the Lavroff Weapons Company because I feel I have the power to change the situation. I’ve picked an excellent team of like-minded people with the necessary expertise. I already have a few promising ideas, which, by my own experience, I believe are the most important for rapid deployment in the Federation Armed Forces. That’s what I want to present to the New Equipment and Weapons Commission of the Ministry of Defense. Again. I don’t want any profit. Everything I’ll earn I plan to put into research and development, and in order for them to be implemented as quickly as possible, I need a direct communication with the Ministry of Defense. I’m gonna do exactly what I think is most relevant to the army right now, and I don’t want anyone interfering in this process and dictating to me what is more promising and less so in terms of commercial benefits.”
Martinez’s face was full of deep-seated disappointment and frustration. He clearly didn’t 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 can’t run this business on your own. You’ve already been turned down for loans and leases? You’re a smart man, and I think you’ve figured out by now that it’s not an accident. Trust me, it’s only gonna get worse. With all due respect, all sincere respect to your accomplishments, the arms market is not your level. I’m sorry we’re on opposite sides of the table, but that’s how life turned out, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I do recommend that you reconsider our offer. I could double it, but I know it’s 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 I’d call him by his first name, “I understand that you’re just doing your job, and your employer has given you the task of buying my company. But I can’t 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 Martinez’s voice, there was an irritation he could barely contain.
“It’s final, Mr Martinez.”
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll 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 there’s no real activity going on, it’s gonna revoke the license, and all your good intentions will be lost. And without money, you’ll have no activity. You may visit all the banks in the Federation, no one will work with you. At most, they’ll promise something small and delay for months to make a decision. And if you try to find an outside investor, you know who’s going to be behind his back.”
“Unfortunately, my colleague is right, Mr Lavroff,” – Cruz said mildly, “You have my contact. I’ll 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. It’s 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.
“I’m sorry, Igor, but if I were you, I’d accept the offer. It’s been a pleasure working with you, but I’m afraid you’ll have to find another consultant,” Rabinovich told me right after the GWI negotiators left.
I didn’t feel sorry. It’s 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 didn’t 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. That’s what I needed the expensive equipment for. Now I could forget about it, but I can’t say that my plans were completely thwarted because of that. After all, there was much that could be done with the Federation’s technology, using the software algorithms I knew. Well, we’ll 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,” I’ve 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. We’ll stop the prospective research on new processors for EW stations for now. We’re 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.”
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