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I DROVE UP TO THE NlGHT WATCH BUILDING SHORTLY AFTER SEVEN IN THE

The deadest time of all¡ªthe break between shifts The field operatives who have been on duty all night have handed in their reports and gone ho established Moscow tradition, the headquarters staff won’t show up before nine

They were changing shifts in the watch roo so the duty roster I shook hands with all of theh without any of the required checks Strictly speaking, it was a breach of regulations although this guardpost was pri people

On the third floor the guards had already changed shifts Garik was on duty here and he h the Twilight and nodded for e of a cockerel old wire In reference to Pushkin’s tale, we called it "greetings to Dodon"¡ªin theory, if a Dark One touched it the cockerel ought to crow But there were some ho claimed that if it sensed a Dark One, the cockerel would speak in a hu!"

Garik waited until he was through before he gave me a really friendly smile and shook my hand

"Is Gesar in his office?" I asked

"Who knohere he is?" Garik replied

Yes, that really was a duicians ht you were supposed to be on leave" Garik said, as if uard

"I got fed up with relaxing Like they say, Monday begins on Saturday"

"And you’re absolutely whacked" the othereven ain"

I sent another greeting to Dodon, then stood still for a while as Garik checked lass

"Sorry about that," he said as he put the ahtly embarrassed voice, "You’re not yourself today"

"I was on vacation in the country with Sveta, and a very old witch turned up," I explained "And there was a pack of olves getting a bit out of hand I had to go after the olves, and go after the witch" I gestured despairingly "After a vacation like that I ought to take sick leave"

"So that’s it," said Garik, cal down "Put in an application¡ªI think we still have so powers"

I shuddered and shook e on oodbye to Garik, I went up to the fourth floor I stood outside Gesar’s reception for a while, then knocked

No one answered, and I went in

The secretary wasn’t at her desk, of course The door into Gesar’s office was fir cheerfully on the coffee maker, the co away quietly on the news channel The anchor that another sandstordoo planes

"And it beat up all the soldiers and took several of the

What was this strange habit so TV? Either idiotic soap operas or the lies on the news There was really only one word for it¡ªpeople

Maybe the other as "cattle?"

But no, it wasn’t their fault They eak and divided They were people, not cattle!

We were the cattle

And people were the grass

I stood there, leaning against the secretary’s desk and looking out of theat the clouds drifting by over the city Why was the sky so low in Moscow? I’d never seen such a low sky anywhere else except rass," a voice said behind my back "Or you can tear it up by the roots Which do you prefer?"

"Goodaround "I didn’t think you were in"

Gesar yawned He earing a dressing gown and slippers I caught a gliown

I would never have expected the Great Gesar to wear pajamas covered with pictures of Disney cartoon characters From Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to Lilo & Stitch How could a Great Magician, who had lived thousands of years and could easily read thoughts, wear pajalu quietly I went to bed at five"

"Sorry, boss," I said Somehow, no other word but "boss" caht?"

"I was reading a book, an interesting one," said Gesar, pressing switches on the coffeear for you"

"Soical?" I enquired

"No, darowled

"When I retire I’ to ask to be his coauthor and write books! Take your coffee"

I took the cup and followed Gesar into his office

As usual, several new knickknacks had appeared in there In one cupboard there were lots of little figures of oblets and steel knives Propped up against the back wall of the cupboard was an old arraph on its cover of a co session, and beside it there was a sireen forest thicket

For some reason¡ªI couldn’t understand exactly why¡ªit all put rades in school

And hanging up under the ceiling was a gold-colored hockey helmet that looked incredibly like a bald head There were several darts stuck into it

I glanced suspiciously at all these itehtat all, and sat down in one of the chairs for visitors I noticed a book with a brightly colored cover lying in the wire- Golovachev? But I took a closer look and realized I was mistaken¡ªthe title on the book was Masterpieces of World Science Fiction

"Drink your coffee, it cleans out the brain in the ," Gesar muttered in the same tone of annoyance As he drank his own coffee, he slurped¡ªI alar luht from the saucer

"I need answers to some questions, boss," I said "A lot of questions"

"You’ll get them," Gesar said with a nod

"Others are ic than ordinary people"

Gesar frowned "Nonsense An oxyical Power of hued it at y and kinetic energy"

Noas my turn to keep quiet, while Gesar strode around the office with his coffeein a leisurely fashion

"First Yes, all living things are capable of producing s¡ªnot only hurass Is there any physical basis to this Power, can it be measured with a scientific instrument? I don’t know Possibly nobody ever will know Second No one can control his oer It dissipates into space and is absorbed by the Twilight¡ªpart is caught by the blue moss and part is intercepted by Others Is that clear? There are two processes¡ªthe emission of your oer and the absorption of Power that is not yours The first process is involuntary and intensifies as you go deeper into the Twilight The second is also, to a greater or lesser degree, typical of everybody¡ªboth hus and Others A sick child asks his mother, sit with oes away The mother wants to help her child, and she is able to direct part of her Power to produce the directed effect A so-called psychic, that is, a hu with truncated, castrated Other abilities, is not only able to influence people who are near and dear to hihtened emotion, he can heal other people or even put a curse on theer steam, but not yet ice¡ªit’s water Third We are Others In us the balance of emission and absorption is displaced toward absorption"

"What?" I exclaimed

"Did you think it was all simple, like with vampires?" Gesar asked with a jolly s in exchange? No, we all give back the Power that we produce But while an ordinary person’s process of absorption and emission is in dynamic equilibrium, and the balance is occasionally disrupted as a result of eitation, with us it’s different We are unbalanced fro world than we give back"

"And we can juggle the reht?"

"We operate with the difference in potentials," said Gesar, wagging his ringer at ical temperature’ is¡ªthat was the terreat deal of Power, and the rate at which it is eression There are Others like that they give more back to the common pot than people do, but they also absorb very actively They work on that difference in potentials"

After a moment’s pause, Gesar added a self-critical comment: "But those are only rare cases, I adical Power than ordinary people, but equally or evenas the average temperature for a hospital We’re not just crude vampires We’re donors, too"

"But why don’t they teach us that?" I asked "Why?"

"Because in the very crudest understanding of the process, we do, after all, consume Power that came from soing in here at such an early hour? To wax irate and lecture me How can this be true¡ªwe consume the Power produced by people And you have actually taken it directly, puenuine vampire When it was necessary, you didn’t think twice Off you went, in shining white are! And behind you little children were crying"

He was right, of course Partly

But I had already worked in the Watch for long enough to know that a partial truth is also a lie

"Teacher" I said in a low voice, and Gesar started

I had refused to be his pupil any athered Power fro, pupil," he said, looking into my eyes

"Surely it’s not a question of how ive back," I said "Teacher, isn’t the goal of the Night Watch to divide and protect?"

Gesar nodded

"To divide and protect until such time as people’s ht?"

Gesar nodded again

"And all people will become Others?"

"Rubbish" Gesar shook his head "Whoever told you such nonsense? Can you find that phrase anywhere in even one of the Watches’ documents? In the Great Treaty?"

I closedinto view; "We are Others"

"No, it doesn’t say that anywhere," I ad we do it’s all set up to create precisely that impression"

"That impression is false"

"Yes, but the self-deception is encouraged"

Gesar heaved a deep sigh He looked into my eyes and said, "Anton, everyone needs their life to have aBoth people and Others Even if thatis false"

"But it’s a blind alley" I whispered "Teacher, it’s a blind alley If we defeat the Dark Ones"

"Then we’ll defeat Evil Egotism, selfishness, indifference"

"But our own existence is egotisest?" Gesar inquired politely

I didn’t answer

"Do you have any objections to raise against the operational work of the Watches? Againstpeople, attempts to improve the social system?"

I suddenly realized how I could strike back

"Teacher, what exactly did you give Arina in 1931? When you met her near the racetrack?"

"A piece of Chinese silk," Gesar replied calmly "She’s a woman, after all, she wanted beautiful clothes and those were hard times A friend of mine sent me the silk from Manchuria, and I couldn’t really think what to do with it Do you blame me?"

I nodded

"Anton, I was opposed to wide-scale experi," Gesar said, with obvious disgust "It was a foolish idea that had been kicking around since the nineteenth century No wonder the Dark Ones agreed It didn’t bring any positive changes at all Just more blood, war, fa and jerked the drawer of his desk open with a crash He took out a cigar

"But Russia would have been a prosperous country now" I began

"Blah, blah, blah" Gesar muttered "Not Russia, the Eurasian Union A prosperous social-de with the Asian Union, led by China, and the Conference of English-Speaking Countries, led by the United States Five or six local nuclear conflicts every year on the territory of Third World countries A struggle for resources, an arms race far worse than e have now"

I was shattered and crushed Totally bloay But I still tried to object "Arina said so about a city on the ht," Gesar said with a nod "There would have been cities on the moon Around the nuclear missile bases Do you read science fiction?"

I shrugged and cast a sideways glance at the book in the trash basket

"What the A in the 1950s¡ª that would all have happened," Gesar explained "Yes, spaceships with nuclear drives all military You see, Anton, there were three ways coone The first led to a fine, wonderful society But that’s contrary to hueneration and self-destruction That’s what happened The third as a conversion to Scandinavian-type social-deation of most of Europe and North Africa Alas, one of the consequences of following this path was the division of the world into three opposed blocks and¡ªsooner or later¡ªglobal war But before that, people would have found out that the Others exist and wiped theht them under control I’h a price to pay for cities on the moon and a hundred different types of salami by 1980"

"But now America"

"You and your America," Gesar said with a frown "Wait until 2008, and then we’ll talk"

I said nothing I didn’t even ask what it was Gesar had seen in the future, in the year 2008 that was already so near

"I can appreciate your ehter "You won’t think lass of vodka, if you like, teacher," I snarled back

"I don’t drink vodka in the ar lit "I understand your torard the present situation as correct But what’s going to happen if we all fall into a melancholy depression and leave our jobs? I’ll tell you what! The Dark Ones will be only too delighted to take on the role of shepherds of the human flock! They won’t be embarrassed They won’t be able to believe their luck So make your mind up"

"About what?"

"You canation," said Gesar, raising his voice "So make up your oals aren’t Light enough for you"

"Where there’s black, even gray looks white," I replied

Gesar snorted He asked in a calet away?"

"Yes She took Nadiushka hostage and dele muscle even twitched in Cesar’s face

"The old hag has her principles, Anton She can bluff with the best, but she would never touch a child Trust me, I know her"

"And what if her nerve cracked?" I asked, recalling the horrors I’d been through "She couldn’t give a damn for the Watches, not even with the Inquisition thrown in She’s not even afraid of Zabulon"

"Maybe not Zabulon" Gesar chuckled "I informed the Inquisition about Arina, but I contacted the witch as well All official and above board, by the way Everything’s minuted And she arned about your family Specially warned"

This was unexpected news

I looked into Gesar’s calm face and didn’t knohat to say to him

"Arina and I have known and respected each other for a long tie that?"

"What exactly?" Gesar asked in surprise "Mutual respect? Well, you see"

"Every time I’m convinced that you’re a villainous sche We’re parasites on people? It turns out that it’s all for their own good The country’s in ruins? Things could have been a lot worse My daughter’s in danger? She’s in about as er as little Sasha Pushkin with his old nanny"

Gesar’s expression softened