«Yes.»
«For you, Ilya, Semyon…«
«And you, Anton.»
«Why?» I asked dumbly.
«During the standoff on the roof you stayed down in the second level of the Twilight for three minutes, Anton… that's a third-grade power.»
«Impossible,» I said.
«It happened.»
«Boris Ignatievich, you always told me I was just an average magician!»
«Well, let's just say I need an excellent programmer more than one more field operative.»
Any other time I would have felt proud. Offended at the same time, of course, but still proud. I'd always thought that fourth-grade magic was my ceiling, and it would be a long time before I reached it. But just at that moment everything was clouded by a clammy, disgusting feeling—fear. Even though in five years of working in a quiet staff position in the Watch I thought I'd learned not to be afraid of anything: the authorities, hoodlums, diseases…
«This was a second-level intervention…«
«The boundary here's ever-shifting, Anton. You might be capable of more.»
«But we have more than ten third-grade magicians. Why am I one of the suspects?»
«Because you offended Zabulon personally. Tweaked the tail of the head of Moscow's Day Watch. And he's quite capable of setting up a special trap just for Anton Gorodetsky. Or rather, adapting an old trap that was being kept in reserve.»
I swallowed and left without asking any more questions.
Our lab's on the fourth floor too, but in the other wing. I set off hurriedly along the corridor, nodding to people I met, but staying focused, clutching that disc tighter than a passionate young man clutches the hand of the girl he loves.
Was the boss telling the truth?
Could the blow really be aimed at me?
In all likelihood, he was. I'd asked a straight question and been given a straight answer. Of course, as the years go by, even the most Light of magicians acquire a certain degree of canniness and learn to play tricks with words. But the consequences of a direct lie would be too grave even for Boris Ignatievich.
I approached an entry lobby fitted with electronic security systems. I knew that all magicians regarded technology with disdain, and Semyon had shown me once how easy it was to fool the voice analyzer and the iris scanner. But I'd gone ahead with buying these expensive toys anyway. Maybe they were no protection against an Other, but it seemed perfectly possible to me that one day the guys from the Federal Security Service or the mafia would decide to check us out.
«One, two, three, four, five…« I muttered into the microphone, gazing into the camera lens at the same time. The electronic circuits pondered for a few seconds, then a green light came on above the door.
There was no one in the first room, where the server's cooling fans were humming gently. The air-conditioners built into the wall were huffing and puffing, but it was still hot in there. And spring had only just begun…
I didn't go into the system analysts' lab, just walked straight through into my own office. It wasn't all my own. Anatoly, my deputy, worked here too. Sometimes he lived here, spending the nights on the old leather sofa.
When I came in he was sitting at his desk, thoughtfully inspecting an old motherboard.
«Hi,» I said, sitting down on the sofa. The disc was burning my hands.
«It's a goner,» Tolik said gloomily.
«Trash it then.»
«Let me just take its brain out first.» Tolik was thrifty, a habit acquired from years of working in state-financed institutions. We had no problems with finances, but he carefully stockpiled all the old hardware anyway, even if it were of no use to anyone. «Would you believe it, I've been fiddling around with this for half an hour, and it's still dead…«
«It's an outdated antique; why waste time fiddling around with it? Even the machines in accounting are more modern.»
«I could give it to someone… Maybe I should take the cache out too…«
«Tolik, we've got an urgent job to do,» I said.
«Huh?»
«Uh-huh! Look…« I held up the disc. «This is a dossier… a complete dossier on four members of the Watch, including the boss.»
Tolik opened the drawer of his desk, stuck the motherboard in it, and fixed his eyes on the disc.
«Precisely. I'm going to check three of them. And you're going to check the fourth… me.»
«So what are we checking for?»
«This,» I said, holding up my printout from the briefing. «It's possible that one of the suspects may be carrying out sporadic killings of Dark Ones. Unauthorized killings. All the known incidents are listed here. We have to either eliminate this possibility, or…«
«Ah, so it really is you who's killing them, then?» Tolik asked. «Pardon my sense of humor.»
«No. But don't take my word for it. Let's get on with the job.»
I didn't even look at the information about me, just downloaded all eight hundred megabytes into Tolik's computer and took the disc.
«Shall I tell you if I come across anything really interesting?» Tolik asked. I glanced across at him as he looked through the text files, tugging on his left ear and clicking regularly with his mouse.
«That's up to you.»
«Okay.»
I started my reading of the dossier with the materials on the boss. First came the introductory blurb—then background information. Every line I read made me break out in a sweat.
Of course, even this dossier didn't give the boss's real name and origins. Facts like that weren't kept on file anywhere for Others of his rank. But even I was still making new discoveries every second. Starting with the fact that the boss was older than I'd thought. At least a hundred and fifty years older. And that meant he'd been personally involved in drawing up the Treaty between Light and Darkness. It struck me as interesting that all the other magicians still surviving from that time held positions in the central office and weren't stuck in the exhausting and tedious post of a regional director.
Aside from that, I recognized a few of the aliases the boss had used in the history of the Watch, and where he was born. We'd wondered about that sometimes, and even placed bets on it, always pointing to «indisputable» proof. But somehow no one had ever suspected that Boris Ignatievich was born in Tibet.
And even in my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined whose mentor he had been!
The boss had been working in Europe since the fifteenth century. From indirect references, I speculated that this change of residence was because of a woman. I could even guess who it was.
I closed the file and looked at Tolik. He was watching some kind of video. Of course, my biographical details had proved less fascinating than the boss's. I glanced at the small moving picture and blushed.
«For the first incident you have a cast-iron alibi,» Tolik said without turning round.
«Listen…« I was lost for words.
«Okay, okay. I'll fast-forward it, to check the entire night…«
I imagined what the recording would look like at high speed and turned away. I'd always suspected the boss kept tabs on his colleagues, especially the young ones. But not that literally!
«The alibi won't be that solid,» I said. «I'll get dressed and go out any moment now.»
«I see that,» Tolik confirmed.
«And I'll be gone for almost an hour and a half. I was looking for champagne… and while I was looking, I sobered up a bit in the fresh air. Started wondering if it was worth going back.»
«Don't worry about it,» said Tolik. «You watch the boss's private life.»
Half an hour later, I realized Tolik was right. Maybe I had good reason to feel offended by the observers' brazen intrusion. But Boris Ignatievich was as monitored as I was.
«The boss has an alibi,» I said. «Indisputable. For two incidents he has four witnesses. And for one—almost the entire Watch.»