«Anton Gorodetsky, Night Watch,» I said. «Alisa Donnikova, you're under arrest.»
The young witch screeched and swung round. She was holding an amulet in her hand, a crystal prism through which she had been viewing the people walking by. Her first instinctive gesture was to try to hide the amulet; then she tried to look at me through the prism.
I grabbed her arm and forced her to stop. We stood close to each other for a second as I slowly increased the pressure, twisting the witch's wrist. A scene like that between a man and a woman would have looked shameful. But for us Others, physical strength doesn't depend on our sex, or even on how well-developed our muscles are. Strength lies all around us—in the Twilight, in people. I couldn't tell how much Alisa might have extracted from the world around her. It could even be more than I had.
But I'd caught her at the scene of the crime. And there could be other Watch members nearby. Resisting a member of the other Watch who had officially declared you under arrest was cause for immediate elimination on the spot.
«I'm not resisting,» said Alisa, and she opened her fingers. The prism fell into the soft moss, and it swirled and seethed, enveloping the crystal amulet.
«The prism of power?» I asked rhetorically. «Alisa Donnikova, you have performed a magical intervention of the third level.»
«Fourth,» she replied quickly.
I shrugged.
«Third or fourth, that's of no real importance. It still means the Tribunal, Alisa. You're in big trouble.»
«I didn't do anything.» The witch was trying hard to look calm. «I have personal permission to carry the prism. I didn't make use of it.»
«Alisa, any higher magician can extract all the information from this thing.»
I reached down toward the ground, forcing the blue moss to part and the prism to jump up into my hand. It was cold, very cold.
«Even I can read the history from it,» I said. «Alisa Donnikova, Other, Dark Witch of the Day Patrol, fourth level of power, I hereby formally accuse you of violating the Treaty. If you offer resistance I shall be obliged to eliminate you. Put your hands behind your back.»
She obeyed. And then she started talking, quickly and urgently, trying desperately to persuade me:
«Anton, wait, please, listen to me. Yes, I did try out the prism, but you must understand, it's the first time I've ever been trusted with such a powerful amulet! Anton, I'm not so stupid as to attack people in the center of Moscow, and why would I want to? Anton, we're both Others! Can't we settle this amicably? Anton!»
«Amicably?» I said, putting the prism in my pocket. «Come on, let's go.»
«Anton, a fourth-level intervention, or third-level! Any third-level intervention carried out in the interests of the Light! Not like my stupid game with the prism, a genuine intervention!»
I could understand why she was panicking. This business could easily end in dematerialization. A Day Watch agent sucking the life out of people for her own personal ends—that would be a tremendous scandal! They'd hand Alisa over without the slightest hesitation.
«You have no authority to make such compromises. The leader of the Dark Ones will not ratify your promise.»
«Zabulon will confirm it!»
«Will he?» I was staggered by the certainty in her voice. She was probably Zabulon's lover. But even so, it was surprising. «Alisa, I once made an amicable agreement with you.»
«Yes, and I was the one who suggested overlooking your intervention.»
«And do you remember how it all turned out?» I asked with a smile.
«This is a different situation; I'm the one who's broken the law,» said Alisa, lowering her eyes. «You'll have the right to strike back. You don't need permission for third-level Light magic, do you? Or for any Light magic? You could remoralize twenty blackhearted scoundrels and turn them into righteous men. Incinerate ten murderers on the spot! Prevent a catastrophe, create a localized time warp! Anton, isn't that worth overlooking my stupid trick? Look around, everyone here's still alive! I hadn't done anything yet. I'd only just started…«
«Everything you say can be used against you.»
«Yes, I know, I know!»
There were tears glittering in her eyes. Probably quite genuine ones too. Beneath her nature as a witch she was still a perfectly ordinary girl. A pretty girl frightened by the mistake she'd made. And was it her fault that she'd ended up on the side of the Darkness?
I felt my emotional shield starting to buckle and shook my head:
«Don't try to put pressure on me!»
«Anton, please, let's settle this business amicably. Wouldn't you like the right to a third-level intervention?»
Oho, wouldn't I just? It was every Light Magician's dream to be given carte blanche like that! Just for a moment to feel that he was fighting like a genuine soldier and not sitting in the trenches, being eaten by lice and gazing dejectedly at the white flag of truce.
«You have no right to make such proposals,» I said firmly.
«I shall have!» Alisa shook her head and took a deep breath. «Zabulon!»
I waited, clutching the little combat disc in my hand.
«Zabulon, I summon you!» Her voice had become a high-pitched screech. I noticed the human shadows around us beginning to move a little faster: A vague, inexplicable feeling of alarm was making the people lengthen their strides.
Would her summons reach the head of the Dark Ones again?
Like that time at the Maharajah restaurant, when Zabulon had almost killed me with Shahab's Lash?
But he hadn't killed me. He'd missed.
Even though the whole operation had been planned by Gesar, and Zabulon really seemed to believe that I was guilty of killing Dark Ones.
Did that mean he'd already had other plans in mind for me?
Or had Gesar intervened, secretly and unobtrusively, diverted the streaks of lightning away from me?
I didn't know. As always, I didn't have enough information for analysis. I could have come up with thirty-three different explanations, all contradicting each other.
I was almost hoping Zabulon wouldn't respond. Then I'd be able to pull Alisa out of the Twilight, call in the boss or one of the operatives, hand the fool over to them, and receive a bonus at the end of the month. But what did I care about bonuses right now?
«Zabulon!» There was genuine supplication in her voice. «Zabulon!»
She was crying now, without even realizing it. The mascara had run under her eyes.
«Don't waste your time,» I said. «Let's go.»
Just at that moment a Dark Portal opened only two meters away from us.
First there was a blast of cold that chilled me to the bone, and I started thinking fondly about the heat in the human world. The moss burst into flames and burned all the way down the street. Naturally, Zabulon hadn't set it on fire deliberately; it was just that the opening of the portal had spilled so much Power that the moss couldn't assimilate it all.
«Zabulon,» whispered Alisa.
From out of the paving stones about five meters away a ray of violet light shot up into the sky. The flash blinded me and I automatically squeezed my eyes shut. When I looked in that direction again, there was a bluish-black bubble hanging in the gray mist, with something looking vaguely like a man clambering out of it, bristling with spiny scales. Zabulon had responded to the summons by traveling through the second or third level of the Twilight. The time we were moving in would have seemed as slow there as human time did to us.
I suddenly had the old feeling of powerlessness that I thought I'd come to terms with a long time ago. The abilities that Zabulon or Gesar used so casually were so far beyond me that I simply couldn't comprehend them.
«Zabulon!» Still holding her hands behind her back, Alisa dashed toward the monstrous creature and pressed herself against it, burying her face in the bristly scales. «Help me, help me!»