July 22, 1993
Thursday
The next morning a glowing Zhorik sat in my office with a stack of papers.
— Startup documents, — Zhora bragged. — As of today, homeless guy Andrei Pavlovich Buzykin is appointed Chairman of the Board, and homeless woman Margarita Illarionovna Vyaznikova is Managing Director of the check investment fund «Russian Horizon.» Ah, we’ll splurge on some nice nameplates for Palych and Larovna. We’ll hang them on office three, sitting empty anyway.
— Wait, what? What company is this? What homeless people?
— Simple folks from the three train stations. Remember the homeless guys’ full names, by the way. They’ll be crawling in once a month for their pay… Eh, calm down. Not homeless at all, just heartsick drunks off Vostryakovsky Proyezd, former intelligentsia who never fit into the new democratic reality. We’ll register the investment fund on them. You and I are advancing Russian science through the company Interbik. The official contracts are stamped and sealed, airtight. And the drunks’ fund just happens to be located right next door. Signed a joint-activity agreement, blah blah blah, turns out we got swindled again. If the criminal case ever surfaces, they’ll haul in citizen Buzykin and citizen Vyaznikova for questioning. Then they’ll go looking for the other homeless guys Interbik’s registered on. And we’re not involved, who knew there were crooks and con men everywhere? Well, that’s just between us. The check fund doesn’t sign any official papers except the sublease agreement with Interbik. Got it?
I answered honestly:
— No.
— You’ll get it later. Grab the cognac out of the safe. Let’s christen the fund.
I took the documents in hand and, knowing Zhorik’s character, asked:
— Are these real?
— Almost, — the honest answer didn’t surprise me. — No hope from bug-eyes, we’re launching on forged papers.
— You promised we’d work honestly.
— Did your dad become governor yet?
— What’s that got to do with anything?
— It’s got to do with, while your dad’s a senior engineer out in the middle of nowhere, our papers’ll get approved without a bribe somewhere around never. You decided we’re working honestly, so no bribes. Logical, right? Which means we sit around waiting. And we need to be working right now. Now think about it: is it fair, when the elite get all the support, and the rest of us trash get sticks jammed in our wheels?
— Not fair. But we can’t work off forged documents.
— It’s temporary, just till Vadik gets the real ones sorted! Otherwise we blow half a year or a year on rent and salaries for absolutely nothing. You ready to eat losses because some bureaucrat won’t sign the papers on time?
— Not ready.
— That’s my boy! While the system’s off screwing around doing nothing, we work however we can and screw the system right back. Agreed?
I wasn’t in a hurry to agree. Everything temporary has a way of becoming permanent. On the other hand, we had to work, and there was no telling when the paperwork would get signed. And the system really was broken.
Zhora knocked back a glass of Otard like it was vodka, in one gulp. I declined. We discussed the fund’s operating principles, the numbers, and the payment schedule. Zhorik proposed paying dividends monthly, calculated at six hundred percent annually, and tore off.
I gathered the staff in the conference room and set the task: go around the institute and offer VychMekh’s employees shares in the «Russian Horizon» fund in exchange for their vouchers. Dividends in a month. Six hundred percent annually!
— Guaranteed by the Scientific Symmetry corporation, — I said gravely, puffing out my cheeks.
To the probing questions of the curious, «Why would Americans want vouchers? Is this a trick? A joke?», I answered honestly that an American fund wanted to buy a factory outside Moscow through us. I wasn’t authorized to disclose the factory’s name or line of business.
The girls and the boys, their spirits lifted after three days of idleness, went off to put the task into action.
A couple of hours later they were entering passport details onto prepared forms. Things were moving. The fund had launched. Twenty shareholders, a good result for the first day.
