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I SPENT HALF A DAY DOING THINGS THAT WERE STRICTLY OFF-LIMITS AND

no use to anyone The vampire Kostya would probably have pulled a wry face and inforht of my naivete

First I went back to the Assol coe into jeans and a simple shirt, and then I set off in the direction of the nearest normal courtyard¡ªtoward the dreary, nine-story prefabricated buildings There, to e loafers kicking a ball around on it There were a few young h the recently concluded world chalorious one for our tea courtyards, the co

I was put on a team, the side that had only one adult¡ªwith an iile and frisky I’uys weren’t world championship material either

For about an hour I ran around on the dusty, traoala few tiround and gave me an aet upset

When the game tailed off¡ªof its own accord, soht soest soccer players, Baikal soda pop Of course, they would have preferred Coca-Cola, but it’s tin poison

The only thing bothering enerosity would arouse all kinds of suspicions, so I had to be oodbye to the players on "my" side and the other, I walked as far as the beach, and really enjoyed a swim in the water that was dirty, but cool The pompous palace spires of the Assol complex towered up into the sky on one side

Well let the of all, I realized, was that in ician could have done exactly the sa ones still into pleasures that had been out of reach before, like fresh oysters and expensive prostitutes But a Dark One who had already lived a bit and co but vanity, the vanity of vanities, in fact

And he would have sca the ball, and hissing at the teenagers’ clumsy attempts to swear: "Hey, watch your lip, kid!" Afterward he would have gone to the beach, and splashed about in theup at the sky

Where was it, that dividing line? Okay, with the lower Dark Ones, everything was clear They were non-life They had to kill in order to survive And there was nothing any verbal gymnastics could do about that They were evil

But where was the real boundary?

And as it sometimes ready to disappear? For instance, at aanted to become an Other? Just one, that was all! But just look at the resources that had been thrown into the search Dark Ones, Light Ones, the Inquisition And I wasn’t the only one working on this business, I was just a paho had been advanced, carrying out local reconnaissance work Gesar rinkling his forehead, Zabulon was knitting his brows, Witez-slav was scowling and baring those teeth A huet him!

But ouldn’t want it?

Not the eternal hunger of the vampires, not the insane fits of the olves, but the full, co that ordinary people had

Only better

You’re not afraid anyone will steal the expensive music system out of your car when you leave it unwatched

You don’t get sick with flu, and if you come doith soht Healers are at your service

You don’t wonder how you’re going to survive until payday

You don’t feel afraid of dark streets at night or drunken bums

You’re not even afraid of the et home safely from school and not run into some crazy maniac in the front hallway

Yes, of course, that here the real problem lay Your nearest and dearest were safe, they were even excluded from the vae and death

But after all, that was still a long way off Somewhere way off in the future, far ahead

On the whole it was far ain, you wouldn’t gain anything if you refused initiation, even your huht to call you a fool After all, if you became an Other, you’d be able to help them out Like that story of Semyon’s someone put a hex on a peasant’s cows, and his Other son had an investigator sent in to help him Blood was thicker than water, after all; your own flesh and blood was dearest There was nothing to be done

I jerked upright as if I’d been electrified I jumped to my feet and stared up at the Assol coician have for ?

There was only one reason!

That was it, the lead!

"Have you co, Anton?" a voice asked behind my back

I turned around and looked into the black lenses of Kostya’s glasses He earing just bathing trunks, the appropriate attire for the beach, apart from the child’s white panama hat perched on the back of his head like a skullcap (no doubt he’d taken it away from some little toddler without any qual the sun hot?" I asked spitefully

"It’s oppressive Hanging up there in the sky like a flatiron Why, aren’t you feeling hot?"

"Sure," I admitted "But it’s a different kind of heat"

"Can we e without the sarcasm?" Kostya asked He sat down on the sand and fastidiously tossed aside a cigarette butt froht now But this time I came to have a ith you"

I felt asha man¡ªit made no difference that he was undead And I still re uncertainly at the door of my apartment "You shouldn’t invite ht and bite you"

And that boy had held out for a pretty long ti’s blood and donor’s blood He’d dreaain "Like Pinocchio,"¡ªhe must have read Collodi or seen the ht comparison

If only Gesar hadn’t detailed me to hunt vampires

No, that was nonsense Nature would have taken its course And Kostya would have been given his license

In any case I had no right to scoff at hie¡ªI was alive

I could approach old people without feeling ashamed Yes, without any shame¡ªbecause Witezslav hadn’t been honest with me It wasn’t fear or revulsion that had made him avoid the old woman

It was shame

"Sorry, Kostya," I said and lay down on the sand beside him "Let’s talk"

"It see to do with it," Kostya began gloomily "The client is one of those who are only there occasionally"

"We’ll have to check theh

"That’s only the start We have to look for the traitor"

"We are looking"

"I can see the way you’re looking Realized that he’s one of yours, have you?"

"How do you nantly "Some Dark One could quite easily have blundered"

We discussed the situation for a while We seemed to have reached the same conclusions simultaneously

Only noas just half a step ahead And I had no intention of helping Kostya out

"The letter was posted in the heap of letters that builder brought to the post office," said Kostya, not suspecting how cunning I was being "Nothing could be easier All those Gas-tarbeiters live in an old school, they use it as a hostel They put all their letters on the attendant’s table on the first floor In the oes to the post office and posts theet into the hostel and divert the attendant’s attention or sio to the john Then drop the letter into the general pile And there you go! No leads"

"Siht Ones’ style," Kostya said with a frown "Get someone else to do the dirty work for you"

For soly and turned over on toup at the sky and the lovely yellow sun

"Okay, we do the sa

"Come on, tell me, haven’t you ever used people for your operations?" Kostya protested indignantly

"Soer"

"And in this case the Other hasn’t put anyone in danger, only used the his comment about the "dirty work"

"What I’ is does it make any sense to follow this trail any further? So far the traitor has covered all his tracks very thoroughly We’ll end up chasing a phantoo two security guards at the Assol cohastly in the bushes," I said "They even opened fire"

Kostya’s eyes blazed "Have you already checked it out?"

"No," I said "I’m shielded, undercover, there’s no way I can"

"Is it okay if I check it out?" Kostya asked eagerly "Listen, I’ll mention that it was you"

"Go ahead," I said nani into a broad s uy after all Thanks"

"Do a good job," I couldn’t resist saying, "and et another license ahead of the line"

Kostya fell silent and his face turned sour He stared hard at the river

"How her Vampire?" I asked

"What’s that to you?"

"I’m just curious"

"Check out your archives some time and take a look," Kostya said with a crooked smile "Is it really that hard?"

Of course, it wasn’t that hard But I’d never looked at Kostya’s file I didn’t want to know that

"Uncle Kostya, givevoice squeaked nearby

I glanced sideways at the little girl, about four years old, who had co a child, and he’d stolen her hat

Kostya obediently reirl

"Will you co at"Will you tell me a story?"

"Uh huh," Kostya said with a nod

The little girl beas together a little distance away The sand spurted up from under her heels

"You’ve lost your ht here!"

My expressionKostya was quick to answer

"What is it? What’s wrong with you, Anton? She’s ino, and I’, so I don’t have to drag hther blood?" Kostya asked, still looking at me warily "Go and check! There aren’t any bites She’s my niece, understand? For her sake I’d take out anyone myself"

"Pah!" I said and spat "What else could I think? ’Will you coht? Will you tell ht One," Kostya said ht?"

Our fragile truce wasn’t exactly over, but it had reverted to the nor, and I sat there cursingto conclusions They didn’t issue licenses for children under the age of twelve, and Kostya wasn’t such a fool as to hunt without a license

But it had just burst out

"You’ve got a little daughter," Kostya said, suddenly catching on "The saer," I replied "And prettier"

"Obviously, your own’s always prettier," Kostya laughed "All right, Gorodetsky I understand Let’s forget it And thanks for the lead"

"That’s okay," I said "Maybe those securityafter all They’d been drinking vodka or s dope"

"We’ll check it out," Kostya said cheerfully "We’ll check everything out"

He rubbed the back of his head with his open hand and stood up

"Ti to "

And he did just that, disappeared, after first averting the eyes of everyone there There was just a di in the air for a second

"Show off," I said and turned over on to my sto hot too But I decided on principle not to leave with a Dark One

I still had a few things to think through before I went to the Assol security office