after I eat. I didn’t have lunch.”
She pulled a face that reminded Daniel achingly of their mother. “That’s a bad habit.”
“Nag, nag,” he said, tugging on her ponytail, then scooping up Kani and putting him on his shoulder. “Come on.”
As they ate the pizza, Daniel vowed that some of his new salary would go towards better food. The pizza was delicious but the household budget was tight, and he hated opening the fridge and seeing all the discount stickers on the new items, meaning Dee had been scouring the bargains again. It took her time which she didn’t have to spare, between her studies, her archery, looking after Alex while Daniel had searched fruitlessly for a job that an unqualified would-be engineer with no experience could do, and spending a tiny number of hours of week socializing with her friends—something Daniel was determined she should continue to do. He didn’t want her turning into Alex’s ‘mother’—or his own.
“Maybe we should hire a cleaner once a week,” he said after he wiped his mouth, burping a little.
“We can’t afford it,” Dee snapped.
He did a double-take, her outrage as uncharacteristic as it was shocking. “It was just an idea, DeeDee. We can afford it with me working—”
“No way. We can manage. The house is clean, right, Alex?” Her little brother nodded vigorously.
“Yes, it is,” Daniel said, patting her arm. “But your exams are coming up, and I’ll be out of the house all day—”
“No. You’re not working to pay for someone to do what we can do ourselves. Mum would have hated that.”
“But she had a cleaner for a couple of years when Alex was smaller....” He shut up, as the mulish set to his sister’s jaw became something sadder, and her eyes started to fill. “It was just an idea, Dee. I’m worried about you doing too much.”
“You too.”
“I’m fine. We’re all fine, right, Alex?” His brother nodded again. “There you go. I better go phone Grandma. Alex, dishes.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Alex grumbled, climbing off the stool.
“No, I don’t. You’re a good kid. You’re both good kids.”
“Huh, you’re not exactly an old man,” Dee said, smiling a little.
“Maybe not, but I have to fake being a responsible adult now. Why don’t you go up and talk to Susan?”
“She’s got a new boyfriend.” She made it sound like ‘herpes’. “Natalie wanted me to go online though, when I finish my assignment.”
“Need any help with it?”
“No, big brother, I do not need you to do my homework. Go call Grandma and tell them I send my love.”
He grinned and went to his parents’ office to make the call. He couldn’t call it ‘his’ office in his head, and never would. His parents’ books and papers, their desks, were just as they’d been left, and though Daniel had cleared a small space for his own laptop, he couldn’t bring himself to disturb the rest of it more than absolutely necessary. If he’d had any inclination to, it would have disappeared after coming in one afternoon and finding Dee curled around one of their mother’s medical books, sobbing her heart out in their mother’s chair. It was too soon to think of changing anything. It probably always would be.
His grandmother took a long time to answer the phone and even though this wasn’t unusual, Daniel’s chest still tightened with anxiety. He couldn’t help having bad associations with people not responding to his telephone calls. He wondered if he would ever react normally to perfectly ordinary things like building sites and unanswered calls again.
Finally his grandmother’s voice came on the line. “Daniel? How are you, dear?”
“I’m fine, Grandma. I just wanted to let you know I got a job.”
“Oh, wonderful. Which one?”
“Personal assistant in a company which works with job creation charities. Microloans and that kind of thing.”
“Oh goodness. I didn’t know you knew about that kind of thing, dear.”
“I don’t. But the guy I’ll be working for says all that matters is that I’m smart and willing to learn, which I am.”
“Well, I hope it goes splendidly for you.” She paused to cough and Daniel’s chest got tight again. “How are the children?”
“All good, and sending their love. How’s Grandpa?”
She paused and Daniel had a horrible feeling she was preparing to deliver bad news. “He just finished the chemo today. He’s tired, but holding up. He’ll be so pleased to hear about the job.”
“As soon as Alex and Dee finish school this year, we’ll come up. At least, they will. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get holidays so soon.”
“That’d be lovely, dear. Alex knows not to be too noisy, doesn’t he? Joseph hasn’t been sleeping well.”
“He’ll be good, Grandma. They’re great kids, you know that.”
“You all are, dear. I wish we could have you here to stay. It’s so worrying that you’re all so far away.”
“I know. Can’t be helped. I’ll call you again after I start work next week, let you know how I’m getting on. And you’ll let us know how Grandpa is?”
“Yes, of course. He’s doing as well as we hoped. You mustn’t worry about us, dear.”
Some hope of that. “Tell Grandpa to get lots of rest. Love you.”
“You too, Daniel. Love to you all.”
He hung up. He often wished he hadn’t felt it so important to keep the family house and stay here, instead of moving across the country. He hadn’t wanted to disrupt Dee and Alex’s schooling, not on top of all the other changes in their lives, and, selfishly, he hadn’t wanted to deal with the hassle. When Grandma had the heart attack and then they heard about Grandpa’s cancer, he’d felt paralysed by fresh grief and worry, and that had made making a decision to move even more impossible.
Too late now, after he’d spent months looking for a job and finally got one. Now he’d have to make the best of it, earn and save enough to give them security, let Dee and Alex have the freedom to do the things their parents had wanted them to do. If he could at least afford to send them to their grandparents for the long hols, that would be something. It would be good for all of them, and if he’d be a little lonely for two months, it didn’t matter so long as the kids had a much needed break and his grandparents had company.
Kani licked his face, and Daniel smiled at the gentle touch. He patted his kem, who nuzzled affectionately under his chin, reminding Daniel was still wearing his tie. He tugged it off with a sigh. No hope that his new job would be relaxed about such things. Anthony—“Call me Tony,” he’d said—Noble, his new boss, had explained that the company had a strict dress code to inspire professionalism in their clients and confidence in their wealthy sponsors. Daniel hated ties with a passion. But he hated denying his sister and brother security and little luxuries even more. So ties were in, at least until the bank account was a little healthier.
“Come on you, let’s go help Alex and Veen.” Kani chirped, jumped down and scampered off towards the kitchen. If only Daniel could feel so much innocent excitement about his new job. Once he settled in, it would all be easier. He just had to get through the first few weeks.
Chapter 2
“Spencer, have you time to come and meet my new assistant and talk about the project?”
Spen patted Myko away from his mobile phone and wagged his finger at his kem as he listened to the call through his earpiece. “Sure, Tony. I’ll be along in ten minutes.”
Tony closed the call, and Myko made an odd little hiss as Spen took his earpiece off to rub the spot behind his ear. “What’s the matter with you?”
Myko sniffed but declined to give any more clues. Spen could guess. His kem didn’t like Tony Noble for some reason, and the signs of disapproval had only increased in the six months since Noble had joined the company. Spen didn’t have strong feelings one way or the other, except he wished the high and mighties had picked a more IT literate manager to supervise the implementation of the software designed to coordinate communications between the company, trainers and trainees. Although a more IT literate manager might have interfered more, which would have been definitely unwanted. Spen had very strong ideas about managers stomping all over his department and his team.
He lifted his head and caught the eye of his deputy manager, Jyoti. “Off to a meeting, number two. You have the conn.”
She saluted with a grin. “Aye aye, captain.” Spen’s team was one big geek hive, and he loved it.
Myko rode on his shoulder, chirping happily in greeting to other people and their kems as Spen walked through the corridors and rode in the lift. It reminded Spen again that he’d never seen Tony Noble’s kem. Some people, strange to say, didn’t care for their kem’s company during the working day—or at all—and Noble seemed to be of that mind. Stroking Myko’s fluffy tail, Spen couldn’t imagine enduring the office day without his little friend. Myko, apparently reading his thoughts, gave his cheek a lick.
“Yes, I was thinking about you, you nuisance. Now behave and don’t hiss at anyone. Not even him, okay?” Myko squeaked, but the mischievous glint in his golden eyes didn’t reassure. Kems did what they wanted in the end. Their humans could only hold their hands up and say “Wasn’t me, honest”.
He knocked on Noble’s office door and walked in. A young man stood as he entered. Spen’s first thought was to wonder if the school kids on work experience had started early this year.
“Ah, Spencer, thanks for coming,” Noble said, without rising. “This is Daniel Walkinshaw, my new PA. Daniel, Spencer Reardon.”
So, not a kid. Spen shook Daniel’s hand, but still couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea that this was a man in his twenties, or so he assumed. Girlish features, large green eyes and a shy expression all contributed to the disconnect. “Hi, I’m Spen.”
“Nice to meet you.” Daniel’s grip with a callused hand was firm enough, and his voice was definitely a man’s. Not girly at all. His eyes did travel up and down Spen’s body before he remembered his manners, but Spen was used to that. After all, when you were six and a half feet tall, you had to get used to it.
Spen forced himself to stop staring. Myko, who’d been rather tense until now, suddenly chirped in enquiry, his tail flicking towards the little grey kem on the back of Daniel’s chair. “And this is Myko.”
“Oh, hello, Myko. Kani, say hello.” The grey kem jumped onto Daniel’s arm and ran up to his shoulder, where he chirped excitedly at Myko above him on Spen’s shoulder. Spen felt Myko’s need to join the other kem, but he stroked Myko’s tail and sent a silent wish for him to behave, a wish Myko granted.
Noble cleared his throat somewhat impatiently. “Take a seat, Spencer.”
Spen obeyed. Myko hopped down to the floor, where Kani joined him for a discreet cuddle and licking session. Daniel shot his kem a tiny smile, then looked down as if worried that he’d offended someone by doing so. New employee nerves, Spen diagnosed.
“Daniel, Spencer is our IT manager, and in charge of implementing the Cross-Channel project in this location under my supervision. You and he will be working closely together to ensure that the software is installed and activated smoothly, and handle the feedback from our people. If it goes well, we’ll be presenting a report at the national conference in two months’ time. It’s very important to me that this project is a success, so I’ll be depending on you two to work together to make it happen. Spencer, I thought you could introduce Daniel to your people and give him a more technical overview. I have, of course, given him the broad outline of the goals and features of Cross-Channel, but I thought I’d leave the nuts and bolts to the technicians.”
Spen made himself smile, and stopped himself rolling his eyes. Managers tended to notice when he made it clear, silently or otherwise, that he thought they were manifestly unqualified on a particular subject. Most of the managers in the company weren’t that tech literate, but since Spen had heard from a reliable source that when Noble joined the company, he’d asked his PA at the time how his trackpad worked, it had been a surprise to learn he’d been selected to oversee the rolling out of a large and complicated IT project. Still, he’d apparently recognized his own limitations and knew when to leave Spen to get on with it. Spen only hoped this kid he’d hired had some basic computer knowledge, otherwise he’d be wasting a lot of time bringing two non-techs up to speed.
“Shall we do that now, Tony?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, yes. Take however long you need. Be back here at two though, as I want to prepare for that meeting tomorrow.”
“Yes, I will. Kani, come on.” Daniel’s kem ran over and up to his shoulder—his favourite perch, obviously. Myko did the same with Spen.
“We’re in the basement,” Spen said as they walked out together.
“Yes, I know. I read it in the manual.” Daniel flushed. “Um, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“You weren’t. You read the manual? Tony gave you time to do that already?”
“I, um, took it home. I wanted to make sure I knew all the office procedures and key personnel.”
O...kay. Actual technical manuals, Spen could understand. But the office manual? He’d been in the company two years and he’d never actually read the thing, though he’d written the section on the IT department. But then he’d been headhunted so he felt secure in his new job. PAs were easier to replace—fortunately for Tony Noble, since Daniel was his third in six months.
He waved his ID card at the sensor. “You’ll need access too, I guess. I prefer IM and emails but I guess face-to-face is unavoidable in this kind of thing.” Daniel smiled hesitantly, but didn’t comment. Spen would have thought after a week he’d have lost some of his new boy nerves, but apparently not. “Come on in, we don’t bite. Much.” Daniel’s eyes widened as if he believed Spen was serious. Good grief.
“Guys? Meet Daniel, Tony Noble’s new assistant. He’s going to work with us implementing Cross-Channel.”
A chorus of “Hi, Daniels” broke out and the kid went red again, although he waved back and said “Hi” in a reasonably confident tone. His kem squeaked and jumped down to the floor, having spotted a bunch of new playmates, and all the office kems, including Myko, rushed over to begin the traditional love-in. Daniel started to move towards them, but stopped.
“Sorry—do you mind Kani doing that?”
“Can hardly stop him, can we? Don’t worry about the kems. Come meet everyone. This is Jyoti, my deputy. That’s Devi, Luke, Amanda, Wendy, and Joshua. I have a couple of people off sick so I want to wrap this up pretty quickly this morning. I can give you all the documentation to read and you can come back with any questions. Is that okay?”
Daniel nodded and took a seat where Spen indicated. “Right. Not sure what Tony told you?”
“Um, he said Cross-Channel would make it easier to keep track of training projects, and trainees to get feedback and access training materials online. The trainers would build up a dataset of documents, which any of them could edit and refine, and become a resource for the entire company. It sounded like a great idea.”
“It is, but we’re working with a notoriously IT-illiterate group, not to mention trainees with their own problems. Did Tony mention our target clients?”
“A bit. You’re working with the long-term unemployed?”
“And people with drug problems, disabilities, language difficulties—anything and everything. So one,” Spen checked the points off on his fingers, “we have to get our people trained. Two, we have to make sure access and security are as we want them. Three, we have to get the software installed and configured. Four, we have to train the people training the trainees. And five, we must keep Tony’s ego stroked.”
That forced a laugh out of Daniel, though he looked down quickly, long pale eyelashes brushing reddening cheeks. “He did mention a few times how important this was to him.”
“Yeah, I bet. But anyway, let me show you a demo. It’s all accessed in a normal browser. Which one do you prefer?”
“I don’t really have a preference.”
Spen frowned. “Okay. Which one do you use at home on your computer?”
“Uh.”
Jyoti caught Spen’s eye and raised her eyebrows. “You do use the internet at home, don’t you? Which operating system do you run?”
“Redbird.”
“Redbird?” Spen leaned back in his chair. “Are you sure? That’s not something you find on most home computers.”
“No, I know. I was using it in my course at Uni, and I like it. It’s easy to program in.”
Spen’s brain did a one-eighty. He’d been thinking this kid was too dumb to even operate a simple web browser, and now he found he was comfortable programming in a high-level, highly specialised OS with its own rarefied language and uses. “So the browser...?”
“Wrote it myself,” Daniel admitted. “I don’t really use the commercial ones, but I know how to,” he added earnestly.
“I bet. What did you study at Uni?” Spen asked, mentally revising his estimate of Daniel’s age again.
“Electrical engineering, but I dropped out last year.”
Something in the set of his jaw as he said that, warned Spen not to ask why. “Uh, right. Okay, then, you might find some of what I’m saying a bit simplistic—”
“No, no...I mean, you’re writing web applications and interfaces for general users in an open environment and I haven’t done much of that at all. Just treat me like I’m an idiot.” He gave a deprecating smile as he said that.
“I will if I have to,” Spen agreed, but smiling too. “Okay. Demo.”
For the next hour and a half, Daniel watched intently, played with the demonstration site under Spen’s supervision, and asked a few but pertinent questions. Maybe he didn’t know much about writing user interfaces, or the database language they were using, but he knew data, and he understood the issues of security and access Spen had to address. Spen gave him the manual, apologising in advance for the simple-minded writing which he’d pitched at the level of their IT-phobic employees.
“That’s fine. It’ll be a quick read then.” Daniel’s smile had become much more open and ready as the morning had worn on. “I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”
“Don’t read the damn thing at home. Life’s too short.”
Daniel clutched the folder to his chest, and his smile disappeared. “Yes. Yes, it is. But I can read it on the bus. Thanks for taking the time. I know you’re busy.”
“Not a problem. I’ll arrange your ID to have access for this section, and send you an email confirming. There’s a meeting on Thursday at eleven.”
“Yes, Tony told me. I’ll be there. Thank you.” He bobbed his head and rushed out of the room, stopping only to scoop up his kem and pop him up on his shoulder.
As the door closed behind him, Luke came over to Spen’s desk. “What the hell is someone like that doing working for a tit like Tony Noball?”
“I have no idea, but I intend to find out. At least we didn’t end up with a moron as our liaison.” Spen raised his arms over his head and cracked his spine. Myko took that as an invitation to hop into his lap for a petting and cuddle, which Spen delivered without even needing to think about it. “Right. Who’s going to lunch?”
Chapter 3
Daniel rubbed his forehead, trying to ease the headache that had been sitting in his frontal lobes all day. He had redone this presentation three times now, and hoped this time Tony wouldn’t decide to radically rewrite it, as he had with the three previous attempts. The presentation was for a key meeting, and Daniel didn’t begrudge the time spent, but he worried it was his own incompetence which made the previous versions so lacklustre. He didn’t want Tony to start questioning the decision to hire him. Not this soon anyway.
“Got those graphics Tony wanted.” A folder slammed down in his desk as Linda’s sulky voice penetrated his attention.
He looked up. “Uh, do you have the digital versions?”
“You mean the original files?” She said it as if he was a total moron for not using the correct office term. “Couldn’t find them. They’re lost, apparently.” The look on her face made Daniel doubt the truth of that, but it also told him it was a waste of time to argue.
“Okay, thanks.” He made a special effort to smile in as polite and friendly a manner as he could, but Linda sneered and flounced off. Effort wasted, clearly. She didn’t like him. None of the other PAs did. In fact the only people in the entire office who treated him as something higher in the evolutionary scale than bacteria were Spen’s team. Daniel took a guilty pleasure in the frequent visits he had to make to the IT section, and wondered what he would do when this rollout was finished and the meetings with Spen and his people were no longer necessary.
The printed graphics weren’t good enough to use in a slideshow, so Daniel resigned himself to a couple of hours trying to recreate them using software designed for idiots. No lunch for him again. There was a strict “no eating at the desk” rule, so apart from quick cups of plastic coffee in the kitchen, he had to manage until he got home in the evening. He didn’t dare tell Dee. She suspected he ate badly, and he did. Had done as a student, and now as an office worker. He just did what he had to do, to get the work done. That was what his job was. Bring in the income, keep the family going. There was no one else now to do that.
At half past two he knocked on Tony’s door. “Finished the redo.”
His boss smiled approvingly. “Terrific. Let me look.”
“It’s on the server. I’ll just call it up—”
“No need. I can come and look on your computer. Let’s see.”
So Daniel opened the file up again, and Tony leaned over him, his hand casually on Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel didn’t find the position comfortable in any sense of the word, but Tony was a touchy-feely kind of boss, and since Daniel had zero experience with an employer in this situation, he realised he would have to adjust. He did his best not to squirm or indicate in any way that Tony’s hand bothered him, but he wished Tony wouldn’t wear such sickly cologne.
“Good thing Legal found those graphics.”
“Uh, they only had print outs, so I remade them. Hope they’re okay.”
Tony looked at him. “They’re wonderful, but I didn’t realise you’d have to...I mean, those pictures were done ages ago.”
“They lost the original files, Linda said.”
“Right.” Tony frowned. “Did you have lunch today?”
“Not yet. I wanted to finish—”
“Did you have lunch yesterday?”
Daniel flushed. “Not exactly.”
“Rest of the week?”
“No. There was so much to do.” He realised after he said it that it sounded like a complaint. “I mean, I’m still getting used to things so I’m slower—”
Tony held up his hand. “No, this isn’t good enough.” Daniel’s heart sank. He’d failed already. “I don’t want my staff burning out, and I certainly don’t want them starving. Now you go home early, have a good, restful weekend, and I expect you to take a proper break in the middle of the day. Employment laws and all that, you know,” he added, wagging his finger sternly. Kani meeped and patted it with a paw. Daniel hastily picked his kem off his shoulder and set him down on the floor. “Close this down, and I’ll see you Monday.”
“But what if it needs changes?”
“I’ll have to ask someone. It looks fine, Daniel. It’s on the server, you said.” He squeezed Daniel’s shoulder, and smiled. “Off you go, and thank you.”
“Uh...you’re welcome. Are you sure?”
“Daniel....”
“Okay. Thank you. See you Monday.”
Tony smiled again and went back to his office. Daniel did a quick check to make sure he’d left his desk in a tidy state, that the files for the presentation were clearly marked and easily locatable, then he scooped up Kani and his jacket, and headed for the lift. Linda came around the corner, but pretended not to see him. Suited Daniel—he didn’t want to have to explain why he was leaving early because he wasn’t at all sure it didn’t make him look like a lame duck PA. Two secretaries from Dennis Obi’s team joined him in the lift, but ignored him. Maybe they could tell he was gay and disapproved? He had no other explanation to offer himself as to why he was almost universally despised, and he certainly wasn’t going to ask. He just had to do the job. That was all that mattered.
The secretaries got off at the fifth floor, leaving Daniel and Kani to ride the rest of the way alone. Kani wormed his way back onto Daniel’s shoulder and licked his face, giving out quiet little chirps of concern.
“I’m okay,” Daniel said, petting Kani’s tail. “Just tired. And starving.” Kani chirped louder. “You’re hungry too, I bet. Sorry, kiddo. You should make more fuss.” Kani responded by sticking the end of his tail into Daniel’s ear, making him laugh as the lift doors opened. An array of bemused and slightly disapproving looks from waiting passengers greeted the two of them. Kani squeaked and disappeared, and Daniel scurried away from the lift area as quickly as he could. He didn’t want a reputation as a lunatic.
Kani reappeared seconds later, just as Daniel spotted Spen’s unmistakeable figure striding towards them. His heart gave a queer little lurch, half panic, half relief. Since Spen was one of his few allies, Daniel was terrified of doing anything to diminish the goodwill between them, but his growing crush on this handsome, funny, clever...incredibly tall...guy made conversations torture. He lived in fear of opening his mouth and letting some utterly gauche or stupid comment fall out, which would either let Spen know about Daniel’s secret feelings, or make him think Daniel was a total dork. It always took a little while before Spen’s easy charm let him relax and talk normally.
Spen was dressed as usual in a sharp suit, his slim tie knotted loosely and letting the hollow of his long neck show, the crisp whiteness of his shirt setting off his dark skin nicely. Even in a suit, he looked utterly relaxed. Daniel had no idea how he managed that. Spen spotted them—or rather Myko spotted Kani and the two kems running towards each other gave Spen the tip—and waved. Daniel smiled, but hoped Spen would be too busy to stop and chat.
No such luck. “Hi, Daniel. Off to late lunch?”
“Uh, no. Going home.”
Spen’s eyebrows lifted. “Are you sick?”
“No, no...just been working through my lunch hours and Tony didn’t approve. He sent me home.” God, that sounded awful. “I mean...he thought I’d been working too hard and wanted me to have a break.”
“Now that’s something I agree with. You don’t want to burn out. I know all about wanting to impress a new boss, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about there. Shame you’re heading off. I was about to give you a call and ask if you wanted to come along with us to the pub this evening.”
“Us?” Daniel squeaked.
“The IT lot. No one scary,” he added with a big grin. He had a lovely smile, Daniel thought. “You still could come along....”
Daniel was tempted because he hadn’t had an evening out since...well, not since Uni...but put the temptation aside. “I can’t, sorry. I should get home. There’s stuff to do.”
“Oh, okay.” Spen sounded truly regretful. “Next week, maybe.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“See you next week. Seriously, you shouldn’t stress so much. You’re good. You have no idea how much easier having you to liaise with has made my job.”
Daniel’s face heated up with embarrassed pleasure. “Uh...thanks. I try.”
“You do. Have a good weekend...and look after yourself, okay?”
The warm concern in Spen’s voice and his kind brown eyes made Daniel want to cry. “I will,” he managed to say. “You too. Kani, come on.”
Kani and Myko gave each other one last nuzzle of affection, then Kani bounded over and up Daniel’s body onto his shoulder. He chirped at Spen, and Spen reached over to pat Kani’s fuzzy head. “You look after our boy, squirt. See you both later.”
Myko climbed his human’s leg and Spen strode off, the only man in the whole company who could make a suit look cool, an imposing sight never likely to be lost in the crowds. Daniel watched until he disappeared around a corner, then sighed. “We better go, Kani. Time to feed both of us.”
Kani squeaked in delight, and his easy joy put a reluctant grin on Daniel’s face. A kem’s life was so damn simple.
~~~~~~~~
Spen had been looking forward to talking to Daniel outside the office, but it was a lot to ask, expecting him to hang around for hours just to have a pint. Spen couldn’t begrudge him an early start to the weekend. Strange that it was Tony suggesting it, since the guy had a rep for asking a lot of overtime from his assistants and pushing them hard. Maybe he didn’t want to scare the kid off. If Spen had someone on his team as bright and helpful as Daniel, he’d do almost anything to retain them. Damn shame Daniel didn’t have a formal qualification, or Spen would poach him without a twinge of conscience.
Friday afternoons were for winding down everywhere but in IT, which all too often had to deal with a last minute panic by one or other of the managers over projects for the next week, new employees, and equipment failures. But at six, Spen stood and whistled. “Okay, boys and girls. Close it down, lock it up, and get your party on.”
“My man Spen,” Luke called approvingly, already logging out and switching off non-essential equipment.
Ten minutes later they were in their favourite local pub, Spen making the first round of orders as was traditional. Bearing a pint of his favourite real ale, he nabbed prime position in the corner, while his people spread around and took greedy slurps of liquid refreshment. An almost choreographed sigh, and then a ripple as everyone relaxed. “Fuck, this week sucked,” Jyoti said with a groan. Her kem nuzzled her cheek in sympathy.
“Just like every other week,” Luke said. “Hey, I heard a bit of gossip about our boy Daniel. Seems HR weren’t at all happy about recruiting him, and the prevailing wisdom is that he’ll be gone before his probation is up.”
Spen frowned, not liking to encourage this kind of thing, but Jyoti had already seized on the morsel. “Why would HR object? He’s bright, really sharp.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have a degree, and there were a few noses out of joint since they had so many internal candidates. Noball really pushed for him. Looked a bit funny, apparently.”
“Managers do that all the time,” Spen said. “I pushed for you.” He gave his tech a quelling look. “Nothing strange about that.”
“No, of course not.” Jyoti took the hint, and turned the conversation to suggestions being floated for team building outings. Luke didn’t bring Daniel up again, to Spen’s relief.
But Luke and Spen had to wait at the same bus stop for their ride home, and despite Spen’s distaste for the subject, Luke had something on his mind that he had to express. “It isn’t just Daniel’s recruitment that’s weird, you know.”
“I don’t think this is a good—”
“No, wait, Spen. I like Daniel, that’s why I want to tell you. You know how we were all told that Jan left for a better job and that’s why he resigned in such a hurry? Well, Alison in Logistics said she ran into him two weeks ago, and he’s unemployed. As in, still unemployed. He didn’t have a job to go to—he just left without giving notice. Alison’s since found out that HR knew about it but were happy to spread the fake story.”
“Maybe he had personal reasons. Wasn’t his mum sick?”
“Yeah. She died a couple of weeks before Jan left. Alison said he was happy to talk about his mum, but clammed up tight when she mentioned Noble. There’s something funny about Noble, Spen. Two males PAs in a row, which is unusual in itself, lasting less than three months each? And now a new one he’s recruited against everyone’s advice?”
“Sorry, I’m still not seeing why this is a worry. Noball is an egotistical pain in the arse, so maybe people just don’t like working for him.”
Luke folded his arms and looked seriously at Spen. “Lots of our managers are pains in the arse, and their people stick at it for years. I reckon it has to be something else.”
“Like?”
“Work it out. Jan was young, pretty and gay. Daniel is young and pretty, and if he’s not gay, I’m a baboon.”
“Noble’s married with kids.”
“Yeah. Perfect cover.”
“So why does he still have a job? Come on, Luke. You think the company would keep him on if this was true?”
Luke shrugged. “Maybe Jan didn’t want the hassle. Or maybe the company paid him off. Why would they lie about him? They wouldn’t want word to get out that Noble’s sexually harassing his staff. The work we do, the clients we have? Can’t afford the publicity.”
“Sounds like bollocks to me. You don’t have any proof of this. You really don’t want to spread this around.”
“I won’t, but I wanted to tell you. The knives are out for this kid, at least among the admin assistants, and that’s no rumour. Someone needs to keep an eye on him. He likes you. We like him. I don’t want him to lose his job.”
“You’re making this very personal. And that’s your bus.”
“Shit, yeah.” Luke stuck his hand out to hail it, and the bus pulled into the stop. “Look him up on the net and you’ll see why.”
“What?”
“On the net. You’ll find him. See you Monday.”
Spen waved distractedly as the bus pulled off. His own bus arrived a minute later, and he settled down in his seat, disturbed by Luke’s odd news and his strange obsession with Daniel’s safety. If true, it certainly was worrying, but Luke implied that it was more than Daniel’s youth and inexperience that might make him vulnerable.
Annoyed at himself for giving into the urge, he pulled out his smartphone and typed in “Daniel Walkinshaw”. There were too many results to make sense of, so he just searched for images. The very first page of results showed their Daniel, pictures of him with his family, some showing him holding some kind of prize or certificate. Spen clicked through and discovered that Daniel had won prizes at his secondary school for Chemistry and Computing, and a part-scholarship for his tuition fees. So he was bright. This wasn’t in dispute.
Puzzled as to why Luke thought this was relevant, Spen went back to the search results, and clicked on one of the pictures of a somewhat younger Daniel with a brother and sister and his parents. Spen assumed it was to do with his academic achievements. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
This was what Luke had been talking about. Daniel’s parents had died last year in a freak accident involving a collapsing crane and a horrifyingly large block of concrete, leaving Daniel and his siblings orphaned. There were dozens of reports focussing on the misfortune of the people killed and what had caused the accident, and a certain amount of attention to the fate of the three children. But with Daniel being an adult, and with living grandparents, the assumption seemed to be that the two younger kids would manage. The press had moved on, though a coronial enquiry had been held just three months ago, deeming the deaths to be unlawful, and a recent news report said the company responsible for the crane’s maintenance was to be prosecuted for manslaughter.
So that explained the interrupted degree, which was a damn shame. But it also explained why someone with his obvious technical talent was stuck in an office working for Tony Noble. Did it also explain why Noble had been so eager to hire him? Young, pretty...and responsible for an orphaned brother and sister. Gay or not, Daniel had flashing signs all over him saying “prey”. The question was, was Noble a predator or was that accusation purely based on the office gossip machine, never particularly charitable or accurate?
Myko put his paw on Daniel’s picture. “What do you think, eh? Worried too?” Myko looked up at Spen and it really did look like he was concerned, especially when he patted the photo again and gave a sad little chirp. But maybe Myko was only reacting to Spen’s mood. Hard to know, with kems.
He nearly missed his stop, he was so absorbed in his thoughts, and only Myko nipping his ear saved him from a long walk back. Even when he got back to the house, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. His mum came out as he rummaged through the fridge.
“Hello, love. Had a nice time?” Myko squeaked in glee and jumped from Spen’s shoulder to his mother’s, so she had Vira, her kem, on one side of her head, and Myko on the other. Myko spent near as much time on his mum’s shoulder as Spen’s when he was home.
“Same as usual. How was school?”
“Same as usual.” She grinned. “Let’s just say that I’m glad retirement is only three years away.”
“You’d be bored.”
“I’d love a chance to be bored. There’s a couple of chops if you want them.”
“No, thanks. I’ll just make a cheese sandwich.”
“I was just going to have a cup of tea. Want one?”
“Oh, thanks. Where’s Dad?”
“Asleep in front of the telly. I thought I’d wake him up when I was off to bed.”
Spen nodded. His dad was often exhausted by the end of the week. He worked for the city as an engineer, and budget cuts meant there was always more work than there were people to do it.
His mum made the tea while Spen made his sandwich, and they sat together in the kitchen while he ate. “Mum, what do you know about orphaned kids? Do they get much help?”
“Depends on their age. If they’re under sixteen, then they go into foster care.”
“What if one of them is an adult?”
“Then I think the government only steps in if there’s a problem. Thinking of someone in particular?”
“Sort of. I don’t really know the full story.” Nor did he know if Daniel was really the only adult looking after his siblings. Spen knew very little about his situation, and Daniel was very close-mouthed about it. Which was a hint, if Spen needed one, that it was none of his business.
“Something bothering you, Spencer?”
He shook himself. “No, not really. Someone at work was talking about a new employee, and got me thinking.”
“Someone in trouble?”
“Not that I know of. Not yet.”
His mother, no fool, peered at him. “But you’re worried.”
“I don’t know if I need to be. I’ll just keep an eye on things.”
She patted his hand. “You do that, love. Can’t do any harm to watch out for someone who might need help.” She yawned. “Oh heavens. I think I better wake your father and go to bed. See you in the morning.”
She lifted Myko off her shoulder and set him down on the table, then bent over and kissed Spen. “You have a good heart, Spencer. It’ll always steer you right.”
“Thanks, Mum. Sleep well.”
He was tired too, and should really find his own bed, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Daniel. About what it would be like to lose his parents so young, so suddenly. And about Daniel and Tony Noble, and what, if anything, was behind the departure of Noball’s previous PA.
Spen was no innocent and had seen a few things he couldn’t even tell his mother about, open-minded as she was. Even so, he found it hard to get his head around the idea that a self-important idiot like Tony Noble—someone in the same company as Spen, someone he saw on an almost daily basis—would cold-bloodedly target an orphaned young man just to get his rocks off. Yet worse things happened every day, and all too often by someone described by neighbours and friends as “such a lovely quiet person”.
On the other hand, Luke did occasionally get worked up about things which turned out to have no basis at all. Like the time he became convinced the new office drinking water bottles leached cancer-causing chemicals into the water, and tried to organise a petition to get the company to change suppliers again. Jyoti finally got in touch with the lab that did the quality control testing and asked them to email Luke directly to allay his fears, at which point he gave up his campaign, and Spen could stop worrying about how he’d replace an important team member who’d been fired for stupidity. Luke was sincerely worried about Daniel, but that didn’t mean there was anything to worry about.
Spen finished his cup of tea, then washed up the plate and other things. He couldn’t do any more about this without more information, and he couldn’t get that until next week, so there was no point in fretting over it.
“Maybe I should get you to talk to Kani and ask him about it,” he said to Myko. His kem tipped his head and appeared to be seriously considering the idea, and not for the first time, Spen wondered exactly how much kems understood about human affairs. “We can both keep an eye on him, okay?”
Myko chirped and lifted up a paw. Spen shook it, smiling at his kem’s strange gesture. “Right, off to bed for the two of us. And no waking me up at dawn, you hear?”
Myko’s wide-eyed “Who, me?” expression was entirely fake, Spen knew from experience. But a very convincing fake.
Chapter 4
A weekend’s reflection on the subject of Daniel and his boss didn’t bring any great enlightenment. If Spen could have talked to his mother about it, it might have helped, but he didn’t like the idea of spreading rumours any further than Luke had already done, and he felt uneasy about making assumptions about Daniel’s home situation.
The obvious thing would have been to talk to Daniel himself, but that was surprisingly difficult to arrange gracefully without revealing that Spen already knew more than he really should do. Daniel clearly liked Spen’s team, but he was rather hesitant and overawed by Spen himself, though he tended to relax once he’d been in the section for a few minutes. There was just no opening where Spen could casually say, “So, I hear you’re an orphan”, or “You know your boss? We think he might be a bit of a creeper”. How could you say that to anyone?
So all he could do was wait, be friendly, watch Daniel—which wasn’t a hardship, because the kid was ridiculously cute—and hope like hell Luke was wrong. Spen didn’t even have much chance to keep an eye on him the next week, as he only saw Daniel twice, and that only in passing. Daniel looked harried and worried, but he nearly always did. One thing Luke had definitely pegged right was the hostility towards him. Spen saw the looks and noticed the comments now he was alert to them. He overheard two secretaries at the photocopier sneering about Noble’s “hopeless assistant”. Infuriating, when Spen knew how far from the truth it was, but jumping down these bitchy women’s throats wasn’t likely to improve Daniel’s reputation. Spen didn’t know there was much he could do, since Daniel didn’t work for him. Yet. He had some vague ideas about poaching Daniel for his own team, but as yet, they hadn’t resolved into something solid he could put to upper management. He needed more time to observe Daniel and his skills, and it was a political battle that would need careful planning.
He could at least chase Daniel up for the Friday pub outing. One of the perks of being the manager of a team in a secure area was access to real-time security logs which tracked the movement of individuals’ passes through RFID checkpoints. This meant he could check if anyone had come into the IT section behind an authorised individual. So far he never had to worry about it, but the access was occasionally useful to locate members of his team who’d wandered off, without the hassle of calling and checking on them. Now it came in handy to let him know where Daniel was taking his lunch break—in the Legal and Donor Management staff kitchen.
Spen took the lift to the fifth floor, and found his quarry. “Hey.”
Daniel looked up in shock, nearly spilling his tea. “S-Spen. What are you doing here?” Kani, lying curled up on the table, uncoiled and squeaked. Myko jumped down for a cuddle.
“Looking for you. Calm down. You’re not in trouble.” Spen swung into the chair opposite him. “How’s things?”
“Fine. Busy. Did you want something? I thought the project was in client testing.”
“Yeah, it is. I just wanted to ask you to come along tonight. It’s Friday.” At Daniel’s confused look, he added, “Pub night.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, I can’t.” He shot a glance in the direction of his office. “I’ve been working late most of this week and I have to get home on time tonight. It’s not fair.”
“Fair on...?”
Daniel flushed. “My sister. She’s looking after my little brother.”
“Parents away?” Spen felt like a bastard for pretending he didn’t know, and Myko’s glance at his words only increased his guilty feelings.
“No. Um, there’s just the three of us. My sister’s taken on so much work since I started here and she’s studying for her exams. I have to get home tonight.”
“I understand. Don’t stress it. Does, uh, Tony know about your home situation?”
Daniel looked down at his sandwich. “Yes,” he mumbled. “But there’s a big meeting of donors coming up and there’s a lot to do.”
“Right. You realise that this company has a very good reputation for supporting staff with family commitments, don’t you?” Daniel looked up, but his glum expression didn’t change. “Just saying that Tony should take them into account.”
“I’m still on probation. There are plenty of people with kids and commitments here and they don’t ask for special treatment.”
“Yes, but—”
“Spen, please? I’m fine.” He stood and smiled, but there was no happiness behind it. “Tony’s a good boss. I want to do a good job. I’ll try and make it to the pub next week, okay?”
“I’ll remind you. Daniel...if you....”
“What?”
“You know...need advice about how the place works. You can ask me. Or Jyoti. Any of us.”
The smile was less tense this time. “Thanks. I’m fine, really. I have to go. You should see my desk.”
“If you can see your desk, then you’re one ahead of me.”
Daniel gave a little chuckle. “Uh, yeah, see what you mean. Thanks for the invitation. I wish I could...you understand.”
“I do. Catch you around.”
Daniel dumped the dregs of his tea and picked up his plastic lunch container. Kani climbed up on his shoulder, Daniel gave Spen one last shy smile, then disappeared into the corridor.
Myko ran after them. “Myko, no.”
His kem turned to look, chirping a little. “No, squirt. He has to work.”
Still Myko hesitated, so Spen went over and picked him up, nuzzling the top of Myko’s head with his chin. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him, okay?”
Myko trilled, affectionately wrapping his tail around Spen’s wrist. His kem’s trust and approval were lovely, but Spen wasn’t at all sure he knew what was going on here. One minute Noble was worried Daniel was burning out, next minute he had him working overtime on multiple nights. All the managers used overtime when they had big meetings and projects, so it wasn’t strange of Noble to do that. Just...the inconsistency.
Maybe Spen was making something out of nothing, like Luke was prone to doing. He really was busy and if he wanted to get away on time himself, he should shift his butt. He wished Daniel could come along tonight. It would be good for him—but only if he wasn’t stressing about home. Still, now the subject had been broached, Spen could pry a little more out of the kid, see if he could do anything.
He smiled ruefully. Now he was doing it—making it personal, like Luke. He couldn’t help it. Daniel had the touch of the lost puppy about him, yet he seemed determined to do it all by himself. Spen had worked with young people for too long not to be affected by that.
Right now, Daniel was okay. Spen couldn’t do anything for him until he asked for help, which he might never do.
~~~~~~~~
“Mr Godwin? I’m Mr Noble’s assistant.”
The pleasant-faced, sharply suited young man in the foyer stood and smiled at Daniel. “Julian, please. And you’re...?”
“Daniel. Daniel Walkinshaw.”
Julian held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Daniel. This is Pyon,” he said. The black kem on his shoulder squeaked at the sound of his name.
“This is Kani. Say hello, Kani.” Daniel’s kem jumped across from his shoulder onto Julian’s. Daniel reached out for him. “Gosh, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologise. Pyon loves company, don’t you?” Pyon chirped and changed shoulders so he could perch precariously and cuddle Kani. Julian simply adjusted his stance to accommodate the lop-sided load. Daniel tried not to look as amazed as he felt. None of their other clients had been this relaxed. “So, shall we go meet your boss?”
“This way.”
Still bearing both kems, Julian followed Daniel to the lifts. “You’re new, aren’t you?” he said as they waited. “I think when Leo...that’s my boss, Leo Underwood...first got me to look into this, someone called Jan was working for Tony.”
“Yes, he left. I’ve been here two months. Still learning the ropes.” Though the thrilling question was, would he ever finish learning them?
“I’m sure you’re doing fine.” They stepped into the empty elevator and Daniel pressed the button. “Kani’s a sweet little fellow, isn’t he?” Julian gave Kani a pat and earned an earlick.
“Is he bothering you? I can—”
“Oh, please don’t. He’s keeping Pyon out of mischief.” Pyon looked up and gave his human an indignant squeak. Julian laughed and stroked the swaying black tail. “Just teasing, brat. Here we are.”
Daniel liked Julian, but he wasn’t the client—his boss was. Maybe the boss was a lot less pleasant, if he couldn’t even bother to come along and see where his money might be going. Daniel wondered if Julian liked his job and his boss, or if he wished he could be doing something completely different, like Daniel did, but couldn’t. At least not now.
Daniel knocked at Tony’s door. “Mr Noble? Julian Godwin for you.”
Tony stood, smiling broadly. “Oh, Julian, please do come in. Nice to meet you finally.” They shook hands. “Tea? Coffee? Water?”
“Green tea would be nice if you have it.”
“Daniel, would you?”
Daniel left to fetch the tea. Rather to his surprise, Kani stayed put, grooming a quietly trilling Pyon as if his life depended on it. Nice for him to have someone new to play with. Kani didn’t like the office much, except when they visited IT. None of the office kems seemed inclined to play with him, though they weren’t as unfriendly as their humans were to Daniel. If it were possible, Daniel would have left Kani at the house, but to be honest, without Kani’s company and the occasional visits to Spen’s lair, Daniel would have gone a little crazy from loneliness by now.
When he returned, Pyon and Kani had moved to the floor and were tumbling around in a play fight. The sides of Tony’s mouth were drawn down disapprovingly as he glanced at the kems. Daniel could have picked Kani up and asked him to behave, but Julian showed no signs of being bothered, listening with apparent attentiveness to Tony’s spiel about the company’s current projects.
Daniel set the tea down on front of Julian on Tony’s desk and was about to leave when Tony broke off. “Ah, Daniel, would you stay please? I’d like you to liaise with Julian over Mr Underwood’s participation.”
“Possible participation,” Julian said. “Leo’s very keen to invest in young people and start-up business, but he hasn’t made a decision. We’re looking into several options.”
“Yes, of course. Forgive the presumption. Sit down, Daniel, please.”
Daniel obeyed, and immediately found himself with a lapful of kems. He gave them both scritches between the ears and Pyon trilled in delight. “He likes that, keep it up,” Julian stage-whispered. Daniel grinned and did so.
Tony cleared his throat. “As I was saying, Julian, if Mr Underwood chose to work with our company, he would have the assurance of an organisation established over twenty years ago, with a national presence and a glowing international reputation. I personally bring ten years of investment experience, and I’ve won a number of awards for my achievements.” He swept his hand towards the wall where his certificates and trophies were displayed. Daniel knew them all by heart as he had to dust them every week. “Some of our so-called competitors haven’t been in business for more than three years.”