Mr “Goldneck”, a fake “Bentley” and a factory up on Dracula’s hill

Part 2

(to read part 1, click here)

"Just 5 minutes drive from here"

I turned my head around the square, the central one of this secondary city. So many people passing by, some of them turning their head to see the crazy guy dressed in suit and tie in the middle of the summer. I smiled and I looked at my clock. 11.30 sharp, the time of my meeting. I did not have to wait for long. "Goldneck" appeared soon, making to me signals so as to hurry up and enter in the car. He was driving a quite old Chrysler 300, not recently washed inside.

He was together with another gentleman, his unofficial servant. About 1.60 tall, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. His eyes were tired, he looked like 45 years old, but I was sure he was not. He was staying in the back seat being ready to fulfill any wish of his boss. From cigarettes and coffee, up to "dangerous missions" as he told me winking his eye. I tried to imagine the guy on the backseat as Jason Bourne, at Bourne Identity, but Mat Damon took the role instantly. "Are we far away?" "Naah, just few minutes drive, not more than 5 from here…"

A fake "Bentley"

You can easily guess that 5 minutes were enough just to exit the traffic of the center. As time was passing by, something was not matching with the whole scenery. "I am sorry, but I am looking at this for {C}{C}{C}some minutes now. Is this car a Bentley? I see here on your steer the sign of Bentley, but I recognize a Chrysler 300"…

He started laughing… "You have the eye of the hawk, you are the first one who understands this! Bravo, I am impressed". "But it is obvious". "No, no it is not. Noone realizes this here in the city, plus there are not many Bentley around and people can not spot the difference". "And why did you do it?" "You know what happens when I say to a girl "come for a ride with my Bentley"? They melt like ice cream. It is the ultimate weapon!" "Oooook" I replied and dived into my thoughts: After fake bags, glasses, clothes, shoes and God knows what else… I was driven to a property by a fake… Bentley. Lucky me…

"The central – top location"

He had told me that I would be surprised to see how close the land is to everything. We drove behind a factory. "Are we here?" "Almost". Then we drove some kilometers on… mud and after we reached a construction site. They were building a new road. A car creates lots of dust driven on a stone road. But "Goldneck" knew everyone there and he wanted to prove this to me. So, after 1 minute's drive, we stopped close to some workers and he opened his window to greet them. I didn't complain, I just accepted my fate. A wave of dust invaded the car and I… enjoyed the moment, watching my suit changing color.

We drove some more kilometers, but the atmosphere in the car was a mixture of bad airconditioned air and dust, lots of dust. He was telling me about how strong political connections he had. We reached a future intersection, with another stone road to begin from there. We turned left and drove some more kilometers. Finally we arrived at the place. I opened the door and jumped out, trying to breathe fresh air. On my left hand there was a flat agricultural area. On my right a quite tall hill, with 50 degrees angle. I turned my back to the hill and stated: "Ok, let us talk about the property now"…

"Dracula's Hill"

"Where do you look? The land is on your back". "Cut the crap, nice joke". "No, I am serious, the land is on your back". I turned around. "But this is a hill". "So what?" "How should we build a factory on a hill? Have you ever seen something like this in your life?" "For sure there must be plenty. But don't be upset. Look how nice it is". He took the sketch of the property and tried to show me its limits. I thought this was a bad nightmare…

"Is this the central – top location?" I asked. "Why? Do you know what will be here after the construction ends?" "I guess a county road. There is nothing around us for several kilometers". "But not just a county road. THE county road, leading to …" (he named a village). I looked at my watch. 55 minutes exactly. "So you brought me here, spending one hour just to show me the only hill on a flat agricultural surface?" "But it has strategic location". "Yeah, if Dracula would return, he would have liked to build his castle here. It is a super location in order to patrol a very large area. But we want to build a factory. We can not even go up there by car". "Look if you want to do serious business, you must have money. Do your clients have cash or we lose our time? If they do, they buy one Hummer and I am sure they will go up. I watched the advertisements, it goes everywhere, even on "Dracula's Hill", if you want to call it like this".

"I will let you walk back"

I was very upset. "Where are the utilities here? You told me it has all utilities". "Yes, it can have all. If you bring them, noone will prevent you. Do you know how difficult it is to allow you to bring the utilities? But ofcourse we will guarantee this". I really wanted to leave. "Let us go". "What? We will not talk about the price?" "What price? Of what? Of "Dracula's Hill" you mean?" "So, you are not serious!!! You came here to spend my time! Maybe to steal information! You sneaky Greek! You want me to tell you the name of the owner so as you will try to bypass me! You do not have a client!" He pretended that he wanted to fight with me and immediately his "servant" stopped him (I guess they had been practicing the move for quite some time, they performed it perfectly). I did not move, nor replied.

"Ok, ok, I will not fight with you" once again he was generous… "You lose, I was ready even to negotiate with you. But I will leave you here, we go and you can walk back". "Ok. Too bad, I wanted to ask you some more questions about your political connections. As I can not find clients for this property, maybe we could do some deals together on the energy segment, where I am also involved". "Ofcourse, come. I was joking, did you believe me?" On the way back, I heard about every possible scenario for important and strong Romanians. Taking into consideration that all of them appeared to be friends of "Goldneck", I automatically deleted all the information I was forced to receive.

My clients didn't have enough vision…

Having shower at my hotel, before my clients would arrive, I was relieved: "Thank God I have another 3 serious cases". They checked them thoroughly and during the following two weeks they expressed their interest in written. Due diligence did not delay so much and in October the final contract was signed. They did not have enough vision though so as to imagine their factory built on a hill (and not just a hill, "Dracula's Hill").

My beloved "Goldneck" stopped collaborating with me (and after he started swearing), when I dared to ask him if a project he proposed had an authorization to connect to the grid. But I am sure he will survive, he knows how to. And unfortunately there are so many people out there, ready to believe him…