Diversification #9
Over the past decade, BlackRiver has made outstanding achievements in China, including becoming the first foreign asset manager
to receive approval for a wholly owned mutual fund business in China, and forming key strategic partnerships, such as its
joint venture with China Construction Bank and Temasek, to develop innovative wealth management solutions tailored for Chinese
investors. The firm has emerged as one of the foremost players in the region, and views China as a strategic priority.
(9:12 a.m.) are you sure you want me to come to this?
(9:14 a.m.) Of course, I am. I wasn’t aware that I was seeing anyone else.
(9:15 a.m.) well, i have opinions
(9:15 a.m.) about the chinese surveillance state
(9:15 a.m.) its treatment of uyghurs
(9:15 a.m.) and america’s constant anxiety about losing its global policeman role
(9:15 a.m.) honestly the entire concept of nonpartisan bilateral cooperation
(9:16 a.m.) I’d expect nothing less.
The gala is uptown, at the Plaza. Black cars gleam in the night, driving past the greenery of the park. Security, staff, and aides swarm diplomats, financiers, and politicians.
Andrew had smiled when Lili got into the car, greeting her warmly; she flushed, apologizing for her behavior when last they
met. During the car ride, he asked after her recent thesis progress. Beside her, Aleksandr’s hand rested on her thigh, as
Michael had run over a brief on an iPad with him.
As soon as they exit the Maybach, a woman—sleek coiled hair, sharp black suit, the look of a senior executive—swoops in, with
serious low words at Aleksandr’s shoulder. She has a vaguely familiar face from the night Lili visited his office.
Michael frowns, overhearing. He makes to speak, but Aleksandr shakes his head. “I’ll take care of it,” Aleksandr tells him.
“Andrew, with me. Lili, Michael will walk you in. I’ll find you after.”
“Risky,” Lili teases, squeezing his hand before she lets go.
“Play nice, Misha,” Andrew warns.
“Me?” Michael grumbles as the men disappear. Behind them, their car rolls away, and another pulls up. “You tell me to play nice?”
“Left in the cold.” Lili shakes her head. “Worse, left to babysit.”
“Come on,” Michael says, scowling. He jerks his head towards the hotel. “Keep up.”
“Careful,” she says, following him through the crowd, “or I might begin to think you actually like me.”
“I’d dislike you less if you didn’t actively endanger my business. Would you like to explain why Petrov rearranged our entire
last afternoon of work so he could go commune with the wilderness?”
Lili frowns. “What?” Around them, the pitch of noise changes as they enter the hotel; the traffic of Fifth Avenue gives way
to the overwhelming buzz of the crowded foyer.
“Some cove,” he says, steering her towards the ballroom, its towering open doors. “He was entirely out of reception, it was absurd.”
He’d gone to Tennessee Cove, she realizes. Walked out over those headlands, felt the black sand underfoot, heard the crash
of the Pacific. Taken steps she’d walked hundreds of times as a teenager, alone.
A smile, almost stupid in its glow, breaks across her face, thinking about him in places important to her.
“So?” Michael prompts. “You tell me: Was he attempting to find God? Is this some grand conversion scheme?”
Lili laughs, shaking her head. “What’s with your aversion to me? Aren’t you used to a slew of young girls on his arm over
the years? What’s so bad about me, specifically?”
“He does not usually date children. He doesn’t usually date younger at all.”
She frowns, taken aback. “Really?”
“The last woman Petrov was seeing was one of the world’s foremost neurosurgeons.”
“Shame she didn’t lobotomize you.”
“I agree,” he mutters, “and before I had met you—Jesus, don’t trip. Honestly. Here, just take my arm.”
Lili stifles a smile, as he steadies her. Entering the ballroom, crowds mill, sedate music playing. Around them, ostentatious
flower arrangements bloom, tables laden with elaborate place settings and shining silverware, laughter that sounds like eased
tariffs and new trade agreements.
“Are you old enough to drink?” Michael asks, taking two champagne flutes from a passing server.
“Just about,” Lili says, swiping one of the glasses.
“That was for Andrew.”
“And he told you to play nice,” she says, taking a light sip. If she blinked, she’d have missed the faint split second of
his smirk.
“Michael!” Across the crowd, a tall, dark-haired man—handsome face, close-shaven hair—shouts, waving; the woman beside him—Kara,
Lili realizes—rolls her eyes, already beelining towards them through the crowd.
“Christ, save me,” Michael mutters as the two approach.
“Michael, have you seen Petrov?” the unfamiliar man asks.
“He’s taking a call.”
“The London acquisition, yeah?” Kara asks. Her merlot silk dress glows in the ballroom’s tasteful lighting. An engagement
ring gleams—deep sapphire, clustered with diamonds—on her hand, impeccable gloss of dark red nail polish. “I saw those emails
today. It’s turning into a real nightmare.”
“Should I be on the call with Petrov?” the man asks Michael anxiously. “Does he need me? I could step in, if he needs coverage—”
“Yeah, you definitely should,” Kara urges, faux earnestness. “I actually heard Petrov say he was looking for you, that this
deal couldn’t go through without you in the room.”
“Must have been right after I heard him say he was going to fire you?”
“That was actually talk of my promotion you overheard. I’m about to be your boss—”
“Somehow, I think he’ll manage to get by without either of you,” Michael replies.
“Michael’s just sore that he got iced out of the call,” Lili explains, hiding a smile.
Kara laughs, delighted. “Seems like he’s doing fine without you, too, Mike, eh?”
He makes an irritated sound. “I told you, I will not respond to that name—”
“Gustav Tang, pleasure to meet you,” the unfamiliar man interrupts, introducing himself to Lili with a brilliant smile. “I
don’t believe we’ve met?”
“Lili Marwan,” she supplies, shaking his hand. “I’m—”
“Part of a new recruitment scheme,” Michael interjects, dryly. “Petrov is mentoring grad students.”
“She’s Petrov’s date,” Andrew corrects as he rejoins the group. He rests a hand on his husband’s shoulder. “Lili, Tang leads
our work in China, oversees our onshore mutual fund there. It’s much of the work we’re being awarded for tonight. And you’ve
met Kara—”
Lili’s face burns a little, remembering the argument Kara and Andrew had been unsuspecting bystanders to. “Right, um—about
the other night, at the Greenes’ fundraiser. That was rude of us, I really am sorry—”
Kara waves a hand; her smile is warm, edged with mischief. “Don’t be. It’s lovely to see you again. Sometimes I want to yell
at him, too. I’m glad someone can.”
“How’s the call?” Michael asks Andrew.
“It’s fine, he’s wrapping up.”
“What’s it looking like? Is it going south?”
“Their management team is just spooked. They’re running around screaming like a bunch of fresh MBAs.”
“What’s happening?” Lili asks.
Kara explains: “We got vaguely blindsided—”
“Blindsided,” Michael mutters, with skeptical distaste. “Someone needs to be fired.”
“—by an attempted hostile takeover of a firm we’re about to acquire,” Kara continues, ignoring him. “By another PE firm—Apollo,
gross, right?”
Lili frowns. “Is it serious?”
Kara scoffs. “No, not really. We’d come out better for it, honestly, if they go all in like this, and we walked away. No,
it’s the perception of it: Petrov hates it when people try to undercut our private equity. He came up through it.”
Lili raises an eyebrow. “So, it’s all ego?”
Kara winks. “As is this entire industry, yes. What’s Petrov thinking?” she asks, looking at Andrew as he accepts a glass of
champagne from a server.
“At this point, he’s about to force-feed the board a poison pill.”
“Huh. Dilution wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,” Tang comments.
Kara wrinkles her nose. “No, get us out—clean our hands of it before it becomes a complete Benghazi.”
Andrew inclines his head. “Well, yes, but it’s the principle of it for him. He’d rather go scorched earth, bury them with
debt, lose all value in the asset, than have people think we can be fucked over.”
“Careful!” Tang warns, with a laughing look at Lili. “You’re going to scare her off.”
“Believe me, I’ve already tried,” Michael mutters.
“And she can hold her own,” Andrew says. “Marwan likely knows more about economics than the rest of us combined.”
“Are you an economist?” Tang asks, impressed.
She shakes her head. “Not quite, I’m doing a graduate degree.”
“We never did get a straight answer at Greene’s party,” Andrew observes. “Are you interested in finance as a career, after
graduation?”
“No, not really,” she says, determined to be reasonable this time.
Andrew grins. “You don’t need to be polite around us. We can take it.”
“I mean, Tang probably can’t take it, he has the disposition of a rosebud,” Kara comments.
“I just think there are some structural contradictions within capitalism,” Lili says, choosing her words carefully. She does like Andrew—likes Kara, too. “That’s all. I’m not entirely comfortable with the way the financial industry benefits from those.”
“Certainly.” Andrew nods. Lili is taken aback. “But there’s value in utilizing the strength of the system to fix the system
itself. Better to make change from within, wouldn’t you say?”
“Doesn’t that strike you as a little—dangerous?” she asks. “That balance of benefiting from present state, advocating for
a transition to a future state?”
“In what sense?”
“Well, there’s a hypocrisy—sorry, I mean, tension,” Lili backtracks. She sees Kara stifle a smile. “A tension between it all.
Like, can you really purport to care about ESG when you have such a significant stake in Exxon? They alone account for nearly
two percent of global emissions.”
“If we keep people like you around to keep us honest, yes,” Andrew says.
“I like her,” Kara proclaims.
Michael scowls. “Don’t.”
“No, I think I’m keeping her.”
He sighs. “Kara, please. I’m tired.”
“Let’s fire Tang and bring Marwan on board.”