“Gleb!” Rose exclaimed, taken aback.
Alik guffawed. “A million!”
“Enough, guys,” Veronica raised her hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Can I say something too? We seem to be straying away from the subject. Phil is offering us to become shareholders in his company. Which admittedly has a very big potential. I don’t know about you but I’ve seen him work already. Had it not been for him, I wouldn’t even be here because Gorelik would have kicked me out. And it took Phil only an hour to find some great customers for me.”
“He helped me too,” Kesha nodded. “Honestly, I’m sick and tired of my daily drudge. Whatever I earn, it all goes on the rent. I’d love to finally climb out of this crap and get somewhere. Count me in.”
“Me too,” Veronica added. “Just imagine we’ll have a real company! We could make one big office here and do it up. I’ll talk to Gorelik to see if he can knock the renovation money off the rent. It’s gonna be beautiful! And it’s much more fun together!”
“You don’t even need to ask me,” Alik said. “I’m all for it even without reading this,” he waved the printout in the air.
“Me neither,” Gleb added. “I’ve just arrived on the scene. I haven’t done anything yet. And I can’t put anything in the kitty, all I can do is work. And in any case, Phil,” he rose and walked toward me, “thanks, man. I’ve never forget what you’ve done for me.”
Mr. Katz and Rose had a quiet chat between themselves. “What is it you young people say these days?” she finally said with a proud smile. “We dig it! It’s cool!”
“I want to say something too,” grunting, Mr. Katz rose from the couch. “Let’s face it: all of us here have already kissed our own businesses goodbye. At the end of the day, we failed to build and develop them. And Phil’s idea gives us all new hope, does it not?”
“Absolutely!” Gleb shook his unruly mane of hair.
“Which means that we’re all for it, Sir!” the old lawyer said, “What next?”
All this talk of “Sir” made me feel uncomfortable. Under the encouraging stares of the others, I produced a small whiteboard and hung it on a nail in the wall which had been left by the office’s previous occupants.
I gestured to everyone to come closer and began drawing the company’s future organizational structure. “Seeing as we’re all agreed on the main points, let’s now discuss our immediate strategy. As you’ve already read in my company vision, Mr. Katz will take care of all the legal aspects. Rose will do the finances and bookkeeping. Veronica with Gleb’s help will be responsible for public relations and brand promotion. And Kesha here will be our commercial director.”
I noticed Alik heave a sigh behind my back. I turned to see his Mood plummeting. “And as for Alik, he’ll be the big cheese!”
I’d already had the chance to witness Alik’s aptitude for administration, control and everything to do with routine operations. He’d left my apartment absolutely shipshape, having fixed all that needed fixing.
“But at the same time, Alik,” I added, “the company is going to send you on a training course! You can’t refuse — can he, guys?”
Alik blushed. “Yeah but... no but... right you are, then!”
Everybody laughed. Veronica began saying something encouraging to the ex-hood when the program showered me with colorful FX and system messages:
Congratulations! You’ve created a new clan!
Clan name: Great Job.
In order to personalize the settings, open the clan tab.
Congratulations! You’ve received a new achievement: Clan Founder!
You’ve founded a clan: a collective of people united by common interests.
Reward: +2 to Charisma
Congratulations! You’ve received a new achievement: Esteemed Clan Founder!
You’ve founded a clan: a collective of people united by common interests whose Reputation with you is Respect or above.
Reward: +1 to Charisma
+2 to Luck
+3 to Leadership Skills
Followed by the concerned gazes of my co-workers, I pretended I wanted to pour myself some coffee in order to study the messages.
“Phil? Are you all right?” Veronica asked.
I turned round and peered at their faces, unable to suppress a smile. “I’m more than all right, Veronica. Definitely more than all right!”
Chapter Nineteen. The Clan
Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company. So then I got a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more.
Forrest Gump
AND WE SET to work. During our initial meeting we’d all agreed to place our respective companies’ assets into one common pot, from furniture to office supplies. All the shareholders decided to give up their former activities in order to focus on the nascent company. Which meant that Great Job wasn’t going to sell Kesha’s printing services or Veronica’s event organizing, nor Mr. Katz and Rose’s legal and bookkeeping counsel.
The old lawyer got busy reorganizing my company, adding the new shareholders to our foundation agreement. In the meantime, his wife started working on a financial plan in order to come up with the budget required for the company’s development. It was already pretty clear that we might need some cash injections, the main question being, quite how much. Our possibilities were rather limited.
Veronica busied herself with the task of merging our respective companies. That’s how it looked in practice: all of us had terminated our current contracts with the Chekhov Business Center while initiating the liquidation of our businesses. In the meantime, Veronica found a more suitable office for us. We needed at least 2,000 square feet to allow for any future expansion. That done, she got busy redecorating it and working on the interior design.
She enlisted Alik’s help who in the meantime had applied to our local college. He was going to study management, of all things. The program was dead right about him: he had a lot of potential in this field. By the way, his “lads” — the local hoods who’d very nearly mugged me once — had thanks to me all landed jobs with a very popular construction team and together with their foreman were now helping Veronica to decide how to do all the renovations on the cheap.
Our ranks swelled again when Cyril was finally discharged from hospital. The very next day he’d come to work for us, followed by Greg and Marina. Their new commercial director, Panchenko — whom I’d still never met — even stopped answering my texts and phone calls after the guys had handed in their resignations. He hadn’t even made them work the required two weeks but fired them on the spot.
At the moment, Veronica and Rose were taking care of all the paperwork but I could already see that we might need to find someone for the task.
Kesha, Cyril, Greg and Marina were rushing around town on business meetings but still couldn’t cope with all the customers I’d given them. They’d split up: Marina was selling our recruiting and headhunting services while the guys took care of our clients’ sales.
We’d already signed up two companies one of which specialized in complex IT systems integration while the other manufactured wooden children’s toys. A few of their samples — a sword, an axe, a saber and a couple of shields — had become super popular in our office. The guys fought each other, imagining themselves as medieval knights, and even I couldn't resist joining in, whacking Cyril’s shield with my sword. Unfortunately, it hadn’t activated any new skills even though I’d secretly hoped for one.
Kesha — or “Mr. Dimidko” as my guys insisted on respectfully calling him — was busy rushing around meetings and presentations like a headless chicken, offering our services, convincing others to try them, and closing new contracts. And although it had been me who’d found him the IT guys, the contract with the toy makers was entirely his doing.
And the most amazing thing about it was that it all had happened this week. On Monday we’d had our first meeting and got the ball rolling, on Tuesday Cyril had joined us, and on Wednesday when Greg
and Marina had turned up, Kesha sent them straight out to start selling.
Still, work wasn’t my only passion at the moment. I spent at least an hour every day writing as I’d had an idea for a sci fi novel. It was easy going, so much so that I’d quickly brought up Creative Writing to 8.
Having thus taken care of Intellect leveling, I’d started thinking of what Ilindi had told me about the upcoming Trial. I’d found a combat coach online — an ex-special services guy — and spent several days at the firing range leveling up blade weapons and firearms. Together we’d managed to bring both skills up to 3.
The same day, I sorted out my clan settings. There weren’t too many of them yet.
Clan name: Great Job
Level: 1
Social status level: 1
Clan members: 10
The clan’s icon used by the program was the same as Gleb’s clan logo that we’d all approved. It depicted two stylized letters, G and J, shaped like two closed hands offering something to the onlooker — something intangible but precious and important.
This was the clan member list:
Philip “Phil” Panfilov
Age: 32
Social status level: 16
Clan Leader
Clan Founder
Romuald “Alik” Zhukov
Age: 28
Social status level: 6
The clan’s Maintenance Manager
Clan Co-Founder
Veronica “Carrot Top” Pavlova
Age: 25
Social status level: 7
The clan’s voice
Clan Co-Founder
Innokenty “Kesha” Dimidko
Age: 34
Social status level: 9
The clan’s Commercial Director
Clan Co-Founder
Mark Katz
Age: 64
Social status level: 12
The clan’s lawyer
Clan Co-Founder
Rose Reznikova
Age: 58
Social status level: 10
The clan’s Financial Director
Clan Co-Founder
Gleb Kolosov
Age: 33
Social status level: 8
The clan’s designer
Clan Co-Founder
Cyril Cyrilenko
Age: 35
Social status level: 9
The clan’s commercial manager
Marina Tischenko
Age: 19
Social status level: 3
The clan’s commercial manager
Only now did I realize how much Alik’s social status level had grown. He used to be 4 and now he was 6. There were also additional numbers in their profiles which showed how long each of them had been a clan member.
Moreover, now I could open a member’s profile and watch their stats fluctuate in real time: all the changes in their health, mood, abilities and characteristics. That was a great feature in itself. Just think how many successful startups had fallen apart and sunk simply because their leader couldn’t work out his co-workers and friends? Once I’d realized it, I made it my priority to monitor my partners’ stats every morning just to make sure they were all right.
Predictably, the interface didn’t make it any easier so I had to turn to Martha for all the finer details.
“Yes, Phil. You need to understand though that the only reason we chose the word ‘clan’ to describe a group of people united by common interests is because of your gaming history. But yes, a clan can be leveled up. This in turn can improve the entire team’s Synergy numbers and can bring in new clan skills and abilities.”
“How do you level it up, then?”
“Through a combination of different factors. A clan has two development branches: the actual level which can be raised through a number of factors already familiar to you — from the company’s turnover and number of staff to the percentage of satisfied clients — and its popularity, or Reputation. These are the signs of every successful company in your world. Plus the social status level, of course.”
“The social status? What about that? I mean, how do you level it up?”
Martha laughed. “Silly boy! You should know, of all people. If your company’s activity is meaningful not just to all of you as its shareholders but also for society as a whole...”
“Then our social status will grow accordingly.”
“That’s right. With one correction. Not ‘will grow’. It has already grown. Even though at the moment, it might only be meaningful to you and the few clients whose problems you solve, but-”
“I understand,” without unsummoning her, I checked the XP indicators of both development branches.
XP points left until the clan's next level: 0/2000.
XP points left until the clan’s next social status level:860/2000
“Why zero XP in the clan’s level branch?” I asked.
“Because a clan’s level is updated once a month while the social status level is updated in real time as usual.”
I wished we could have talked a bit more but my Spirit was already dangerously low, so I had to bid her goodbye. All this client-searching for Kesha and job-hunting for our clients — in combination with clan monitoring and studying its settings — had created a permanent energy deficit in all my interactions with the interface.
Also, I was still very tired.
* * *
WHILE OUR NEW office was being redecorated, we were still stuck in the old ones we’d rented from the business center. We spent most of the time in my and Alik’s old bureau, anyway, because Kesha’s was packed out with printing equipment, Mr. Katz and Rose’s office was more like a shoebox and Veronica kept hers in such an artistic disarray that there was simply nowhere to sit there.
About an hour ago, the whole noisy crowd had left for lunch, giving me the opportunity to finally work in peace and make some headway on the reams of paperwork given to me by Rose. So I asked them to get me something to eat and delved into the papers.
And just as I thought I’d finally worked out the great financial riddle and begun to make some sense out of these crazy sequences of all the charts and figures, Cyril rushed back into the office, gasping,
“Phil! We’re getting a good whacking!”
“Who? Why? Where?” I jumped from my seat and made for the door.
“It’s a bunch of Caucasians doing Alik over,” Cyril explained, wheezing. “Just outside the lobby...”
I wasn’t listening any longer as I made for the stairs, very nearly knocking down Gorelik who was unhurriedly climbing the steps. As I reached the lobby, I could hear the women screaming so I dashed even quicker.
In a small garden to the right of the building’s marble staircase, behind a hedge that separated it from the busy street, I finally saw Alik who was held by two guys while a third one was busy reading the riot act to him, proudly puffing out his chest.
I recognized him. It was Vazgen, the PVC windows maker, a.k.a. Veronica’s failed admirer.
I discovered the rest of my crowd nearby: Greg clutching his stomach and Gleb, at his jaw. I couldn’t see Kesha anywhere but then again, he shouldn’t have been there to begin with as he’d gone to lunch with a client.
Marina stood next to the boys while Veronica was shouting, trying to talk some sense into Vazgen who ignored her screams entirely.
I leaped from the stairs into the garden.
“What the hell’s going on here?” I demanded — not because I needed an answer but simply to attract attention to myself. Then I walked over to the scene and stood between the two, separating them.
“Phil! Tell him!” Veronica shouted behind my back.
“Phil, this is between us, da?” Vazgen said, stooping his head like a bull. “You keep out of it. We’ll settle this like men.”
His friends said nothing, just glared at me, making it clear that they could jump in at a moment’s notice.
“Vazgen, this isn’t between just you. And it certainly isn’t settli
ng it like men!” I turned to his sidekicks. “Get your hands off him, now! I’m talking to you! Hussein! Asar! You hear what I said?”
Their eyes widened in silent surprise at hearing their names. They were still young, barely twenty years old. The older one — Hussein — nodded.
“Leave my friend alone!”
The two looked at Vazgen.
“Come on,” I continued, “let’s go and have a talk like civilized human beings. Our concierge takes the trouble to plant all these pretty flowers and you’re here trampling them! Gorelik is already calling the cops. Are your residence permits in order?”
Reluctantly the two let Alik go. He immediately went for Vazgen but I stepped in his way.
“Stop it now, man. Cool down,” I put my arm around him and slapped him on the back. “Not now.”
He stepped back and began rearranging his clothes. “They’ve torn my shirt, those bastards,” he spat.
“I think they’re going to pay you for it. Aren’t you, Vazgen?”
Vazgen didn’t react at all.
“Never mind,” I said. “Wait a minute. We’ll step aside and have a talk in a moment.”
I walked over to the others, “Guys, everything will be all right now. Just go upstairs.”
They didn’t reply.
“Get upstairs, now! Marina, Veronica, take these warriors to the office and get them cleaned up. Tell Cyril to fetch some ice from the supermarket, he could use some exercise. Come on now, chop chop! What are you hanging around for? Just go!”
I had to add a note of authority to my voice. Only then did they hesitantly amble upstairs.
That done, we headed for the nearest alleyway. By “we” I mean myself, Alik, Vazgen and his two cousins (by now, my Insight could detect family ties between people).
As we walked, I asked,
“Listen, guys, are you sure Uncle Mger will approve of what you’ve just done?”
Hero Page 35
