The police caught the robber on the same day. It turned out to be a piece of cake to find him. Firstly, Baranova was ready to hand over anyone as soon as she saw the police. She revealed the identity of the robber - Svyatoslav Vasilkov, who lives in the district center, a drug addict with experience. Secondly, Vasilkov was handed over by a fence of stolen goods, and the reason that burned him was a marked monitor.
And it seems that the equipment was found, at least, a computer and a monitor, but they were hung up by the police as evidence. The phone and the player are both missing. The money was gone, too, of course. The drug addict managed to spend them on heroin, with which he was accepted. He was facing ten years in prison for drugs and robbery.
This news did not make Ivan feel any better. He was in the hospital for a week with a severe concussion. After being discharged from the hospital, he recovered for two more months. The doctors forbade him to strain himself. As a result, Mikhail took over all the work. Vanya helped him, but only a little, so as not to strain himself. As a result, they restored one car for a couple of months.
The first car sold brought twelve thousand dollars to the piggy bank. Vanya spent almost all the money on security. He was too much impressed by the robber's attack.
A high metal fence has grown around the yard for all fifty acres. The front door was replaced with a metal one with a peephole. Grilles appeared on the windows, and the windows themselves were replaced with multi-chamber plastic double-glazed windows. Surveillance cameras are installed everywhere.
After these expenses, he still had funds left. He used them to gasify the garage. He was tired of heating the stove. But he spends most of his time in the garage.
As a result, Ivanov's yard stood out for its monumentality against the background of neighbors' houses, surrounded at best by a low picket fence. A fifty-hectare metal box made of green corrugated sheet with several gates and a gate.
Vanya is tired of driving over potholes. He also sold his Subaru and ordered asphalt chips. They sprinkled asphalt chips all the way to his house, and it didn't cost him as much as one might think. It was also enough to demolish the old sheds and build in their place a large metal hangar for storing spare parts and other junk. Inside, the hangar has got a lot of shelving. And the concrete paths were filled in the courtyard.
He poured money into landscaping for the price of a three-room apartment. The neighbors whispered behind his back when he wasn't looking, twirling a finger at his temple. They like to count other people's money. So they gossiped, they say, it would be better to buy an apartment in the city and live like a white man. That's a weird person, that's how Badgers are built. They're not like that, they're smart, and if they were in his place, they'd definitely go to the city. And the fact that Ivanov's profit comes from car repairs, which are better carried out in a well-equipped workshop with a place to store wheelbarrows and spare parts - they somehow did not think about it. For the neighbors, the money from the "local rich man" appeared by itself out of thin air or, of course, he stole it. After all, a person cannot get rich by his own labor: he either steals or pumps.
The new phone was bought in Chelyabinsk - a classic Nokia 3310. A reliable brick that has fallen in price to a reasonable couple of thousand rubles. The SIM card was restored without any problems.
Vanya bought a computer with his own hands according to an ad - a modern pentium 4, which was used for only six months. It cost a third less than when buying in a store.
In May of this year, Mikhail's mother passed away, because of which he, his wife and children moved to Badgers.
After the funeral, he decided to follow his employer's example and started building. Before that, he was hampered by his mother, who, due to senility and senile mental disorders, was categorically against rebuilding the old house.
Ivan lent Misha a concrete mixer. Having seen enough of the boss's buildings, he decided to build the walls of the extension directly from arbolite, with which all the local rowdies learned to work, happy with the appearance of a side job.
***
Time flew by at the speed of a hypersonic fighter jet. Ivanov did not dare to get to know Saule again. And in general, he had almost no contact with girls, with the exception of rare affairs during his stay in the district center and the city. He immersed himself in his work, improving his professional skills. Body repairs were becoming easier for him. With experience, it became clear where it was better to hit and where to tighten in order to restore the body with the least amount of time and effort.
Ivan completely concentrated on Japanese right-handed cars. He didn't know how the customs officers in Vladivostok managed to clear broken cars, but somehow they did it. Probably through organ-feeding people. The main thing is that two or three times a year we managed to bring a full truck to Badgers.
He didn't just buy his favorite car brands. It is impossible to find the same brand at Japanese auctions all the time. Dozens of different Toyotas have passed through his and Misha's hands. One of them, the 'Mark 2' of the ninety-sixth year of manufacture, remained his main vehicle by the summer of the two thousand and eighth year. His friend and assistant, whose income has tripled over the past time, traveled in the same wheelbarrow.
In four years, Ivanov earned a substantial sum of two hundred thousand dollars, including all expenses for the delivery of cars, their repairs and the salary of an assistant. But all this money was spent on the purchase of apartments in new buildings in Chelyabinsk. He took real estate at the excavation stage, knowing from the future which houses were problematic and which of them would surely be commissioned. In total, he became the owner of nine apartments, two of which are old one-bedroom apartments, and the rest are the most popular, that is, two-room apartments. Six apartments were rented out, and three, located in the same building and entrance, had not yet been commissioned by the developer.
In addition, he had seventy thousand dollars in operating revenue from the last batch of cars on his hands.
The money was stuck because it was impossible to order broken cars from Japan. Something didn't work out for the suppliers. Either the werewolves in uniform were detained, or something else. In addition, in anticipation of an increase in duties on the import of foreign cars, the used foreign car market collapsed. People started buying up everything from Japanese auctions en masse, and prices went up. The cars were stuck at customs for a long time.
Ivan was not upset. The global economic crisis has already made itself felt. The dollar is about to start creeping up.
For the first time since returning to the past, Vanya decided to just take a break and rest. He had enough money to live on, which he received from renting apartments. The total amount was such that, in principle, he did not need to work, there was still enough to travel abroad - in the region of one and a half thousand dollars.
But somehow this money didn't stay with Ivanov. He was used to using them for personal needs. Previously, there were small amounts - now a solid income, but it took every penny.
He bought the machines he liked in the workshop that appeared in the courtyard, new professional tools, expensive household appliances. For example, the most modern gaming computer. I also had a wired Internet connection, which cost a lot of money. Wired Internet in the village! It's scary to even think about it. Only the rich can afford something like that. But Vanya needed him vitally in connection with one of his ideas.
In theory, he could kick out one of the tenants and move to Chelyabinsk to use the Internet there. It's more profitable, but... Don't give up everything you've earned with backbreaking work? All these lovely pieces of hardware, buildings, fresh natural products and a measured village life...
Anyway, life is too short and, as experience has shown, suddenly finite. Two factors that have come together are enough: I want and I can. He wanted stable, broadband and unlimited Internet in Badgers, and he had the means to do so. He got what he wanted. He dreamed of a workshop with machine tools, even if he uses them, God forbid, a couple of times a month - he built and equipped everything necessary. That's what people do when they can afford what they want.
One problem is that there are no cars, so Mikhail doesn't have a job. And he's used to a good salary and steady employment.
It was possible to return to buying out usable balances from insurance companies, but Vanya knew about the imminent rise in the price of dollars, so he decided to hold on to the cash.
Misha had accumulated savings and gained extensive experience in restoring foreign cars. Ivan suggested that he switch to self-sufficiency. That is, to buy a car for restoration yourself and use his garage. Misha, after a moment's thought, agreed. He still came to Vanya almost every day, but he was already fixing his broken Volkswagen Golf.
Ivanov went into the garage to look at a friend's purchase.
Mikhail, noticing him, began to wipe his oiled hands on a cloth.
- Hello, Vanek. What do you think?
Nodding to his friend and glancing around the golf course, he gave his opinion, which was not at all expert.:
"Rubbish! But you can get seventy thousand rubles from it.
- When we started, we could raise the price of a foreign car.
- That's it, Mishan, forget it. With the spread of the Internet, those fertile times for overbooking have become a thing of the past, when you could buy a car, cheat a little and sell twice as much on the same day. Since last year, when the Internet became more accessible to the general public, and computers began to appear en masse among ordinary people, the world of the car market has changed dramatically. And this year, due to the imminent increase in import duties and the onset of the crisis, it will change even more.
- But I can order disassembly parts from other cities and get them in Chelyabinsk. By the way, thank you for allowing me to connect the Internet through you. The children and the wife are happy - you can't drag them away from the computer by the ears.
"It's nothing. Mishan, I'm not sorry for my own people.
- Don't the neighbors bother you?
- They tried to get me to use the Internet for them, but they went into the woods. Where were they when I offered to chip in with the whole village and run the Internet for everyone?
- Well, no one likes to pay, but they love freebies.
- Here's a yogurt on their lips!
- Vanek, are the neighbors offended?
- I'm up to my tomatoes, whether they're offended or not. Let them wash their faces with yogurt! How to work or chip in - you won't get anyone. Like a freebie -give-give-give. I am not Mother Teresa to help the poor. So they want to do nothing and drink, and I have to give them what I got afterwards and with my back off on a platter?!
- Calm down, Vanyusha. Calmly. Don't get excited. Big deal, people don't want to do anything for free... Remember what country you live in.
- To hell with these neighbors. I normally communicate with units of adequate people who are engaged in real business and supply me with food. That's enough. And I don't need any drunks. You'd better tell me, Mish, will you do your Golf in a month?
Mikhail carefully examined the car that had been crushed by the accordion.
- Yes, I think I should be able to manage. Why, Vanya, do you need a slipway?
- no. It's just that the dollar should start to creep up in August. You'd better drain the Volkswagen by this point, and convert the money into dollars. Of course, you don't have to listen. In principle, you won't lose much if, for example, you take another broken bucket. See for yourself.
"I'll think about it, Vanya. Let's see how it goes. But if you don't mind, I'd rather take another car. Unlike you, I have a family. Everyone needs to be dressed, and the kids need to buy a lot of things for school... Listen, I don't get it, you're a young guy. How do you manage without a woman?
- How-how... Two factors save me: laziness and the Internet... I'm jubbing a little bit.
"I don't understand right now," Mikhail drawled, looking at his boss in disbelief."No, it's understandable in meaning, but no one has called it that yet.
- That's for now... Ivanov narrowed his eyes slyly. "Just for now...
- Okay, dzyubelshchik... This is your life, I'm not messing with it. Although you could find yourself a young girl. You're a good-looking guy, not like me. I'm already in my late forties, my wife, my children-where should I go? And all you have to do is whistle- all the girls are yours.
- And what will a girl give me besides sex?
"So..." a smile spread across Mikhail's face. - Cleaning, cooking, and even a living being at home.
"Oh, Mishan, don't do that. I can hire a housekeeper right now. As you say, I'll just whistle, and one of the few highly respected residents of Badgers will be ready to lick the house and feed me for slaughter. And I have enough living beings.
"You mean the cat and the dog?"
"About them."
"But you can't talk to them."
"That's what you think. I saw a neighbor talking to her dog. That's what I said to my cat: 'Marshmallow, that's a fool of a neighbor, talking to a dog!'. And then he said to his dog, 'Am I right, Chocopai?'.
Misha laughed heartily.
"Oh, Vanka, don't go crazy. You need to communicate with people too.
- I have enough communication with you. And when I start collecting rent, ordering spare parts, or selling cars, I get sick of talking.
- Speaking of cars. Vanek, have you thought about selling a penny?
"What the fuck?"
- It's so undignified.
"Mishan, don't be silly. What am I going to use to carry the trailer? In a Toyota? A penny goes by - that's all it takes.
- And that's right, - Mikhail agreed. - They told me here that in the regional center one grandfather sells a deuce. Don't you want to buy?
- How much does he want and how much is the car alive?
- I think he wants thirty. But I don't know the condition, I haven't seen it.
- If the engine is whole and will give it away for twenty-five, then I'll take it right now. Do you have grandfather's contacts?
- I can ask. So, are you going to take it?
- Mishan, don't dissolve the yogurt! Drop your tarantass and let's go get a 'normal car'! The condition of the paper is written in milk. I can't do it alone, you know.
- Let's go.
As a result of the trip, an old two was purchased and dragged on a cable to Badgers. Vanya did not dare to start it, because, according to the owner, it had been idle in the garage for ten years.
The old Lada Cars took up space in the garage diagonally diagonally from the Volkswagen.
While Misha was making his Golf for sale, Vanya slowly began to tinker with the Lada.
A month later, Mikhail brought his German to a marketable appearance and began selling it. And Vanya continued to restore the two, bringing it to a state close to ideal.
After selling the Golf, Misha bought another broken-down foreign car. When the men dragged her onto the slipway, both were breathing hoarsely.
- How's your back, Mishan?
"It's over," he said.
"You need a compress of fly agaric tincture."
- Do you think it will help?
- It will definitely help. I know what I'm talking about.
- Vanek, you're young. You're not even thirty yet.
- Is this an indicator? Trust me, this yogurt shit works.
- I'll take your word for it. But last time you talked about the rise in the price of dollars, but it's already August, and something is not noticeable.
- Wait, then you'll be stunned. You're just not following the course. In July, the dollar was twenty-three rubles, now it's twenty-five. In winter, it will already be more expensive than thirty - don't go to a fortune teller. If you buy bucks now, you'll get twenty-five in winter, or even thirty percent, like good morning.
Mikhail sighed heavily. - If I had the money, I would buy dollars... I wanted to expand the garage so as not to embarrass you.
"You're not embarrassing me at all.
- No, Vanya, that's not the case. The garage is yours, and I'm doing my own thing here. It can't go on like this all the time. And I want to have my own garage with a slipway. You'd better tell me, how can I make a cheaper slipway?
- The most budget-friendly option is to weld from a hundredth profile tube, but this porn will work. You'll end up with him all over your back. As a purely personal solution to work with the car once a year, it will do. And for work, it is better to make at least four millimeters of foil with a pit and embedded hooks, like mine. Or you can concret the seventy-sixth pipes in the floor around the slipway. You insert the fiftieth pipe into them and cling to it with a hood. Weld the limiter hooks for the chain onto the pipe.
- Listen, this is an idea! - Mikhail was delighted. - I won't be able to pull the mortgages, because I wanted to pour the walls out of arbolite. And I have a lot of pipes. I probably will. Can you borrow a concrete mixer for the fall?
- Have you decided to build in the fall?
- And where to go? - Mikhail spread his hands. - Now we need money for construction and for living. I'll throw off this trough, and just in September I'll start pouring the foundation.
- My dear, you are a pervert! It's going to get colder in October, and you have no walls, no roof. Let's better concret the pipes, boil them with a profile and put the iron on. I'll help you. Then you'll put a heat gun inside and you'll dig a hole, pour concrete floors and suffer other perversions.
"And the heat?"
- Styrofoam-a hundred glues on all sides. Directly onto the mounting foam. Warm and inexpensive. I've been building this for centuries with mortgage hooks, but why do you need a garage like this if you're going to concrete the exhaust pipes? Next summer, if you plaster the foam or sew it up with a lining, you'll get a peach!
- hm... You can do that...
- It's easier this way. If we hire alconauts to dig holes for poles, we'll put up a garage in two weeks. Three at the most. We'll manage it just in time for the warmer months.
***
Misha's garage was built in a month. But that's always the case - you think of one deadline, and circumstances come out sideways.
While Mikhail was busy pouring floors and warming walls, Ivan set about the archival work, for which he had been preparing for a long time. He started looking for computer geeks. It wasn't until November that he managed to invite one of them to a bar meeting.
The geek turned out to be a skinny, short guy in square glasses, aged twenty-three. He had curly black hair and slightly dark skin, which made him look like a Tatar. He was dressed casually: a stretched sweater and worn blue jeans at the knees.
- Artyom? Ivanov asked.
- yes. Are you Ivan?
"That's right, sir. Let's go to a table.
The young people sat at an empty table in the corner of the bar and made orders. Artyom was nervous and didn't know where to put his hands or where to start.
"Uh.".. Ivan, you said you had a job for me.
"Exactly. You're good with computers, right?
- You could say that. I studied to become a programmer and now I work as a system administrator in a small company. What kind of job do you have? I mean, what will I need to do and what salary will I get?
- First of all, tell me, do you know what a cryptocurrency is?
- Oh! Artyom was surprised. He adjusted his glasses and looked at the other man with interest. - I didn't think anyone was interested in this topic. I recently read an article in English. It was written by some guy with a Japanese last name.
- Is Satoshi doing something?
- Exactly! Artyom smiled happily, relaxing before his eyes. - Satoshi Nakamoto. He described the principle of the digital currency network, which should become an alternative to the centralized banking system. Are you interested in this topic?
- Yes, I'm interested in that. Artem, can you set up Bitcoin mining on my computer? I'll pay you well.
"What?" - the young programmer looked at his interlocutor with perplexity.
- Mining... Yogurt on the nose! How can I explain it to you? This same Satoshi was supposed to release a program for creating a cryptocurrency called bitcoins. I need to install and configure this program. It is also advisable to chew what's what. How it all works. As a result, I pay a piece of bucks.
- Wow! - the guy was delighted, nervously adjusting the rim of his glasses. "This.".. Good money. I just haven't heard of such a program. Maybe she got out recently. But I will definitely find out about her and find her.
- Artyom, maybe Satoshi hasn't released his program yet. I heard out of the corner of my ear that this would happen at the beginning of the year two thousand nine.
"If that's the case..." a look of sadness crossed Artyom's face. "Are you ready to wait?"
"I'm ready to wait." But it is desirable that I have the program as soon as possible after the release. Can I count on you?
- For a thousand dollars, I am ready to monitor the Internet around the clock and immediately after the program is released, rush to you and install it.
"Okay," Ivan nodded.
The guys talked about computer topics for a while longer. Although Ivanov was not a doctor on this topic, he did not swim either. In the future, he subscribed to the channels of several technobloggers and searched the topic a little to maintain a dialogue and understand what was being said to him.
After exchanging phone numbers, the guys parted as friends.
***
On the third day after the celebration of the new two thousand and ninth year, Vanya was woken up in the middle of the night by a cell phone call.
Picking up the phone, he heard the excited voice of a new acquaintance.
- Ivan, this is Artyom, do you remember me?
"Um..." said Vanya sleepily. "Yeah... yeah... What happened? It's two o'clock in the morning...
- You said to call at any time of the day, as soon as information becomes available. After our meeting, I came home and started looking for information about cryptocurrencies. And I found it!
"Yeah.".. I'm happy... - Ivanov has not fully woken up yet.
- I found the program! Turns out you were right! Satoshi Nakamoto released a bitcoin mining program and shared it!
"What?" Ivanov abruptly opened his eyes and sat up on the bed. "Say it again."
- I'm saying that I downloaded the program and I can install it for you. I've already installed it for myself and launched it. It's working!
"Wonderful," Vanya, who had suddenly perked up, came to life before his eyes. - Just a peach! You never cease to please me. Artyom, you're not sleeping, are you?
- No, I'm not sleeping.
- Tell me the address. I'll bring the computers to you right away.
Flying to Chelyabinsk in the middle of the night to install a program on several computers and pay a thousand dollars for it - who else would think of such a thing?
Ivanov didn't care what people thought of him, he did it. He returned home towards lunchtime tired but happy. And the first thing I did was run a mining program on the computers.
Three system units were powered by expensive server uninterruptible power supplies. The Internet on them, in addition to cable, was duplicated by a self-tapping modem from a cellular operator. And the owner locked the computer room for the first time in his life.
***
As Ivan predicted, the dollar rose to thirty-five rubles by the end of January. At that moment, he exchanged his savings in foreign currency for rubles, and he did it very timely. The next day, the exchange rate dropped by more than a ruble. Although Vanya already sold the bucks for thirty-four. No one canceled the bank commission. But even so, he won.
In an amicable way, this money should have been invested somewhere. But where to? It's so clear that the shares of any large company will grow. But Ivanov had been afraid of financial investments in securities since his previous life. He was not an omniscient person. All I knew was that computer corporation stocks were getting more expensive in the nineties. And then he got this information from some book in the genre of urban fantasy about a hitman in the past. Think of it as a colleague. But the hero of the book, who was an ordinary student in the future, turned out to be well, damn, how well-trained and with a memory like Google's. He remembered everything: when and where to invest money in order to become a millionaire in a couple of years, and when little-known historical events would occur, and he understood all aspects of life at the professional level. For example, the hero, having picked up a Kalashnikov assault rifle for the first time and not having served in the army, suddenly began shooting like a real sniper.
Vanya chuckled to himself that he was a bad hitman from the word "priest". His memory is as full of holes as Swiss cheese, and he doesn't understand anything except car repairs and resale business. Well, he thinks a little about computers and knows how to use a phone. So any teenager in the thirties would give him a head start and beat him at the start in these skills.
Therefore, he went to the professionals of the financial department of one of the stable banks.
After a long dialogue with a financial investment specialist, although he did not understand anything about it, he heard familiar names of companies that had not gone bankrupt by at least the thirty-fifth year and continued to prosper. All that remained was to choose where to invest. Vanya chose Microsoft.
The company has always been well-known, and it has never been heard of going bankrupt in the future. But the decisive factor turned out to be the consultant's words that the shares of this company had become much cheaper.
As a result, Vanya became the owner of four thousand ordinary shares of Microsoft.
When he returned home from Chelyabinsk, the first thing he did was feed the dog, Chocopai, and the cat, Zephyr. Only then did I turn on a small zombie in the kitchen to cook dinner for myself while he mumbled.
Clicking on the remote, he stopped at one of the popular channels. There was a humorous program on which comedians performed.
Opening the locker door, Ivan froze with his hand outstretched to the pasta. The speakers of the TV brought a painfully familiar voice to his ears. He slowly turned his head towards the television screen and froze like a statue.
A black-haired Kazakh woman with such familiar and familiar features looked at him from the screen. Still young, thin and beautiful, as he remembered her in her youth.
The girl was joking about unsuccessful relationships with guys. She told stories from medical experience. Vanya had heard these stories told in a sarcastic manner more than once. About an ass glued together with glue, about a pervert grandfather, about a naive girl who thought that she would not get pregnant from sex at night...
Without taking his square eyes off the screen, he exclaimed in amazement:
"Saule?"
At first, he couldn't believe that he was seeing her - his beloved wife, the mother of five children, who in an ironic manner talked about the fear of getting pregnant. In her previous life, Saule was giving birth to her second child at that time, and even at the age of thirty-five she decided to have a fifth birth. And here she is pretending to be almost child free, that is, a girl who does not want to have children. But Vanya knew how much his beloved adores children.
But his eyes did not let him down, because he was wearing glasses. The comedian's name was written at the bottom of the screen:
Saule Ledge
"Saule?" Yogurt on the lips! How did you get there?!