He stopped.
There were people sitting at the tables around us, waiters bustling to and fro. The crime scene team had taken away the body of the Dark Magician and a man, evidently a relative, had come for the widow and the children. Nobody else seemed to be affected by what had happened. Quite the opposite, in fact. There were more customers, with bigger appetites and a greater zest for life. And nobody there was taking any notice of us: the boss’s casual spell made them all look away.
What if all of this had already happened?
What if I, Anton Gorodetsky systems administrator at the Nix trading company, and also a Night Watch magician, was lying on a crystal slab covered with ancient runes? And my memory was being unwound, examined, dissected by someone – it didn’t matter who, Dark Magicians or a joint tribunal of both sides?
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 lavatories.
‘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 information from the analytical section indicates 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 for the Day Watch. It’s ironic that almost all of them were moderate Dark Ones, if you can put it like that. They killed and they influenced people, 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 on 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 the Night Watch who doesn’t have alibis for the times of the killings is you. Why would the Day Watch go hunting for you?’
I shrugged.
‘Zabulon’s revenge?’ said the boss, shaking his head. ‘No. You only clashed with him recently, yet this 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 realised that. It’s too late to bring him over to their side, so they decided to eliminate him.’
‘Anton is more powerful than he realises,’ the boss replied sharply, ‘but he’ll never get higher than grade two.’
‘What if our enemies can see further along the possible realities 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 check the lines of everybody working in the Watch, from key staff to our plumber, Uncle Shura. And there simply 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 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 acting on instinct, 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 have no 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 out to the lavatory?’
‘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 there. 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 straight away.’