October 1, 1993
7:00 p.m.
Zhorik and Vadim were sitting at a table with a bottle of Napoleon and some appetizers. I ordered a beer and stepped away to wash my hands. When I came back I found business cards on the table in front of me. Beige card stock, pleasant to the touch. So… What does it say?… Well, well! «Roman Viktorovich Peskov, Deputy Chairman of the Board, JSCB Vatrobank, Moscow, Nauchny Proezd 6.»
I glanced at Zhorik. Deputy chairman is all very well, but in honor of what? And what did the address on the card mean? Was the bank going to be housed together with the fund? Zhorik answered:
– Deputy chairman because your money is in the bank. And we’re not housing the bank together with the fund, we’re housing it instead of the fund.
– Meaning?
– We’re closing «Russian Horizon.» Next week we pay dividends for the last time.
– Seriously?
– Couldn’t be more serious. Come on, don’t worry. Nobody’s putting the staff out on the street. We’ll transfer the fund’s people over to the bank. They know the work. The way I see it: we settle up with the shareholders and close for renovation. The banking hall stays as it is. Everything else we change starting Monday, we’ll retool the rooms for bank functions. By the way, any objection if Vadim takes your office?
– None at all. Let him have it.
The problems of paying dividends, closing the fund and finding space for the bank didn’t trouble me. Something else was bearing down – the approach of New Year’s.
To be properly ready for the frenzy, we had to build a holiday assortment with defiantly high prices and send the Poles our amendments. Besides the kiosk men and the small shopkeepers, serious buyers from the regions had started coming to «Proma,» ready to talk about prepayment for December deliveries of the expensive-rich-exclusive. The time for negotiations had come, and I didn’t understand negotiations. What tricks and subtleties could there be? Zhora waved a hand as if shooing a fly:
– Nonsense! What subtleties? The Poles aren’t going to change the assortment. Go by the signed contracts. If somebody wants something rich, triple the price tag on the rare items that aren’t shit and collect an advance from the clients. Announce twenty percent off with prepayment, and forty if they pay before November! They’ll live with it! Nobody else will offer them even that much. Pour!
