Chapter seventy four

By the time we we made our final decent to the airport it was the middle of the day and the sun was shinning bright over the Las Vegas valley. We disembarked at the McCarran international airport after a thirteen hour long flight which was very long and boring but at least flying in a private jet was nice. Apparently the jet belonged to the oil company which was in turn owned by my adoptive grandfather who seemed to be only too happy to lend me the use of his own private plane. He even left a letter inside that said that he had only heard good things about me from Kazimir, the letter ended by stating his desire to meet me as soon as was convenient. I didn't know how to feel about that, I had never met the man but he was trying to make a connection with me even though I am not really related to him by blood. He was not only my adoptive grandfather but also one of the richest men not only in Russia but also the entire world not to mention that as one of the oil oligarchs of Russia he has an inordinate amount of power and influence, if I was to associate myself with him I was probably going to get myself in a whole new heap of trouble and enemies but hey, its not like I'm a stranger to trouble and enemies, so I left a letter in the plane responding to his letter that stated that I would love to meet up in the near future.

After we left the nice air conditioned confines of the private plane the first thing I noticed was the stifling heat. It was the middle of December and probably wasn't as hot as it could have been but for a person who has spent her entire life in St Petersburg it felt like a freaking sauna to me. I quickly removed my grateful dead jacket so that I was just wearing my T-shirt with the ghost buster's logo on it(oh the irony).

Thankfully the trek from the place were the private jet landed to the airport building was short and we didn't have to suffer the blistering heat of the tarmac and pavement for long. When we got into the airport and finished all the security procedures to enter the US we were received at the gate by a driver sent by the mirage hotel and casino where we had booked VIP rooms. The man helped me and Delilah with our luggage which wasn't much since we left a lot of it in our hotel room in Oslo.

He drove us straight to the famous Las Vegas strip which was actually beyond Vegas city limits but nothing is more Vegas than the iconic hotels and casinos that we were passing from the slightly wacky circus that is actually modeled after a circus to the very Vegas interpretation of roman civilization, the Bellagio with its humongous fountain that looked more like a lake, to the sphinx of the Luxor hotel and the Arthurian based Excalibur, the Vegas strip was an eclectic mix of themes and appropriated foreign cultures that in the end make it uniquely Vegas.

And nothing was more Vegas than the Mirage hotel and casino which was built with a Polynesian theme. There was a humongous marquee declaring the name of the hotel which is actually the largest free standing marquee in the world, as if anybody could miss the giant building which was glinting golden in the sun thanks to genuine gold dust that was used to tint the windows. The Mirage hotel was the epitome of what Vegas was, it is large , shiny and most importantly of all it was expensive.

We quickly checked in to the hotel, unlike the debacle in Oslo nobody was looking down at us or judging us because of our grungy style, we were far from the most eccentric people in the lobby so we didn't even attract any attention. Our room was everything you would expect from one of the best rooms of one of the best hotels in Vegas, hell it was more like a house than a hotel room but I didn't get to see much of it , I was absolutely exhausted because of the long flight and passed out on the bed.

It was probably for the best anyways, if I sleep now I can be nice and rested by the time nighttime arrives which is when the action really starts .

I had a fake ID that says that I am twenty one in the middle of the city of sin, when I wake up I am going to have some fun.