33

Star

I get out of the car, surprised. I can see bouncers standing outside the understated entrance of some kind of club or restaurant. It is as if someone was trying hard to be ordinary. Everything about it is drab. There is an awning but even that is the dullest green you can

think of. The name of the club is in black on gray.

Ziggurat.

One of the bouncers immediately leaves his position and comes towards me. It’s a beautiful warm summer evening with an occasional gentle breeze and I stand there frozen.

“Good evening, Miss Minton. My name is Roman,” he says when he gets close enough to me. “Good evening, Roman. Where is Nikolai?”

“Mr. Smirnov is upstairs in his office and asked if you could wait for him.”

“Oh.” He makes me come here alone and now he won’t even allow me to go up to his office. Instead he wants me to sit somewhere and wait for him.

“Please, come with me. You can sit and have a drink in one of our private rooms,” he says. “What is this place?”

He looks at me strangely.