Once more, Misha stopped him and ordered Nina to speak.
Nina gave him an estimate of the time it would take to close the sale of the company and the sum of money that could realistically be made on the deal. She did not have to rack her brain to come up with the figures – she had more than once weighed up that option herself.
“It won’t do,” said Misha. “I need more. And sooner.”
Silence fell. Misha was staring blankly at the wall, oblivious of the others. The cigarette in his fingers went out. Misha came to, dropped the cigarette onto the ash-tray and lit another.
After drawing on his cigarette, the gangster said, “Use your brains, hustlers. It’s time to show cash.”
Nina’s father could not bear it any longer. “There is no money in the company, and there is nowhere to expect it from,” he said. “What happens if I cannot pay?”
“Let’s not talk about that. Not yet,” responded Misha without any expression.
He killed his cigarette and left.
That day Nina’s father got drunk right in his office. Nina ran out to a supermarket and brought back some food for him so that he did not drink on an empty stomach, and then waited for him to appease his aching self so that it was finally possible to take him home. As many drunken men, Nina’s father was seized alternately by ambition and self-deprecation, or self-pity. “How dare they?” he cried to Nina, red in the face. “What do they take me for, an errand boy? I used to manage a whole syndicate – they have no idea of the things we pulled off!” Then, without any transition, he moaned, “Look what I’ve become… Your father’s a milksop, Nina. You’d better leave me and keep away from me. Leave me, all of you, and let me die!”
Apart from the fear that she had experienced and anguish for her father, Nina had a sensation of something absurd going on – what was more, a familiar kind of absurd.
A few days later they heard on the news that in an out-of-town restaurant, a get-together of criminal bosses had taken place. The party ended in a shooting as a result of which some of the thugs got killed and some others got arrested. Among those killed was the well-known criminal figure Mikhail Avdeev, aka Misha Permyak.
Samuil Yakovlevich never showed up again, but he called the office. Nina took the call. The accountant’s voice was barely heard above the noise – he was clearly calling from a pay phone in some crowded place, probably an airport. “I am leaving, Ninochka,” Samuil Yakovlevich cried excitedly. “Arkasha and I are leaving. Wish us good luck! You should leave, too. Listen to old Samuil’s advice – run before it’s too late! It’s a doomed country, it can never be cured. My regards to your papa and good bye. It’s time to move on!”
Chapter 6
They had to live on somehow, but they were in a complete mess, not knowing what to make of their situation or what to do about it. Was the company going to be left alone now or was it in for visits by some new hoods who would claim the debts of Misha Permyak?
Nina’s father was summoned to the police department where he was questioned about both Permyak and Simonyan. Yevgeniy Borisovich honestly could not tell the investigator anything about their affairs, and there seemed to be nothing he could be incriminated with himself. Nevertheless, he was made to sign an undertaking not to leave town.
Nina saw that her father was in a terrible state. Oddly, even the past half year, when he had been under the gangsters’ heel and in real danger, had not been as hard on him as this interminable uncertainty and suspense. The old fears and new fears, humiliation and the awareness of his total helplessness – all that was eating him up.
One day, Nina had a phone call from Lydia Grigorievna, the first one since they had been introduced to each other. The woman asked for them to have a talk in private, and they met in a café in town. Lydia Grigorievna looked tired and faded. “Ninochka, what shall we do? Please, help. This has to be stopped,” she said. “This company – it’s simply killing your father. We have to get rid of it. Nina, you’re a smart girl – talk to him. He won’t listen to me.”
She confirmed Nina’s fears – her father was on the bottle again, getting drunk almost every evening.
Lydia Grigorievna’s words clicked with Nina’s own thoughts – she was convinced that it was the right time to sell the business. Things were not all that bad now, and they could net some money on the sale. That would not make Nina’s father a rich man, but at least he would be able to pay off his personal debts and not risk ending up in the street. The company should be sold before it was too late – before some new misfortunes arrived.
For Nina, the most convincing argument in favor of selling the company was one that she could not even begin to discuss with Yevgeniy Borisovich. After having worked with him shoulder to shoulder for some time, she knew now that her father was not cut out to run his own business. He was an excellent engineer, a solid manager, but not a boss. He lacked something of what the late Simonyan had had in plenty and what was vital for success in the ruthless, unfair and unlawful world of domestic business.
She felt uncomfortable at the thought that she was evaluating her father as a grown-up person would evaluate a peer, and even looking down on him a bit. Her dear papa, who had always been the biggest and best man in the world for her, turned out to have his flaws and weaknesses. However, seeing him in this new way – and understanding that there was no one but her to give him support – made her love him even more.
Nina had hesitated to start this talk fearing that it might be difficult but she had not expected it to be such a disaster. At her very first words, her father flared up. He yelled hysterically and flung impossible accusations at Nina – called her a traitress who was stabbing him in the back. He shouted that the company was the reason of his life and he would not let anyone undermine it; that he was responsible for the people who trusted him, and that if Nina did not believe in him – fine, he could live with that, and he did not want to see her in the company ever again.
Nina was dumbfounded. She had never imagined that she would live to hear such things from her father. The next day he called her and they had a meeting. Yevgeniy Borisovich apologized for the breakdown he had had the day before, but he was still keeping aloof and said firmly that he really did not want to see Nina in the company. “Maybe I’ll never make it – maybe I’m no good as a businessman – but this is my life and this is what I do,” he said. “I’ll carry on but I’m not going to drag you into it any more. You must live your own life. It’s time for you to get married and start a family, anyway.”
To that last argument, Nina did not even know what to say.
Nina hoped that it was just nerves – that all that was going to melt away – but her father stood by what he had said and still would not allow her into the company weeks and even months later. Lydia Grigorievna called again and sobbed on the phone. Nina’s father went on drinking, literally killing himself. Nina was in despair. Her only hope which she shared with Lydia Grigorievna was that Yevgeniy Borisovich was having a psychological crisis, a belated reaction to that whole gangster story, which was bound to pass sooner or later. He was going to recover his balance – they only needed to have patience.
In part, she was right – but only in part.
At the same time, Nina faced the necessity to change jobs. In her investment company, she had long outgrown her entry position, but any promotion was blocked for her by her group manager. A woman of middle age and medium talent, the manager was extremely concerned with her own status in the organization. During her first years in the company, Nina was the manager’s favorite and was even held up as an example of a good young performer who never complained and worked on improving her skills. The woman’s attitude changed when she started to see a competitor in Nina. Not a great analyst herself, she did not tolerate gifted people around her. She started hounding Nina – loading the girl with the hardest and most boring work, finding faults with her, and mentioning her among problem employees at the staff meetings. In the past year, Nina had given food for criticism herself – submerged with her father’s problems, she had taken too many days off, refused to work extra hours, and failed to meet the report deadlines. The manager was now constantly bandying about her name, preparing the ground for her dismissal. It was clear to Nina that she had to leave the company herself.