Twilight Watch

What a fool I was. I even slapped myself on the forehead. Sure, it's no disgrace for an Other to forget about modern technology. Others aren't very fond of complicated technical devices. But I was a computer hardware specialist.

All the grounds of Assol were monitored by video cameras.

I put on my suit and knotted my tie, splashed on the eau de cologne that Ignat had chosen for me the day before, dropped my phone into my inside pocket… "Only dumb kids and sales assistants carry their cells on their belts!"-that was one of Gesar's helpful little homilies.

The cell was new and still unfamiliar. It had different kinds of games in it, a built-in music-player, a dictaphone, and all sorts of other nonsense entirely u

I rode down to the vestibule in the cool silence of the new Otis elevator and immediately caught sight of my new acquaintance from the night before-only this time he was looking really strange…

Las, wearing brand new blue overalls with "Assol" written on the back, was explaining something to a confused elderly man dressed in the same way. I heard what he said: "This isn't a broom you've got here, okay! There's a computer in it, it tells you how dirty the asphalt is and the pressure of the cleaning solution… Come on, I'll show you…"

My feet automatically carried me after them. Out in the yard, in front of the entrance to the vestibule, there were two bright-orange road-sweeping machines-with a tank of water, round brushes, and a little glass cabin for the driver. There was something toylike about the small vehicles, as if they'd come straight from Sunshine Town, where the happy baby girls and boys cheerfully clean their own miniature avenues.

Las clambered nimbly into one of the machines and the elderly man thrust himself halfway in after him. He listened to something Las said, nodded, and set off toward the second orange cleaning unit.

"And if you're lazy, you'll spend the rest of your life as a junior yard keeper!" I heard Las say. His machine set off, twirling its brushes merrily, and began spi

Well, would you believe it.

So he worked as a yard keeper in the Assol complex, did he?

I tried to withdraw unobtrusively, so as not to embarrass the man, but Las had already spotted me and he drove closer, waving his hand gleefully. The brushes started turning less vigorously.

"So you work here then?" I asked. I suddenly started having the most fantastic ideas, such as Las didn't live in Assol at all, he'd simply moved into an empty apartment for a while. There was no way anyone with a huge residence like that would go cleaning the yard.

"I earn a bit on the side," Las explained calmly. "It's a real gas, I tell you. Ride around the yard for an hour in the morning, instead of your morning exercises, and they pay you wages for it. And not bad wages, either!"

I didn't say anything.

"Do you like going on the rides in the park?" Las asked me. "All those buggies, where you have to pay ten dollars for three minutes? Well, here they pay you the money. For enjoying yourself. Or take those computer games, for instance… sitting there, twitching that joystick about…"

"It all depends on whether they make you paint the fence…" I muttered.

"That's right," Las agreed happily. "But they don't make me do that. I get the same buzz cleaning up the yard as Leo Tolstoy did from scything hay. Only no one has to wash it all again after me-unlike the count, whose peasants used to finish the job after him… I'm in their good graces here, I regularly get a bonus. So, do you fancy riding around too? I could get you a job, if you like. The professional yard keepers just can't get the hang of this technical equipment."

"I'll think about it," I said, examining the briskly spi

"Okay, think it over, but I've got work to do," Las said amiably. The machine set off around the yard, sweeping, washing, and sucking up dirt. I heard singing from the cabin:

The generation of yard keepers and watchmen

Have lost each other in the vast expanse of winter…

They've all gone back home now.

In our time, when every third man is a hero,

They don't write articles,

They don't send telegrams…

Dumbfounded, I went back to the vestibule. I found out from the security guard where Assol's own post office was located and set off. The post office was open; there were three young female employees sitting behind the counter in the cozy little shop, and the mailbox the letter had been posted in was standing right there.

The glass eyes of video cameras glittered just below the ceiling.

We could certainly use some professional investigators. They would have come up with this idea right away.

I bought a postcard of a young chick jumping up and down in the tray of an incubator with the printed message "I miss my family!" Not very amusing, but in any case I couldn't remember the mailing address of the village where my family was vacationing, so, with a mischievous smile, I sent the postcard to Gesar at home-I did know his address.

I chatted to the girls for a while-working in such an elite residential complex they had to be polite anyway, but on top of that they were bored-then left the post office and went to the security department on the first floor.

If I'd had the right to use my abilities as an Other, I would have simply implanted in the security men's minds the idea that they liked me and then been given access to all the video recordings. But I couldn't reveal who I was, and so I decided to employ the most universal motive for liking anyone-money.

Out of the money I'd been given I put together a hundred dollars in rubles-well, no one could expect more than that, could they? I entered the duty office, and there was a young guy in a formal suit, looking bored.

"Good day!" I greeted him, smiling radiantly.

The security man's expression indicated complete solidarity with my opinion concerning the day. I cast a quick sideways glance at the monitors in front of him-they showed the images from at least ten television cameras. He had to be able to call up a repeat run of any particular moment. If the images were saved to a hard disk (where else could they be saved?), then a recording from three days earlier might not have been transferred to the archive yet.

"I have a problem," I said. "Yesterday I received a rather amusing letter…"-I winked at him-"from some girl. She lives here too, as far as I can tell."

"A threatening letter?" the security man asked, pricking up his ears.

"No, no!" I protested. "On the contrary… But my mysterious stranger is trying to remain incognito. Could I take a look to see who posted letters at the post office three days ago?"

The security man started thinking about it.

And then I spoiled everything. I put the money on the desk and said with a smile, "I'd be very grateful to you…"

The young guy instantly turned to stone. I think he pressed something with his foot.

And ten seconds later two of his colleagues appeared, both extremely polite-which looked pretty fu

There is a difference, and a serious one, between dealing with state officials and a private security firm, after all…

It would have been interesting to see if they would have taken me to their boss by force. After all, they weren't the militia. But I preferred not to aggravate the situation any further and did as my escort in suits asked.