Igor was clearly uncomfortable. As Anton looked at him, he suddenly realised he’d accomplished his mission after all. Not by simple, head-on tactics – it would have been stupid to expect to trick an experienced magician and restore his will to live by means of a simple drinking session and conversations about his friends. It would have been even more stupid to hope to convince him that the woman he loved was simply a repulsive, greedy bitch.
But their long nocturnal conversation, their attempts to understand what was happening and make sense of the latest stage in the war between the Watches had had their effect. Igor had been distracted from his misery and suffering. He had felt part of a team again.
Could that have been what Gesar was counting on?
In that case, all his behaviour, including the present scene, had been carefully calculated.
But after all, the boss was right, Igor’s mind was simply clouded.
‘Gesar, there are things that even you have no right to ask,’ Igor suddenly said. He said it abruptly, with a reawakened fury. With life in his voice.
‘Yes, of course, Captain Igor Teplov.’ Gesar’s voice was as cold as ice. ‘I have no right! But who had the right to ask you to swim down the Dnepr under fire in November forty-two? And who had the right—’
‘That’s different!’
‘Why is it?’ Gesar stood up, walked over to Igor and stopped in front of him again. A head shorter than Igor, small and wiry, not looking at all heroic. ‘Do I have to explain to you, Teplov, what a war requires? It’s not bodies that a war devours, but souls. And you knew that in the glorious city of Berlin, when you used your knife on that poor snot-nosed kid from the Hitler Jugend to make him give his friends away – you knew that.’
Igor started as if he’d been slapped across the face.
‘Conscience … love … honour …’ Gesar said thoughtfully. ‘No one has the right to make anyone go against their conscience. No one has the right to make anyone betray love. No one has the right to persuade anyone to betray their honour. No one. You’re right. But we do it. Of our own accord. When one pan of the scales holds our love, conscience and honour, and the other holds a million loving, decent, honourable people. We’re no angels, that’s not for us. And I understand your pain, believe me. But you take a look at Alisher. And try to understand his pain. Ask Anton what he thinks about the one you love. Ask Svetlana.’
‘I can’t condemn Igor,’ Svetlana said quietly. ‘I’m sorry, boss. Forgive me, Alisher. Maybe I’m just a fool … unworthy of the Watch. But I can understand all of you.’
She said this in a very low voice, without emphasis, but Gesar stopped talking and moved away from Igor. He spread his hands and asked:
‘Do you think I don’t understand?’
The silence in the room was thick and heavy.
‘Gesar, when it was my duty, I carried out my orders,’ Igor said abruptly. ‘Honestly, right down the line. Regardless of … what I thought or felt. But my duty’s done now. I’ve reached the end of the line.’
‘No. That’s where you’re wrong, Igor.’ Gesar started walking round the room and took a cigar out of his pocket. He looked at it and frowned, put it back and took out a packet of democratic Pall Mall. He crumpled that and gestured in annoyance. ‘The Watch needs you. We all need you. I need you.’
‘Svetlana needs me,’ Igor remarked casually.
‘Svetlana, Alisher, Ilya, Semyon, Bear – all of us,’ Gesar said very quickly. ‘Of course.’
Igor smiled, as if reconciling himself to the fact that he couldn’t finish what he wanted to say. And then suddenly he asked, in a businesslike, serious voice:
‘For long?’
‘Twenty years at most,’ Gesar said quite calmly, as if he’d been expecting this question.
‘Gesar, do you hope that will be long enough for me to stop loving Alisa?’
‘That too,’ Gesar admitted. ‘But the Watch needs you right now. In the years immediately ahead.’
‘What do you want me to do, Gesar?’
‘Don’t get in our way, Igor! We’re going to try to get you out of this. And we will get you out of it, believe me, if you just don’t get in our way … or even better, if you help us just a little.’
Igor considered this. Then he said:
‘I won’t accuse Alisa Donnikova of enchanting me. It’s not true.’
‘But you can express the suspicion that your meeting was set up by the Moscow Day Watch?’
‘Yes, I can,’ Igor said with a nod. ‘That’s probably the way it was.’
‘That’s enough,’ said Gesar with a shrug. ‘I don’t ask anything else of you.’
And he really did look satisfied with that.
Anton cleared his throat and waited for Gesar to look at him. Then he said:
‘Boris Ignatievich, I’d like to ask you to do something for me. Can you explain what role Igor plays in our current intrigue?’
‘Just Igor?’
‘Yes. What you need Svetlana for, and the devona Alisher, is clear enough already.’
The young Uzbeki magician standing stock still in the corner started.
‘The new generation’s coming along well,’ Gesar said in a tired voice. ‘Shrewd. But stupid at the same time.’
He hesitated and looked round at them all. Then he shook his head and Anton sensed the power spreading around them and flooding the room. The elastic wall was pressing something back, squeezing it out.
‘I can’t tell you,’ Gesar admitted unexpectedly. ‘I can’t tell you for one simple reason.’
‘We’d refuse to co-operate?’ Anton asked sharply.
Gesar shook his head:
‘No. On the contrary. I swear on the Light that what is going on will cause no harm to any of you. Neither to your magical or to your human being. In fact, you would co-operate with genuine, sincere zeal. But …’ He was weighing every word now. ‘… what is taking place now really is the final operation of the Moscow Night Watch. It is also the final operation of the Day Watch. Too much depends on the actions of everyone sitting here, as well as on the actions of our enemies. We are making our moves and our enemies are making theirs. They could be wrong, unsuccessful, mistaken. But the victory will go to those who make the final correct move.’
‘The victors are never judged,’ Anton agreed. ‘And the pieces on a chessboard have no right to move independently.’
‘Zabulon will easily read any move that any of you make!’ Gesar barked. ‘And don’t imagine, Anton, that when you rammed the Mirror’s car it was a move that hadn’t been foreseen. Yes, it was a successful move. The lesser of two evils. But even that was anticipated. By Zabulon … and by me.’
He paused for breath and went on more calmly:
‘To me you are not just pieces on a chessboard. Believe me. You’re more than just tools.’
‘But one of us,’ said Svetlana with a smile that acknowledged that she was the only woman in the room, ‘is the lathe for producing a tool?’
Anton didn’t ask how she had realised. Maybe she’d been drawing diagrams too – without letting even him know? Or maybe she’d already sensed something when she still had her powers?
Gesar paused, lowering his head. He seemed to be thinking hard. And then Anton realised that the strength of the protective cocoon around them had increased to a quite extraordinary level. What was the limit to the power of the Great Magicians? Was there even a limit to it at all?
‘All right,’ Gesar said with a nod. ‘Svetlana, you’re right … but only partly … ah, Light and Dark!’
He lowered himself into an armchair, took out his cigarettes again and lit one. He took two drags and started speaking: