08:10—Veska
The fourth-floor elevator button had been sticking since spring. People usually pressed it more than once. He did the same and went up with two men from statistics who were talking about football.
His screens had been on since seven. The sheet had forty lines. Yesterday’s total demand for foreign currency was halfway down. He had already looked at it twice. Below it was the non-resident line, showing modest outflows similar to the week before. He highlighted a few items, removed one, then put it back.
The interbank quote was in the corner of the screen. 7.82 / 7.86. The spread was a little wider than it had been on Friday.
At twenty past eight a bank called. He knew the dealer by voice. The dealer asked about the day’s liquidity operation. He gave him the number.
After the call, he looked at the sheet again. He was not sure what had prompted the question.
The governor’s meeting was at ten. In the note he was drafting he wrote gradual, then changed it to measured. Nothing on the sheet seemed urgent.
At half past eight a colleague asked if he was coming to the twelve-thirty.
“I can’t,” he said. “I’m leaving at six.”
The colleague nodded.
17:20—Dolnik
A space heater had been standing beside the filing cabinet since June. Nobody knew who had left it there.
The article had been on his phone since noon. It was short. The central bank had asked commercial banks for daily position and liquidity data. The word devaluation did not appear. The analysts quoted in the article thought the request meant the rate would be defended.
He thought so too.
He had planned to buy the quarter-end dollars in two parts. He called the bank.
The dealer on the corporate desk said he would have to check.
“Give me ten minutes.”
He called back ten minutes later.
“We’re not quoting at the moment.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
He called another bank. A woman he had dealt with for years answered.
“If you’d called this morning,” she said.
“Can you give me anything?”
“Not now.”
He stayed by the window for a while. The second shift was clocking in below.
He called his assistant and told her to be at her desk early the next morning. If a rate became available, they would buy the full amount.
The workers below continued coming through the gate.
02:17—Veska
The new rate was announced.
23:30—Veska
The lights on the fourth floor were still on. The air conditioning shut off automatically at eleven, and the room was beginning to get warm.
He was checking figures while the others worked around him. Several calculators were in use, so he did some of the arithmetic in his head.
The young man beside him had been sent over from statistics for the evening. He entered a figure and read it out.
“Two-three-eight.”
“Two-eight-three,” he said.
The young man checked it.
“Right.”
He entered the figure again.
There was a meeting farther down the corridor. It had started at nine. The door remained closed.
From time to time someone came out and walked to the vending machine before going back inside.
The people on the fourth floor kept working.
He moved on to the next column.