No!
That couldn't be right. I didn't have that feeling the boss had been talking about. I had no sense of déjà vu. I'd never been in a woman's body before, and I'd never found any bodies in restaurant restrooms.
«I've laid out the problem,» said the boss, drawing a long, slim cigarillo out of his pocket. «Is the situation clear? What are we going to do?»
«I'm prepared to do my duty,» I said.
«Don't be in such a rush, Anton. Drop the bravado.»
«It's not bravado. It's not just that I'm prepared to protect the secrets of the Watch. I simply wouldn't survive that kind of interrogation. Better to die.»
«But we don't die the same way people do.»
«Sure, it's tougher for us. But I'm ready for that.»
The boss sighed.
«I'm sorry, ladies. Anton, let's forget the consequences for a moment and try thinking about what led up to this incident. Sometimes it's helpful to look back.»
«Okay,» I said, not feeling particularly hopeful.
«The Maverick has been poaching in the city for several years. The latest figures from the analytical section indicate that these strange killings began three and a half years ago. Some of the victims are known Dark Ones. Some are probably potentials. None of the victims was higher than grade four. None of them worked in the Day Watch. It's ironic that almost all of them were very moderate Dark Ones, if you can put it like that. They may have killed and they influenced people negatively, but far less than they could have done.»
«They were set up, weren't they?» said Svetlana.
«They must have been. The Day Watch didn't touch this psychopath, it even laid out victims for him from the Dark Side—those it could easily spare. But what for? That's the important question: What for?»
«So they could accuse us of incompetence,» I suggested.
«The end doesn't justify the means.»
«In order to set up one of us.»
«Anton, the only member of Night Watch who doesn't have alibis for the times of the killings is you. Why would Day Watch go hunting for you?»
I shrugged.
«Zabulon's revenge?» said the boss, shaking his head. «No. You only clashed with him recently. But this blow was carefully planned three and a half years ago. We're still left with the question: Why?»
«Maybe Anton is potentially a very powerful magician?» Svetlana suggested, speaking softly. «And the Dark Ones have realized that. It's too late to bring him over to their side, so they decided to eliminate him.»
«Anton is more powerful than he realizes,» the boss replied sharply, «but he'll never get higher than grade two.»
«What if our enemies can see further along the possible variants of reality than we can?» I asked, looking the boss in the eye.
«And?»
«Maybe I'm a weak magician; I may be average or powerful, but what if it's enough just for me to do something in order to change the balance of power? Do something simple that has nothing to do with magic? Boris Ignatievich, the Dark Ones tried to get me away from Svetlana—that means they could see the branch of reality in which I could help her! What if they can see something else? Something in the future? What if they've been able to see it for a long time, and they've been getting ready to take me out of the game? What if the fight over Sveta is small change by comparison?»
At first the boss listened carefully. Then he frowned and shook his head.
«Anton, you're suffering from megalomania. I'm sorry, but I checked the lines of everybody working in the Watch, from the key personnel to our plumber, Uncle Shura. And there just aren't any great achievements in your future. Not on any of the reality lines.»
«Boris Ignatievich, are you absolutely sure you haven't missed something?»
He'd really made me angry now.
«Of course not. I'm not absolutely sure of anything. Not even of myself. But the chances of you being right are very, very slim. Believe me.»
I believed him.
Compared with the boss, my powers approximate to zero.
«So we still don't know the most important thing—the reason?»
«Right. The hit is aimed at you; there's no doubt about that now. The Maverick is being controlled, very subtly and precisely. He believes he's waging war on Evil, but he's always been a puppet, with someone else pulling the strings. Today they brought him to the same restaurant you came to. They handed him a victim. And you went right along.»
«Then what are we going to do?»
«Try to find the Maverick. It's our only chance, Anton.»
«We're actually going to kill him, though.»
«No, we're not. All we're going to do is find him.»
«All the same. No matter how bad he might be, no matter how wrong he's got everything, he's still one of us. He's fighting against Evil the best way he knows how. We just have to explain everything to him.»
«Too late, Anton. Too late. We missed him when he appeared. Now, after all he's done… Remember how that girl-vampire died?»
I nodded: «Laid to eternal rest.»
«And her crimes were far less serious—from the Dark Ones' point of view. She didn't understand what was going on either. But the Day Watch accepted that she was guilty.»
«Was that pure coincidence?» asked Svetlana. «Or were they creating a precedent?»
«Who knows? Anton, you have to find the Maverick.»
I looked up, amazed.
«Find him and hand him over to the Dark Ones,» the boss said sternly.
«Why me?»
«Because you're the only one who has the moral right to do it. You're the one under threat. You're only protecting yourself. For anybody else, handing over a Light One, even if he is purely instinctive, self-taught, and misguided, would be too much of a shock. You'll survive it.»
«I'm not so sure.»
«You will. And remember, Anton. You've only got tonight. The Day Watch won't have any reason to drag things out. They'll bring a formal charge against you in the morning.»
«Boris Ignatievich!»
«Now remember! Remember who was in the restaurant! Who followed the Dark Magician to the restroom?»
«Nobody,» Svetlana put in. «I'm sure of it. I kept looking to see when he would come out.»
«That means the Maverick was waiting for the Dark Magician in the restroom. But he had to come out. Do you remember? Sveta, Anton?»
Neither of us said anything. I didn't remember. I'd been trying not to look at the Dark Magician.
«One man did come out,» said Svetlana. «He was kind of…«
She thought about it.
«Ordinary, absolutely ordinary. An average man, as if someone had mixed a million faces together and made an average one. I just caught a glimpse and forgot him right away.»
«Remember now,» the boss demanded.
«I can't, Boris Ignatievich. He was just a man. Middle-aged. I didn't even realize he was an Other.»
«He's an elemental Other. He doesn't even enter the Twilight, just balances right on the edge. Remember, Sveta! His face or some distinctive features.»
Svetlana rubbed her nose with her finger.
«When he came out and sat down at his table, there was a woman there. A beautiful woman with dark-blonde hair. It was dyed, and I noticed she used Lumene makeup too; I use it myself sometimes; it's cheap, not all that good.»
In spite of everything, I couldn't help smiling.
«And she was upset about something,» Sveta added. «She was smiling, but her smile looked wrong. As if she wanted to stay, but they had to leave.»
She started thinking again.
«The woman's aura! You remember it! Let me have the image,» the boss exclaimed, speaking more loudly and changing his tone of voice. Of course, no one in the restaurant heard him, but for a brief moment the expressions on people's faces were distorted and a waiter carrying a tray stumbled and dropped a bottle of wine and two crystal glasses.