Nina’s brilliant scheme which she had toiled at for two weeks burst like a soap-bubble.
She was burning with shame.
“Take it easy,” Ariadna Petrovna said indifferently. “Shit happens. Anything else?”
Another of Nina’s ideas was concerned with the city. It was true that project Zaryadje– XXI belonged to the domain of national and transnational interests, but at the same time, it was to be materalized in a particular metropolis with its problems and opportunities.
Nina had dug up the municipal budgets and investment plans for the entire city, and specifically, by the district, for the area bordering upon the future business center. She sifted through all those papers, asking herself just one question: “How does that relate to Zaryadje?” Mostly, there was no apparent relation, and occasionally the project of building a huge business center conflicted with the city’s interests, but on some essential points cooperation was possible with great potential mutual benefits. Nina was surprised to find out that those opportunities were totally ignored by both the municipal plans and Gradbank’s proposal. Nina prepared a whole package of suggestions on the issue. She had done a lot of meticulous work which she believed she could be proud of.
However, on hearing that, Ariadna Petrovna did not grab the mouse to open the file.
“I’m not even looking at it.”
“How…? Why?” Nina was taken aback.
Ariadna Petrovna was gazing at her with an expression that Nina could not read. After some hesitation, the woman said: “All those in the city hall who have anything to do with investments are on Atlas’s payroll. It’s a tight liaison of long standing, so we have no chance to butt in. Haven’t they told you that?”
“No. Nobody told me anything.” Nina blushed.
Her main achievement which she had hoped would become her contribution to the great project burst as quickly as her leasing scheme. But if with the leasing scheme it was an elementary error…
“Tell me, Ariadna Petrovna, why do they hold me for a dummy?” she asked, almost crying.
“It’s for your own good,” Ariadna Petrovna grinned without much sympathy. “All right, stop sniveling. And don’t you think of holding a grudge against Pavel Mikhailovich. He knows what he’s doing.”
“I’m not holding a grudge,” Nina sighed.
“How are you getting on with him, anyway?” asked Ariadna Petrovna.
“I’m good,” Nina uttered with a wooden tongue, feeling that she was blushing even deeper.
Nina had no intention of going into her relations with the director, but Ariadna Petrovna did not need much to figure things out. The shrewd woman looked Nina in the eye.
“Hey, girl, you what – have a crush on him?
Gradbank’s chief analyst burst into laughter. Ariadna Petrovna did not laugh often, but when that happened, she shook her whole massive body and hooted like and owl.
“Ariadna Petrovna, I would never…” Nina babbled.
“Welcome to the club! You’re like one hundredth,” the woman added through her laughter ignoring Nina’s babble.
When she was finally done laughing, Ariadna Petrovna said, “All right, relax. It’s your personal thing, what do I care? If you want to pine for him like an idiot, it’s your choice. Do you have anything else on business?”
The third idea Nina had in store she did not take seriously herself; she was aware that it was too bold – probably, totally unrealistic. She had not even intended to mention it to either Samsonov or the ruthless Ariadna Petrovna, but as things stood now, she had nothing else to report. Besides, she was only glad to change the subject, so she rushed into explanations eagerly.
It had to do with the financing of the project. The financing sources were the biggest secret of each tenderer; everyone was trying to disclose as little of them as possible and as late as possible. Most of the relevant information was kept secret from Nina, but from occasional remarks made by Pavel Mikhailovich Nina understood that an efficient solution of the financing issues could be a decisive factor in the fight for the contract. “No, a solution that’s merely efficient won’t do,” Nina corrected herself. Any tenderer bank had specialists capable of producing one. To win, the financing scheme had to be something really daring and unique – as was the project itself.
Lacking real information, Nina gave free rein to her imagination, and one night, as she was going to bed, she stumbled upon an idea. It was pure fantasy and at first, Nina was even unwilling to waste her time elaborating it.
What Nina invented was a large-scale multi-step financial operation. Apart from Gradbank, it required the participation of the largest state-owned bank which was known to be preparing for a major placement of its shares on the London stock exchange. The operation involved a huge package of government bonds which, under certain conditions, Gradbank could get hold of, thus becoming a creditor to the government, with all the legal and financial implications of such status. The plan was packed with details concerning the terms, conditions, rates and the like, but, as Nina realized with amusement and some horror, it was basically a reincarnation of the scheme that the late Ignatiy Savelievich had once initiated her into – only the scale was infinitely larger.
Ariadna Petrovna started reading the file.
Nina expected the smart woman to wave her idea away and scoff at her, but as minute after minute passed, Ariadna Petrovna kept reading, clicking the mouse and scanning the monitor pages with her eyes, pausing at calculations.
“Do you have any coffee?” she asked suddenly, without taking her eyes off the monitor, when some twenty minutes had passed. “Ah, yes, you have the instant kind. I’m telling you, it’s no coffee…”
Having done reading, she took out her calculator and re-checked some figures. Then she accessed some data bases which Nina was not aware of, searched them for something for quite a while and on finding it, grunted.
At last, Ariadna Petrovna moved away from the monitor. For some time, she gazed into space in silence, and then said:
“You know, it can work. It’s one hell of a crazy idea, of course, but who knows…”
She looked at Nina with a new expression.
“You’re good, Shuvalova. No, seriously, you’re good.”
Knowing how chary of praise the woman was, Nina blushed again – out of pleasure this time.
“Only you need to fix a few minor things here,” said Ariadna Petrovna.
She pointed out to Nina several items on the plan that had to be refined or reworded.
“Report this to Samsonov today, make no delay,” Ariadna Petrovna said, rising to her feet.
“I’ll tell him that you’ve helped me with that,” Nina assured hastily.
“Like hell you will! Don’t even think of that. It’s your idea, and it’s for you to take the rap.”
Nina did not understand whether that had been said as a joke or in earnest.
Already in the doorway, the woman turned around.
“I’m going to make you my assistant when all this mess is over. Are you in?”
“I am,” Nina replied mechanically.
“It’s a deal then. But you have to survive here first.”
“Wh-what do you mean?
“Nothing. Well, enough chitchat. I’ve got work to do… Yeah, and get yourself a coffee-maker!”
After Ariadna Petrovna left, Nina spent a while absorbed in thought. She had a lot to think about.
Chapter 3
Apart from Samsonov, Nina had only one person on the twelfth floor she could talk to; it was Klara Fedorovna. That was a woman of about forty, quite nice-looking, always very neatly, formally dressed. At first she was rather official, though polite with Nina, always ready to help with anything that belonged to her area of competence. And a broad, important area it was; apart from the duties of the general director’s secretary, she was performing the job of an assistant in charge of keeping the most important documents of Gradbank.