Project Orpheus: A Tale of Blood and Feathers

Chapter 4: The Billionaire

The large golden knob on the wooden door gave a click as he stepped inside his house. He was finally glad to be back from that particularly long day. It had been 2 months since the meeting with Dr. Noh where she finally agreed to his project, and things were going apace. She had hatched the first egg, and while she insisted on taking her time studying what had come out, insisting that this project would take at least two years to get to any point of viability, he wanted it now.

No, he needed it now. He was done waiting.

He looked through the wood halls of his house, at the huge spiral staircase to the second floor, with an eye towards the Game Room. He could see his son in there, playing away on some video game or other.

His eyes went down to the kitchen, where his wife sat at the TV table, looking at her phone while a bottle of win sat next to her for drinking. He hung his coat up in the closet by the door with its oak wooden door, and went to the kitchen.

His wife was a woman best described as a supermodel. Long, flowing blond hair, a petite frame with an hourglass figure. It was currently a bit unkempt, but she probably hadn't been out any time recently. She was currently dressed in a sleeveless pink shirt and white leather pants. He could see the image on her phone - a plain pink background with some words in white writing.

Roses are red.

Wine is also red.

Poetry is hard.

Wine.

"Hey, Love. How was your day?"

She turned her head towards him, almost as if she hadn't noticed him, and smiled.

"Oh hey, Honey! Pretty good, just checking Facebook and about to make dinner. Any requests?"

Chester scratched his chin for a moment and shrugged. "Surprise me."

She nodded. "Alright. Can you go check on Steven, tell him dinner will be ready soon?"

He nodded and left the room, hoping she'd get up and get started on the dinner to show she was actually doing something instead of just ordering him around. He left the room with a huff as he heard his wife laugh and frantically tap out a message on her phone, probably to one of her stupid friends.

He ascended the long staircase up to the second floor, feeling the plush blue carpet against his feet as he gently knocked on the door frame to get his son's attention.

His son didn't turn to look at him, his eyes fixed on the game he was playing. Some sort of army game or other, he was sure he had gotten it for him as a Christmas present.

"Sup dad?"

"Don't you 'sup' me, I raised you better."

He rolled his eyes, the only contact break with the blasted screen, before sighing. "What do you need, sir?"

His eye twitched a bit in response to the tone, but it wasn't worth fighting right now.

"Your mother is getting dinner ready. You best be ready when she calls you down."

"Got it. I'll finish up this game then come down." He said.

"Good. I have something interesting to share, too."

His son nodded and Chester left the room, heading to his office quickly to check his e-mail. His office was packed with books all about business and technology, with a brilliant golden desk in the middle with a computer on it as well as a few chotskies, including a photo of his family. He sat down and wiggled the mouse, loading the screen and mindlessly deleting unimportant e-mails until he almost pressed delete on one from Dr. Noh.

Chester;

We got another success. That's 15 total species - that should be more than enough. Get started on your part.

-Noh

He grinned. About time! He knew Noh wanted to take her time to amke sure this all worked out, and he really did trust her with the science, but he was eager to get this project done, yesterday. What a treat this would be, a true mark on the world for his vision. He laughed.

"Chester! Steven! Dinner's ready!"

Chester smiled, eager to taste his wife's cooking once again as he went downstairs. He could still hear Steven playing his game. "Steven. Dinner. Now."

Steven let out a groan, snarled, and Chester could hear him slamming his controller down and turning off the game. They went downstairs together and to the dinner table, where they each sat at their assigned place at the table. Chester at the head, Alexandra to his left and Steven to his right.

His wife had made salad and spaghetti. Simple, a bit too simple, but it'd suffice.

"So, you came home late. Can you tell us what your secret meeting was all about?" Alexandra asked.

Chester grinned as he took a swirl of his noodles and swallowed them. It was delicious.

"Well, not exactly," he began "but something very exciting has happened. Remember that big project I talked about? The one involving the nature preserve?"

"What about it?" Alexandra asked.

"Well, we just made some huge progress! Our animals are ready, so the island I bought can finally be used to its full purpose."

"That's great, honey." Said Alexandra, sipping again from her wine glass.

"It's going to be the greatest experiment. It will put the Daniels name down in history."

Steven rolled his eyes again. "Dad, it's a nature preserve. It's just a bunch of dumb animals. Who wants to see that?"

Chester squeezed the fork in his hand tight - so tight his knuckles turned white and his fingers turned red. He took a very deliberate bite of his food, glaring at his son for a moment.

"Steven. I promise you, what we're working on is more impressive then just 'some dumb animals.' If what we had were just lions and tigers or whatever, I wouldn't be investing in it. No, this is something amazing. I promise you, when I take you there, you'll change your mind."

Steven knew when to no longer push his father. He remained silent, and went back to his own food. Chester followed.

"I'll take you out to dinner tomorrow night. A big one,"He said after a moment of quiet. "This is a really good day for all of us. For the whole world."

His wife gave a quiet chuckle, her eyes directed towards her legs, where her phone probably sat. Chester gritted his teeth, but went back to eating.