Doing Lunch

by Doing Lunch Free(Lit)

  “Those lousy bastards, what do they think they are doing?” screamed Sophia as she began kicking the dining room chairs. She was very fortunate that for some strange reason, tonight she had decided to wear the shoes with the closed toes. Had her instincts really been on the money she would have worn combat boots. The chairs did not quite fill the bill to satisfy her anger and, breaking into her Carmen Miranda routine, Sophia grabbed the salt and pepper shakers, one in each hand, and heaved them.

  “Wait a minute Sophia, hold on!” She began to reach for a piece of crystal and Serge was fortunate enough to grab her.

  “Wait, we have some good wine we haven’t tried yet.” The words were just enough to stop Sophia from throwing it. While finding the comment humorous, she had enough strength to keep from smiling. Damn if she was going to let her husband think he were suave.

  “You’ve let them go too far, Serge, you have to stop them. The next thing you know they will be declaring our home eminent domain.” Sophia had sent a message home and she could tell it did by looking at the glaze in her husband’s eyes.

  “You are right, I have let them go too far. I must stop them immediately.” The firmness of Sergotoff’s voice convinced Sophia that her husband was committed to the proposition of returning the property to what she believed to be its rightful owners, the Communist Party.

  Alexi was feeling tired from the long weekend he had and it was all busy work for other people. Mikhail had convinced him that part of free enterprise hinged on community activity. He had pointed to organizations in American such as the Boy Scouts and the Little League, organizations that reflected the core of American life. When Allison pointed out that as premier, he was a leader, it would add credibility if he would help organize some community organization, Alexi felt compelled to provide aide. Since Mitchev loved soccer, Alexi had chosen to help organize a soccer league.

  Then on that Saturday night, Orlina was opening a new gym with the first installment of the loan promised her by President Garland Smith. The convenient thing about these workout centers was that there really was not much that had to be done to get them ready for business if you already had a facility. With all the vacant buildings in Moscow, that was no problem.

  The opening had gone better than expected and it gave Alexi hope that Russia’s economy was making progress. The gym had signed forty-one new members at a discounted price but the fact that people were willing to sign up to pay monthly dues showed him they had confidence in the economy. He doubled checked each application himself just to make certain that no one that signed up was employed by the government. After all, being premier, he was well aware that they were in arrears on the salaries.

  Sitting in his study, Alexi reviewed some papers that he had requested from various government agencies. Everything that he looked at brought a frown to his face and maybe his expected guests could deliver a plan that would help a situation that he viewed as hopeless. The door to the study opened and the foursome that constituted the mobile economic summit entered.

  “Great news, Alexi, the military hardware has been sold.” Although Alexi had known that Mikhail was trying to market the tanks and other pieces of hardware, he had hoped that it would not happen. In Alexi’s mind he thought that the only countries that might be interested in such materials were countries like Iran, Iraq and the likes. Why would a country with peace as their agenda want military hardware, Alexi questioned.

  “And which terrorist nation is it going to?”

  “Borneo,” responded B. Czar, which forced Alexi to change his focus since he had expected Mikhail to answer the inquiry.

  “Borneo! There isn’t enough room on Borneo to put it all.”

  “Exactly, Alexi. They want it because they want to turn it into a theme park.”

  “Military hardware for a theme park?”

  “Exactly,” answered Alexi’s nephew. Rising from his seat, Alexi began to move toward a small refrigeratorfreezer that he had.

  “The world is going nuts, I need a shot or two or three. Anybody want one?” The response was unanimous, which reminded Alexi about another major problem he wanted to discuss with Mikhail, alcoholism in Russia. Trying to come up with a remedy to that predicament over drinks, though, just was not the place. Going to the freezer, Alexi removed a brand new bottle of vodka along with five chilled glasses. Pouring the rounds, each waited until all five held a full glass of the clear liquid.

  “To full employment,” toasted Alexi, and the five indulged in their drinks.

  “Another?” asked the premier, who received four affirmative headshakes. Complying with the desires, he refilled the shot glasses. Again they were held high in anticipation of a toast.

  “To Russia’s first quarter of a point increase in the prime if it ever gets one,” offered Allison. While the others drank up, fully understanding the meaning of the toast, B. Czar knew he lost something along the way and it was not in the translation. He spoke perfectly good English.

  “It’s this way, B. Czar,” stated Russo, “ in America we have what is known as a prime lending rate for the banks best borrowers. If the economy is going well, the rates go up. If the economy is doing poorly, the rates go down.”

  B. Czar took it all in and fully understood what was said.

  “And I’m B. Czar?" asked the businessman with worldwide underground contacts. He quickly polished off his drink, needing it more now than when it was first poured. Alexi led the group toward a large table that he had in his study and took the bottle of vodka with him. The overpowering problem of trying to solve Russia’s economic dilemma had Alexi to the point with vodka that if at any session he did not come away with a solution to a problem, he would come away with a good night’s sleep. Everyone sat down in the contoured seats that B. Czar imported from Germany at half price.

  “So as you say in America, what is the game plan?”

  “I have an idea. Right now the companies that are coming into Russia for the breaks on the labor costs are agreeing in turn to train our people. That is but a small drop in the bucket. I would like to start taking the engineers we’ve been using and start working on developing fuel efficient cars,” was the suggestion put forth by Mikhail.

  “And this one thing will make Russia a major economic power? This I think not,” came the bad vibes from Alexi.

  “”Listen, Alexi, if we train the people and there are no jobs, we’ve done nothing. We need to develop a solid car, something that people would want to drive, something modern. I could get people from America to come over who know how to put it into production. Then our people could learn right beside them but the product would be something Russia developed. It will be our product.”

  “You think this is good, that we could do this?”

  “Russia has to, Alexi,” answered Allison, almost pleading for him to concur.

  “And what if the company hired lazy or tardy workers, what then, do they keep them putting in nuts and bolts in all the wrong places?”

  “We will do the same thing that we are doing now, we will allow the companies to terminate up to ten percent of the people they hire in any one year under the program,” advised Mikhail. “We need to make certain that just because a worker’s salary was increasing that they were not being fired under false pretenses, but we also give the company some protection if they hired the wrong person. It’ll be kind of like getting a divorce.”

  “Well then, these companies better make sure they don’t hire some guy with the name Mickey Rooney,” commented Russo.

  “So you have come up with a plan to train our people but what about the old, the ones that learned to do diddley squat under Communism, what about them?”

  “Maybe, Alexi, we could use them to help provide day care for the ones that are learning a trade. Maybe work assisting in social programs. The government could give them a small amount of money to help pay their expenses and give them medical coverage until Russia can develop a national medical plan,” suggested Allison, elaborating on Mikh
ail’s idea.

  The premier pondered the situation. He had come from Communism and not only did the head honchos pass the buck, so did the workers. Everyone always said, “let him do it.” Nobody ever quite knew who 'him' was, so whatever work needed to be done still needed to be done. The other side of the coin though, a side that disturbed Alexi a great deal, was the number of people that would end up homeless, without food. Alexi always allowed his compassion for man to seep into his thoughts whenever he thought it needed to be.

  “We will have many people who will be left to the streets.”

  “If you don’t do it, Alexi, there will be even more people left to the streets.” The hard decisions of being premier, the decisions that affected people’s lives, were tough for such a sensitive man as Alexi. Maybe it was for this reason that he never defected to the West and entered the business world. Maybe decision-making was something that rubbed against his nature and just hanging out at the university reading books and teaching was a way for him to deal with his shortcomings.

  “We will do it, then,” advised Alexi, the reluctance of his decision most noticeable in the deliberate manner in which he delivered the decision. The premier, who had taken the position in the hopes of saving Russia from returning to Communism, now found that his desire might be met. He was also discovering that the competitive market place might leave some behind. This being the first of the many hard decisions that Alexi knew he was going to have to make, he was not so sure now that he should be the one making them.

  “Good, we needed this, Alexi, because we know that our companies aren’t going to be too thrilled with the taxes that we are going to be proposing. At least this will give them some tax relief to train their employees.”

  Alexi was familiar with these terms, tax relief, job training, but to see it in action started making him realize that while the American system was not perfect, it had a far better chance of being productive. He viewed it as taking advantage of man’s greed as best as it could for a system that had to deal with so many people and still create a productive society.

  CHAPTER 13

  GOING PUBLIC

  The opening of the Moscow stock exchange was the center of attention on the world’s stage. If there was ever a single item that represented Russia’s rejection of the Bolshevik Revolution, this event was it. The trading was far more frantic than anticipated and when Mikhail and his friends saw the results of the first day, they realized that the world believed that they were going to turn the corner. It certainly did not matter that there were only sixty-two companies that traded shares on this historic day; the fact that shares traded at all was the point.

  Looking through a computer printout of the day’s results, Mikhail noticed that the most heavily traded stock was Caspian Incorporated, the name of the company they had given to the hotel chain that was going to run the two hotels in Nirvana. Mikhail expected that because the hotels were already turning a profit and were expected to continue to do so was the reason. Word of mouth about the service at both was spreading like wildfire and Mikhail was grateful that it was all good. It seemed that the decision to make the workers at the hotels forty percent owners paid off.

  Looking down the list, the second most traded stock was Land Freight Company, the railroad freight company that they developed to bring Russia’s natural resources to refinement areas and then to market. The company that placed third showed Mikhail that the way people reacted to the market was the same worldwide. The third most traded company was Siberia White Paper Company. While not profitable, this issue was purchased on a speculative basis since most investors knew there were plenty of trees in Russia.

  The new government, before establishing the company, laid down very environmentally stringent ground rules for the replanting of trees. Russia was fortunate in the starting up of these companies that they were going to be able to draw upon other country's mistakes and the newest in technology to combat them.

  “We have had a successful day,” advised Mikhail to his brain trust.

  “How did Siberian White Paper do?” inquired B. Czar.

  “Up three Chevecknys,” answered Mikhail, reading from the printout. The answer brought dollar signs to B. Czar’s eyes since the Russian government was still working on a design for the Cheveckny sign.

  “Has Alexi decided when he will send the hardware to Gdansk?” asked Russo.

  “Ants in your pants, Tim?”

  “You know I’m going to sit on the story about the sale until the ships pull out of Gdansk. Just curiosity.”

  “Well in all honesty, I don’t even know. When I talked to Alexi he said he had lots to find out, lots to check on. What he is checking on I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

  There was a knock on the door and Allison moved to answer it as if she already knew who would be there. She did, it was Wally from the ad agency.

  “Think we got it,” he boasted as he passed through the door jam with a bag under his arm. Reaching into the bag he removed a flag.

  “Grab that end,” he asked of Allison, who grabbed the end closest to her and walked several steps back to reveal the flag to the others. The flag had a gold bear on it with its arms wrapped around a tree. The scene was set against a forest green backdrop.

  “Impressive,” remarked Russo, the words of an outsider having a great deal of influence with Mikhail. While finding the flag striking, Mikhail did not want to let his emotional response sway his objectivity. Alexi and the Politburo would have the final say, however.

  “Think that is going to be the new flag of Russia?” Mikhail noticed that B. Czar was looking right at him when he asked the question so he felt safe to assume that it was meant for him.

  “I like it.”

  “Me, too,” added Allison, which now made it a consensus since Russo was the first to have expressed his opinion on the matter.

  “Okay, let me check around, I think I can get Russia a good deal on the flags. Should be able to get a good price on them from Taiwan.” Everyone smiled at the way B. Czar found someway to profit from just about everything.

  “You think the public might like flags like this?” asked B. Czar, his mind still focused on the profit motive.

  “I don’t see why not,” offered Allison.

  “Good. I think I’ll order about fifty thousand miniatures just in case.”

  The dark, small room in the rear of a bar found General Ryaskoff and the Foreign Minister slugging down vodkas. The darkness of the room was matched by their expressions, the anger filling their eyes.

  “I knew they would take the retreat in the Urals with eminent domain. I knew it!” pouted Sergotoff, who finished his shot glass and refilled it.

  “I loved that place. Now I must move my family into the city.” The general slugged down his vodka and the Foreign Minister played bartender, refilling the shot glass to the top.

  “The city was such a horrible place these days to try to raise children. The girls that had to work the streets to make money, the drugs, the black market, it was all horrible. In the country I could just give the boys guns and tell them to go kill something. This nephew of Alexi has turned everything around,” continued General Ryaskoff. The tone of his voice would lead anyone listening at the time to believe that his forthcoming life in the city was going to be worse than the two years he served as a protector at a labor camp at Tura.

  “We must overthrow this government, Ryaskoff, we must.”

  “I agree, Foreign Minister, but it is not going to be easy. I have talked to General Ardansky; he cannot be trusted. I will have to be very careful about who I talk to,” advised General Ryaskoff.

  “When we do gain control we will have to let the people have a little more than we did before. There are now more people who have tasted more of life even with all the unemployed.”

  “I agree, but we must be firm, we must maintain control.”

  “You must again try to set up a network in the military, General, so that we can enforce our policies. I will
create an internal network in the government to make certain that we can begin moving when we have control.”

  The slightest hint of a smile rose to General Ryaskoff’s lips as he poured himself another shot. Downing it in one slug, he poured another and did the same thing. Sergotoff now began to wonder whether he wanted to go into business with this man. Realizing that they would be running a government together and not a liquor store, Sergotoff just sloughed it off as something that came with the territory.

  “Have you thought about the man who replaced you at Tura, General Norlov?” asked the Foreign Minister, with the faintest of hopes that his words were registering with General Ryaskoff.

  “Ah yes, General Norlov. Snarly old bastard.”

  “Yes, General, that he is. Remember one thing, though, he likes power just like you and I.”

  “Yes, but what if he wants it all, he might turn against us.”

  “Do we really have a choice, though? We need all the support we can get now.”

  General Ryaskoff poured another drink but this time merely played with the full glass while he thought about the situation. He tried to reflect back to when he really had face-to-face contact with the underlings. He had been assigned to the Kremlin so long just making up orders that he really was not certain who performed what function. He really was out of touch and this situation needed someone who had hands on knowledge. Working with General Norlov was something that he was going to have to agree to and then he would just have to watch his back when they were successful.

  “I will contact Norlov as soon as possible.”

  “It will have to be soon before Alexi declares the military hardware eminent domain.”

  “It will be soon.” General Ryaskoff slugged the drink down with gusto, making certain that every drop passed through his esophagus.