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[Alexandr Korol]

Chapter 7. Meeting the Beast and 144

Well, today is Monday the 11th. Yesterday I had a meeting with the employee.
With the so-called ‘beast’ (in quotation marks). This is what is considered
such an important, key moment for the plot of my tenth volume of
“Alternative History”. And I wouldn’t say that there were any super-discoveries,
that there is something to share. Probably, the problem and the reason is
that I was just off the road, the person was just off the road, and we just
weren’t up for some serious conversation there, because we were both tired,
because we agreed to meet on neutral territory. And perhaps, a conversation
will still take place in the future, the one I wanted, specifically face-to-face,
live. But I noticed that when I was talking to this person, I didn’t see any evil
or beast in him. Maybe because I somehow drove it out of him, this beast, I
don’t know. Or maybe because the person was still in such a shocked state
after the trip. Well, you know, like people after flights, they don’t understand
what time it is, what’s what, how’s things, they are a bit out of it. Maybe
because of this there was such a conversation, that it seemed to be about
everything and about nothing, and there was no such thing as us arguing.
That is, I expected that there would still be some dispute or some skirmish,
clarification of relations, or the person would not control his aggression, but
it turned out that no. Everything was fine. The maximum that I noticed... Well,
I don’t want to list situations personally as a sign of respect for the employee,
so I will voice a fictional similar situation to you. But I noticed such a thing
that, imagine, a person says, who, let’s say, stole money, figuratively speaking,
let’s say, took work money that cannot be used. And suddenly, in passing
of the conversation, he says: “I did it only once”. And I see when he told me
this yesterday, I see that he did it not once. And he did it, maybe he skimmed
some money before, but he just doesn’t talk about it. And because earlier,
when we were clarifying relations with him, conflicting over his screw-ups,
when he swore and claimed that he took money only once, he is as if more,
let’s say, ready to repent now and has become clean. And he understands
that he lied then, when he swore that he took money once. And he seems to
understand that he lied, but he doesn’t want to admit it, that he swore to me
quite recently that he took money once, but in fact took it several times.