«Anton, aren't you afraid to talk like that?»
I shrugged. Svetlana sighed.
«If you give someone hope, you become responsible, Anton. I don't believe in miracles. But right now I just might. Doesn't that scare you?»
I looked into her eyes.
«No, Svetlana. There are lots of things that scare me. But different things.»
«Anton, the vortex is down by twenty centimeters. The boss says to tell you well done.»
There was something about her voice I didn't like. A conversation through the Twilight isn't like an ordinary one; you can sense emotions.
»What's happened ?» I asked through the dead gray shroud.
«Keep going, Anton.»
«What's happened?»
«I wish I could feel so self-assured,» said Svetlana. She looked at the window: «Did you hear that? A kind of rustling sound…«
«The wind,» I suggested. «Or someone walking by.»
«Olga, tell me!»
«Anton, everything's fine with the vortex. It's slowly shrinking. You're increasing her internal resistance somehow. They calculate that by morning the vortex will have shrunk to a theoretically safe size. Then I can get to work.»
«Then what's the problem? There is one, Olga, I can sense it!»
She didn't answer.
«Olga, are we partners or not?»
That worked. I couldn't see the white owl, but I knew her eyes had glinted and she'd glanced toward the windows of our field headquarters, into the faces of the boss and the observer from the Dark Ones.
«Anton, there's a problem with the boy.»
«With Egor?»
«Anton, what are you thinking about?» Svetlana asked. It was hard work holding simultaneous conversations in the real world and the Twilight one…
«Just wishing I could be in two places at the same time.»
«Anton, your mission is far more important.»
«Tell me, Olga.»
«I don't understand, Anton.» That was Svetlana again.
«You know, I've just realized that a friend of mine is in trouble. Big trouble,» I said, looking into her eyes.
«The girl-vampire. She's taken the boy.»
I didn't feel a thing… No emotions, no pity, no anger, no sadness. I just felt cold and empty inside.
I must have been expecting it. I didn't know why, but I was.
«But Bear and Tiger Cub are there!»
«It just happened.»
«And what's happened to him?»
As long as she hadn't initiated him! Death, simple death. Eternal death was more terrible.
«He's alive. She's taken him as a hostage.»
«What?»
That had never happened before. It had simply never happened. Taking hostages was a game human beings played.
«The girl-vampire's demanding negotiations. She wants a trial… she's hoping to find some way out.»
In my head I gave the vampire ten out of ten for inventiveness. She didn't have a chance of getting away and she'd never had one. But if she could shift all the blame onto her eliminated friend, the one who'd initiated her… I don't know anything, I don't understand a thing. I just got bitten and turned into what I am. I didn't know the rules. I hadn't read the Treaty. I'll be a normal, law-abiding vampire…
«It might even work!» I thought. Especially if Night Watch made a few concessions. And we would… we had no choice. Every human life had to be protected.
I even went limp in relief. You might say, what was the kid to me, anyway? If he'd drawn the short straw, he could have been the legitimate prey of vampires and werewolves. That's just the way life is. And I'd have walked on by. Never mind the short straw—how many times had Night Watch gotten there too late, how many people had been killed by the Dark Ones… But it was a strange thing. I was already involved in the struggle for him, I'd stepped into the Twilight and spilled blood. And it wasn't all the same to me anymore. Not by a long way…
Conversations in the Twilight move a lot faster than they do in the human world. But I still had to divide myself between Olga and Svetlana.
«Anton, don't bother your head about my problems.»
In spite of everything, I felt like laughing. Right then there were hundreds of heads trying to deal with her problems, and Svetlana had no idea; she knew nothing about it. But it was enough to mention other people's problems, so tiny in comparison with the black inferno vortex, and she immediately started worrying about them.
«You know,» I said, «there's a law called the law of paired events. You have problems, but I wasn't talking about them. There's someone else who has really big problems. His own personal problems. But that doesn't make them any easier.»
She understood. I liked the fact that she wasn't embarrassed, either. She just added:
«My problems are personal too.»
«Not entirely,» I said. «At least, I don't think so.»
«And that other person—can you help him?»
«Someone else will help him,» I said.
«Are you sure? Thanks for listening to me, but it's impossible to help me. It's just my dumb destiny, I guess.»
»Is she throwing me out ?» I asked through the Twilight. I didn't want to touch her mind right then.
»No ,» Olga replied. «No… Anton, she can feel it .»
Did she really have some Other powers? Or was it just a freak upsurge, triggered by the Inferno?
«What can she feel?»
«That you're needed at the other place.»
«Why me?»
«That crazy bloodsucking bitch is demanding you for the negotiations. The one who killed her partner.»
That really made me feel sick. We'd done an elective on anti-terrorist tactics, more so that we could avoid having to use our powers as Others if we got caught up in human disputes than for any real requirements of the job. We'd covered terrorist psychology, and in those terms, the vampire was acting perfectly logically. I was the first Watch agent she had ever come across. I'd killed her mentor and wounded her. For her the image of her enemy was concentrated in me.
«How long has she been asking for me?»
«About ten minutes.»
I looked into Svetlana's eyes. Dry, calm, not a single tear. The hardest thing of all is when pain is hidden behind a mask of calm.
«Sveta, would you mind if I went now?»
She shrugged.
«This is all so stupid…« I said. «It seems to me that you need help right now. At least someone who can listen to you. Or is willing to sit beside you and drink cold tea.»
A faint smile and a barely perceptible nod.
«But you're right… there is someone else who needs help.»
«Anton, you're strange.»
I shook my head:
«Not strange. Very strange.»
«I have this feeling… I've known you for a long time, but it's like we'd never met before. And then—it's like you're talking to me and someone else at the same time.»