Gemsicuted

Written by Julian Robov


Thirty Four


As days passed by, raising two million dollars became more difficult than expected. Sanders was taking more time in the guise of technical discussions while his partners remained at least seriously committed to the deal. This is what both, Tito and Miko, couldn’t understand. This was a once in a lifetime deal benefiting everyone involved, and pieces such as these needed no further discussions. The profit was already there.

The magic combination of price, quality, and a client was taking more time than usual to make it a reality. But knowing Sanders, Jeb, and Baddy, the only thing Miko and Tito could wish was to wait till their technical discussions were over. Another waiting game!

On the other hand, Lam kept calling Tito to sell the piece only to Rubyhall. Tito didn’t know that Lam’s future was at stake because of a 37carat ruby. And straying away from the promise they had with Lord was more than enough to remind them that ones word meant honor, and violation or deviation meant guaranteed death. Above all, one Pierre Themiro wanted to become a partner, and he too after the convincing call to his office a few days ago was taking more time. He never bothered to visit Tito’s office. When calls such as these arrived, false commitments were obviously expected. Miko and Tito had no problem living with that nuisance. It was just a coincidence that they had to beg Sanders and his partners to become partners in this one time only deal. They had the money, but it was tied up with other deals and canceling them would have done more harms than good. It was a real catch-22 situation.

Tito had done the calculation already. Fifty-fifty! One million each! They chipped in one million, and Tito and Miko took care of the rest. There was already more than five million dollars arriving from the account of a Swiss gem collector to their account in Cyprus, but that would be available for disposal only after four weeks. Tito and Miko couldn’t wait any longer knowing the typical nature of the ruby trade. It took only a split-second for anyone to like or dislike a ruby not because of the ruby, but some other important things had arrived to claim the money. They already had a client lined up, and she had only one interest. That was to keep collecting rubies no matter what the price, because she had the kind of money to spare. Very rarely could anyone find clients like Polly Win. If the world requested her to display her collections of rubies, famous museums around the world would gasp for breath just looking at them.

She herself had no clue as to how many rubies she had, and neither did her husband. His only commitment towards her was to keep her happy. So buying rubies became a ritual whenever she requested, knowing that one-day a big business deal was awaiting Phil to justify the millions he had already spent on Polly.

Money meant nothing to Phil Win, because it was flowing to his bank account from all sort of business deals, commodities, stock market, computers, hotels, restaurants and real estate, like the Chao Phraya river, never ending. The only reason he could account for this was not because he was smart or intelligent, but due to Polly’s luckcharm. A Buddhist monk revealed the enlightening news to Phil while on a merit making ceremony in the northern province of Chiang Rai, and since then he hadn’t looked back. His business prospered tremendously beyond expectation.

Then there was this British Lotto craze. Chichi had already bought the tickets, another stupid thing to do. But they had nothing much to lose. If they won, fine enough. If not, they had no problem. It was just that the dates had arrived in time for a chance situation.

Tito and Miko had only one interest, which was to get the 37carat ruby at two million and by any means. Once the money was transferred to Winston Lord’s account in Switzerland, their worries were over. Most important of all, they already had a client willing to pay twice the price Lord was asking for. As always, the timing had to be right and realistic, which in turn was the most unpredictable part of this magic equation. At times it clicked as planned. That was the fun and pain of this ruby trade. No one had the magic formula for a successful buy or sell situation. It just fell into the right place with a right client at the right time. So with this situation both, Miko and Tito, had only one choice. Wait. THE WAITING GAME! They knew already that pushing Sanders and his partners too much for a decision meant disaster. Another deal wouldn’t be anywhere near the horizon if they were looking for a partnership. After all, they had no problem with money and their business interests and priorities always had to be taken into account anyway. But the chance of losing a 37carat ruby of good quality meant more to both, Tito and Miko. It had just fallen into their hand, and they didn’t want to lose it.

Sanders and Jeb carved their niche in history a few years ago buying a 47carat ruby from a Cambodian tycoon for an undisclosed amount when there were already several buyers from New York, Switzerland, and Tokyo waiting at a hotel in Phnom Penh. No one had a clue how Jeb and Sanders outmaneuvered those giants to convince this tycoon, who happened to be a close associate of the strongman and the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, to change his mind and sell it to them. That news sent shock waves in the ruby circle, the talent, shrewdness, and the money these two guys had to funnel to obtain the ruby out of Cambodia. With such spectacular buying and selling tactics recorded, Tito and Miko had no other choice other than pray, till the whole deal was over.