22:59

08:12

He received a message on his phone stating that he was being summoned by upper management. Outwardly showing no emotion, Roger dryly excused himself and left the room, where life on the city's roads was followed. In the waiting room, he nodded almost imperceptibly to Nina, a young secretary who, although she was a newcomer to their team, had her own outlook on life, due to which she was allowed to call herself simply "Assistant". She's not a secretary. And not a helper. She's simply an "Assistant".

"Nina, do you know what the reason for this is?"

"No, Mr. Stone. But Mr. Clife has already arrived from the Hospital Department."

"Oliver? Interesting," Roger paused at the door, not daring to enter. Oliver Clife?

Sighing and turning to Nina, who waved her hands towards the door as if prodding him, he entered the office.

"Mr. Cooper, Mr. Clife. Good morning."

"Roger! Come on in. Coffee?" Stephen Cooper, as always, smiled with all 32 teeth. For a long time, he had been on the pills produced by Medicol and in the position of Director, managing the division that was engaged in attracting new clientele—as they called themselves—and as best he could, he tried to maintain good relations with each of the managers of his departments. With Roger, he had been especially nice at the corporate party last winter when he showered compliments on Roger's wife and daughter.

"We are not a team, we are a family!" was his favorite phrase, which he inserted into every speech.

"No sir, thanks. Two cups in the morning is too much for me."

"Well... Do you know Oliver? Although why am I asking? Of course you do. We are not a team, we are a family," he winked, "and in a family everyone knows each other. You are probably wondering why I called you in." Stephen Cooper waited theatrically for a few seconds, as if awaiting an answer to his rhetorical question.

Without waiting for an answer, he continued: "As you know, we recently held a regular meeting of the Directorate. Unfortunately, I am compelled to report that OUR performance has dropped over the past three months."

Roger guessed that the boss, as usual, did not want to offend anyone, so he used the word "our", although more likely than not, he was talking about the departments run by Roger and Oliver. However not being sure, Roger decided to ask: "By 'Our' do you mean me and Mr. Clife's, sir?"

"No, Roger," Stephen Cooper smiled so broadly that Roger's cheekbones tightened as he looked at him.

"'Our' means our entire division."

"Mm..."

"That is why it was decided to assemble a group of department heads with the initiative to jointly find a solution to this problem."

"And this group should be the two of us?" Roger glanced briefly at Oliver Clife and then turned his gaze back to the director.

"Of course not!" Stephen jumped up from his chair and began to walk along the glass wall, behind which it was already light and white smog was hanging. It was so dense that you could not see the neighboring building of the Medicol Corporation. "I chose the two of you to help me assemble this very initiative group. Although I am the head of our FAMILY," he looked expressively at his subordinates from under his brows, "I do not always see who is able to cope best with a task."

"Why not put together a group of all the leaders, sir?" Oliver folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"Because," he took a deep breath, "a large group needs to be led. Otherwise it will be a farce!"

"That is, it is assumed that you yourself will not be participating in this group?" Oliver seemed to be deliberately trying to infuriate his boss, remaining outwardly calm, like a lake frozen in winter, spread out on the outskirts of the city.

Stephen Cooper stopped, blushed and made huge eyes, as if he was terribly surprised by the lack of understanding of his employee—one of the best, by the way. He walked over to the chair, sat down in it and turned to face the glass wall, giving his subordinates the opportunity to quickly exchange glances and roll their eyes. In their times, they did not often see manifestations of emotions, only people on serious drugs could afford that, and drugs like those were far from affordable for everyone.

"Oliver," the chair turned back to face them, "in light of the fact that our indicators have dropped with you, I will have a lot of additional work. That's obvious." Stephen Cooper looked at Roger for his approval. Without waiting, he continued: "That is why I want you, as the heads of the most successful departments, to take upon yourselves the formation of the initiative group and the decision-making on this issue."

Roger had finally figured it all out—they wanted scapegoats in the event that they couldn't come up with a good enough plan to improve performance themselves. At the same time—if they in fact succeeded—Mr. Cooper, as the head of their "family", would take all the glory.

Oliver Clife, apparently, also understood the real meaning of what was being said and looked at Roger, wanting to make sure that all three of them understood what was going on.

"I agree," Roger said quickly, because he saw in his colleague's gaze a ripening conflict ready to break out. "Oliver, let's go to my office, to discuss things? Or maybe it will be more convenient in yours?"

Stephen Cooper's face lit up. He quickly dismissed his subordinates, before the more obstinate of the two began to attack in a search for the truth. Roger and Oliver nodded to Nina as they walked through the reception area and out into the completely white hallway.

"Oliver, when do you have time to meet about... this?"

"Never," joked Oliver with the same stone face then cleared his throat and said seriously: "I will think about it and let you know."

"Okay. See you."

Oh how I am so sick of all of them! The idea that we should all work together, be friends, strive to communicate, it all smacked of relics of the past. More precisely, it smelled like a rotten fish that has lain in the sun for a week and is gradually decomposing, covered by maggots. Man is not a herd animal. We are not born to live in society! Or do they all think evolution is dumber than they are? How else to explain the Black Hole? What is it, if not the prohibition of an evolution of communication?! All our problems are due to other people. We are angry with them. We are afraid of them. We take offense at them. We are sad when they leave us... No, no, imagine this wonderful life WITHOUT people! If you wanted to eat, eat! And no one would tell you that you are fat. And no one would condemn your manners—don't you know you can't put your elbows on the table! I want to stay at home, yes please! Nobody needs you at a stinking five o'clock in the morning! And this stupid tradition of keeping up a conversation that makes you want to either vomit or hang yourself? Boring people should be banned! Exactly! All the "higher-ups" as well. All these abstruse geniuses giving birth to ideas, their offspring, like prostitutes... Shut up, all of you! You were wound up, now you can't shut up. How I hate you all!

Roger looked at his watch for the umpteenth time today, he had to return to the checkpoint and then before lunch look through the report on the morning shift of the Offenders in order to correct possible errors in the assignment order.