“Russian?" I asked dumbly. I do that sometimes.”

“There's an old Russian saying that goes some way or another. I don't know it. I don't speak Russian. But sometimes I think about it and wonder if it's relevant to what I'm going through at the time. Probably not. I mean what do Russian know about hunger, anyway?”

“Skylar todl you to come here?" I asked dumbly."No," Bethany said. "Skylar told me not to come here. Same dif.”

“I have a couple of questions," he said."Do, please, go ahead.""My first one is for Yassen Gregorovich." He turned to the Russian. "Why are you working for this lunatic?""I sometimes think that I was richer when I was eight years old than most people will be in their lifetime!""Do we have to listen to this?" Alex asked.”

“Do you pray?” I ask him.“Doesn't everybody pray sometime?”

“Sometimes I think I'll give up trying, and just go completely Russian and sit on a stove and moan all day.”