Nina contacted precipitously each of them and arranged meetings with the management. In two cases, it nearly worked out – her proposal for them to buy out the projects caused surprise, but then she was told that it was possible. In fact, one of the two directors was interested in herself rather than the project – he stared openly at her legs and then suggested discussing the matter over dinner. Nina was not so much angered as amused. For all that, she did not reject the invitation as she hoped to squeeze something useful out of that contact, too. Of course, she was going to pay for her own dinner and had no intention of sleeping with that erotomaniac specimen. However, she counted more on the other director – an elderly man who knew Yevgeniy Borisovich from some old business association and spoke highly of him.
But it all collapsed as quickly. Two days later the elderly director called her and refused apologetically – he said that he had weighed it all up again and found that the game was not worth the candle. He was one of those decent people who are very bad at lying. Every word he said gave away how awkward he felt. Obviously, it was only his sense of decency that had forced him to call Nina and expose himself to that shame.
Nina called the connoisseur of women’s legs herself. Her call took the man unawares. He started babbling something about feeling unwell and then said suddenly that he was going away on business. Probably, it was the first time in his life that he refused to go out to dinner with a young woman.
Nina’s first reaction to those absurd dialogues was that of indignation, but then real fear crept into her heart. It was clear that those two directors had been advised against dealing with her father’s company, or possibly, they had decided themselves not to stick out their necks when they had learned that Gradbank was behind that business. Nina was depressed. What was that force from which there was no escape? She pictured Gradbank and its henchmen as some kind of giant octopus that had gripped her father and herself in its arms and would not let go.
Another thought suggested itself, one that she hated to let into her mind. After all, they could not be so mean and ruthless! But the thought knocked at her temple again and again. Her father’s main project. Were they capable of such villainy? Could the Gradbank people go as far as to aim a blow at her father’s most important and cherished work? Nina tried to convince herself that it was impossible but her reason spoke to the contrary. Her father had not yielded to the pressure that had been exerted on him, so harsher measures were in order. It was nothing personal, it was just business.
When Nina had looked through the project papers, she was appalled. Not even being a lawyer, she found a lot of oversights, ambiguous formulations, and minor inconsistencies. Those papers were written by good, naïve people for other good people, while to bad people, the whole project would appear like Swiss cheese for the number of holes that could be used to attack it. And there was absolutely no way to fix anything.
There was nothing to do but hope that the iron boys from Gradstroiinvest would not dare to attack such a large project, or else, would not be able to reach it. After all, they were not all-powerful. Or were they?
Trying not to show her apprehension, Nina started asking her father about the review and acceptance procedure – what it was like in practice, and what kind of people were on the committee.
“Just the normal kind,” her father answered. “I know them all. They are all right. Well, except for one…”
It turned out that he had an antagonist on the committee in the person of the head of the local technical inspection. There had been incidents in the past when the inspector had pestered Yevgeniy Borisovich with some groundless cavils. What was worse, Nina’s father was convinced that the man was a bribe-taker. “Things would be different if I greased his palm… But I don’t do such things, you know that.”
Now the head of the technical inspection could be used by Gradstroiinvest to damage the project, Nina thought and realized that her father had it on his mind, too.
“Don’t you worry!” her father said with feigned optimism. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
For the hundredth time, he started explaining at length what a wonderful project his company had carried through.
“And mind you, I’m kind of pals with the chairman of the committee, too,” he added and told Nina that in the past, he had sorted out some business matters with the man and the two of them had even drunk vodka on one occasion.
“He’s a decent guy,” Nina’s father assured her. “By the way, he called me the other day. If there’d been any problems, he would’ve let me know…”
That conversation took place at the end of a long day, as Nina and her father were having tea in the empty office. As she listened to his loud assurances, Nina noticed that he avoided looking her in the eye and that the cup was trembling in his hand. She scolded herself for being stupid. It was only now that she realized how scared her father was. He was perfectly aware that his company was being raided in a big way, and he was in mortal fear for his main project. That was why he had swallowed his pride and asked her to help him. Only she could not do anything to help.
He was not at all as blind and conceited as Nina had started to view him in her irritation. But no matter how powerful Gradbank was or what profitable offer they made him, he could not give in. His whole personality, his whole life was behind it, and considerations of profit or common sense were irrelevant.
They never resumed that conversation – there was nothing to discuss. Also, her father hardly ever showed up in the office during those last weeks before the project delivery date as he was spending all his days and nights on the site.
At last, the big day arrived. Nina’s father did not take her along to the actual session of the review and acceptance committee, and Nina did not insist, for which she scolded herself bitterly afterwards. Her bank was experiencing a slump in activity, so she was able to take a day off and in the morning already, she went over to her father’s place in order to wait for the news together with Lydia Grigorievna.
As soon as she got there, the phone rang. Lydia Grigorievna rushed to it. It was Nina’s father. His voice could barely be discerned – he was calling from some crowded spot – but he managed to put through a few words. The news was good: the head of the technical inspection, the only real opponent of Yevgeniy Borisovich on the committee, had fallen ill and sent in an assistant to act for him. The assistant, an obscure young employee, had no authority with the committee and would hardly be listened to even if he came out with some objections.
Nina was sitting in the kitchen with Lydia Grigorievna. The woman treated her to some coffee and cake of her own making. For the evening, a celebration of the project acceptance was planned to which the key employees of Yevgeniy Borisovich were invited. On such occasions, it was normal to throw a banquet in a restaurant, but Yevgeniy Borisovich wanted to celebrate at home first in order to show his true men that he considered them as friends, and, incidentally, boast of the culinary talent of Lydia Grigorievna. From superstition, Lydia Grigorievna would not start cooking for the grand dinner, but Nina knew that her fridge was bursting with supplies.
It was the first time that Nina saw her father’s wife alone, in domestic surroundings. Lydia Grigorievna looked differently and behaved differently from her usual image. In the light of day, with no make-up, her face betrayed her age – Nina saw a woman whose best years were long past. With Nina, she did not go into her habitual enthusiastic accounts of theater premiers. Instead, little by little, she told Nina her life story.