June 30 – July 2
1993
What we needed the office in Cheryomushki for I found out at the end of the week. Zhorik obtained a direct lease on the premises and re-let it as a sublease at a seventy percent discount. To everyone capable of putting down an advance.
In the newspapers «From Hand to Hand» and «Everything for You» Zhora placed advertisements for the rental of an office with class B-minus refurbishment by the Akademicheskaya metro station.
A flood of calls poured in.
Waving papers endorsed by Yefimych, Zhorik wrote out passes, led people to the spot and demonstrated a hundred and eighty square meters, available in a week. He shook the direct lease agreement, valid for three years, and took a sublease agreement in two copies out of his briefcase. For form’s sake he haggled, knocking off five or ten bucks per square meter, wrote out a receipt, applied a stamp, put the advance in his pocket and smiled:
— Yes, yes, you can move in Monday. From the fifth of July, you’re the boss here. We’re expanding, moving out to a mansion on Trubnaya. If you’re ever passing by, come say hello!
Zhorik took a deposit of two thousand dollars from every client. There were plenty of clients. I was on edge. I refused to take part in the illegal activity, sat at home, and stared blankly at the VCR. What I knew about what was happening, I learned from Zhorik, who unloaded stacks of dollars every evening.
By my count, he’d collected twenty thousand. All the while complaining that mobile service was eating up three hundred bucks a day. On top of that, Krasny’s buddies had worn him down with threats: promising to find him underground if they had to, dig him up, wrap his genitals around his neck, and bury him again.
Words like that were enough to make you feel sick.
