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Las walked into the room and took another look around He said, "Nah, it’s not so bad in here only you need to get a toilet installed Okay if I grab a quick shower? Now or this evening I really enjoyed it"

I stuck ined the keys swelling and splitting

I tossed Las the new set

"Here, catch!"

"What are these for?" Las asked, inspecting theo away Use the place in the uy toAre you leaving soon?"

"Right away," I said I’d suddenly realized how much I wanted to see Svetka and Nadya "Maybe I’ll be back again"

"And ," Las repeated,closer "I saw your disk player somewhere around the place here"

I took the disk

" ’Combat Implants,’" Las explained "My album Only don’t play it when there are women or children present"

"I won’t" I twirled the disk in ot problepretty low"

"No, it’s nothing," I said, shaking o in a ot all this work to do here"

"A sacred duty," Las said approvingly "A child must not be left without attention At least if her "

I looked at Las

"The mother’s most important for a child," Las said, with the air of a Vysotsky, Piaget, or soically determined What we males mostly do is take care of the female And the female takes care of the child"

I was let into Tiuuards looked perfectly okay and they probably didn’t have the slightest idea about recent events

Gesar and his newfound son were drinking tea in the study The study was large I’d even be tempted to call it substantial, with atrinkets on the shelves of the antique cabinets It was a how similar their tastes were Timur Borisovich’s study was remarkably like his father’s office

"Co man," Ti’s been worked out"

He cast a quick glance at Gesar "He’s still young, hotheaded"

"That’s for sure," Gesar said with a nod "What’s happened, Anton?"

"I need to have a word," I said "In private"

Gesar sighed and looked at his son His son stood up:

"I’ll go seethe seats of their pants here I’ll find the to do"

Timur Borisovich went out, and I was left alone with Gesar

"Well, what’s happened, Gorodetsky?" Gesar asked wearily

"Can we speak freely?"

"Yes"

"You didn’t want to see your son becoician, did you?" I asked

"Would you like to see your Nadiushka as a Dark Enchantress?" said Gesar, answering a question with a question

"But Timur was certain to have becoht to his remoralization And for that the Dark Ones or, even better, the Inquisition, had to panic and apply unreasonable force to your son"

"And that’s what happened," said Gesar "All right Gorodetsky, are you trying to accuseto understand"

"You saw ht I hadn’t , I didn’t send the letters And I didn’t engage anyone to do these things"

No, Gesar wasn’tto pull the wool overout the ter with relish to see what answer his pupil would give

"Witezslav only needed to ask one more question," he said "But apparently that question was too human for him"

Gesar flapped his eyelids as if he were rehearsing a nod

"The mother," I said

"Witezslav killed his own mother," Gesar explained "Not with deliberate intent He was a young vampire and he couldn’t control himself But ever since then he tries not even to pronounce that word"

"Who is Tiht to be a name in the file"

"There could be any name at all in the file It says that Timur’s mother disappeared at the end of the war but I know a female Other who spent the time since then in the body of a bird As far as people knew, she had died"

Gesar didn’t say anything

"Could you really not find him any sooner?"

"We were sure that Tia was the one who didn’t want to accept it And when she was rehabilitated, she went on looking"

"She found her son And she made him a rash promise," I concluded

"It’s pers," Gesar said dryly "Even the wisest of women And anize everything on a serious, rational basis"

I nodded

"Do you blame me?" Gesar asked curiously "Anton?"

"Who aht Other And I wouldn’t want to let the Darkness have her"

"Thank you, Anton" Gesar nodded and visibly relaxed "I’lad you understand that"

"I just wonder how far you would have gone for your son and Olga," I said "You know Svetlana had a preer for ed "Pres"

"What if I’d decided to tell the Inquisition the truth," I went on "Decided to leave the Watch and join the Inquisition What then?"

"You didn’t leave," Gesar said "Despite all Witezslav’s hints What else, Anton? I can tell you’ve got another question on the tip of your tongue"

"How did your son turn out to be an Other?" I asked "It’s a lottery It’s rare for a family of Others to have a child who’s an Other"

"Anton, either go to Witezslav and present him with your conclusions," Gesar said in a low voice, "or beat it and go back to Svetlana, as you were planning to do Spare ation"

"Aren’t you afraid the Inquisition will think it all through and figure out what happened?" I asked

"No, I’ the investigation They won’t open the case again They’re already up to their ears in shit"

"Good luck with re Timur," I said

And I headed for the door

"You still have another week’s leave¡ªspend some time with your faoing to reply proudly that I didn’t need any handouts

But I stopped myself in time What the heck

"Teeks," I said "At this stage I’ve got at least a "

Gesar didn’t say a word