The Goose was right about John Lafferty being in a state of conflict. The way the Raven and its team went about things made him uncomfortable, and the fact that he was a part of that team and was expected to do things the same way made him more uncomfortable. The postings that he had made on the church's website about the Goose being behind some of the worst atrocities that had occurred in human history had been at the Raven's behest, and at the meetings that he had attended with the other members of the Raven's team things had been discussed that gave him serious misgivings about what he had agreed to be a part of, one of which was the engineering of a war between Russia and Ukraine through Fyodor Milichenko and the REJOIN campaign. And there was the issue of Jim Balmer, a devout Christian who considered John's church to be pure blasphemy.

The conflict between John's historically accurate The Church of the Golden Goose and Jim's unshakeable Christian faith was an issue that the Raven had had to deal with ever since John had been added to the team. If Jim Balmer was going to be elected president then the Christian vote was key, which meant that there could be no doubts as to the strength of his faith and that was being potentially jeopardized by the amount of knowledge that he was acquiring, although given how strong Jim Balmer's faith was the possibility of that was marginal. The bigger concern was John. His discomfort was plain to see and the Raven couldn't think of a way to dispel his doubts. The Raven had promised him the Grand Truth in exchange for his assistance but the Raven was bound by covenant never to reveal any of the details of the Grand Truth to mortals. In the past the promise of the possibility of receiving the Grand Truth had been enough to maintain the loyalty of someone for an entire lifetime. John Lafferty was different, he possessed a level of integrity that was lacking in those others. His desire for truth wasn't for the purpose of his name being recorded in history as the discoverer of the Grand Truth; his desire for the truth was pure, and the Raven knew from experience that such an individual could prove problematic, and John was showing plenty of signs that he was going to be just such a person. In a meeting that the Raven had convened during which the question had come up of whether Prism Capital should increase its position on oil and gas given the inevitably of conflict between Russia and Ukraine that would cause energy prices to spike, John had continually expressed his unease with the immorality of what was being discussed and the callousness with which it was being discussed.

John couldn't pinpoint if it was during that meeting that he realized that he was never going to be able to be fully on board with the Raven, or if it was when he was paid a visit by one of his online parishioners who was troubled by the change in tone that the church had adopted regarding the Goose. The parishioner was Robert, who, for the purpose of anonymity, introduced himself to John as Chris. Robert had flown to Texas to meet with John and after being shown into his office by John's secretary he immediately perceived within John the conflict that the Goose had predicted he would be feeling, which Robert hoped meant that he would be more vulnerable to divulging the full extent of his involvement with the Raven and as such Robert chose not to beat around the bush and got straight to the point after introducing himself.

"I was wondering why there has been such a shift in the church's teachings as of late, the material that's been published recently is completely inconsistent with the church's history."

"New evidence has come to light, evidence which casts doubt on everything that we've come to believe," John answered with zero conviction.

"Are you certain about the veracity of that evidence? Could it have been fabricated in an attempt to undermine the church?"

"We're very thorough with our verification processes; the evidence is real."

"Why then does it contradict all of the other evidence in which the Goose is represented as a force for good?"

"What we have been discovering is that there are problems with all of that previous evidence."

"But did you not apply the same process of verification to those pieces of evidence? If you did and are now saying that the evidence is problematic then the legitimacy of the entire church is going to be questioned."

John Lafferty was now physically squirming, so deeply was he troubled by his corruption at the hands of the Raven.

"I believe that our parishioners are open-minded enough to be understanding of our previous shortcomings."

"I didn't understand it, that's why I came here, and I can't be the first to address these concerns with you."

Robert hadn't been the first, in fact, since John had published the information about the Goose's involvement in human sacrifice in Central America, the church had received thousands of e-mails from disillusioned parishioners all over the world, people whom John felt he had betrayed in the worst way possible.

"Look, it is what it is, I don't like what was discovered any more than you do but this church's founding principle is that we are always to be guided by the truth and if this is the truth about the Goose then we cannot ignore it."

"I don't believe that it is the truth, I don't believe that the Goose could be capable of engineering such an atrocity."

"In the past I would have agreed with you, but the new evidence that we've been uncovering is far too compelling."

"Do you have any fear of the Goose? If you believe that the Goose is real and that it is as powerful as the earlier evidence suggests, then you should be afraid of the Goose exacting retribution for your betrayal."

"I think the Goose would have other things to worry about besides me and my piddling little church."

"According to the teachings of your church, the Goose knows all, which means it knows what you're up to, it may even be watching right now."

The Goose was in fact watching their conversation, through the Wolf's eyes.

"Who are you? Why do you talk as if you know so much? I am the foremost authority on the Goose! There is nothing that you would know that I wouldn't know, so there is no reason for me to fear what you think I should fear!"

"You've betrayed the Goose, I can see it."

"So what if I have?! I've devoted my entire life to the Goose and I've gotten nothing in return. I know that the Goose is out there, it and the Raven only reveal themselves every few millennia and I've seen the Raven; why then has the Goose not revealed itself to me? After all that I've done in its name?"

"Probably it recognized this weakness in you, your willingness to be corrupted, and decided that you weren't the one."

"Have you seen it? Are you the one? Is that why you're here? Did the Goose send you to judge me?"

John was by now severely panicked, and Robert needed to be careful about revealing too much.

"Have you sided with the Raven? Is that your betrayal?"

"It made me an offer, it offered to reveal to me the truth of everything, the thing that I've spent my entire life searching for, believing the whole time that the Goose would be my source of enlightenment. I couldn't say no to its offer, not when I couldn't be sure whether the Goose would ever make contact with me."

"What does the Raven want with you? What is it planning?"

"What consequences am I going to face for my betrayal?"

"I don't know, but I think it's important that we understand what the consequences of your betrayal could be."

John took a moment to consider this and whether his suspicion that Robert was an agent of the Goose was correct, in which case this was potentially his only chance at confessing and seeking forgiveness.

"They've got plans for a war in Ukraine, and to get Jim Balmer elected president, and to make a killing on energy futures, so far that's all I know."

"That's enough, if we question him anymore he's going to realize that his suspicions about you are correct," the Goose said to Robert.

"If you are what I think you are then please tell the Goose that I'm sorry; I had no choice, I had to know, before I died I had to know what it all means," John said pleadingly.

Robert left without providing John with any assurances that he would make his case to the Goose.

"I feel guilty," the Goose said to Robert through the Wolf when Robert had driven out onto the road.

"About what?"

"About John being led astray."

"He made his choice, nobody forced him."

"I know, but given his dedication to me I shouldn't have left him in the dark like I did, I should have provided him with at least a scrap of the knowledge that he's spent so long searching for."

"Maybe it's a good thing you didn't, given the ease with which he betrayed you."

"I just realized something, we forgot to ask about the animals."

"Shit."

The road ahead of Robert was empty and after looking in his rearview mirror and ascertaining that the road behind him was also empty he executed a swift U-turn and headed back to the headquarters of The Church of the Golden Goose. Upon arriving he marched straight into John Lafferty's office and this time didn't waste time bothering with pretending that he knew less than he did.

"While you were in the presence of the Raven, were there any animals around that seemed out of the ordinary?"

"The CEO of Prism Capital, David Huntsman, he had a pig in his office, and I overhead the Raven once talking about a Russian CEO's pet lion."

"Is that all?"

"That I know of."

"Thank you."

Once back in the car, Robert and the Goose continued their conversation.

"Is the lion a part of this?" Robert asked the Goose.

"The lion is attracted to strong personalities, unfortunately those personalities become consumed by power and they tend to exercise it in ways that can be horrifying."

"And the pig?"

"The pig is pure greed, whichever human it adopts amasses vast sums of wealth. The Raven most likely guided the pig toward David Huntsman and Prism Capital's reserves are most likely going to serve as the war chest for financing whatever scheme the Raven is putting together."

"How much money are we talking about?"

"Most likely billions, tens of billions."

"Do we have that kind of money?"

"No, we don't; oh, and, small side note, your wife is here."

"What?!"