Day Watch

"Of course not." I made another attempt to take a sip of coffee, this time successfully. "But I decided to investigate what the Light Ones were up to."

"And you didn't tell anyone?" Edgar was balancing halfway between disbelief and a

"If I'd gone trailing after the Call with backup, they'd have spotted it in a moment," I explained. "No, I had to go alone and without cover. So I did. They tried to grab me on Strastnoi Boulevard and I had to fight them off. I knocked the tigress down two or three times and tried to persuade her to stop, and it was only after that I hit her really hard."

Edgar stared at me without blinking.

"You're a dark horse, Vitaly," he said.

"Yes, Dark," I confirmed happily. "They don't come any Darker."

"Are you a magician beyond classification?" he asked.

"Alas, no," I said, spreading my hands-but slowly, so as not to spill the coffee. "Otherwise I wouldn't have let Gesar go."

Edgar drummed his fingers on the desk, squinting sideways impatiently at the door.

"What are those analysts doing…" he muttered.

The door opened and a brisk middle-aged woman, a witch, appeared in the doorway, with two men, both magicians.

"Hello, A

Edgar just nodded.

"Is this him?" one of the magicians asked, looking at me.

"Yes, Yura."

Yura was an old and powerful magician-I realized that straightaway. I also realized that Yura wasn't his real name. Magicians like that keep their real names hidden so incredibly deep, there's no way you can ever get to them.

And that's the right way. If you're really following the path of freedom.

"Have a seat, A

"Edgar," said the witch. "The Light Ones went for broke. They haven't pulled anything as wild as this since '49. They must have really serious reasons to violate the Treaty!"

Edgar shrugged and explained curtly: "Fafnir's Talon."

"But we haven't got it," the witch declared emphatically, looking around significantly at everyone there. "Or have we? Shagron?"

Shagron began hastily shaking his head. It looked to me as if he'd had a few run-ins with the witch and not come out on top in them. She was a pretty strong witch.

"Kolya?"

The second magician who had come in replied in a calm voice: "No, and it's by no means clear that we want it…"

"I'm not asking you," the witch barked at Edgar and Yura. And then for the first time she glanced at me.

"A

"Why are you in Moscow?" she asked sternly.

"I don't know that myself. Something gave me the urge, told me to come, and so I did. And I was barely off the train before I got caught up in that business with the vampire. Off the boat and into the party, as they say…"

"If I understand anything about anything here," the magician Yura put in, "then this is predestination. That explains everything-the increased powers, and the missing Talon, and the way the Light Ones acted. They're simply trying to eliminate him, or at least isolate him, before he can get his hands on the Talon. Because afterward it will be too late."

"But why didn't they bring in their enchantress?" Edgar asked, begi

"And even Gesar only intervened at the critical moment," Shagron remarked. "And then all he did was cover their retreat."

"Who knows?" The witch pierced me with her sharp glance again. "Maybe they simply can't keep up with him?"

"My name's Vitaly," I told her. "Pleased to meet you." After all, who likes to hear himself referred to as "this" and "him" all the time?

The others just seemed to ignore what I'd said. Yura looked into my eyes and instantly probed me. I didn't bother to screen myself-but why not?

"Good first-level," he declared. "With some gaps, though. Just yesterday I would only have been delighted by the appearance of a magician like this among us."

"But today it upsets you, does it?" the witch snorted.

"Today I refrain from drawing any conclusions. The Light Ones have cut loose, and we've been left on our own, without Zabulon. Gesar, plus that enchantress, plus Olga-even if she doesn't have her full powers-and then Igor, Ilya, Garik, Semyon… We can't stand against them."

"But we have the Talon and this… Vitaly," the witch countered. "And then Zabulon has a habit of appearing just at the crucial moment."

"We don't have the Talon," Yura remarked. "And what guarantee is there that we will have it? In any case, Kolya's absolutely right: What would we do with the Talon? Of course, I understand, it possesses ancient, mighty Power. But if we don't think carefully before we let it loose… We can't afford to mess things up."

"Well, we'll try hard not to," the witch said ingratiatingly. "Edgar, what have the analysts got?"

As if in response, there was a knock at the door and Hellemar, the lord of the notebooks, appeared in the doorway.

"Got it!" he said triumphantly. "Vnukovo airport! Flight fifteen zero zero from Odessa. It was delayed twice by bad weather conditions, and has only just left. It will land in an hour and twenty minutes. The Talon's on board."

"Right," said Edgar, leaping to his feet. "Set up field HQ at the airport. Keep track of the weather. Cut off the Light Ones. And they can go whistle for an observer."

"Chief," Hellemar said with a sour expression, "the Light Ones already set up their field HQ at Vnukovo fifteen minutes ago. Better bear that in mind."

"We will," the witch promised. "Now let's get moving…"

Everyone got up; someone grabbed the phone, someone raked the charged amulets out of the safe, someone else started issuing loud orders to the staff…

And I just wearily set down my empty coffee cup on the desk.

"Do they at least feed people in your headquarters?" I said to nobody in particular. "I've been ru

"You'll survive," I was told sharply by Edgar. "Get downstairs and don't even think of trying any more solo heroics at all."

But strangely enough, just at that moment I didn't feel the slightest desire to try any heroics.

We reached Vnukovo with incredible speed. The driver of our comfortable minibus was a lippy young guy the others called Deniska. He was a magician, but he handled a steering wheel even better than Shagron. First we drove around the embankments, then along Ordynka Street and Lenin Prospect, into the South-West district, around the Ring Road… Everything flashed by so fast I barely had time to see anything. Shagron and Edgar had gone off somewhere, Yura and Kolya had disappeared too. I was left with A

We were the first to reach the airport. Deniska drove up to the service entrance and two other vehicles came rushing up almost immediately-Shagron's BMW and another minibus carrying the technicians. The Watch members set to work with fantastic co-ordination; they immediately cast information spells that made us empty space as far as ordinary people were concerned, and a line of technicians carrying notebook computers set off for the entrance. Someone had already chosen a place for the HQ-a spacious office with a plaque on the door that said "Accounts." The human employees had been herded into the next room-either an office or a boardroom-and put into a blissful trance. I would have chosen the boardroom for the HQ, but Hellemar said there were more telephone lines in the accounts office.