The Good Russian by Paul Hirons

Author:Paul Hirons [Hirons, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

‘Miss Sokolova. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you. I’d been expecting a call to be honest with you, given what’s been going on.’

‘What do you mean by “going on”?’

‘How much do you know?’

‘Not enough, that much is clear as daylight to me. But first I have some terrible news for you.’

‘How terrible?’

‘Very terrible. For me especially. Robert is dead. He was killed last night in Spain. A road accident.’

‘Oh, God. I am so sorry for your loss. Me and him were talking about stuff only yesterday.’

‘What sort of stuff. Come on, Link, tell me. What the fuck is going on?’

‘He asked me to help him with a few things. Things that we both agreed were pretty stupid given who we were dealing with.’

‘So, tell me. What was so stupid?’

‘Basically, he wanted to change all of the security we’d set up around the crypto account by changing the wallet. PIN, seeds – the whole kit and caboodle. All the stuff he’d shared with Vladimir when he came on board. He had no intention of sharing any of these changes with your brother. He wanted to lock him out permanently.’

‘Yes, but why is that so stupid? The amounts were not big bucks — less than half a million pounds when I spoke to him about it. I did chew at him for getting involved with Vladimir and warned him to keep it under control. He obviously did not hear me — or chose not to.’

‘He probably did hear you. Your brother had other ideas however, and made some ridiculous rouble-based investments in Ether through the fund. Seems he wanted to clean up a whole wodge of your family’s money by investing in NFTs. Trouble is, he’s jumping the gun. The market in NFTs is nowhere near big enough. Yet.’

‘How much are we talking about?’

‘Around 160 million as we speak. It’s lost a lot of value recently. It was above 200 million at one point.’

‘Roubles?’

‘GBP, I’m sorry to say. Pounds.’

‘What?’

‘I know.’

There’s some dead air while she tries to process what she’s just been told. She plays it back to him to make sure she’s understood it.

‘Let me get this straight. My father has trusted his crazy son with 200 million pounds worth of roubles, expecting it to be invested in digital art. It is currently sitting in their cryptocurrency account at the mercy of the market.’

‘Yes.’

‘However, Robert’s last act on earth was to put all of it beyond the reach of Vladimir by changing the wallet and the secure key for the account.’

‘Yes.’

‘The next time he tries to log in, he will not be able to access any of it. Am I right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Does anybody else have access to the account?’

‘Only me, not that I’m particularly ecstatic about it.’

‘Good. I suggest we keep it that way for now. The trouble is, they will not believe the crypto account died when he was killed. They will take the double-cross personally and will come looking for the funds. When they do, it might not end well for anybody.

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