"For the life of me, I don't understand why all this fuss over the Talon was started in the first place. What were the Regin Brothers trying to achieve? Why didn't they let us know what they were doing? It's all some kind of crazy nonsense, absolute nonsense."

"And what makes you so sure the Regin Brothers didn't achieve their goal?" I asked innocently. They looked at me as if I were a child who'd asked an awkward question in adult company.

"You have a different opinion?" Yura inquired cautiously, exchanging a quick glance with Edgar.

"Yes," I said honestly. "Only don't ask me about the details-I don't know them anyway. There was a serious imbalance of Power developing in Moscow in favor of the Light Ones. So serious that Europe was beginning to feel worried. Measures were taken. The Regin Brothers' escapade is one piece of a jigsaw that will eventually add up to a new equilibrium."

"And your appearance is another piece of the jigsaw?" Edgar surmised.

"Obviously."

"And the absence from Moscow of Zabulon, our chief?"

"Probably."

The Dark Ones looked at each other, wondering.

"I don't know about that," Anna Tikhonovna drawled in a displeased tone of voice. "It all looks pretty strange. If we had the Talon, we'd soon have the Light Ones in a corner."

"But would we be able to keep it under control?" Yura remarked.

"I don't know..."

"In any case," said Edgar, after thinking for a while, "we still have the right to demand satisfaction from the Light Ones. There were several serious interventions committed. What they've done over the last two days goes way beyond the recent killings. Tiunnikov's death should really be cla.s.sed as an accident, and if Gesar tries to dispute that, the tribunal will soon demolish all his arguments. And the vampire poacher and the shape-shifting hooker aren't such very serious violations, only sixth level, or fifth at most. They were acting independently, the Day Watch had nothing to do with it... Now we have the right to demand several second-level interventions at least. That's what I think... So in the final a.n.a.lysis the Day Watch has still come out best from everything that's happened. Even without the chief and his powerful support."

"Better hold the fanfares for a while," Yura remarked skeptically. "Wait and see."

Edgar shrugged and spread his arms in the gesture of a man sticking to his own opinion. He really believed what he'd just said. And I could understand him.

There's no way of knowing how the argument would have ended. The cell phone on Edgar's belt trilled and everyone automatically turned toward him.

It could have been a private call, or a call from the technical section. But the Others gathered together in the office were pretty powerful. Almost all of them were capable of calculating probabilities and the consequences of very simple events.

This call had a dense central thread that was clearly visible. A thread connecting it to events of supreme importance.

Edgar raised the phone to his ear and listened for a while. "Show him through," he said, then canceled the call and put the cell back on his belt. "An Inquisitor," he said with a stony expression, "with an official announcement."

Less than thirty seconds later the warlock from the duty watch opened the door into the Day Watch main office.

And a second after that the impa.s.sive Inquisitor called Maxim strode in through the doorway.

There was absolutely no emotion or other coloration in his voice; his tone was strictly informative. And it would have been stupid to suspect an Inquisitor of sympathizing with one side or the other. "In the name of the Treaty,"

he declared, "tomorrow at dawn there will be an extended session of the local board of the Tribunal, under the patronage of the Inquisition. The subject is a number of actions taken by Light Others and a number of actions taken by Dark Others which are incompatible with the stipulations of the Treaty. Attendance is compulsory for all who have been informed. If anyone who has been informed fails to attend or arrives late, it will be regarded as an act incompatible with the stipulations of the Treaty. Until the session starts all magical interventions at the fifth level of Power and above are prohibited. May Equilibrium triumph."

When he finished his speech, the Inquisitor turned around unhurriedly and walked out into the lobby, to the elevators. The warlock cast a fleeting glance at his superiors and closed the door behind him. He regarded it as his duty to show the Inquisitor out. The office was quiet for a while; even the technicians and their notebooks had fallen silent.

"Just like in '49," Anna Tikhonovna remarked quietly. "Exactly the same."

"Let's hope so," the magician Yura said in a low voice. "Let's hope so, Anna Tikhonovna. Let's hope real hard."

Chapter five.

-?- Everybody gets the feeling sometimes that what is happening just at the moment has already happened before.

There's even a special term for it, deja vu, a kind of false memory.

The Others have it too.

Night Watch agent Anton Gorodetsky was standing in front of the door of his apartment and struggling with his memories. He had hovered in front of this open door in exactly the same way before, wondering who could have got inside. And when he went inside that time, he'd discovered that his uninvited guest was his sworn enemy, the chief of the Day Watch, known to the Light Ones by the name of Zabulon.

"Deja vu," Anton whispered and stepped inside the door. The defense system remained silent again, but there was definitely a visitor in the room. Who was it this time?

Anton squeezed his talismanic medallion tightly in his hand as he entered the room.

Zabulon was sitting in an armchair and reading the newspaper Arguments and Facts, wearing a severe black suit, a light-gray shirt, and black shoes with blunt, square toes, polished so that they shone like mirrors. He took off his spectacles. "h.e.l.lo, Anton."

"Deja vu..." Anton muttered. "Well, h.e.l.lo."

Strangely enough, this time he wasn't scared of Zabulon at all. Maybe that was because the last time Zabulon had conducted his surprise visit in an entirely correct manner?

"You can take my amulet. It's in the desk-I can sense it."

Anton let go of the talisman hanging round his neck, took off his jacket, and went across to the desk. Zabulon's amulet was hidden in among some papers and all the other office clutter that inevitably seems to appear out of nowhere.

"Zabulon, you have no Power over me," Anton declared in a voice that didn't sound like his own.

The Dark magician nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent. Allow me to compliment you. That other time you were trembling like a withered leaf. But today you're calm. You're growing, Anton."

"I suppose I ought to thank you for the compliment?" Anton asked coolly.

Zabulon threw his head back and laughed soundlessly.

"All right," he said a few seconds later, "I see you're in no mood to waste time. Well, neither am I. I came to offer you the chance to commit an act of betrayal. A small, calculated act of betrayal from which everyone will benefit, including you. Sounds paradoxical, doesn't it?"

"It does."

Anton looked into Zabulon's gray eyes, trying to understand what trap he'd fallen into this time. Trust a human being half way and a Light One a quarter of the way, but don't trust a Dark One at all.

Zabulon was the most powerful-and therefore the most dangerous-Dark One in Moscow. And probably in the whole of Russia.

"Let me explain," said Zabulon, without hurrying, but not hesitating either. "You already know about tomorrow's session of the Tribunal, do you not?"

"I do."

"Don't go to it."

Anton finally decided to sit down, on the divan by the wall. Now Zabulon was on his right.

"And for what particular reason?" Anton inquired.

"If you don't go, you and Svetlana will stay together. If you go, you'll lose her."

Anton felt a sudden burning sensation in his chest. It wasn't a question of whether he believed Zabulon or not. He wanted to believe him. He wanted to very much.

But he couldn't forget that Dark Ones can't be trusted.

"The leadership of the Night Watch is planning yet another global social experiment. You must know that. And Svetlana has been given a rather important role in this project. I shan't try to change your convictions or win you over you to the Darkness-that's an entirely hopeless proposition. I shall simply tell you what the danger of realizing such an experiment is: the disruption of the balance of forces. Obviously a rather desirable thing for the side that grows stronger. In recent times the Light has been growing stronger and, naturally, I don't like it. It is in the Day Watch's interest to restore the equilibrium. And you are the one who can help us."

"Strange," Anton said thoughtfully. "The head of the Day Watch asking for help from a Night Watch agent. Very strange."

"Well, your help isn't absolutely necessary to us. We could manage on our own. But if you help yourself in the first instance, then you will also help us. And Svetlana, and everyone else who will inevitably suffer from the next global experiment."

"I don't understand-how can I help myself and Svetlana?"

"What don't you understand? Svetlana is potentially a very powerful enchantress. As she grows stronger, so the gulf that separates you grows wider. Her Power is the factor that is shifting the balance in the favor of the Light. If Svetlana is deprived of her Power for some time, equilibrium will be restored. And there will be nothing to keep you apart, Anton. She loves you-anyone can see that. And you love her. Surely you wouldn't sacrifice your happiness and that of the woman you love to the Light? Especially since the sacrifice is meaningless in any case. That's why I'm proposing you commit this little, perfectly painless act of betrayal."

"Betrayal is never little."

"Sometimes it is, Anton. It most certainly is. Loyalty itself is built up from a series of little, calculated betrayals.

You can trust me on that-I've lived in this world long enough to be quite sure of it."

Anton paused for a while before he spoke. "I'm a Light One. I can't betray the Light. By my very essence I can't do it-and you should understand that."

"No one's trying to make you go against the Light. And what's more, if you do this, you'll be helping many people.

Very many people, Anton. Isn't that the goal of a Light magician-to help people?"

"And how will I be able to look my colleagues in the eye?" Anton asked with a bitter laugh. "After that?"

"They'll understand," Zabulon said with an a.s.surance that seemed strange to Anton. "They'll understand and they'll forgive. And if they don't-what kind of Light Ones are they?"

"You're good with the sophistry, Zabulon. Far better than I am, no doubt. But just because you call things by different names, it doesn't change their essential nature. Betrayal is always betrayal."

"All right," Zabulon agreed with surprising readiness, "then betray love. Basically, you have a choice between two betrayals-surely you can understand that? To betray yourself or to prevent yet another cycle of bloodshed from happening. To forestall the inevitable battles between the Watches or to allow them to happen. Or haven't there been enough deaths for you yet? You went out on patrol with Andrei Tiunnikov more than once. You were friends with the girl shape-shifter, Tiger Cub. Where are they now? Who else are you willing to sacrifice in the name of the Light? Don't go to the Tribunal session tomorrow, and your friends will stay alive. We don't need any more deaths, Anton. We're willing to avoid conflict. To settle things peacefully. That's why I'm suggesting you should help everybody. Everybody. Dark Ones and Light Ones. And even simple, ordinary people. Do you understand?"

"I don't understand how my absence from the Tribunal session will help restore equilibrium."

"You've already run into the Dark One from Ukraine, haven't you? Vitaly Rogoza?"

"Yes, I have," Anton replied reluctantly.

"He's not an Other."

Anton was startled.

"How do you mean, not an Other?"

"He's not entirely an Other. He's only a Mirror. And he doesn't have long left to live."

"What, or who, is a Mirror?"

"Definitely 'what,"" Zabulon said with a sigh. "Alas, only a 'what'... That's not important, Anton. It's more useful for you to know something else. If you stay away from the session of the Inquisition, no more blood will be spilled. If you go, a bloodbath is inevitable."

"Failure to appear at a Tribunal is punished by the Inquisition."

"The Inquisition will regard your reluctance to engage in combat with Rogoza as legitimate. There have been precedents; if you wish, I can even obtain the relevant doc.u.ments. But you can take my word for it. I've never deceived you yet."

"I don't like the sound of that 'yet.""

Zabulon smiled with just the corner of his mouth. "It can't be helped. I am a Dark One, after all. I just don't think it's useful to lie without any reason."

Zabulon stood up, and Anton also got to his feet.

"Think, Anton. Think, Light One. And remember: Your love and the lives of your friends depend on your decision.

That's the way things turn out sometimes: In order to help your friends, first you have to help your enemy. Better get used to it."

Zabulon walked rapidly out of the room, and then out of the apartment. That very instant the sentry sign started howling in the Twilight, and the mask of Chkhoen on the wall pulled a terrifying face. As Anton listlessly put everything in order, he tried to gather his thoughts.

Should he believe Zabulon or not?

Should he be with Svetlana or not?

Should he call Gesar and tell him everything or keep quiet?

Every conflict, from a simple, crude brawl to intrigues between different states and the Watches, is a battle of information. Whoever has the most precise i.e. of the strength and aims of his enemy will win.

Zabulon's aims and Anton's could not be the same. That was absolutely impossible. But what if the head of the Day Watch had told Anton what he had, precisely in order to make him reject the very i.e. of missing the Tribunal?

Where was the truth, and where was the lie? Zabulon's words were a cage, but inside the cage there was a mantrap, and inside the mantrap there was a mousetrap, and inside the mousetrap there was poisoned bait...

How many layers of falsehood had to be peeled away in order to expose the truth?

Anton took a coin out of his pocket. He tossed it in the air and caught it, then laughed and put it back in his pocket, without even looking to see if it had come up heads or tails.

That wasn't the right way.

If one of the two choices was a trap, then he had to look for a third.