Chapter 4: The Marriott Portrait

http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/11/6/115158/552/hotels/Bill_Marriott_Back_in_the_Day This particular copy seems to be in the New Orleans Marriott but there is definitely a copy in The Marriott Potsdamer Platz because Phil has seen it!

5. The Midtown Grill

http://www.midtown-grill.de

6. Fracking for gas in the United States

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/23/fracking-shale-gas-us-global-leader/3170255/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

7. Lehman Brothers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_Lehman_Brothers

8. Marathon Oil and Philips Petroleum

http://www.marathon.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Petroleum_Company

9. Special Purpose (Financial) Vehicles

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/spv.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_purpose_entity

10. Jeffrey Skilling former CEO of Enron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Skilling

11. Freddie Clegg and Steve Glennis

Freddie Clegg and his American associate Steve Glennis are principal characters in Freddie's Story 'Market Forces'. They are both deeply involved in human trafficking and slavery and operate with rather fewer scruples than Anatoly seems to have.

12. A Pull-Up Machine

Want a body like Petra's? Try this:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rise-above-the-rest-with-the-ultimate-pull-up-workout.html

Caution: somewhat severe presentation of the equipment!

13. The German Police.

Germany is a federal republic and The German Police are organised into separate forces, one for each of the separate German States. The force which would be responsible for the investigation of the Tracy Randolf disappearance would be the Berlin Polizei.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Police

4.Tracy Back On Wall Street

The Padmascovnye, in Russia, January to July

As the days following her abduction become weeks and then months, Tracy Randolf is forced to struggle with the radical change in her circumstances. Instead of spending her time in an Armani business suite, she is kept naked. Instead of her carefully styled hair, he head is regularly shaven. Instead of wearing designer jewellery, her only adornment is the demeaning septum ring, which swings back and forth, tapping her upper lip as she works, always reminding her of its presence and of what it represents. Instead of always being active, she is forced to be passive. And then there is the work she does. On the floor. On her hands and knees. Scrubbing and cleaning like the black domestic servants she remembers from home, when she was a little child. Tracy is now treated like a child. She is told when to get up, when to get washed, when she may eat, what she may eat and when she must sleep. Day after day after day after day. Each day like the last and the last day like the next.

Gradually, she finds it easier to adapt to the expectations of her captors. Merely to do as she is told. Superficially, that is just what she does. She even behaves well enough for Neena, her supervisor to imagine that she, Neena is getting the upper hand but like a sleepy snake hibernating through the winter, Tracy is merely waiting for the weather to turn in her favour.

New Accounting Perspectives

Neena has finished with her. An emotionally exhausted Tracy is returned to her cell to nurse her blazing bottom. She has endured many long minutes of corporal punishment at the hand of Neena who has delighted in using a thick broad leather strap across her bottom for no good reason Tracy can see, except that the Russian bitch obviously enjoys being sadistic. Tracy strongly associates this particular implement with 'that little cow Vyera' because Neena began to use the strap and has developed an increasing fondness for it after Vyera left the Dacha, so far not to return. In the aftermath, Tracy finds herself reflecting on the nature of her predicament and on Vyera.

Just after the little cow Vyera was taken off somewhere, that Neena bitch had said she, Tracy, had been purchased? By whom for goodness sake? Tracy was familiar with the idea of staff being transferred between divisions of the company, and if the company changed ownership, the employees were 'sold' to a new owner as part of the company assets, but in her personal case, being 'purchased' just seemed so intimate, so demeaning, so humiliating. Of course, there had been quite a lot of humiliation recently, but did she have to lay down to it anymore?

Who were these people by whom she had been purchased?

Crap! What did that Neena bitch know about buying or selling? What did she know about The Market? About the value of Product? Neena was an employee. A Trainer. She was there to break the spirits of such as that little cow Vyera and Tracy herself.

There was every chance that this whole 'sold' thing was merely another mind-fuck, to accelerate her down the path of becoming a passive servant, content to obey orders and do the bidding of others.

Well maybe Vyera had crumbled but Tracy was going to endure because Tracy knew all about the game that was being played.

Tracy reflects further. What is her real value? The value which would be reflected in any real sale or transfer deal? It was obvious. She was valuable, thanks to the financial information she carried. No one has spent even two minutes since she had arrived asking her anything about the Randolf Corporation. Nothing about its financial position, market exposure, true value of assets or commercial intentions. That was the sort of information which made money. Tracy had the answers. Tracy had cards to bring to the table.

Why had she been taken and brought here? There were unpaid accounts. Tracy knew which and she knew the value of each one. She knew names. She guessed she was being held as collateral until her father came across with the real money he owed. Would he ransom her? He might resent the financial outlay but he would worry much more about the knowledge she carried with her.

Neena said that she had been 'purchased'. Had she been sold to the people her father owed? Maybe, but then why were they not here, now, asking smart questions, asking financial questions?

Had she been 'purchased' by her father, now he had settled his debts? That might be encouraging – but now she was out from his clutches, did she actually want to return to the Randolf Corporation any time soon – any time ever?

An asset did not finally change ownership until it changed hands and so far, she had not changed hands. There was still time to put in a counter bid. It was high time she entered the negotiations on her own behalf!

Back In The Corporate Jungle

Tracy – or Pavea, from Neena's perspective – is on her knees in the front hall of the Dacha, looking up at Neena. Pavea has just finished cleaning the floor and is waiting for Neena's verdict on the job she has done.

"Izhveneti pazh'alsta, Gaspazha Neena?"

"Da, rabinya?"

"You told me I have been sold?"

"Da..."

There a curious hesitancy in Neena's voice. Tracy notices immediately! Tracy was used to negotiating and she could tell straight away that Neena was not.

"I think you are selling me short. You have undervalued me as an asset. I have counter proposals."

"Pardon?"

What did the girl mean? Was this any of her business anyway? Neena is struggling to fit Pavea's remarks into the picture she had formed in her own mind of Pavea beginning to break and accept her role as 'slave'. This was the picture she has painted for Anatoly Sergeyevitch at the meeting just before he left for his vacation with Svetlana Nikitechna and Vyera. The remarks now coming from Tracy did not seem to fit at all!

"If you buy a field in Texas, it has a value for cattle grazing and more value if there is access to water but much more value still if there is oil or gas underneath."

"What do you mean, rabinya?"

Neena has an uncomfortable feeling that from somewhere, Pavea has found an angle of attack. She is escaping from Pavea and with lightening speed she is becoming Tracy once again.

"My real value for any purchaser is my skill as an accountant and my knowledge of the oil and gas business in the US and Europe and the position of the Randolf Corporation. Those assets must be reflected in any price you quote. Also, commercial knowledge is perishable. Things change. Companies move on. No-one has asked me about any of the really valuable information I bring with me."

"Ah..."

This line of thought makes perfect sense to Neena. It is the sort of thing she should report to Anatoly Sergeyevitch. But if she accepts, she is, to all intents and purposes, being sent on an errand by Pavea, the slave. A disconcerting picture forms in Neena's mind of Pavea as some sort of slippery eel which having been caught is now successfully squirming out of her grasp – and eels have many very sharp teeth.

"I think I was taken as collateral against unpaid accounts. I know which accounts. Their value. Who was owed. Perhaps Daddy has paid up in which case you maybe 'selling' me back to him. Maybe he has not paid up, in which case the inside information I have about the Randolf Corporation is even more valuable. I am too valuable to waste, having me spend my time cleaning floors! I'm worth money to you. I am worth even more money working for you. You don't own this operation. Go tell whoever does!"

Neena runs an errand.

"Neena Alexandrovna, how kind of you to come all the way to Moscow to see me!"

"It is always a pleasure, Igor Ivanovitch and no trouble at all. Actually, I also have an appointment with Alana Sergeyevna."

"Lunch?"

"Yes, that too – and to see little Dmitry."

"Quite so, quite so but I think you have other matters on your mind?"

"Yes, Igor Ivanovitch. I have exceeded my instructions concerning the American, Tracy Randolf and think I am losing control of her."

"Really?"

"When she arrived, she assaulted me. My instructions were to confine her but as we did not know how long she would be with us and to make her more compliant, I interpreted my instructions as meaning that I should treat her as a newly acquired slave and begin her training."

"Your diligence and enthusiasm have been noted, Neena Alexandrovna but let me reassure you. The American is a temporary acquisition but we do not know how long we will have to care for her. At our last business meeting, before Anatoly Sergeyevitch left for his vacation, he told us that he had been asked to return the Randolf girl but when we reflected on the practicalities you pointed out – astutely, I thought – you pointed out that there would be danger for us if she was sent back before she was compliant and we also felt that by and large, the girl might even benefit from her new experiences, which are doing her no lasting harm, so what is the reason for your disquiet?"