The Genius Delta novel Chapter 1

I am not the nine-to-five, five-day, forty-hour-work-week kind of guy. I don’t have the attention span for something, so mind-numbing. I prefer the Netherlands’ thirty-hour work week at best. This is why my company runs on a four-day work week with varied hours; no one is expected to work more than thirty hours. People are a lot happier with it.

They also like that we have a hybrid work situation for some positions. Any position where they would be building or using chemicals has to be done at the office, but for many departments, they can telecommute. I telecommute as often as possible. While my office is excellent, and we have many labs for various research, I still prefer to stay in my bunker lab and fiddle with tech at my leisure between tasks for the pack.

Another reason I don’t go to the office often, I like to keep my identity a secret. Since the Kinsley brothers helped me launch Silvercloud Industrial under their company umbrella, we’ve kept my given name and face out of the public. The only person at the office who knows who I am is my assistant Shikoba, who isn’t telling anyone my secret because I’m awesome.

Okay, seriously, she’s just super loyal, and it helps that I gave her this job and made sure our company insurance has covered every medical expense for her transition from a man to a woman. I trust Shikoba a lot. She’s like my John. Everything goes through her before it comes to me, and nobody gets past her to see me. And in the last four years, Silvercloud has been up and running, and she’s been my assistant no one has. I occasionally come to the office, but anyone who sees me thinks I’m goofy Jonny Weaver.

When I come into the office, people are always surprised and nervous that I’m still employed. I may have had a couple of incidents that resulted in the fire department coming and the building being evacuated. But I haven’t blown the building up, so don’t look at me all judgmental like the Kinsley brothers. Besides, my company’s office is very well insured, at John’s insistence.

Strangely enough, insurance is why I’m not in my bunker lab. Shikoba sent me paperwork to sign off on increasing the coverage I have on the Silvercloud headquarters as per a request from one John Kinsley Jr. When I asked her why there was a request, she was as baffled as me and asked if I had plans to spend more time at the office soon. Even my PA is concerned I’ll blow the office up with one of my inventions. But I have no plans to spend time at the office. I have plenty of space and tools at my disposal in my lab.

“Jonathan, get your feet off my desk.” John sighed as he walked into his office at Kinsley Industrial’s headquarters.

I smiled brightly at the eldest Kinsley brother. He’s usually the more put-together of the pair. Always in a nice suit and clean shave. Or almost always. This morning is different. Sure he’s still in a suit, but it’s wrinkled, and I would bet money that the weird purple goop on his tie is baby food. He also has subtle dark circles under his eyes and a five o’clock shadow at eight am. Oh, the joys of parenthood. Better him than me.

“You might want to swap your tie. It looks like little AJ left some of his breakfast on you. That or you’re so tired that you dribbled yogurt on yourself.” I taunted, pointing at his tie.

“I’d ask who had you awake all night, but I would only assume it’s AJ. Farah is too sweet to be disruptive. And it can’t be Sarael. You look drained-tired, not oversexed tired.” I chuckled as he dumped me out of his chair and pulled a new tie from his desk.

John shook his head at me as he took off his stained tie and expertly tied the clean one. I still don’t know how he does that. I’ve seen him tie a tie many times, and he’s shown me how to do it for myself, but I create a jumbled, knotted mess, and he growls in frustration. In the rare instances that I’m expected to wear a tie, I have him tie it. I could loosen but not untie my ties, but where’s the fun in that?

“Guess I picked a bad day to drop in.”I sighed, getting to my feet and dusting off my jeans. “Are you good? Need me to get you some coffee? Maybe an IV drip of it? Or tell your assistant not to disturb you for four hours so you can take a nap?” I offered, gesturing with my thumb toward his office door.

“I’m fine. Michele will bring me my coffee shortly. She usually does.” John waved dismissively at me as he sat down and booted up his computer.

“I can handle my work day without a nap, thank you. Amal was just a little extra crank last night as he has a tooth coming in.” John sighed.

“Now, why don’t you explain why you’re in my office and how you got past security? You don’t work here and aren’t authorized to access any part of the building.” He frowned, checking to see if I had a badge or a visitor badge.

“John, did you forget who I am?” I teased, holding my hand to my heart. “I’m offended you would think it’s outside my capabilities to bypass every security measure in place. I did, after all, design your security system.”

“Jonathan, I am not in the mood for games or a bigger headache. So save us both the time and energy to tell me why you’re here.” He sighed, rubbing his temples.

“Fine. I’ll put you out of your misery. I want to know why you submitted for additional insurance on Silvercloud HQ. Aren’t my premiums high enough?” I asked. “You had Shikoba worried that I planned to spend more time at the office.”

A tiny upturn of his lips told me he was at least amused. “You forgot. You promised my niece you wouldn’t forget, and you’ve already forgotten.” He sighed.

I furrowed my brow as I stroked my beard. Yes, I know I’m an anomaly. I’m of indigenous descent and have a full beard. It was not easy to grow. This took me years to cultivate. I was tired of people thinking I was too young to be the pack Delta and figured a beard would make a better impression when I had to meet other pack leaders. And now I at least don’t look like the baby face of our quartet.

“What did I promise Isis?” I pondered aloud.

“Persephone Fayte.” John gave me his stern big brother look.