The giant stood on the wide steps of the station and toasted Maier with his bottle and a wide, mischievous grin across his face.
“Tourists get lost around here regularly and it’s a miracle that no one has fallen off the cliff down into the jungle. Some, I’ve been told, are thrown off by the ghosts of the casino. You were too heavy for the ghosts?”
Maier hadn’t expected a welcoming committee, much less a camp, quite possibly drunk Russian with a poetic bent. For a second he was tempted to throw the few phrases of Russian he remembered from school at the man, but then he decided to say nothing.
Mikhail had charisma. His command of English was perfect, even playful, his accent that of a Hollywood bad guy.
“Well, young man, have you been rendered speechless? Let’s start at the beginning, d
