Chapter 1 .Introduction

On Sunday evening, the building of the business center on Upper Embankment was plunged into darkness. Not a single luminous window - only at the entrance on the ground floor.The two were talking in the underground parking lot. They were each standing near their car, close to each other. There was no one else, and the only light was on in the security guard's booth at the entrance. From him, the speakers were seen as indistinct shadows.- Tomorrow the company will change its owner."Are you sure there's nothing you can do about it?"- Exactly. You can't argue against such a colossus. It's useless, you'll just lose everything you have.- And now what?- And the fact that we will try on the sly. Suddenly ride? I can’t imagine who will be put in charge, but what if some pretentious fool?- They don't keep fools there, as if they hadn't heard.- I heard, but you never know how it really is? So this company is not the most profitable acquisition, why would a smart person need it? But all the same, you need to sit quietly, quietly, like a mouse under a broom, and not stick out. And do things slowly.- What if they cover it?- Yes, who will cover something! Here we have another six months to figure out what and where! Don't worry, let's break through. Just be quiet and careful.- Frets. Until tomorrow then.- And you don't get sick.The men got into their cars and drove outside. The guard looked, made sure that no one was there, locked the gate, turned off the remaining light, put his head on his folded hands and began to snore.Vic returned home as he had planned - on Sunday evening. The weekend went well - we went with a couple of friends to one glorious swamp on the Olkhinsky plateau and crossed it on the Vikov off-road vehicle. Everything was as it should be - we arrived on Saturday, explored the terrain and relief, spent the night in a winter camp nearby, and on Sunday they already drowned the car, then pulled it out and crossed the swamp, and the time came to return to Irkutsk. It was possible to spend the night in the city, but my father called and ordered me to be with him in Listvyanka in the evening.To Listvyanka, so to Listvyanka. After what he has already traveled, another seventy kilometers do not play any role. Yes, and there is no dinner in a city apartment, and Aunt Nina will not leave her father hungry.They were waiting for Vic - the gates were thrown open as soon as he turned onto a curved, climbing uphill street. One of the local boys, it seems, is Sasha's nephew, the son of Mike's brother. Exactly, he, and some of his friends-neighbors with him - the holidays have begun, so no one drives them home and sleep. The boys looked with admiration at the dirty car, carefully touched it, and when Vik was already climbing the long stairs to the door of the house, he heard the nine-year-old Sasha say importantly:- This is Uncle Vik's special car, you can even drown it in a swamp, and nothing will happen to it!Aunt Nina met, groaned.- Oh, and you're dirty! There was a desire to drag myself into the forest, there was no normal food, no water, nothing! So it’s not long to catch a cold, and plant the stomach!“Aunt Ninochka, you know that nothing is being done to me,” Vic gently kissed his aunt. - Is your father at home?- Where can he be! You, quickly to the bathhouse and to the table, we are just waiting for you!- Can I take a shower if it's quick?- Go warm yourself, to whom you told! Mishenka is already there, waiting for you.Well, if Mike is already there, then it's all the more time for him. At the same time, he learns that his father has a fire.The bathhouse stood in the yard on the outskirts, another ladder led down to it from the house down the slope of the hill. Vic, out of childish habit, practically rolled down and stopped exactly in front of the door.- Appeared, tramp? Mike asked from inside.“Where am I going to go,” Vic muttered, closing the door behind him, more to himself than anyone else.Mike is a year younger, but they've been together all their lives, like twins. And everything was enough for two of them - friends, entertainment-adventure, then, when they grew up, work in their father's business. Only now Mike has a family, but what a great wife and three children, but Vic did not work out. I mean, he had a wife too. Some time. But it didn't work out.Then they steamed, and splashed water with fir oil on the stove, and scraped each other's backs. Mike also had a good weekend - on Saturday he drove Sasha with friends through the source of the Angara to the old Circum-Baikal railway, and today he hung out somewhere in the city with biker buddies.- Why did your father boil, you don’t know? Vic asked as they sat squeaky clean on the porch, wrapped in towels, panting.No, he didn't split. Apparently, he wants to tell everyone at once."Then we've got to go," Vic got up, piled up his dirty clothes to toss into the laundry room on the way, and waited for Mike to clean up after them inside.Then both began to slowly climb up the hill to the house.Father was already sitting at the table, and together with Lerochka, a four-year-old granddaughter, fed the cat Bars under the table - while Aunt Nina does not see, she will not tolerate such indecency. Not that she could tell her older brother what to do, but she would definitely snort.Vik chuckled to himself - yeah, if Valentine Ledyany would see his numerous enemies now, they would fall on the spot. Himself, personally, fiddling with grandchildren and cats - where has this been seen? But after all, he sits, winks at Lerochka, Lerochka laughs happily, the cat purrs something, hiding under the tablecloth, only the tip of the tail is visible from under the tablecloth and trembles slightly. Lerochka's mother and Mike's wife Alice are also sitting next to each other and smiling. Sashka managed to see his friends off and take a bath, pretending with all his might that he was well-mannered, but no, no, and he will look under the tablecloth, he almost turned all the appliances upside down. The youngest in their family, two-year-old Fyodor, was neither seen nor heard - however, they put him to bed and left him under the supervision of a nanny. Vic greeted everyone, with his father - by the hand, kissed Alice and Lerochka, and sat down in his usual place.However, Aunt Nina came in and everyone pretended that nothing special was happening, just think - the tail sticks out from under the table and twitches in time with the rumbling. She ordered a couple of assistants to unload potatoes, meat, a sliced ​​pie, jugs of fruit drink and kvass, and a dish of bread onto the table, then dismissed them. Various snacks were already on the table - lightly salted omul, homemade boiled pork - its pieces fell on the cat, pickles, pickled tomatoes, and even salted milk mushrooms remained from last summer. Go for wild garlic next weekend, or something, Vic thought. Yes, and the taiga is now blooming - it's time to collect all sorts of herbs, the wild rosemary there is pig, lingonberry color, you can even dangle on Arshan, there sagan-dali, you would also pick up in stock. Everyone in the family loves tea with herbs.But the father interrupted these blissful thoughts in the most ruthless way.“I specifically waited until you all got together to tell the news. So, yesterday I added to Genka Nedolyubov. And his transport company is now ours.“Congratulations,” Mike and Alice said at the same time, and both of them laughed.- Well, you give, - Vic admired.Nedolyubov's transport company was engaged in the transportation of various goods. And at least half of the company's turnover was made by cargoes from the Icemen - mostly timber, but the company did not work well. Somewhere the drivers were late, somewhere the documents were delayed, somewhere the conditions of transportation were not observed. And my father decided that rather than creating his own unit from scratch, it was easier to take a ready-made one and put it in order. And he suggested that Nedolyubov sell the actually unprofitable property.Nedolyubov was not eager to part with the company. To be independent and to have the Iceman holding as partners was worth a lot. Another thing is that in order to maintain this status, it was necessary not to sleep and not be stupid, but to tear your ass at work, as all other partners and employees of Valentin Ledyany did, starting with his own sons. But Nedolyubov did not tense up. And people didn't bother him either.- And what did you take it with? Has he raised the price? Vic asked.“I have nothing to do but raise the price,” my father grumbled. - There are some sins behind him, so I threatened those who should find out about them. It's his own fault, I would have agreed right away - it would not have come to this.