Chapter 9
Yevgeniy Borisovich was recovering slowly. First, the danger to his life was over, then he regained his memory, and gradually, his speech. He was in control of his body, although his left arm and left leg did not obey him very well.
He was transferred from the critical care unit to a regular ward. The money had its effect, and he was placed in a small, two-bed room rather than a common, six-bed one. For a neighbor, Nina’s father had a man who had had a bypass surgery. The man was recovering, too, so the atmosphere in the room was not bad.
Nina and Lydia Grigorievna visited their patient every day – by turns, or sometimes, together. The doctor hardly talked to them – he had a lot of new concerns on his mind. “It’s all right,” he would reply to their questions. “Everything should be all right now. You know, you should consider yourself lucky – things could’ve been much worse. You’re doing the right thing by visiting him. He needs to be talked to. But of course, he must not be agitated.”
Lydia Grigorievna established her own order in the room – she cleaned it herself, replaced the grey, threadbare hospital sheets with some good ones which she brought from home, put some flowers in a vase and then changed them every day. “All that is important. Small things like that are very important,” she kept telling Nina. And, of course, she was feeding Yevgeniy Borisovich herself – having agreed the menu with the doctor, she was cooking everything at home and bringing the food to the hospital in small pots.
Following the doctor’s recommendation, Lydia Grigorievna did a lot of talking to her husband; in fact, she would have done that without any recommendations. Sitting by his bed and holding his hand, she talked for hours – about the weather, her cooking plans for the next day, and so forth – just about anything that came to her head.
Yevgeniy Borisovich hardly ever made any response – it was hard for him to speak, and maybe, he was not inclined to, either. Without taking away his hand, he kept gazing at the ceiling – either listening to his wife, or being immersed in some thoughts of his own. After he told Lydia Grigorievna and Nina what had happened at the committee session, he never talked about that again – in fact, he never referred to the project, his company or anything that was outside the hospital walls. Whenever he opened his mouth, he spoke about something very specific and momentary such as another pillow he wanted to be put under his head, the meal brought by his wife or a sparrow chirping outside the window. Lydia Grigorievna kept watching his face anxiously trying to detect signs of mental anguish or depression. However, the man’s face did not reflect anything at all – it looked aloof and serene.
Nina did not possess Lydia Grigorievna’s talent for idle talk. Also, she had had little contact with her father in recent years and was at a loss not knowing what to talk to him about. She tried reading to him instead – she read stuff from papers and magazines or just anything that fell into her hands. Her father did not seem to mind her reading but he hardly listened to her and barely responded when she said goodbye to go home.
When the first fear for the life of Yevgeniy Borisovich had passed, the question arose which nobody wanted to let into their mind let alone discuss openly. The company. What was going to become of it? What were they supposed to do? Nina’s father would not breathe a word about it – as if he had clean forgotten that he owned a business in which he had invested years of his life and all his means.
Nina phoned Nikolai Nikolayevich, her father’s assistant in the company. That was an engineer of the same age and the same background as Yevgeniy Borisovich – formerly, the two had worked in the syndicate together. Nikolai Nikolayevich was a pure technician – he did not know the first thing about business. When Yevgeniy Borisovich was in the office, the man was always on some site or other, so Nina barely knew him. With Nina’s father in hospital, Nikolai Nikolayevich took over the company’s current affairs.
When she learned that the company was not left unattended, Nina calmed down a little. In contrast, Nikolai Nikolayevich spoke very anxiously. He asked Nina for an immediate meeting.
The moment Nina stepped into the office, the engineer rushed to her. “What a misfortune, Nina Yevgenievna! We here are out of our mind with worry for Yevgeniy Borisovich! Believe me, not only we respect your father – we love him, too…”
“Yes, sure, thank you, Nikolai Nikolayevich,” Nina replied absent-mindedly. She had a lot on her mind and was not in the mood for exchanging sympathies. “Tell me, how are things with the company? How are the works going on?”
“The works…” The engineer sighed heavily. “Why don’t we sit down, Nina Yevgenievna?”
He sank into a chair. Nina sat beside him.
Nikolai Nikolayevich put Nina in the picture. According to him, he had managed to maintain the works on all the projects except for the main one – the one that had been killed by the committee. Nothing was being done on the big project, and nobody knew what should or could be done.
“You know, Nina Yevgenievna, I’ve visited Yevgeniy Borisovich in the hospital. You didn’t know? I have, they let me in for five minutes. I expected him to give me some instructions.”
“Did he?” asked Nina.
“At first, I thought he did not recognize me,” the engineer recounted dejectedly. “But then I saw that he did – he even called me by my name. But he didn’t say a word about work. Do you know what he said to me? He said that I should take care of my health – relax, take long walks… As if I had time for walks now!”
The man kept silent for a while, then plucked up his courage and asked, “Tell me, Nina Yevgenievna, what’s going to happen now? The company is in for shutdown? The men are going to lose their jobs?”
Nina had expected those questions, but she did not have any answers to them.
“I don’t know, Nikolai Nikolayevich. Honestly, I don’t know. I hope, things will sort themselves out soon. For the time being, please carry on doing what you can.”
Nikolai Nikolayevich nodded sadly.
“Of course, of course. But here’s the thing…”
He explained the problem to Nina. Her father had not left anyone a power of attorney necessary to manage the company. Without one, Nikolai Nikolayevich could not withdraw any money from the company’s bank account in order even to pay the employees the wages they had earned.
“Nina Yevgenievna, you’re visiting him often. Could you possibly settle that?”
Nina promised to see about that.
When she was about to leave, she said on an impulse, “Nikolai Nikolayevich, strictly between you and me – the company will possibly be sold. Can you make up a list of employees who you think must be kept?”
“So that’s it,” muttered Nikolai Nikolayevich. “That’s how things are. All right… I get it.”
Stunned by what he had heard, he dragged himself to a desk, took a leaf of paper and put down a dozen names.
“Thank you,” Nina said, taking the leaf from him.
She took a pen and put in the name of Nikolai Nikolayevich at the top of the list.
“Listen to me, Nikolai Nikolayevich,” said Nina. “The terms of the sale, including those concerning the employees, will depend on what state the company is in. That’s why it’s important that the business should not fall apart. Forget about the main project but do whatever it takes to keep the rest of them going. Do you understand me?”
The engineer nodded despondently.
Some decision had to be made – there was no point in putting it off. The only solution was to sell the company to Gradstroiinvest. That was as clear as day to Nina, but it was also clear that her father would never agree to that. He was still the only decision-maker of his company, but could he, in his condition, assess the situation correctly? “Of course, not,” Nina answered herself with bitterness. “Even before the stroke, he could hardly assess anything correctly. Oh, papa, papa…”
Her father hardly ever spoke about business matters – apparently, they did not concern him in the least, as if his disease had freed him from all earthly worries. Meanwhile, urgent measures were necessary to rescue what little capital he had left in the form of his company. Nikolai Nikolayevich was only capable of keeping up the current operations – he had neither the ability nor the authority to make strategic changes. But even if Yevgeniy Borisovich himself returned to work, what could he do? Acting through its bloodhound Gradstroiinvest, Gradbank had won a clear-cut victory over him so that no resistance was possible. Clearly, Gradbank was able to strip his company of all its projects, and if that had not been done yet, it was because Gradbank was preserving the business for itself. Still, Gradbank would not wait for much longer.
Nina realized that she had to act, but how? Her father was hiding in his decease, refusing to face the reality, and the doctor strictly forbade agitating him. Knowing her father, Nina could not imagine herself bringing up the question of selling the company – it would be the worst possible stress for him. It appeared that she only had two choices – she either withdrew, thus letting her father’s company dwindle to nothing in no time, or tried to get him to agree to selling the company at the risk of… yes, at the risk of killing him.
Nina was gripped in that impossible choice as in a vice. The worst of it was that she seemed to be doomed to become a traitress. If she made her father sell the company, he would never forgive her. And if she let the company go bust, she would never forgive herself.
She phoned in sick and spent a whole day at home. In fact, she was sick. Her continual mental anguish gave her a bad headache which aspirin would not relieve. An idle day filled with headache was followed by a sleepless night. About three in the morning, tired of tossing and turning in her bed, she shifted to the chair and sat there until dawn, her hands gripping the arms of the chair while her eyes were fixed on the mutely flickering TV set. Never in her life had she felt so lonely. Who was there for her to turn to? She would like to ask advice of Ignatiy Savelievich but what could her colleague do to help her? He had already done a lot. And what right did she have to burden an old, sick man with her concerns? Her friends, whom Nina was seeing occasionally, were useless in such matters. Nina thought of Igor, but Igor had long vanished from her life. Had he ever been part of her life, anyway? Nina was in need of somebody strong and wise to lean on and cry out all her woes to. Somebody who would soothe her and sort out everything for her. Yet there was no such person. She did not have anyone – she was alone in the entire world – and loneliness pierced her like a steel needle.
Nina came to the hospital and found Lydia Grigorievna there. Her father was sleeping, and his wife was busy embroidering his initials on the breast-pocket of his new silk pajamas.
“Nina, are you all right? You look awful,” the woman asked worriedly at the sight of Nina’s pallid face.
“It’s nothing, Lydia Grigorievna. I just didn’t sleep well. I need to talk to you,” Nina said in a whisper trying not to wake her father.
Lydia Grigorievna nodded understandingly, put aside the pajamas, and whispered, “Let’s go downstairs. I was just going to have a coffee.”
They went down to the cafeteria, took a cup of bad coffee each, and sat at a table covered by a none-too-clean table cloth.
Lydia Grigorievna was stirring her coffee with a spoon waiting for Nina to speak.
“Lydia Grigorievna, we need to do something,” said Nina. “I mean the company.”
“Company! Let it burn!” Lydia Grigorievna cried out jerking up her head. Clearly, Nina touched what was a sore point for the woman. “This damned company brings nothing but misfortunes. How happy we could be without it!”
Lydia Grigorievna tossed down her spoon in a fit of temper. It was the first time Nina saw the woman in such agitation.
“Nina, you don’t think I married your father for money, do you? I don’t want any money. I used to live on kopecks, I’m not afraid of poverty.”
“Lydia Grigorievna, please, calm down,” Nina said and, on an impulse, stroked the woman’s hand.
When her father’s wife had calmed down a little, Nina said the important thing. “Lydia Grigorievna, I think that it’s necessary to sell the company, but I don’t know how to persuade papa to do it.”
“Sell – to whom?” asked Lydia Grigorievna. It turned out that she knew nothing of the proposal by Gradstroiinvest.
Nina explained the matter to her in a few words.
“So that’s it?” cried out Lydia Grigorievna. “All this horror is about that? Ah, Zhenya, Zhenya! Keeping me in the dark – how nice is that? …”
She was shaking her head, holding it in her hands.
“If only he had told me, I would’ve managed to talk him into it.”
Nina rather doubted that, but she was pleased to see that another soul was worried about her father as much as she was.
“But there’s no way we can take it up with him now,” said Lydia Grigorievna with conviction. “Do you agree, Nina?”
“I do,” Nina uttered mechanically. She was still having a headache, and every word took her a lot of effort to say.
“We wait. Things will get fixed somehow in time. The main thing now is to give him every care and attention. Right?”
“Yes, that’s right – except for the small matter of him losing the company and not getting a penny out of it,” Nina thought.
Aloud, she said, “Lydia Grigorievna, it is necessary that papa make out a power of attorney so that Nikolai Nikolayevich can conduct the current operations.”
“A power of attorney?” Lydia Grigorievna reflected. “Can Nikolai Nikolayevich use it to sell the company?”
“No. That would take a general power of attorney which papa will not give to anyone, I’m sure. What I am talking about is a limited power of attorney good for running the daily business of the company. Papa can give it to Nikolai Nikolayevich or to you, it does not matter. Somebody has to sign the payroll.”
“I’ll talk to him about that,” promised Lydia Grigorievna. “If you ask me, though, this damned company should better burn.”
During the next few days, Nina was not able to go to the hospital as she was up to her eyes in work preparing her quarterly report in the bank. She would very much like it to be her last report on that job, although she had not yet found herself a new one.
On the fourth day, she had a call from Lydia Grigorievna – the woman asked Nina to come to the hospital.
Nina got frightened. “Is something up?”
“Nothing’s up, God forbid,” reassured Lydia Grigorievna. “It’s just your presence is needed here. Can you make eleven o’clock tomorrow?”
When Nina arrived, Lydia Grigorievna caught her in the lobby.
“Don’t you be surprised, Nina. And please, say ‘yes’.”
“Say ‘yes’ to what?”
“You’ll know right away. Sorry for this secrecy, but papa wanted to tell you everything himself, and speaking on the phone is a bit hard for him yet.”
They entered the room. Besides Yevgeniy Borisovich and his bypassed neighbor, there was another man in there – dressed in a suit, with a briefcase in his hands, he was sitting in a corner, obviously waiting for them.
“Here, Nina, please meet our notary.” Lydia Grigorievna introduced the two of them to each other.
The notary suggested that they all get seated and then announced in an official tone, “Dear Nina Yevgenievna, I am entrusted by Yevgeniy Borisovich Kisel, who is present here, to execute a power of attorney authorizing you to exercise the management of the company.”
“Me? Why me? I thought it was going to be Nikolai Nikolayevich…”
Suddenly she heard her father’s voice which she had hardly ever heard in the past weeks.
“That’s decided, Nina. Of course, you should have the power of attorney, who else? You know the company’s affairs better than anyone. My Nikolai is just a technician; he doesn’t know anything outside his pipes and pumps. Same as me, though…”
Somehow it had never occurred to Nina that her father might entrust her with the management of the company. But now that she knew it, she had to admit that it was the right decision.
Lydia Grigorievna was nodding and smiling to her, signaling in every way that she approved of the idea.
Nina said that she did not mind.
The notary started reading out the document which gave Nina a power of attorney. It took a few minutes.
On finishing the reading, the notary said, “Well, if everything’s correct, may you please sign here.”
He handed the paper to Yevgeniy Borisovich. However, Nina’s father was lingering. Leaning back on the pillows, he was gazing at the ceiling in silence.
The pause hung heavily. Worried, Lydia Grigorievna touched his hand and looked into his face.
“Zhenya…”
Yevgeniy Borisovich stirred.
“No,” he said. “Not correct. It has to be a general power of attorney. I wish to give a general power of attorney to my daughter, Nina Yevgenievna Shuvalova.”
Lydia Grigorievna opened her mouth in surprise. Nina’s heart missed a beat. Only the notary who was accustomed to any whims of his clients, remained unperturbed. After some rummaging in his briefcase, he produced a standard form for a general power of attorney. It took him no more than a minute to write in the title of the company and the names of the parties.
Nina was peering at her father’s face. Without a word, Yevgeniy Borisovich started signing the document in silence. One could hear the soft scratching of the pen on the paper.
On signing everything, Nina’s father gave the paper back to the notary. The notary put his stamp on it and handed the document to Nina.
Her father moved his lips, but Nina could not catch anything.
“Did you say something?”
Without looking at her, Yevgeniy Borisovich uttered tonelessly, “You may sell, if you think it right.”
Then, leaning his head towards Lydia Grigorievna, he said, “Lyda, I’m feeling kind of tired.”
Lydia Grigorievna jumped up and, pouring excuses, shooed everyone out of the room.
Right from the hospital hall, Nina made a call to Gradstroiinvest. She was put through to Konstantin, and as soon as she identified herself, he invited her, without asking any questions, to have a meeting with him in his office.
Nina paid a visit to Gradstroiinvest the next day. She did not know what she expected to find there. It was her enemies’ headquarters – the very place where they had devised plots against her father which had nearly killed him. Did she expect to find some kind of pirates’ lair with competitors’ skulls hung on the walls? However, what she found was a nice, well-organized business outfit where everything, including the furniture, equipment, and employees impressed her as sound and efficient.
Konstantin came out to meet her and led her to his office. The office was good, too – light, spacious, decorated in high-tech style. On the wall hung an enlarged photo of two guys in a kayak going through rapids on a mountain stream. A medley of arms and paddles, a wall of water spray with a rainbow, cheerful young faces… In one of the kayakers, Konstantin could easily be recognized.
Konstantin asked Nina to sit down, offered her drinks, and then said, “Dear Nina Yevgenievna, we have heard of the disease of Yevgeniy Borisovich. Please accept our deepest sympathy. I hope Yevgeniy Borisovich will be better soon.”
Nina was unable to sort out her own feelings. In the recent months, Gradstroiinvest had been constantly on her mind – as a vicious, hostile force that had put inexorable pressure on her father and his company. Many times she sent curses at the address of Konstantin and those behind him. As she was going to his office, she was afraid that she would not be able to contain herself – that she would yell at the man, or worse still, scratch up his face. However, when she found herself face to face with Konstantin, she somehow could not focus her anger on him. The man she saw before her was not some kind of movie villain but quite the reverse, a decent person – intelligent, well-mannered man of business. He was a man of business – that was the main thing. He nourished no hostility towards Nina’s father, and the pressure campaign that he had organized was simply his current work. He might be genuinely upset by the misfortune that had befallen a man under whom he had once started his career. He sympathized with Yevgeniy Borisovich and Nina, but he was not going to give up his plans.
Without responding to Konstantin’s sympathies, Nina took out and laid before him the document giving her a general power of attorney.
Konstantin read it carefully and said, “I see.”
Nina decided not to beat about the bush. “You have my agreement to sell the company,” she said firmly.
Konstantin did not display any emotions. He only said again, “I see.” One might think that he had long expected Nina to arrive and say exactly that. He apologized, picked up the phone handset and said into it, “Get Revich to come down here. Let him bring the contract.”
Revich was the chief accountant whom Nina remembered from their meeting at the fair. Once in Konstantin’s office, the accountant put a thin file on the table before his boss and sat silently aside.
Konstantin handed the file to Nina, “This is a draft contract. Please acquaint yourself with it.”
Nina took the file. Her hands were shaking slightly.
Konstantin said, “Of course, we do not expect you to sign at once. You need to study everything carefully and consult a lawyer.”
“Yes, of course,” replied Nina. “But if you don’t mind, I’d rather have a first look at it now in order to get a general idea. Maybe I’ll have some questions to ask right away…”
“Very good,” said Konstantin and moved a table lamp closer to her.
Nina started leafing through the contract. She knew what she wanted to find, but she was not finding it. On turning the last page, she said trying not to betray her emotions, “On the whole, it seems all right. There is one obvious omission, though – I don’t see any mention here that Yevgeniy Borisovich is to remain the company’s director.”
Unlike her, Konstantin did not have to suppress quaver in his voice – he was absolutely calm as it was.
“It’s just as well that you’ve noticed that,” he said. “I don’t mean to hold anything back. We are not going to offer the position of director to Yevgeniy Borisovich. We can take him on as a consultant – if he is interested. Small issues like that are not usually included in the body of a contract, but if you insist…”
“But you promised! I remember what you said at the fair.”
“I remember it, too. I did not promise – I made Yevgeniy Borisovich a proposal. The proposal was not accepted. Things have changed since. I’m not making that kind of proposal today.”
“Things have changed how?” persisted Nina.
Konstantin hesitated.
“Nina Yevgenievna, I don’t mean to be rude. As a daughter, you may find it offensive…”
“Speak!” demanded Nina.
“All right,” yielded Konstantin. “For one thing, Yevnegiy Borisovich is ill and it’s not clear when he could get back to work…”
“He is recovering rapidly…” Nina argued, but Konstantin cut her short with a gesture.
“That’s not it. You see… We know that the company has had certain problems recently. It was a kind of test for Yevgeniy Borisovich. Unfortunately, he did not stand it – he did not solve his problems in an optimal way. We expect more efficient management of our director.”
It took Nina a lot of effort not to show her mental turmoil. She had taken it for granted that her father was going to remain director, and Konstantin’s words cut the ground from under her feet.
Conflicting thoughts were flashing across her mind. What could she say to counter Konstantin? Of course, she could start a row accusing him of all mortal sins, arguing that it was all his doing. But it was clear that Konstantin was not going to change his decision. And there was something else. Deep down, despite her burning indignation, Nina had to agree with him – her dear papa was not cut out to run his own business.
“To dot all the i’s, the price has changed, too,” added Konstantin. “It has come to our knowledge that the company has failed to get accepted its largest project and lost a few others. That makes the business far less attractive to the buyer. This is how much we are prepared to pay today.”
He took a leaf of paper, wrote a figure and showed it to Nina. Her heart was wrung with what she saw – the sum was three times less than what had been offered for the company initially.
Nina was unable to carry on that conversation. Barely containing herself, she grabbed the draft contract and said, rising, “Yevgeniy Borisovich and I will have to think it over.”
Konstantin and his accountant got up at once. Konstantin held out his hand.
“It was a pleasure seeing you, Nina Yevgenievna. I hope we will come to an agreement.”
He was a decent man, but he had to do his work.
Nina shook his hand and walked out, unsteady on her feet.
Nina could not – and would not – discuss the matter with either her father or Lydia Grigorievna. Instead, she called Ignatiy Savelievich and asked him to recommend a good lawyer. The old man gave her the name of one whom he knew from old times.
“Ninochka, I want to tell you something before saying goodbye,” added Ignatiy Savelievich. “Business, money – all this is nonsense, in the final account. The only thing that matters is love. Take care of those who you love and those who love you…”
Nina was alarmed by his tone.
“I don’t like your mood, Ignatiy Savelievich. If you don’t mind, I’ll come over one of these days – we’ll do some walking and chatting.”
“Yes, sure, I’ll be happy to see you,” replied Ignatiy Savelievich.
Nina intended honestly to do something for the old man – to show that she cared about him – but that intention remained unfulfilled as do most good, honest intentions.
By coincidence, she had delivered her quarterly report by that time and was able to take a few days off work. She needed that breathing space desperately.
The lawyer was of great help. His services, which Nina paid for from her own savings, were quite expensive, but it was worth it. The man had a lot of experience – he saw through all the legal consequences of each word, and even punctuation mark, in the contract. He and Nina revised the wording of many paragraphs and worked out a list of amendments that guaranteed the preservation of the company’s line of business and its cadre, as well as improving the terms of the deal.
“But if you mean to get a much larger sum, you’ll need financial and engineering substantiation,” explained the lawyer.
Nina realized that herself. As an acting boss of the company, she ordered that Nikolai Nikolayevich dump all the operations on his staff, and spent a whole week with him in the office, arriving there every morning and sitting all day through. The two of them examined, one by one, all the asset and revenue items of the company, trying to prove in each case that those should be given a higher evaluation. After the engineer left for home, Nina went on poring over the papers until midnight. Hard work was not something new to her, but during that week, she really pushed herself to the limit. She was aware that she had no time to waste as the company’s position was deteriorating every day.
For the execution of the sale of the company, detailed financial statements and a substantiation of the price were prepared. Nina’s price was much higher than that suggested by Konstantin at their latest meeting, although it was still lower than the initial one.
After ten days, Nina crossed the threshold of Gradstroiinvest again. Konstantin and his accountant were expecting her. Nina was strung-up for battle, her cheeks burning in anticipation. She was ready to fight for every word in the contract and every ruble in the price.
Konstantin asked Nina to sit down and set to reading her version of the contract. After finishing each page, he passed it to Revich who was sitting by his side. That was going on in complete silence, only occasionally Konstantin would use a pencil to point out something to the accountant, and the other man would nod. Once the accountant pointed out something to his chief, and Konstantin nodded.
Finally, the reading was over. Konstantin kept silent for a while, looking at Nina with a new expression.
“You have done some impressive work, Nina Yevgenievna,” he uttered.
Nina gave no reply to that, but against her will, she felt pleased by Konstantin’s praise.
“Would you like some coffee or tea?” suggested Konstantin. He obviously hesitated, deciding something for himself.
“No, thank you,” refused Nina. She was all mobilized for a fierce argument and did not wish to lose her fighting spirit.
“Well, let us decide then,” said Konstantin. “Let me tell you again that you have done some impressive work. Your position is clear. Let me state our position now. We are ready to accept almost all your amendments. In particular, I don’t see any problem in signing contracts with all the employees that you listed – that could be executed as a supplement to the contract. But regarding the price…”
Nina held her breath.
“We can agree to the price that you put forth on one condition.”
He paused.
“On what condition?”
“On the condition that you, Nina Yevgenievna, become the new director of the company.”
Nina felt as if somebody had struck her on the head with a large pillow.
“Are you joking?”
“I can’t afford joking,” said Konstantin gravely. “A change of ownership is a serious shock for any company. This particular business is not very stable as it is, either, as it has accumulated some serious problems under Yevgeniy Borisovich. We need somebody to support the company and put it on the right track. At the moment, we do not have any other suitable candidate.”
“But I don’t know the first thing about construction!” exclaimed Nina.
“That’s not a problem; you can get the necessary assistance from…” He consulted the list of employees and said the name of Nikolai Nikolayevich. “The main thing now is competency in financial matters, and that’s what you have.” He nodded towards the papers that Nina had prepared. “So, the bottom line is this – the company is worth the money that you ask, if you take it over. But not otherwise.”