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‘They wanted to rape me,’ I said, blurting out the first thing that came into my head. But it was a pretty good cover.

‘Where do you want to go?’

‘This will do fine,’ I said, looking out at the flaming red letter M above the metro entrance. ‘I’ll make my own way home.’

‘We can drop you off.’

‘No need. Thanks, you’ve already done more than enough.’

‘All right.’

He didn’t argue or try to change my mind. The car braked and I got out. I looked at the woman.

‘Thank you,’ I said.

She snorted and jerked away, slamming the door shut.

Well, there you go.

But things like that still went to prove our work did make some kind of sense, after all, I thought.

I automatically tidied my hair and dusted down my jeans. People walking by eyed me cautiously, but they didn’t shy away, so I couldn’t be looking all that bad.

How much time did I have before the hunt picked up my trail? Would the boss be able to slow them down?

That would be good. Because I thought I was beginning to understand what was going on here.

And I had a chance, only a tiny one maybe, but still a chance.

I set off towards the metro, taking the cell phone out of Olga’s bag on the way. I started dialling her number, then swore and dialled my own.

It rang five times, six, seven.

I ended the call and dialled my own mobile number. This time Olga answered straight away.

‘Hello?’ said a slightly hoarse, unfamiliar voice. My voice.

‘It’s me – Anton,’ I shouted. A man walking past looked at me in surprise.

‘You idiot!’

I wouldn’t have expected anything else from Olga.

‘Where are you, Anton?’

‘Getting ready to go underground.’

‘You’ll have plenty of time for that. What can I do to help?’

‘Are you up to speed on the situation?’

‘Yes, I’m in parallel contact with Boris.’

‘I need to get my body back.’

‘Where can we meet?’

I thought for a moment.

‘The station where I got off after I tried to remove that black vortex from Svetlana.’

‘Sure. Boris told me where. Make it three stations further round the circle line, up and to the left.’

She was counting off stations on the plan of the metro.

‘Yes, that’s okay.’

‘In the centre of the hall. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Want me to bring you anything?’

‘Just bring me. Anything else is up to you.’

I folded away the phone, shot another look around and walked quickly into the station.

CHAPTER 4

I WAS STANDING in the centre of Novoslobodskaya station. It’s a common enough sight there when it’s not really late yet: a girl waiting, maybe for a bloke, maybe for a girlfriend.

In my case, I was waiting for both.

It would be harder to find me underground than on the surface. Even the cleverest of the Dark Magicians wouldn’t be able to pick up my aura through the layers of earth, through all the ancient graves that Moscow stood on, among the crowd, in that dense, agitated stream of people. Of course, combing all the stations wouldn’t be too hard either: just one Other with my image for each station would do it.

But I was hoping I still had an hour or at least half an hour before the Day Watch made that move.

How simple everything was, after all. How elegantly the pieces of the puzzle fitted together. I shook my head and smiled, and immediately caught the eye of a young guy dressed in punk style looking at me inquisitively. No, my friend, you’re on the wrong track. This woman is only smiling at her own thoughts.

I ought to have got the picture the moment the plotlines all started converging on me. The boss was right, of course. I wasn’t valuable enough. They wouldn’t have come up with a risky and costly manoeuvre lasting years just for me. It was all about something else, something completely different.

They were trying to exploit our weaknesses. Our goodness and love. And it was working, or almost working.

I suddenly felt like I needed a cigarette really badly, my mouth even filled with saliva. Strange, I’d never really smoked much, it had to be a reaction from Olga’s body. I imagined her a hundred years earlier – an elegant woman with a slim cigarette in a long holder, sitting in some literary salon somewhere with Alexander Blok or Gumilev. Smiling as she discussed the Freemasons, the sovereignty of the people and mankind’s urge towards spiritual perfection.

Ah, here was someone at last!

‘Have you got a cigarette?’ I asked a young man walking past – he was dressed well enough not to smoke cheap shit like Golden Yava.

He gave me a surprised look, then held out a pack of Parliaments.

I took one, thanked him with a smile and cast a mild spell over myself. People’s eyes slid off to the side.

That was better.

I concentrated, raising the temperature of the tip of the cigarette to two hundred degrees, and inhaled. So we’d wait. And we’d break a few little unquestionable rules.

People flowed past, giving me a wide berth. They sniffed the air in surprise, wondering where the smell of tobacco smoke was coming from. And I smoked, dropping the ash at my feet, eyeing the militiaman standing just five steps away and trying to figure out my chances.

They turned out to be not that bad. Pretty good, in fact. And that bothered me.

If they’d been preparing this manoeuvre for three years, one option they must have taken into account was that I’d see through it. They must have an answer for that – but what was it?

It took me a second or two to register the startled look. And when I realised who was watching me, I gasped in surprise.

Egor.

The kid, the Other with potentially great powers who’d got caught up in the battle between the two Watches three months ago. Played for a patsy by both sides. An open card that still hadn’t been dealt. But players don’t fight over cards like that.

His powers were strong enough to penetrate my casual cover and the meeting itself didn’t really come as a shock. There are many chance events in the world, but apart from that, there’s also something called predetermination.

‘Hi, Egor,’ I said without even pausing to think. I expanded the range of the spell to include him in the circle of distraction.

He started and looked around. Then he stared at me. Of course, he hadn’t seen Olga in human form. Only as an owl.

‘Who are you and how do you know me?’

Yes, he’d grown. Not on the outside, on the inside. I couldn’t understand how he could have avoided making his choice for so long and still not joined either the side of the Light or the Dark. He’d already entered the Twilight, in circumstances that meant he could have gone either way. But his aura was still as pure and neutral as ever.

His destiny was his own. It must be good to have your own destiny.

‘I’m Anton Gorodetsky the Night Watch agent,’ I said simply. ‘Remember me?’

Of course he remembered me.

‘But …’

‘Take no notice. It’s a disguise, we can swap bodies.’

I wondered for a moment if I ought to think back to the course on illusion and temporarily restore my usual appearance. But there was no need – he believed me. Maybe because he remembered the boss’s body swap.

‘What do you want from me?’

‘Nothing, I’m just waiting for a friend, the woman this body belongs to. You just happened to meet me here by chance.’

‘I hate your Watches!’