For some reason, Alik turned crimson.
I moved to the next thing on our agenda, “Also, we need to start expanding our area of interests.”
“Oh! Does that mean we get to mine some Bitcoins?” Alik said enthusiastically.
“No, Alik, I don’t think there’s anything left to mine there, the whole thing’s already exhausted. What we’re gonna do, we’re gonna offer sales outsourcing services for struggling businesses. There are companies on the market that already do it but normally, they’re prohibitively expensive without any guarantee of results. We’re going to work on a percentage basis which is something very few of them are eager to do.”
Alik shook his head. “I’m not sure I got it...”
“I did,” Stacy chirped. “Great idea, boss! But that means we’ll have to expand and hire some sales managers...”
“Absolutely. I’d like you to ask Mr. Katz to come after lunch and we’ll try to draft a contract. Also, I want to see Kesha. I have a proposal for him.”
“Will do,” she said, jotting it down in her notebook. “And what’s the third thing on the agenda?”
“The third thing is your tank top, Stacy. I thought we’d agreed about you changing the way you dress?”
“We did. Why? What have I done wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just that a bra might come in handy. That top of yours is a bit too in your face...”
* * *
CONTRARY TO MY expectations, I had no problem clearing the business center security to go to Ultrapak. I didn’t meet anyone I knew as I walked up to the office. Daria was still sitting in reception as usual, scrolling through her Instagram feed.
“Hi there,” I said.
“Oh hi, Phil!” she gushed.
“How’s it going?”
“Great! Mr. Ivanov was talking about you only the other day. What brings you here? Are you on business or do you just miss us?” she flapped her eyelash extensions.
“I’ve been missing this place something rotten. Especially you...” I started as I heard someone stop behind my back with a tactful cough.
“Vicky!” Daria turned to her. “We’ve got a visitor!”
“I can see that,” Vicky said with a cold glance in my direction. “Good morning, Phil.”
“Morning, Ms. Koval. How are you?
“I’m fine,” she snapped as she headed for her office.
I felt something clawing at my heart — some thought that had something to do with Vicky. Still, I suppressed it for the time being. I was here on business.
“”Is Mr. Ivanov in?” I asked Daria even though I knew perfectly well that he was.
“Yes, why? Are you here to see him? Is he expecting you?”
“Next thing you’ll be asking how to introduce me to him.”
“Wait a sec... I need to ask...” she took the phone and dialed Ivanov’s secretary. “Irina, I’ve got Phil Panfilov here. He'd like to see Mr. Ivanov. Yes, Panfilov, he used to work for us. What did you say? Okay. Got it,” she hung up. “You’ll have to wait a little.”
“Then I’ll go and say hello to the guys,” I said, heading for the sales department.
It was unusually quiet. Everybody must have been out working. Cyril and Marina were nowhere to be seen. Greg alone was busy talking some sense into some client on the phone, running his hand through his bushy hair. On seeing me, he grinned and pointed at the phone. I nodded and waited for him to finish.
The moment he’d stopped talking, he jumped from his seat and gave me a big hug. “Hi, Phil! How’s it hanging? Where are you these days?”
“I’m good. I’ve opened my own business. And how about you and all the others?”
“Business? What kind of business?”
Seeing as the room was empty, we spent the next ten minutes talking. I told him everything about my agency. He, in turn, shared the news about himself.
According to him, the company wasn’t doing so well. Pavel, their commercial director, had quit but not before he’d poached three of their best reps. In the meantime, they’d replaced him with some new guy.
“To tell you the truth, I’m thinking about leaving too,” Greg admitted. “This new guy, you know what he did? He started by raising our wholesale prices. That caused a whole bunch of customers to look elsewhere. It’s a good job we still have your J-Mart. And yesterday the dickhead drove Marina to tears. And it wasn’t even her fault! She failed to close a couple of clients at the last moment but that was exactly because they didn’t like the price hike.”
“How’s Cyril?”
“He’s on sick leave. They’ve found some complications so they had him admitted to the First City Hospital.”
“Which department? Which room?”
“Jesus, Phil, I just don’t remember. You give him a ring, anyway. He'll be happy to see you.”
“Sure.”
Daria peeked into the room. “Phil? Mr. Ivanov will see you now.”
“Okay, man, it was great to see you,” I said. “If ever you decide to quit here, pop in and see us, we’ll find you something worth your while. How’s your wife, by the way? When is she due?”
“It’s still a while,” Greg replied. “Closer to the end of September.”
“Great! I’ll be off, then. Greetings to everyone.”
He beamed. “Will do. And I might actually think about your proposition...”
Mr. Ivanov’s office was so full of tobacco smoke you could cut the air with a knife.
“Good morning, Sir.”
“Ah, Phil. Fancy seeing you here. Take a seat.”
He wasn’t his usual friendly self. Either the company was in a really bad way or he still held a grudge against me.
“What do you want?” he asked point blank.
“Mr. Ivanov, you know me as a salesman...”
“I suppose,” he grumbled.
“I’d like to propose to you-”
He perked up. “You wanna come back, is that it? I don’t know about that.”
“No, it’s not about me coming back but it boils down to the same thing. I’d like to offer you our sales outsourcing services.”
“What’s that?”
“We could make out a contract in which my agency would look for new buyers for your products. And you, once you closed a deal, would have to pay us a commission. Basically, it’ll be the same as it was when I worked for you. We sell your products, you pay us a commission.”
“Eh... I really don’t know,” he drawled. “I need to discuss it with Panchenko. This is his domain, anyway. Why did you come to me? I thought you wanted to come back.”
“Who’s Panchenko?”
“Ah, it’s our new commercial director. Konstantin Panchenko. The guy we took on to replace Pavel. You’d better meet up with him. He’s best placed to decide.”
“Okay, I’ll speak to him, then.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, Sir. Thank you for affording me the time.”
“You’re welcome. But you’d better speak to Panchenko.”
I activated Lie Detection, rose and proffered my hand. As we exchanged a handshake, I asked nonchalantly,
“You didn’t, by any chance, keep Alex Hermann’s card?”
“Who’s that?” he asked, pretending he hadn’t understood me.
“We met him once, remember? Valiadis’ right-hand man. I left his business card with you.”
“Ah, you mean that one... No, I don’t have it,” he exhaled smoke in my face. “Pavel must have taken it. Why would I need it?”
A wave of cold enveloped me. Which meant he did have the card but he didn’t want to share it with me.
“Why would you want it, anyway?” he asked. “I thought you saw each other regularly. Don’t you?”
“We do indeed. Well, I won’t encroach on your time. Thanks. Have a nice day!”
“Good. See you, then.”
When I left his office, I paused for a moment wondering whether I should go and see Vicky. Still, I suppressed
the impulse and headed for Daria’s desk. “Is your new commercial director in? Mr. Ivanov told me to see him.”
“You mean Mr. Panchenko?”
“Exactly, unless you have another one.”
“Unfortunately, he’s out at the moment. Would you like to leave a message?”
“I’d rather you gave me his phone number. I’ll call him myself.”
“I’m very sorry but I can’t do that.”
“I see. Never mind. In that case, could you please give him my number? I don’t have any cards on me. Can you write it down?”
She smiled. “I still have it, don’t I?”
I left the Ultrapak building. What now? Should I go back to the office or try and chase down Valiadis?
Using the interface as I walked wasn’t very easy so I headed for the café where we all used to lunch together. I could use something to eat. Their set menus were quite decent.
As I was waiting for my order, I remembered last night’s call from Gleb. I hadn’t seen him for almost two months — and before that, it had been several years. I’d remembered about him two months ago when I’d first activated my Heroism skill and was studying the descriptions of the Heroic abilities that came with it.
All those years back in college, Gleb and I had regularly played in the casino. When I’d lost for the umpteenth time, I’d borrowed some money from him: not a lot by today's standards but still a considerable sum for a student. I’d failed to pay it back promptly, then spent a lot of time ashamedly hiding from him. He took offense and we stopped seeing each other.
I dialed his number. “Hi, Gleb.”
“Phil? Is that you? What do you want?” he sounded so apathetic that I didn’t even hear the questioning intonation in his voice.
“You called me last night. How about we meet up and you tell me what happened?”
“Why?” his lifeless voice rustled.
“We could put our heads together and think what to do about it.”
“We can’t do anything now. Having said that... could you lend me some money? Anything at all?”
“What if we meet and discuss it?” I said.
I absolutely had to make him open up.
“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed. “When?”
“Tonight at my place. Here’s the address. Have you got something to write it down?”
“Just tell me. I’ll remember.”
I explained to him how to drive there. He mumbled something remotely reminiscent of “see ya” and hung up.
I glanced at Valiadis’ marker on the map, canceled my café order and dashed back home to pick up my gym gear. He was in the same swimming pool but this time I had absolutely no desire to pay for another pair of prohibitively expensive Speedos.
I was in luck. An Uber cab was passing by so I didn’t have to wait long.
Once back home, I changed my sweat-drenched shirt, threw all my swim gear into the bag — the trunks, a pair of flip flops, a bathing cap and a towel, — then rummaged my shelves for the 3-visit guest subscription I’d bought. I still had two visits left. I had no idea whether the subscription was still valid — it might have already expired for all I knew — so I scooped up all the cash I had just in case (which was about ten grand) and hurried back down, taking the stairs three at a time toward the waiting taxi.
Thirty minutes and three thousand rubles later (because I’d been forced to buy a new guest card), I pulled on the trunks and the bathing cap. It took me several attempts to get my feet into the flip flops but finally, I went down to the pool.
It was busier here today. Still, I wasn’t worried about all the men in black lining the walls. Nonchalantly I flung my towel onto one of the deck chairs, ordered some green tea, left my flip flops by the side of the pool and jumped in the deep end.
I hadn’t even reached midway across the pool when I received an unexpected bonus,
Congratulations! You’ve received a new skill level!
Skill name: Swimming
Current level: 2
XP received: 500
Current level: 15. XP points gained: 7840/16000
The skill’s XP bar must have already been nearing 100%. Add to this my stat booster and high Learning Skills, and it had been enough for me to swim a mere twenty meters to receive a new level.
Which explains why I was in a rather good mood by the time I reached Valiadis.
“Phil Panfilov,” the oligarch recognized me straight away.
“How do you do, Sir? Yes, it’s me again.”
“I have a feeling that today is no coincidence, either.”
“Actually, you’re right. I came here with the sole purpose of meeting you.”
“That I don’t doubt,” he said. “Let’s move to the sauna, shall we? It’s not a great place to talk here.”
Ignoring the steps, he got out of the pool and headed for the sauna without looking back. Nothing about his sinewy body even remotely resembled the potbellied dudes who were lounging about in the hot tub.
I effortlessly climbed out after him — my arm muscles had definitely grown! — and followed in his wake.
Once in the sauna, Valiadis climbed the highest bench, pulled his cap down to his eyes and sprawled out with his hands behind his head.
I sat on the lower bench, leaning my back against the wall so that I could see him.
“I’m listening,” he said lazily.
“I have two questions for you, Sir. Or two subjects, rather.”
“You have fifteen minutes. After that, I have to leave.”
His next words rendered me speechless even though I was prepared to hear something like this.
“Don’t bother to use Lie Detection,” he said. “I can see you already have it activated. Level 15? Not bad but not great, either. Never mind. We’ll talk about it later. What’s your first question? What is it you wanted to discuss?”
“I don’t really want to discuss anything, just make you a proposition. I’ve opened an agency and would like to offer you our sales outsourcing services-”
“Not interested,” he interrupted me. “After that conversation we had last time, I took the trouble to double-check all the other service providers. My own level of Insight allows me not only to buy goods in at the best possible price, but it also allows me to determine which of these goods are in the most demand. You seem to be smart enough to understand how these things work. What’s your Insight level at now?”
“Two, Sir.”
“Only level two? What in God’s name can you see? At level 2, all you have available are the basics. You can’t do anything with them. I’d suggest you concentrate on leveling Insight alone. That way you might at least make level 5...”
“How can I do that?”
“That’s up to you. I’m not going to help you. But in actual fact, I’m afraid for you it’s already academic.”
“Why? I still have loads of time until my license expires.”
“Don’t ask me. I’ve no idea how it happened. The Vaalphors are still none the wiser. Apparently, you failed the Trial. What do you remember?”
“I remember being in some weird room. When I woke up, I was hung with debuffs. I remember seeing you there. And some girl...”
“Ilindi.”
“That’s right. She had funny ears. Not quite human. And then there was some other creature there... was it a demon? At least he had hooves. What was his name now — Khphor?”
“Yes, that’s exactly who it was. Khphor. He’s a Vaalphor, a Senior Races observer.”
“So it wasn’t a dream, then?”
“No. What I find strange is that you remembered it even though you thought it was a dream. I wasn’t there — by myself I mean my current development branch — but they showed the whole thing to me. You were killed by an acid jelly. Your body was then rebuilt. In the process, the interface in your brain was uninstalled and your memory of all the related events erased. That included all the skills and characteristics you’d acquired in the process. Once that done,
they teleported you to the exact time and place they’d abducted you from. You can’t imagine Khphor’s amazement during a later control check when he realized you still had the interface. He even suspected you might have somehow activated Time Cheat. But that’s nonsense, of course. Even I haven’t yet made the First Hero, let alone you.”
“A control check? I don’t think I remember meeting Khphor again.”
“Didn’t you mention Mr. Panikoff? At some point in time, the old boy had made a deal with Khphor so now the Voice can use his body whenever it wants to incarnate in our world. To meet people like you and I, for instance.”
“How do you know Panikoff?”
“Same as you. I've been talking with the Voice.”
“The Voice — is it Khphor?”
“Not exactly. To tell you the truth, I still don’t really know. The Voice basically says what Khphor wants to convey to us. Something like a controlled voice message. It’s a one-way system: he can use Panikoff to speak to you but you can’t speak back. Or rather, you could — and the Voice might even reply — but it wouldn’t be Khphor talking to you. Not that it matters anymore,” he grunted like an old man and looked me in the eye. “So basically, the Seniors’ Council has two scenarios for you now. One is to leave everything as it is and in due time abduct you to conduct repeat trials. But those who suggest it are in the minority. The others demand you be wiped but you see, any such unscheduled abduction takes way too much energy. It’s easier for them to perform repeat trials. The rest would depend on how you perform. You either pass it or not, in which case they’ll make sure to uninstall it properly and completely steam-roll your memory. You’ll forget all the events of the past year at least.”
“And what’s the second option?”
“That’s what I’m supposed to offer you. You need to uninstall the program voluntarily.”
“How can I do that?”
“Wait a sec. Let me finish. I can tell you how to do it. In return, you’ll keep all your memories — but on top of that, you will also preserve all the skills and characteristics you’ve already acquired. With the exception of the system ones, of course. And as a personal bonus from me, you’ll get a good contract for your company and a million bucks in cash. With your humble ambitions, this money should last you for the rest of your life, especially if you manage to invest it wisely.”
Hero Page 20