‘Sveta, you came to make up, didn’t you?’ I asked. ‘So I’m making up. It’s all okay. Nothing counts. That’s life, all sorts of things happen.’
She jumped to her feet and glared icily at me for a second. I started blinking rapidly.
‘You idiot!’ Svetlana blurted out and went back into the house.
So what had she been expecting? Hurt feelings, accusations, sadness?
But more importantly, what had Gesar been expecting? What would change if I stopped playing the role of Sveta’s ill-starred lover? Would someone else take on the role? Or was it already time for her to be left alone – all alone with her great destiny?
The goal. I had to know what Gesar’s goal was.
I sprang up off the lounger and walked into the house. I immediately spotted Olga, alone in the sitting room. Standing in front of the open display case, holding out a sword with a long, narrow blade in front of her. She wasn’t looking at it the way you look at an antique toy. Tiger Cub probably looked at her swords in the same kind of way. But her love of old weapons was in the abstract; Olga’s wasn’t.
When Gesar came to live and work in Russia – because of her, by the way – swords like that might still have been in use.
But eighty years ago, when Olga had been deprived of all her rights, wars were already fought differently.
A former Great Sorceress. A former Great Goal. Eighty years.
‘It’s all so well planned, isn’t it?’ I said.
Olga started and swung round.
‘We can’t defeat the Dark ourselves. The little people have to be enlightened first. Become kind and loving, industrious and intelligent. So that every Other can see nothing but the Light. What a great goal it was, how long the ripples lasted when it was drowned in blood.’
‘You figured it out after all,’ said Olga. ‘Or did you just guess?’
‘I guessed.’
‘Good. Now what?’
‘How did you slip up, Olga?’
‘I accepted a compromise. A little compromise with the Dark. And the result was that we lost.’
‘We did? We’ll always survive. Adapt, fit in, find our place. And we’ll carry on the old struggle. It’s only humans who lose.’
‘Retreats are inevitable sometimes,’ said Olga, gripping the double-handed sword easily in one hand and swinging it above her head. ‘Do I look like a helicopter with its rotors idling?’
‘You look like a woman waving a sword around. Do we really never learn anything, Olga?’
‘Sure we do. This time everything’s going to be different, Anton.’
‘A new revolution?’
‘We didn’t want the last one. It was all supposed to happen almost completely without bloodshed. You understand: we can only win through ordinary humans. When they become enlightened, when their spirit is raised up. Communism was a wonderfully well-calculated system, and it’s all my fault that it wasn’t realised.’
‘So why aren’t you in the Twilight already, if it’s all your fault?’
‘Because everything had been agreed. Every step approved. Even that disastrous compromise, even that seemed acceptable.’
‘And now – a new attempt to change people?’
‘One more in the series.’
‘Why here?’ I asked. ‘Why in Russia again?’
‘Why not?’
‘How much more of this does our country have to put up with?’
‘As much as it takes.’
‘Come on – why here again?’
Olga sighed, deftly slipped the sword back into its scabbard and put it back on its stand.
‘Because, my dear boy, in this arena it’s still possible to achieve something. The potential of Europe and North America has already been exhausted. Everything that was possible has already been tried there. There are a few things being developed right now. But all those countries are already half asleep. A healthy pensioner in shorts with a video camera – that’s the prosperity of the West. We need to experiment with the young ones. Russia, Asia, the Arab world – these are where present-day battles are fought. And don’t look so offended, I love my country as much as you do! I’ve spilled more blood for it than you have flowing in your veins. What you’ve got to understand, Antosha, is that the battlefield is the entire world. You know that as well as I do.’
‘Our war’s with the Dark, not with humans!’
‘Yes, with the Dark. But we can only win by creating an ideal society. A world that will be ruled by goodness, love and justice. The Watches don’t exist to capture psychopathic magicians on the streets and issue licences to vampires! All those little things take up time and energy, but they’re by-products, like the heat from a light bulb. Light bulbs are meant to produce light, not heat. We have to change the human world, not just neutralise the Dark’s minor outbursts. That’s the goal. That’s the path to victory!’
‘Olga, I understand that.’
‘Wonderful. Then you have to understand something that’s never said in so many words. We’ve been fighting for thousands of years. And all that time we’ve been trying to change the course of history. To create a new world.’
‘A brave new world.’
‘Don’t be so ironic. We have achieved something, after all. Through all the blood and suffering the world is becoming a more humane place. But we need a real, genuine revolution.’
‘Communism was our idea, then?’
‘No, not ours, but we supported it. It seemed quite attractive.’
‘So now what?’
‘You’ll see.’ Olga smiled. A friendly, sincere smile. ‘Anton, everything will be fine. Trust me.’
‘I need to know.’
‘No. That’s exactly what you don’t need. And you don’t need to worry, we’re not planning any revolutions. No prison camps, execution squads or military tribunals. We’re not going to repeat our old mistakes.’
‘We’re going to make new ones instead.’
‘Anton!’ she said, raising her voice. ‘Think about it, will you, what are you doing? We have a really good chance of winning. Our country has a chance to live in peace, to flourish. It could become the vanguard of humanity. Defeat the Dark. It’s been twelve years in the making, Anton. And it’s not just Gesar’s project, the whole senior level’s been working on it.’
‘What?’
‘Yes. Did you think it was all being done on the spur of the moment?’
‘You were keeping tabs on Svetlana for twelve years?’
‘Of course not! A new social model has been developed. Various elements of the plan have already been put into action. Not even I know all the details. Since then Gesar’s been waiting for the key players in the plan to come together, in space and time.’
‘Who exactly? Svetlana and the Inquisitor?’
The pupils of her eyes contracted, and I knew I’d guessed it. Or part of it.
‘And what else? What part am I supposed to play in all this?’
‘You’ll find out when the time comes.’
‘Olga, so far magical intervention in human life has never led to anything good.’
‘Don’t come up with those old schoolroom axioms,’ she said, getting really worked up now. ‘Don’t think you’re any wiser than anyone else. We’ve no intention of using magic. Calm down, relax.’
I nodded.
‘Okay You’ve explained your position. I don’t agree with it.’
‘Officially?’
‘No. In a private capacity. And as a private individual I believe I have the right of opposition.’
‘Opposition? To Gesar?’ Olga’s eyes opened wide and the corners of her lips curved up in a smile. ‘Anton!’
I turned on my heel and went out.
Yes, it was laughable.
Yes, it was absurd.
It wasn’t just a crazy project dreamed up by Gesar and Olga. It wasn’t just an attempt to repeat a failed experiment. It was a meticulously prepared operation, planned over a long period, and it had been my bad luck to get caught up in it.