Page 95 of The Pakhan’s Debt by Leona White

“Proxy revocation first,” he says. “Rykova seals the acknowledgment. My directors come out. Ownership gets confirmed. Volkov receives operational control after that. Succession language comes last, tied to both signatures.”

He looks at me then, almost warm.

“Do it in the right order, Elena, and we win.”

My chair scrapes back as I stand. “This meeting is over.”

The smile leaves his face. Now he understands.

I let him sit with it. “You corrected my answer.”

28

ELENA

My nostrils flare at the combined smells of paper, smoke, leather and bitter coffee as I step into the legal room.

Green lamps throw steady light over the long table, where files sit in hard stacks between water glasses, a vodka decanter no one has opened, and an ashtray holding the remains of three cigars Maksim has crushed without smoking past the first inch.

Work is caffeine tonight. Tea from Mrs. Wentworth sits untouched near my elbow, pale now, with lemon floating dead at the top.

Maksim stands behind my chair with one hand braced on the leather back, close enough that his coat brushes my shoulder when he shifts.

Across from me, Leonid sits with his sleeves rolled up and his glasses low on his nose, two fountain pens lined beside his laptop. Nina Voronina, the registry counsel Leonid trusts, sits near the heavy bookcases with a registry folder open on her lap, one thumb marking a page while her other hand rests on a capped pen.

No one says I look tired. Smart of them.

I lay Sergei’s sequence in the center of the table, written in my own hand because I need to see it outside my head.

Proxy revocation. Rykova acknowledgment. Placeholder directors removed. Beneficial ownership confirmed. Operational grant. Succession language tied to both lines.

The words sit black against white, neutral enough to give nothing away, and my head throbs behind my eyes.

Leonid looks at my face, then picks up the page. He reads it once, then again.

“This is enough to move.”

“It’s enough to start,” I say. “It won’t hold if we get the order wrong.”

Maksim leans over the page. “Then we put it in order.”

Nina taps the first line with one neat fingernail. “Cancel the old proxies first. If we remove the directors before that, Sergei’s people can object and freeze the board.”

“Good,” I say, pulling the file closer. “Then Rykova seals the old acknowledgment, so no one can claim we rebuilt the file after the fact.”

“Yes,” Maksim says, and his fist hits the table once. “Rykova confirms the original. The record was already there, and no one gets to call it new or fake.”

Leonid writes fast. “That makes Elena the confirmed owner.”

“Ultimate legal owner,” I correct him.

I turn halfway in my chair and look at Maksim, my voice worn thin but satisfied. Maksim presses my shoulder once. I shift forward and keep my eyes on the page because I need my pulse in control.

Leonid’s pen has stopped.

I look at him. “Write the words properly. If you soften them now, Moretti will widen them later.”

Leonid nods. “Ultimate legal owner.”