‘It can’t be a Mirror,’ said Gesar, shaking his head. ‘A Mirror Magician only rises up the levels in the course of combat with normal magicians. Have any of our Higher Magicians fought a Mirror?’
‘How about the Dark Ones?’ suggested Mark Emmanuilovich.
‘They only have one Higher Other in their Watch: Zabulon himself.’
‘What about Yury and Nikolai?’ asked Jermenson, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
‘Yury moved to Minsk seven years ago – his career prospects are better there,’ Gesar laughed. ‘And Nikolai is in the reserve, like you. For more than four years now. I don’t think he does anything very much, except go fishing on the Akhtuba …’
‘He still writes romance novels, under a female pseudonym,’ Olga put in.
‘Does he?’ asked Glyba, suddenly interested. ‘And what are they like?’
‘Quite readable,’ Olga said eagerly. ‘Especially—’
‘Quiet!’ said Gesar, tapping his finger on the table. The sound was surprisingly loud. He closed his eyes and sat for a few moments without speaking. ‘I’ve asked Zabulon to check on his Higher Ones in the reserve. But I’m assuming that none of them has fought with anyone. And why would a Mirror be killing Dark Ones? With the present balance of power, he should be killing us again!’
‘Then who?’ Jermenson asked, with a shrug. ‘If not a Mirror … one of the ancient magicians? There were Zero-Order Magicians among them … well … close to it, at least …’
‘Who and why?’ Gesar asked. ‘Most importantly – why? Why appear in Moscow in secret, do God only knows what to someone who just happens to cross your path … No, let’s consider other possibilities!’
‘Not a Mirror, and not a High … er, Zero-Order Magician that we don’t know about?’ asked Glyba.
‘What other possibilities can there be?’ said Svetlana, asking her first question. ‘I’m sorry, Boris Ignatievich, my borsch has been left half-cooked on the stove, Nadya was just doing her homework, then you dragged us over here … and, as far as I can see, you’re not even sure why!’
Gesar looked at me and said: ‘You have a go, Anton. What frightens you in all this?’
I thought for a minute before starting to answer.
‘A plane … a plane that should have crashed, but didn’t. A boy-Prophet who turned up so fortuitously right in front of my eyes. What he said … about me in the first instance. A policeman I ran into many years ago and who can now see Others, although he himself isn’t an Other. His partner, whose aura has disappeared and who couldn’t give a damn about anything any more. Some unknown individual, whom the policeman called a “tiger”. The fact that the two policemen described this unknown individual quite differently. The fact that a clairvoyant Higher Magician is unable to foresee events.’
‘But how can all that be interconnected?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said honestly.
‘And what exactly is it that frightens you? Surely not what was said about a “tiger”? This policeman of yours calls us “dogs” and the Dark Ones “wolves”.’
‘What frightens me is the intense concentration of strange elements,’ I said. ‘It all started this morning. Only eight and a half hours ago. There’s so much, and all at once!’
Gesar nodded. He seemed satisfied with what I’d said.
‘That’s right. Too many strange things. It can’t be a coincidence, so there must be a common reason. Can you suggest any possibilities?’
‘You’re just like Dr House, Boris Ignatievich,’ Svetlana said ironically.
‘What?’ asked Gesar – it was one of the rare occasions when I’d seen the boss bewildered. I don’t believe he ever had any interest in the cinema and all he watched on TV was the news and the figure skating, which he found attractive for some reason.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Svetlana. ‘Just this … famous doctor. He used to propose crazy theories to his junior colleagues, and then choose the correct one himself.’
Gesar gave Svetlana a rather dubious look. Then he nodded and said: ‘I hope he had more enterprising colleagues than mine. I haven’t heard a single theory so far.’
‘A divine being,’ Jermenson said unexpectedly. ‘No, I’m not talking about God or a Messiah, but perhaps we’re dealing here with a manifestation of some sacral, mystical entity …’
‘Retirement’s having a bad effect on you, Mark,’ Gesar said irritably. ‘The only mystical entity in our world is us – the Others. All the rest is human folklore.’
‘Well, some Others don’t think so …’ Jermenson muttered, but without any real conviction.
‘So this is Other folklore, then!’ Gesar snapped. ‘Are there any serious theories?’
‘An emanation of primal Power,’ suggested Glyba. ‘The Light or the Darkness …’
‘That’s the same “divine entity” again, only in different words,’ said Gesar.
‘But the Light and the Darkness exist,’ said Glyba, with a shrug. ‘When we swear on the Light, it confirms our words.’
Gesar frowned. ‘Sophistry. We don’t know how or why it happens. Do you know? I don’t. Possibly one of the Great Magicians of ancient times created a spell that’s still working now. To suspect the Light and the Darkness of conscious action is—’
‘It’s just like expecting the Twilight to create a Mirror and send it to the side that’s losing …’ Olga said in a gentle voice.
Gesar shut up.
He didn’t simply stop talking, he shut up. He sat there for a while, gazing at the tabletop, and then said: ‘The theory is accepted. It’s absurd. I don’t like it – because I’m afraid of something of the kind. But as a theory, it’s accepted. Anything else?’
Nadya raised her hand again. ‘Boris Ignatievich, I don’t think we should be trying to guess right now,’ she said. ‘What difference does it make to us who has appeared? After all, we already know that he’s very powerful and he does strange things. So all right. We need to understand what he wants.’
‘And?’ asked Gesar.
‘Da— Anton …’ Nadya blushed.
‘It’s all right, we know that he’s your daddy,’ Gesar said in a surprisingly gentle voice. ‘Go on.’
‘It all started when daddy saw the boy-Prophet who was afraid to fly in the aeroplane because the aeroplane was going to crash,’ said Nadya, clearly embarrassed. ‘Well, he saved the boy and his mummy, didn’t he? But what if someone else wanted to save him too, only he did it a simpler way: he saved the whole aeroplane all at once? And that’s why the aeroplane didn’t crash. And then, when he realised the boy wasn’t on it any more, he set out to look for him …’
‘That business with the policeman? Why did he give himself away like that? He left witnesses and a trail as well.’
‘He didn’t give himself away. He … he introduced himself,’ Nadya said quietly.
‘He left his visiting card,’ exclaimed Olga, snapping her fingers. ‘That’s right. He realised that one of the policemen had recognised him as an Other and deliberately affected his partner. But what made him think we’d find those policemen, and so quickly?’
‘If that policeman is an ordinary person, but he can see Others, it could be the result of his contact with daddy,’ said Nadya. ‘They taught us that a spell can leave a side effect, a trace … and that trace is usually connected with the magician who cast the spell. What if someone saw the trace on the policeman and realised he was connected with my daddy? For him it was … well, like kicking a dog to make it whine so that its master would look round.’