Martinezs face was full of deep-seated disappointment and frustration. He clearly didnt like the negotiations. And Enrique Cruz was thinking about something intensely. Finally, he sighed and looked at me.
I respect your position, Igor, his voice seemed to express regret, but maybe I just imagined it, But the reality is, you cant run this business on your own. Youve already been turned down for loans and leases? Youre a smart man, and I think youve figured out by now that its not an accident. Trust me, its only gonna get worse. With all due respect, all sincere respect to your accomplishments, the arms market is not your level. Im sorry were on opposite sides of the table, but thats how life turned out, and theres nothing we can do about it. I do recommend that you reconsider our offer. I could double it, but I know its not about the money. Give up this business and join your team in the GWI. I think I can persuade the management to create a separate unit from your team. You will have virtually unlimited resources and the opportunity to work safely in a large corporation.
Thank you, Enrique, I thought Id call him by his first name, I understand that youre just doing your job, and your employer has given you the task of buying my company. But I cant help you. I need autonomy in decision-making. Complete autonomy, which is absolutely impossible in a vertically integrated corporation like the GWI. So I have to decline.
Is that your final decision, Mr Lavroff? In Martinezs voice, there was an irritation he could barely contain.
Its final, Mr Martinez.
Well, Im afraid youll soon have to regret that, Second Lieutenant, hissed the negotiator, Cause when the Commission of the Ministry of Defense comes to you in three months and sees that theres no real activity going on, its gonna revoke the license, and all your good intentions will be lost. And without money, youll have no activity. You may visit all the banks in the Federation, no one will work with you. At most, theyll promise something small and delay for months to make a decision. And if you try to find an outside investor, you know whos going to be behind his back.
Unfortunately, my colleague is right, Mr Lavroff, Cruz said mildly, You have my contact. Ill wait for the call. Our offer still stands. Well, as long as you have a license, of course. Only every day of your delay will reduce the amount offered by us by 2 million rubles. Its been a pleasure meeting you. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse us, we have business to attend to.
* * *
Not all partners are equally useful. I lost Rabinovich, and I had plans for him.
Im sorry, Igor, but if I were you, Id accept the offer. Its been a pleasure working with you, but Im afraid youll have to find another consultant, Rabinovich told me right after the GWI negotiators left.
I didnt feel sorry. Its best to part with an unreliable partner early in a relationship, than to get stabbed in the back later in a more serious situation. Right now, I didnt have time to think of Rabinovich. I had enough problems without him.
I went back to the office, locked myself there, picked up my tablet and started analyzing the situation. Initially, I was going to push into developing new Electronic Warfare stations. Using the knowledge of my civilization, I could quite significantly improve not only the circuits used in the production of electronic warfare equipment, but also the discrete components with which they were assembled. Thats what I needed the expensive equipment for. Now I could forget about it, but I cant say that my plans were completely thwarted because of that. After all, there was much that could be done with the Federations technology, using the software algorithms I knew. Well, well improve communications and electronic counteraction systems using what we have.
I looked into the catalogs of the manufacturers and started to figure out exactly what we might need and what amount of money it would cost us. In three months, I have to report to the Commission of the Ministry of Defense and it would be best if I presented a ready-to-act sample. About 40 minutes later, I realized I was stuck and called Jeff in. After spending another hour with him, I realized that it was bad and invited Professor Stein. As a result, our torment resulted in a full meeting of the entire team.
All right, gentlemen, Ive summed it up, We have found ourselves severely constrained by newly discovered circumstances. It is not possible to purchase expensive research and production equipment at this time, but we have another way. Well stop the prospective research on new processors for EW stations for now. Were not giving up on them definitively, but since from now on we can only count on ourselves for money, the projects that can prove to the Ministry of Defense our viability and get us a government order become our priority. With money from the realization of the state order we can continue our research.