‘Daddy, but that can’t be right,’ Nadya objected indignantly. ‘People act differently everywhere!’
‘Yes,’ Anton said, with a nod. ‘Of course they do er … Nadezhda Antonovna. The way people behave depends on the basic moral tenets and norms in a society. Naturally, the Khmer Rouge, Al-Qaeda terrorists, respectable middle-class Europeans and, say, members of the Komsomol in the 1930s, would behave quite differently in identical situations. But that wouldn’t change the essential point. The ratio of altruists and egotists, even among Benedictine monks and members of the Gestapo, is the same. It’s just that their altruism and egotism are expressed differently.’
‘But that’s the whole point!’ protested Nadya, refusing to give in.
‘For human beings. For them, of course, the difference is very great. But unfortunately not for us.’
‘Why? We’re supposed to make people’s lives better, aren’t we?’
‘How? The Light Others created a society that professed altruism and universal brotherhood. The result was that they bred monstrous egotists who gleefully betrayed everything that was sacred.’
‘We didn’t betray anything!’ exclaimed Galina Stanislavovna, jumping up off her chair. Her lips were trembling. ‘It wasn’t us. We were betrayed!’
‘Really?’ Anton asked gently. ‘Remember yourself during those years, please. When leaders betray their people and the people don’t overthrow them, it’s not just the leaders who should be blamed.’
‘All power corrupts,’ said Denis. ‘The Light Others should take power into their own hands …’
‘And drive people to happiness with the whip?’ laughed Anton. ‘Never mind the fact that people understand this happiness differently? And are you certain that the Light Others won’t be corrupted by power? Think about it. And please, for the next lesson, write an essay on the subject: “What would the human world be like if the Light Ones decided to take power?”
‘Then what is the point of our existence?’ Galina Stanislavovna asked bitterly. ‘If you think that we can’t influence human life and change it for the better?’
‘Oh, right,’ Anton said with a nod. ‘That’s another essay: “What is the meaning of an Other’s life?” ’
The class groaned.
‘But if we …’ Galina Stanislavovna began
‘In the name of all that’s holy, keep quiet!’ Denis implored her. ‘The last thing we need now is a third essay!’
CHAPTER 1
ANNA TIKHONOVNA WAS drinking tea in Gesar’s office. There was a cup standing in front of the boss, too, but he seemed to be entirely absorbed in the document that was open on his computer.
‘How did the lesson go?’ the old woman asked curiously.
‘Fine.’ I sat down facing her, taking advantage of Gesar’s silence to pour myself a cup of tea. ‘I told them you had cholecystitis.’
‘Good,’ said Anna Tikhonovna, nodding. ‘I hope you’re not too tired, Anton?’
‘No, no, of course not,’ I said and took a sip of tea. Anna Tikhonovna was a woman of the old school. They said that, when there was no one there to see, our one and only teacher even drank her tea out of the saucer. She refused to acknowledge green teas and despised even more the herbal infusions that were called ‘teas’ through some misunderstanding. As she conceived it, tea had to be as black as tar and as strong as a sinner’s conscience.
Or the other way round. As black as that conscience and as strong as tar.
And sweet.
Under the old woman’s watchful eye, I gave in and put three lumps of sugar into my cup. Stirred it. Took a swallow.
Strangely enough, it tasted good. Although at home I would never even have thought of drinking tea with sugar. I wouldn’t even have been able to swallow it.
‘Why do you dislike this lesson so much, Anna Tikhonovna?’ I asked. ‘I recall that in my time you didn’t take it either – you had flu. Tiger Cub took us for it …’
We fell silent for a moment.
‘Anton, do you feel comfortable taking that lesson?’ the teacher asked.
‘Well … not really,’ I said, wincing. ‘Explaining to young people that all their grandiose plans to ennoble humanity or their own country will never be anything more than so much dust, that all we can do is work with the minor details and stand up to the Day Watch … Yes, it’s not very enjoyable.’
‘But it has to be done,’ said Gesar, without looking up from the computer. ‘Anton, how do you cancel a marked list in Pages?’
‘Go into “view”, call up the “inspector” window and there’ll be a bookmark in it …’ I looked at Gesar in surprise. ‘Have you decided to master the Mac now, then?’
‘It’s interesting to learn something new,’ said Gesar, sliding the mouse around the desk. ‘Or do you think I’m already too old for that?’
‘Oh, come now, boss,’ I answered, sipping at my tea. ‘You’re still a very robust old man.’
‘Moving from an abacus to an arithmometer was hard for me. But moving from an arithmometer to a calculator was easy. And I never did like typewriters, I even used to have a shorthand typist before …’ He paused and smiled at some memory or other. Anna Tikhonovna smiled slightly as well. ‘But I liked computers straight away. There’s something right about them … magical!’
‘I wholeheartedly approve,’ I said, with a nod. ‘No, really. It’s useful to master a new skill.’
‘And how is our little Prophet doing?’ Gesar asked out of the blue.
‘He’s learning his lessons.’
‘Has he made friends with anyone?’
‘With Nadya,’ I said. ‘But I assume you know that.’
‘I do,’ Gesar admitted. ‘At that age, if a girl thumps a boy on the nose it marks the start of a long and firm friendship. A pity everything’s so much more complicated for grown-ups.’
‘Uh-huh,’ I muttered. The boss had not started talking about Innokentii simply out of idle curiosity – I was sure of that.
‘Rather annoying that no one heard his prophecy,’ the boss went on.
‘Yes,’ I agreed, pricking up my ears.
‘And Nadya definitely didn’t hear anything?’
‘Definitely. She just thumped the kid to motivate him and walked out.’
‘And there weren’t any security cameras in that room,’ Gesar carried on lamenting. ‘Or were there?’
‘There were. Only Nadya … er … switched them off.’
‘Burnt them out,’ Gesar corrected me. ‘Why, by the way?’
‘So that no one would hear the prophecy.’
‘Logical, logical …’ Gesar sighed.
Anna Tikhonovna and I exchanged glances. Of course, I had known the boss for a hundred years less than our teacher had. But it wasn’t hard to understand that he was steering the conversation round to some subject that only he was aware of.
‘You know what’s bothering me, though?’ asked Gesar, suddenly leaning back in his chair and pushing the keyboard away.
‘The universal problems of all creation,’ I growled.
‘Yes, you’re right, Anton. Precisely that, the universal problems of all creation. I’ve realised that I don’t know what the Twilight is.’
‘A parallel reality with a stratiform structure,’ said Anna Tikhonovna. ‘Passing from one level of the Twilight to another requires the expenditure of Power – on both the transition itself and the maintenance of one’s own vital functions. Each successive layer of the Twilight differs more and more from our world, although it is possible to pass from the sixth level directly to our world, which is thus also the seventh level of the Twilight.’