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EVEN IF YOU LOVE YOUR JOB, THE LAST DAY OF VACATION ALWAYS MAKES you feel depressed Just one week earlier I’d been roasting on a nice clean Spanish beach, eating paella (to be quite honest, Uzbek pilaf is better), drinking cold sangria in a little Chinese restaurant (how come the Chinese make the Spanish national drink better than the natives do?) and buying all sorts of rubbishy resort souvenirs in the little shops

But noas su and oppressive¡ªand it was that final day of vacation, when you can’t get your head to relax anymore, but it flatly refuses to work

Maybe that hy I felt glad when I got the call froan, without introducing himself "Welcome back Did you knoas me?"

I’d been able to sense Gesar’s calls for soed subtly, beco and authoritative

But I was in no rush to let the boss know that

"Yes, Boris Ignatievich"

"Are you alone?"

An unnecessary question I was certain Gesar knew perfectly here Svetlana was just then

"Yes The girls are at the dacha"

"Good for thehed at the other end of the line, and an entirely hua flew off on vacation thisthemselves in southern cliht away?"

Before I had time to answer, Gesar went on cheerily "Well, that’s excellent! See you in fortyGesar a cheap poser¡ªafter I hung up, of course But I kept my mouth shut In the first place, the boss could hear what I said without any telephone And in the second, whatever else he ht be, he was no cheap poser He si time If I was about to say I’d be there in fortyto otten the call The day was already shot to hell It was still too early to tidy up the apart man whose family is away, I only do that once, on the final day of bachelor life) And I definitely didn’t feel like going around to see anyone or inviting anyone back to o back to work a day early¡ªthat way, I could ask for time off with a clear conscience when I needed to

Even though asking for ti we did

"Thanks, boss," I said with real feeling I detached myself from the armchair, put down the book I hadn’t finished, and stretched

And then the phone rang again

Of course, it would have been just like Gesar to ring and say, "You’re welco

"Hello," I said in a very businesslike tone

"Anton, it’s ain And suddenly I tensed up¡ªSvetlana’s voice sounded uneasy, anxious "Svetka, has so’s fine," she replied quickly "Don’t worry Why don’t you tell ht for a few seconds I hadn’t held any drinking parties, I hadn’t brought any woe, I’d even been washing the dishes

And then I realized

"Gesar called Just a o"

"What does he want?" Svetlana asked quickly

"Nothing special He asked me to turn up for work today"

"Anton, I sensed so to work?"

"Why not? I’ve got absolutely nothing else to do"

Svetlana said nothing on the other end of the line (although, what lines are there with cell phones?) Then she said reluctantly, "You know, I felt a sort of pricking in my heart Do you believe I can sense trouble?"

I laughed "Yes, Great One"

"Anton, be serious, will you!" Svetlana was instantly uptight, the way she always got when I called her Great One "Listen to , say no"

"Sveta, if Gesar calledIt means he needs more help He says everyone’s on vacation"

"He needs more cannon fodder," Svetlana snapped "Anton never mind, you won’t listen to me anyway Just be careful"

"Svetka, you don’t seriously think that Gesar’s going to put er, do you?" I said cautiously "I understand the way you feel about him"

"Be careful," said Svetlana "For our sake All right?"

"All right," I promised "I’m always very careful"

"I’ll call if I sense anything else," said Svetlana She seeht? If anything at all unusual happens, call Okay?"

"Okay, I’ll call"

Svetlana paused for a few seconds, then before she hung up said, "You ought to leave the Watch, third-class Light Magician"

It all ended on a suspiciously light note, with a cheap jibe Although we had agreed not to discuss that subject a long tio¡ªthree years earlier, when Svetlana left the Night Watch And we hadn’t broken our promise once Of course, I used to tell my wife about my work at least, about the jobs that I wanted to remember And she always listened with interest But now she had coht out with it

Could she really have sensed soo slowly and reluctantly I put on a suit, then changed into jeans and a checked shirt, then thought "to hell with it" and got into my shorts and a black t-shirt with an inscription that said: "My friend was in a state of clinical death, and all he brought ht look like a jolly German tourist, but at least I would retain the semblance of a holiday mood in front of Gesar

Eventually I left the building with just twenty o before the ti down a car and feel out the probability lines, and then tell the driver which streets to take so ouldn’t hit any traffic jams

The driver accepted my instructions reluctantly¡ªhe obviously had serious doubts

But we got there on ti¡ªthere were guys in blue overalls loading paper sacks of cement into them I set off up the stairs on foot, and discovered that the second floor of our office was being refurbished There ork the walls with sheets of plasterboard, and plasterers bustling about beside the a false ceiling, which already covered the air-conditioning pipes

So our office otten his oay after all He’d et the boss to shell out for a full-scale renovation, and even worked out where to get the money from

I stopped for a ht Ordinary people, not Others, as I ought to have expected There was only one plasterer, asn’t much to look at, whose aura seemed suspicious But after a second I realized he was simply in love With his oife! Well, would you ever there were still a few good people left in the world

The third and fourth floors had already been refurbished and that assuredlast it would be cool in the IT department too Not that I was in there every day now, but even so As I ran past I greeted the security guards who had clearly been posted here for the duration of the renovation Just as I got to Gesar’s office, I ran into Se on Yulia in a serious, didactic tone of voice

How time did fly Three years earlier Yulia had still been just a little girl Now she was a beautiful young wo enchantress¡ªshe had already been invited to join the European office of the Night Watch They like to skiual chorus of protestations about the great cootten aith it Gesar had held on to Yulia, and in addition let the European talent if he felt like it

I wondered what Yulia herself had wanted in that situation

"Been called back in?" Se off his conversation the moment he spotted me "Or is your time up already?"

"My time’s up, and I’ve been called in," I said "Has so happened? Hi, Yulka"

For some reason Semyon and I never said hello, as if we’d only just seen each other Anyway, he always looked exactly the same¡ªdressed very simply, carelessly shaved, with the cru city

That day, in fact, Se homelier than ever

"Hi, Anton," Yulia said Her expression was gluain¡ªhe was a past ’s happened," Se’s perfectly calm Last e only picked up titches, and that was for petty offenses"

"Well, that’s just great," I said, trying not to notice Yulia’s io see the boss"

Seirl As I walked into the boss’s reception roo the same job for sixty years now, but this kind of irresponsible behavior"

He’s strict all right, but he never gives anyone a hard tiood reason, so I wasn’t about to rescue Yulia from the conversation

In the reception area there was a new air conditioner quietly huen bulbs for accent lighting Larissa was sitting there¡ªevidently Gesar’s secretary, Galochka, was on vacation, and our field work coordinators really didn’t have much work of their own to do

"Hello, Anton," Larissa said to ood"

"Teeks on the beach!" I replied proudly

Larissa squinted at the clock "I was told to show you right in But the boss still has visitors Will you go in?"

"Yes," I decided "See"

"Gorodetsky’s here to see you, Boris Ignatievich," Larissa said into the intercom She nodded to me "Go on in oh, it’s hot in there"

It really was hot inside Gesar’s door There were twoin the armchairs in front of his desk¡ªI mentally christened them Thin Man and Fat Man, after Chekhov’s short story But both of the

"And what do we observe?" Gesar asked thelance at me "Come in, Anton Sit down, I’ll be finished in a moment"

Thin Man and Fat Man perked up a bit at that

"Soarizing and silobal scale!"

"She can do that precisely because she vulgarizes and simplifies," Fat Man retortedlike it is," Thin Man said in support "And this is the result, Most Lucent Gesar!"

I took a look at Gesar’s visitors through the Twilight Well, well! More hus! And yet they knew the boss’s name and title! And they even pronounced them with candid sarcasm! Of course, there are always special circumstances, but for Gesar to reveal hiht," Gesar said with a nod "I’ll let you have one more try This tied glances

"We’ll do our best," Fat Man said with a good-natured sh¡ªwe’ve already had a certain degree of success"

Gesar snorted As if they’d been given sonal that the conversation was over, the visitors stood up, shook the boss’s hand in farewell and walked out In the reception area Thin Manand flirtatious rehed

"Ordinary people?" I asked cautiously

Gesar nodded, gazing at the door with a hostile expression He sighed

"People, people All right, Gorodetsky Sit down"

I sat down, but Gesar still didn’t start the conversation He fiddled with his papers, fingered solass beads heaped up in a coarse earthenware bowl I felt like looking to see if they were alass beads, but I didn’t want to risk taking any liberties in front of Gesar

"Hoas your vacation?" Gesar asked, as if he’d exhausted all his excuses for delaying the conversation

"Good," I answered "Ilittle Nadya out into that scorching Spanish sun That’s no good"

"No," Gesar agreed, "it isn’t" I didn’t know if the Great Magician had any children¡ªeven close associates weren’t trusted with information like that He probably did He was al like paternal feelings "Anton, did you phone Svetlana?"

"No," I said and shook my head "Has she contacted you?"

Gesar nodded Then suddenly he couldn’t contain hier¡ªhe slammed his fist down on the desk and burst out: "Just what did she think she was doing? First she deserts the Watch"

"Gesar, every one of us has the right to resign," I objected But Gesar had no intention of apologizing

"Deserts! An enchantress of her level doesn’t belong to herself! She has no right to belong to herself! If, that is if she calls herself a Light One And then¡ªshe’s raising her daughter as a hu," I said, feelingto fume too "Whether or not she becomes an Other is for her to decide Most Lucent Gesar!"

Gesar realized that I was all set to blow too and he changed his tone

"Okay That’s your right Pull out of the fight, ruin the little girl’s life anything you like! But where does this hate come from?"

"What did Sveta say?" I asked

Gesar sighed "Your wife phoned ht to know"

"Then she doesn’t know it," I put in

"And she told hly complicated plot for your physical elimination!"

I looked into Gesar’s eyes for a second Then I laughed

"You think it’s funny?" Gesar asked in a voice filled with pain "You really think so?"

"Gesar" I said, suppressing hter with an effort "I’m sorry May I speak frankly?"

"By all reatest plotter of anybody I know Worse than Zabulon Compared to you, Machiavelli was a mere pup"

"Don’t be so quick to underestiet the idea, I’m a plotter And?"

"And I’ ht sacrifice reater nuht Others But not that way by planning and sche I don’t believe it"

"Thanks, I’lad to hear it," Gesar said with a nod I couldn’t tell if I’d nettled hiotten into her head? I’m sorry, Anton" Gesar suddenly hesitated and even looked away, but he finished what he was saying "Are you expecting a child? Another one?"