'Yes.'
'Shavash was right, then,' Kissur said.
'How dare you!' Bemish shouted, leaping up — and he saw Kissur's contorted face in front of him and the white knuckles on his fist. Bemish managed to duck the first punch. The second one threw him off the chair and to the floor. Bemish somersaulted and bounced back on his feet, the Kissur's boot square tip missed his ear by a centimeter.
Bemish had a chance of holding his own against Kissur but Khanadar the Dried Date was also in the office.
'Dumb jerk,' Bemish screamed getting in a fighting stance but here Khanadar grabbed him by the elbows. At the next moment, Kissur's knee collided with Bemish's groin; Kissur turned and kicked Bemish in the ear with the same leg. The Earthman collapsed to the floor. Kissur sat atride him and started to choke him.
'Haven't I told you,' Kissur hissed sitting astride the expiring Earthman, 'that I would kill you?'
Bemish grunted and hissed striving to say something. Khanadar approached and stood next to them.
'Let him go for a second,' Khanadar said, 'let him admit that he wanted to cheat us from the very beginning. He thinks it's a planet he can take a good crap at.'
Kissur grinned and loosened up the clench. Bemish lay like a worm on a garden path.
'Idiot,' the financier coughed, 'I wanted to buy Assalah.'
An atrocious kick with a boot in the ribs silenced him.
'Again.'
'I wanted to buy Assalah. Trevis was ready to finance the deal. I don't know why he refused. He was browbeaten.'
Another kick followed, this time it was the groin.
'Liar! Trevis didn't refuse anything. You were playing your favorite game! You took us for worms, didn't you?'
'I wanted to buy Assalah. Trevis was browbeaten.'
'Who?'
'Shavash.'
'Yeah? Why wasn't it IC?'
'IC has headquarters in an Arkansas dog's kernel. Their balls are too small to push Trevis around. They should buy a new fax machine first.'
'Why is Shavash afraid of you?'
'Shavash wants a buyer who will blink at all his frauds. It was not a company — they were just pumping the budget money into private pockets! Last year Shavash secretly issued more bonds! I think that this goes against even the bizarre local securities regulations.'
'What is 'secret bond issue?'
'I don't know. I have never stumbled upon such a financial product as a secretly issued bond in all my life. But, basically, it means that Shavash re-divided the company accordingly to his wishes — he gave his friends more and he devalued the stocks belonging to his enemies or bystanders.'
'What about the state's share?'
'It depends on how many additional shares the state obtained.'
'He is lying through his teeth,' Khanadar said. 'They would have arranged it with Shavash about thieving. He was going to cheat us from the very beginning.'
'No!'
'All right,' Kissur said. 'I will believe you but only with one condition. You will sell the company shares at the same price you bought them.'
'No.'
Kissur grinned and took one of the swords hanging in the room from a prop. He got it out of the sheath and pushed its triangular tip in Bemish's throat.
'Yes, or I will kill you.'
Bemish licked his lips. He didn't doubt that Kissur would kill him. It's stupid. Terence Bemish, a successful financier, half-crook half-genius, had never considered ending his life in a huge city manor of an Empire ex- minister — in the manor, where not a single servant would ever blurt out anything about his fate or, to the opposite, all the servants would swear that Bemish left the manor gate whole and unhurt… Nobody would ever prove anything. Even Shavash would not kill him. Not because he minded killing, but because he was a rational man and he clearly would not want Weia to be declared a place where foreign investors were found with their throats cut… Nothing is cheaper than hiring a killer. But Shavash didn't kill Bemish, he went for Trevis instead — it was an order of magnitude more difficult and expensive…
'If I don't sell the shares with a rake-off,' Bemish said, 'I'll go bankrupt. They will point their fingers at me. I will not do what you want.'
'Take your knife, Kissur, and cut his balls off, ' Khanadar said, 'it doesn't befit you to dirty your noble sword by a money-grubber.'
'You wanted that from the very beginning, didn't you?'
'No, I wanted to buy Assalah.'
'How much do you need to buy Assalah?'
'If only half of my potential creditors fulfill their promises without Trevis, I'll need five million.'
'I will find this money,' Kissur said, throwing the sword back in the sheath and he left.
THE SIXTH CHAPTER
Where company AC declares its real name while Mr. Shavash mentions several unexpected thoughts about democracy's drawbacks
The announcement of the investment auction for the acquisition of the state-owned block of shares was published in the government's White Herald a day before the application deadline. The announcement mandated that the auction participants should turn in a deposit of 6 % of projected investment and should demonstrate reliable proof of being able to fulfill the assumed financial obligations.
Trevis hadn't called Bemish since — it was below his dignity. On the other hand, the corporate financing department head called and told Bemish that he didn't need to hurry back to Trevis' headquarters since he wouldn't be received anyway.
The next day, Bemish stepped out of a luxurious limo that arrived at the ministry of finance, formerly first minister Rush's palace. A crowd was already there, including the local financiers who, having heard about the Assalah fray, were willing to risk taking part in the auction. Kissur appeared in the registration hall at almost the same time as Bemish.
Shavash, the director of the company offered for tender, ignored Bemish utterly. He was talking to an Earth journalist. The subject of the talk was the importance of foreign investors — only they were able to force Weian companies to correspond to international audit standards and raise Empire finances to a new level.
Bemish silently watched the official registering his application and entering the necessary financial contrivances into the computer. What if this bastard makes an error and Bemish won't be allowed to participate on technical grounds.
The official finished the registration, shoved an embossed sheet with the application in the printer and, having printed everything, carried it to Shavash for a signature. Shavash, without being distracted from the progressive interview, signed everything.
Bemish moved away to a small table where, by Weian custom, fruits and a special bowl constantly filled with peach juice stood. The juice filled the bowl through a special tube and symbolized the everlasting plenty. Bemish poured some juice in a cup and here Giles approached him.
'Can I ask you where you got the money?' Giles enquired.
'The investment company Plana offered me credit.'
'What kind of company is it?'
