"006 The Mutant Corps" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

"Fine. That gives me enough of an idea, Mr. Weiss. Now let me propose this, to you-you purchase my machines which will lessen the cost of the earth construction work by about ninety percent. That means you can save almost half a billion dollars of the total construction price. Nobody can compete with you on such a basis!"

Abraham Weiss knocked the ashes off his cigar in his excitement and almost burned a hole in his trousers. Then he took a deep breath and forced a smile on his lips. "You certainly have a sense of humour, Mr. Adams. But right now I am more concerned with reality than with such wonderful pipe dreams."

"You are wrong if you think I am joking. I am quite serious, Mr. Weiss. I do, have the machines I was talking about. My firm will be most happy to give you a practical demonstration of them at any time. All you need is to let me know when it will be convenient for you. Provided, of course that we have first agreed on term for the deal. For unless you are seriously interested in what we have to offer we cannot afford such costly demonstrations of our machinery."

Mr. Weiss rose, evidently quite impressed by AdamsТs words. Adams felt that Weiss must be at turning point in his business career and that the wily hardheaded businessman must be thinking very hard how to proceed at this point.Finally Weiss said, "You indicate how I can cut by 500 million dollars. But on the other hand I would have to add the purchase price for your machines. How do we stand?"

"You need not worry at all about the purchase price of our machinery in your calculations of the Arkansas River power plant. These machines will be a permanent investment. You can count on twenty to thirty similar construction projects in the future once you own such far superior equipment."

"I see. But please, there must be some price I will have to pay for these machines."

"The price is purely imaginary. That means it exceed the value of fifty such power plants, if you had to pay cash. Please, let me finish! I donТt intend to sell my machinery. Instead, I propose becoming a partner in your firm, Mr. Weiss. This way both of us will be helped."Abraham Weiss did not take, kindly to such a suggestion. "So you are speculating on being my partner?"

"I am not speculating, I am proposing it. ThatТs far more serious, Mr. Weiss. Call a special meeting of your board of directors and tell them to increase your share capital by fifty-one percent. These fifty-one percent will be my price."Mr. Weiss nervously grabbed his hat and backed toward the door.

"I hope that is not your final offer, Mr. Adams. I could never get my firm to accept these conditions."

"Then I regret having wasted your precious time. My offer is firm. I am not interested in, any financial dealings, unless we can obtain what I quoted-fifty-one percent of your stock, Mr. Weiss. Just give it some thought."

The builder of hydroelectric works bowed slightly and then disappeared through the door leading into the outer office.

The next callerТs name was Andre Gillette. His dark hair and wiry figure spoke of his Latin parentage. Miss Lawrence informed her boss that Mr. Gillette had been waiting for forty-five minute, which led Adams to believe that he, too, must be in a desperate situation.."Good morning, Mr. Adams," he said politely.

"Hello. How are you, Mr. Gillette? WonТt you, have a seat here? Cigarette?"

"Thank you, no. I donТt smoke."

"You are very fortunate, Mr. Gillette."

"Maybe in this respect, but not in others. Or else I would not have come here."

"You need help? Any technical improvements? Some good advice?"

"All three of them is what I need. And as quickly as possible. I want to get right to the point, Mr. Adams. As soon as you decide that you are not the right man for me, please let me know. The worst thing I possibly do at this point would be to waste any time."

"Please, start talking! IТll be frank with you"."I represent the Minneapolis Mining Company. Besides mining we are also interested in constructing big tunnels. You probably know that we are working on the highway between Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Coming from the east we must pierce the Sierra Nevadas for a stretch of about forty-five miles. We have finished excavating a tunnel for about seven miles. But on the opposite side, coming from the west, our competitors have been working faster. They completed a stretch twice as long as we did. There is no doubt that we are going to lose out in this competition."

"I canТt share your pessimism! After all isnТt it usual to make arrangements with the government about the deadline you have to meet, regardless of what your competitor might accomplish? Why be upset about that?"

"Let me explain that to you, if you are interested in that kind of thing. By the way, are you familiar with conditions in the mining business?"

"I might say that we pride ourselves in our special knowledge in that particular field. just go on with your explanations. I am most anxious to hear them."

"Well then, our agreements with the government were concluded for only part and not for the whole project. Each section of the tunnel is treated, separately. That means each firm is allocated the next job proportionately to the amount of work they are capable of producing in, a given time. Therefore, the government would place only one fourth of the next order with us, seeing that we can turn out only half as much work as our competitors, Provided, of course, that we canТt manage to speed up our output somehow in the immediate future. On the, other hand, we have made all our calculations based on the assumption that we would receive exactly half of the job."

"I am sure you will realize that we must make certain dispositions way ahead of time in an enterprise of this nature. We made certain commitments with suppliers of materials and machinery a year ago, and these suppliers will far exceed our needs if we continue working at the same speed. We are financing materials that we will never be able to use. We are paying for that exactly what our profit was supposed to be. And if you add the labour costs for 7,000 workers, we will be completely in the red. This loss will cause us to go into bankruptcy within a few months time. I am telling you this, Mr. Adams, trusting that you will treat this as a confidential matter. You assured me of utter secrecy in your ad."

"You can depend on us, Mr. Gillette. I am very interested in your problem-almost as if it were already our own, I might add. As I see things, you must bore a large enough hole through this mountain to accommodate a modern freeway. As it happens, I have just taken out the patent for some machinery that could do the trick. What is the size of the tunnel?"