“You were on the board at Moncha?” asks Kai, his nose scrunched up. I can see why he’s skeptical. Paul is the definition of scruffy, with a white-speckled beard, oil-stained clothes, and shoes with a hole in the top. He doesn’t exactly look like a top-level businessman.

“I was indeed, young man.” At that, his lemur baku George leaps into the locker and runs circles around Kai’s husky baku, creating a small whirlwind that almost blows the husky off his feet. The display of strength from the baku is enough to make Kai reconsider his assumptions. Anyone who has such a high-level baku probably once was high up at Moncha Corp. That, or extremely rich. And considering Paul lives in my building, being very rich is out of the question.

“Do you know more about Team Happiness?” I ask him.

He nods. “If you don’t mind listening to an old man?” He raises an eyebrow at Kai, who stiffens in response.

I stand up and gesture for him to take a seat in my chair. “Please, Paul. Tell us what you know.”

“I’ll have to start at the beginning.” He presses his fingers against his brow, deep in thought. “Oh, it must be twenty years ago now, I was running my own artificial intelligence firm, working on the self-driving cars you probably drove in over here.”

River bounces up and down on my desk. “Yeah, we did come over in a self-drive! Cool!”

Paul looks up at him and nods. “I was invited to attend an angel investor meeting where a young upstart named Monica Chan demonstrated the first-ever baku, Yi. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knew from that moment on, I had to be a part of her company. I couldn’t believe such innovation and skill had come from someone so young. Actually, you remind me so much of her, Lacey.” Paul fixes his gaze on me, and I blush furiously. He’s made comments like that before, but I never realized how close he was to Monica herself. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have been able to stop asking him questions—but that might have been precisely why he didn’t tell me.

“I joined her board of directors right from the start, helping out with the financial side of the business, gathering investors, and making sure Monica developed a sustainable business plan.”

I can’t believe I’m learning so much more about my favorite tinkerer. We’ve had an unwritten rule not to ask too many questions, but I’ve always been curious. Then a thought strikes me. If Paul worked at Moncha from the start, maybe he knew my dad? I lock that thought away as Paul continues to talk.