Buying Brazil (Buying Brazil Trilogy Book 1)

by Arthur Rawl

  “Probably not. His family were cattle ranchers with a lot of land and a lot of cows before he went in the army and not considered really rich. But remember, he isn’t the only one who benefited during the Golden Years. You’ve been looking around. Life isn’t that bad for the common man today. People are not starving on the street like we’ve seen in Africa and parts of Asia. We joke about the favelas but in them the poor people have a roof over their heads and a place to call home complete with cold water and some electricity. Could things be better? Of course but compared to 1964 when the military took over things are much better for the average Brazilian.”

  “Ok, forget I asked please. I don’t need a history lesson.”

  In São Paulo weekends start early afternoon on Friday and so by 7:30 when we left the Maksoud it took only a few minutes to get to Rua Augusta and less than ten more to get downhill from the ridgeline, Ave Paulista, to the comparatively empty streets of the Jardims.

  As we turned onto The General’s street Robin in a low uncertain voice whispered, “There’s something going on. There must be a dozen uniforms ahead carrying machine guns.”

  “Are they shooting anybody?”

  “Don’t be funny. Maybe we should back out of here.”

  “There’s two reasons we shouldn’t back out. First, we will look suspicious and may provoke an unwanted reaction. Second, we will miss dinner. That end of the street is a secure zone at night because the General’s house is there. Also you are forgetting we are in Alana’s car with her staff.”

  The car slowed and lowered its headlights as we approached the beginning of the wall surrounding the General’s property. Then we stopped, the driver lowered his window, a stern face and camouflaged shoulders filled the opening. After a brief exchange in rapid unintelligible Portuguese we started to move forward toward the familiar heavy wooden entry. “Shit …! This is like some damned third world spy movie.”

  “The man likes his privacy.”

  “… and I don’t like all the damned hardware.”

  “Feel free to share that view over dinner.”

  “Very funny …”

  We passed through the open gateway and down the short ramp to the well-lit underground garage stopping at the elevator lobby where a uniformed guard waited to escort us up to the garden level.

  “At least he knows how to treat guests. Even the garage is air conditioned.”

  “Relax Robin, he is just a friendly old grandfather.”

  Alana was waiting when the elevator opened at the garden level. She was wearing a simple emerald green silk dress that wasn’t too short or too tight and no jewelry except for the emerald earrings I had given her that were dull compared to the brilliance of her emerald eyes. “Good evening, you look lovely tonight Alana.”

  “Thank you but Robin is the real beauty tonight.”

  “I thought you were too classy to tell a lie.”

  “You are right Robin, I never lie. Dieter is here and Juan Batista is expected shortly. I don’t believe you have met Juan have you Robin?”

  “No but Carl has mentioned him.”

  Taking Robin’s arm, “Come, the General and Dieter are having a drink in the library. I will introduce you.”

  As we started from the elevator I looked left toward the General’s office. The light was on above its covered patio and in the deep shadow next to the patio a helmeted armed guard in full battle dress was just visible. It was where I had seen a guard during one of my prior visits. I hesitated for a moment and, as I became separated from Alana by several paces, he started from the shadows only to withdraw as I hurried to catch up with her.

  We crossed the vaulted patio with its classical Portuguese tile floor facing out from the house into the garden then through French doors into the spacious library with dark wood bookshelves reflecting the light from two dimmed chandeliers suspended from the high ceiling. Thousands of leather-bound books lined the walls and thick oriental rugs covering the entire floor creating a hush in the room that absorbed the voices of the General and Dieter seated in deep leather wing chairs at the far end of the room and silenced the air conditioning.

  Alana crossed the length of the room holding tight to Robin’s arm eliminating any opportunity for her to hesitate. She stopped in front of the two old men allowing her presence to interrupt their conversation. Then, “Good evening Papa, good evening Dieter.”

  “Aranni looked up and smiled, “Boa noite, meu filha.”

  “Papa, let me introduce a colleague. This is Sra. Robin Stephens, Carl’s partner.”

  While walking from the elevator Alana had strategically adjusted Robin’s silk shawl. The General shifted his eyes to Robin then after a moment stood up, “I am delighted to meet you. I am also very pleased to see you have chosen to wear my small gift.”

  I could see Robin’s shoulders relax as a wide smile spread her lips. Lips that were unaccustomed to lipstick of any color but particularly the deep sophisticated red Dazlu’s cosmetician must have selected for her. “It’s an honor to meet you General. I’ve read a great deal about you and have enjoyed visiting the wonderful new Brazil you helped create. And, thank you for your most kind and thoughtful gift. Alana has told me where its design came from and that makes it very special for me. I will treasure it.”

  “You are much younger and more beautiful than I imagined. Alana has told me about you and how you have helped achieve the success we celebrate tonight. We are still waiting for our last companion so, if you will forgive an old man, come walk with me in my garden. I know I will talk too much about my flowers but perhaps you and I will find other things to talk about, come.”

  As they walked back toward the garden end of the room Aranni nodded his head to a servant almost invisible in a shadowed corner of the room and slowly the garden became filled with light none of which seemed to spill over the walls or escape into the sky above.

  Turning to Alana, “That was quick.”

  “He never misses an opportunity to show off his garden. There are four gardeners who spend most of every day keeping it just the way he wants it. He can spend hours walking there when he has a problem to solve or there is someone difficult he has talked to but still needs persuasion and there is a decision he has to make. It is his private place. Only the family shares it with him with the exception of only very few who he feels needs gentle convincing that his way is better.”

  “Robin is in the last category?”

  “I think so. He and I discussed future work in Brazil where the two of you could be helpful to his business. I told him Robin’s introduction to Brazil was not what he would have liked it to be. I also told him when BrasTel is done there is a good chance she will end your partnership.”

  I looked into the garden where they were walking arm in arm with their heads inclined toward each other. I knew Aranni by reputation but I knew Robin from years of working side by side through a hundred crises. With a silent chuckle, I decided they were evenly matched.

  “General, here the rest of São Paulo seems to have disappeared. It’s like we are alone on some country lane in a quiet valley.”

  “Thank you, Miss Stephens. I assure you São Paulo and all its energy and excitement are just outside my gate.”

  “Please call me Robin. Yes, I know but your garden is so peaceful with only the sound of bubbling water coming from somewhere around the dark turn in the path ahead. It is peaceful enough for me to almost forget that outside all of the city’s energy and excitement can be dangerous to someone who is alone.”

  “You are right Robin. My city has become like most of the big cities of the world filled with opportunities and riches and also countless risks. Like in other cities the strong see opportunities and riches and the weak see only the risks. But you are not weak so why are you having trouble seeing beyond risks.”

  “I see that Alana has talked to you about Carl and I.”

  “She is like my daughter and feels the responsibility to be sure I am told where I may help make thing
s a little better. She understands my views regarding serving my country and my countrymen. Government leaders carry a special responsibility to see past today to a better tomorrow and then help with what is necessary to reach that better tomorrow and the one after it.”

  “I think I should speak frankly.”

  “It is always best to do so. It is the first step to understanding.”

  “Let me start with the fact that Carl and Alana think some of the difficulties Carl has been faced since coming here have frightened me into my decision to go my own way. They’re wrong … period. Regardless of the noises I make there isn’t anything or anyone I’m afraid of. Growing up in business I found it useful to sometimes make the big strong men around me think they were protecting me particularly when there really weren’t any great risks involved. However, when risks become serious I’m going to look out for myself with my own two hands because I can do it better almost all the time.”

  “You know something of my history so I am sure you will agree I share the same confidence in my abilities as you so I can understand why Carl’s keeping you uninformed presented you with risks that could not be assessed nor efficiently eliminated. Not being open with a trusted colleague is an almost unforgiveable sin. I say almost because in this case Carl unconsciously thought he was being noble and valuing your safety above his own. It is a very English weakness. It is the same weakness that cost Carl’s father his life … and saved mine.”

  Robin slid her arm free of the General’s and turned to look directly into his eyes, “What do you want General?” Touching the diamond pin at her shoulder, “What’s the message you’re trying to deliver with your excessive generosity?”

  A smile touched his lips momentarily, “Ah, the right questions and I will give you the simple answers. You and Carl work well as a team but I am sure there are others who are as well matched. I want the two of you to remain in your business partnership because I have a personal interest in his success and therefore yours. My generosity is selfish. My gifts were a way of provoking this conversation and showing you that working here with Carl will have very worthwhile rewards by anyone’s measure.”

  “You expect me to stay in Brazil the rest of my life?”

  “I know better than that. I intend to direct enough work to Carl over the years I have left to make him very wealthy in order to repay my debt to his father. You will share the same benefits because I believe he needs your help and support. Perhaps one year you would spend three or four months here. Perhaps then next you would spend six. I have been given pictures of the estate Carl inherited from his stepfather and know it is the right place for him when he gets old. Until then I want him to share his time between here and there or wherever else my business needs him.”

  “I have a feeling that’s pretty close to what Alana wants for herself. I assume the two of you have discussed that also.”

  “We have but understand I am acting for my own interests. Alana is like a daughter to me and, in most things, I treat her as I would my own child. To my wife, she is our daughter. But, she is not my blood and she understands that. Am I being clear enough?”

  “Very clear General. Your interest in me and what I do next is strictly business. With Carl, it’s different but not so very different except for a debt of honor you consider very important.”

  “What do you think Robin? Do you want to do things your way or our way?

  “I know your world is very complicated and I don’t want to know anything about it. All I want is to know enough about what you involve me in to allow me to manage my own life my way. I like my work because every deal is different so it’s never dull.”

  “What you ask is not unusual. It is also not difficult as long as it does not change with the passing of time. Remain frank and open with me and we will have no problems. If there is something that you do not like tell me. I cannot promise it will change or go away but I do promise I will listen with an open mind.”

  “That seems reasonable. We should go back in before Carl begins to worry.”

  “Alana told me I would like you. As usual she is right. We will go back when we have finished our walk. There is more to see and I enjoy showing it to people I can trust. Alana will attend to Carl.”

  “The garden is lovely but if you’re waiting to hear what I plan to do when BrasTel is done, I promise to tell you just after I’ve told Carl.”

  “To quote you, “That seems reasonable.” When do you think it will happen?”

  “Truthfully, I don’t know.”

  “Then, make a promise to me please. Promise you will give me an opportunity to change your mind if I am not happy with the direction you have chosen.”

  “General I’ll make you this promise, I’m always open for an invitation to dinner.”

  A big smile spread across Aranni’s face lighting his eyes with a grandfatherly twinkle and turning the corners of his usually stern lips up, “Yes I do like you. In some ways you remind me of myself when I was at your age.”

  “Maybe General but I won’t grow up to change a large and very important country for the better.”

  “Thank you, most outsiders would not see it that way. I did learn one thing of value over the years. I learned we never know where the future will take us and what it will require of us.”

  “How true that is and I have learned how little control we have over our lives until we stop listening to everyone else and make up our own minds.”

  Smiling warmly his eyes still twinkling in amusement, “Come, let’s go in for dinner. You should feel sure I will hold you to your promise to join me for at least one more dinner together.”

  Chapter 32

  “Good morning or should I say good afternoon? I checked and the money was still in the bank.”

  “It’s still good morning Robin even if I slept a little late. You really didn’t think Dieter sent a wire with a string on it. Did you enjoy dinner last night?”

  “You never know. That’s why I moved most of the money into another account this morning. We’ll get a little interest and I’ll sleep better. Dinner, yes I did except for your girlfriend turning the dear General loose on me. I don’t like telling someone who is as handy with guns as he has to be to take a hike.”

  “What do you mean? Slow down please, I don’t understand.”

  “That walk in the garden last night wasn’t a walk in the park. Alana wanted her General to change my mind about going my own way after this deal is done. It didn’t work.”

  “That doesn’t sound like her.”

  “It most certainly does. She’s a chip off the old General’s block when it comes to having things her way. I know you plan to marry her so I can almost understand your bad eyesight. I like working with her. She’s a classy broad and damned smart but I still intend to make up my own mind about what I’m going to do with my life. Well maybe except for picking out clothes. Then she’s invited.”

  “Are you sure about the General, his motives?”

  “Well he didn’t break out the thumb screws but he also didn’t deny he was doing Alana’s errand when I called him on it.”

  “Damn I’m going to …”

  “Don’t bother. All you’ll do is make a problem for yourself. I took care of the General myself and if he tries to pressure me I’ll do it again.”

  Robin was right, she’s a big girl who can take care of herself so I should keep my nose out of it. “Did you find anything out about the accounting staff from Rossi’s office?”

  “Yep, they temporarily hired two guys from their outside CPA firm. They’ll work for Rossi’s firm and anything they do will be confidential attorney work product. Oh yah … they both went to universities in the US and speak good English.”

  “That’s good, I’m not expecting to find any problems but you never know. What about the post-closing financials?”

  “BrasTel’s accountants are finishing their review today. We should have their report and the financials in two days including today.”

/>   “The Purchase and Sale Agreement calls for the buyer to raise any questions within two weeks after the closing. Rossi’s accountants should be here today and tomorrow getting familiar with the numbers so they can get right on the post-closing financials when we get them.”

  “Already arranged. They’ll be here by midmorning and copies of the latest financial packages we have are waiting on the conference room table. I’ll give them the usual speech about what we’re looking for.”

  “As long as we don’t run into anything earth shaking we should be right on time.”

  “I dug out the post-closing review work plan from the last hard asset deal we’ve done that was close to this size. It should be a good tool to help these guys look in the most likely places first.”

  “Do something else please. Send a routine sounding confirmation letter to Dieter’s bank in Vienna requesting confirmation of all wires sent incident to the deal.”

  “Something tickling your nose?”

  “Maybe … maybe not. There was something about the Committee meetings with Dieter and me that doesn’t feel quite right. When I was there all the questions I got were softballs and judging from Dieter’s comments after his session with them, he got all hardballs thrown at him. That and his unscheduled pressing need to meet with the General.”

  “You think they squeezed him for something on the side?”

  “It’s possible but I really don’t want to know as long as our files contain enough evidence of diligence to keep us clean.”

  “Consider it done. What else?”

  “Yes, the deal’s done and our part of it is almost over. Have you started to think about what you’re going to do next?”

  “No, I’ve decided to sleep on it for a couple of weeks when I’m back in the States. There’s something about this place that makes thinking straight a little more twisted than I’m used to. It’s not just the people. There’s something in the air. Maybe it’s the voodoo the tourist handbooks talk about oozing out of all the witch doctor nuts and twigs shops all over the place.”