‘Most likely the shape-shifter’s not registered. And most likely the client got a bit too boisterous and er … er … Well, put it this way: he probably wanted something that was unacceptable even to a tart. And this is the result.’
‘Shagron, you can’t offload this onto the human cops, because she killed him when she was in her Twilight form. Like it or not, the Watches are involved! So tell me straight, are you going to investigate or are you forcing us to deal with it? And don’t even hope that you can just drag things out. We want Saturday’s vampire and this whore up in front of a tribunal, and before next weekend. Do you understand?’ The skinny youngster was leaning on Shagron, insisting on his rights, and he was obviously enjoying doing it, as an Other who didn’t often get involved in showdowns. And he did seem to be justified in putting on the pressure.
‘These bloody horny cats,’ the scaly one suddenly muttered. ‘Brainless bitches.’
‘Shut up,’ the Light girl told him coldly. ‘You overgrown gecko.’
Ah, yes, she was a cat too, even though she was a Light One.
‘Cool it, Tiger Cub,’ Gorodetsky said to her. Then he turned to the Dark Magician again. ‘Do you understand our demands?’
At this point I returned to the first level of the Twilight. To describe what followed as a dumb show would be a gross understatement.
‘You!’ the girl gasped. ‘You again!’
‘Buenos noches, lady and gentlemen. My apologies, I saw the Light, so I just dropped in.’
‘Anton, Tolik,’ Tiger Cub said in a ringing voice, trembling slightly in agitation and pointing a finger at me like a child. ‘Andriuhka found him standing over the vampire’s victim on Saturday! This Dark One from Ukraine!’
All five of them stared at me.
‘I hope,’ I said ironically, ‘that I don’t resemble a shape-shifting tart any more than I do a crazy vampire?’
‘Who are you?’ the Dark Magician, the one they called Shagron, asked in a hostile voice.
‘A magician, dear colleague. A Dark Magician. From out of town.’
When he tried to probe me, I could tell that if I hadn’t yet climbed the next step, then I was right there in front of it. He didn’t get anywhere. And meanwhile I noticed that Shagron’s defences were not entirely his own – I could sense a strong framework that had been put together by a top-class magician. Probably the famous chief who wasn’t in Moscow at the moment.
‘A second murder, and here you are again,’ Tolik drawled suspiciously, also making an attempt to probe me – quite unsuccessfully, as I noted with some satisfaction. ‘I don’t like it. Perhaps you would care to explain?’
Tolik certainly looked annoyed, but now he was going by the rules, and that suited me just fine. He was obviously the senior of the three Light Ones, busily thinking over the possible courses of action. There seemed to be plenty of options.
‘Yes, I would,’ I agreed readily. ‘I was just walking not far from here. I sensed something bad going on. And I came to see if I could do anything to help.’
‘Do you work for the Watch back home in Ukraine,’ the scaly one asked unexpectedly.
‘No.’
‘Then how can you help?’
‘Who knows?’ I said with a shrug.
Of course, the scaly one’s tongue was long and forked. People’s imaginations really are pretty limited. You’d think the Twilight image of a Dark One would offer plenty of scope for fantasy – unlike that of the Light Ones, which is just a standard outfit: a luminescent glow and white robes. The more sentimental, mostly women, wear white garlands as well. But even so, almost all Dark Ones go for the boring old cliché of a scaly demon with horns and a forked tongue.
‘Of course, you have nothing at all to do with these murders?’ the girl said with poorly concealed sarcasm.
‘Naturally.’
‘I don’t trust him,’ said the girl and turned away. ‘Anton, you have to probe him.’
‘We will,’ Anton replied without thinking. ‘When we get back I’ll personally request all the data on him.’
I laughed ironically.
‘All right. If you don’t want any help, I don’t mind. I’m not going to force myself on you. I’ll be going then.’
I started towards the door.
‘Hey, Dark One,’ Tolik said to my back. ‘I’d advise you not to leave Moscow. That’s an official injunction from the Night Watch.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ I promised. ‘In any case, I wasn’t planning to leave.’
‘I’ll go with you,’ Tolik said to Anton and Tiger Cub. ‘I have something to say to you.’
Anton thought gloomily that he must have done a bad job cleaning up again – for some reason this strange Dark One’s words had really stung him. Tiger Cub had mimicked the stranger’s way of speaking very precisely, right down to his intonation, and when Anton saw the Dark One, he was convinced yet again that Tiger Cub had the makings of a skilful actor. Or rather, actress. Who could tell what she might have been if she hadn’t been an Other?
Shagron and his partner had driven off in their fancy BMW a long time ago. Tolik reached out his hand and Anton obediently gave him the keys of the office Zhiguli. Tiger Cub got into the back without speaking. Anton sat beside Tolik, who drove rapidly out onto Sirenevy Boulevard and headed east.
‘Who is he, this Dark One?’ Anton asked to break the silence. He was in a foul mood. Another body – and this time an uninitiated Other!
‘He’s a very powerful magician,’ Tolik said abruptly. ‘More powerful than me. I tried to probe him and I failed – he closed up instantly.’
‘Closed up?’ Tiger Cub said excitedly from the back. ‘You mean he came without a shield?’
‘That’s just the point,’ Tolik exclaimed gloomily. ‘When he came in, he looked exactly like an ordinary magician, maybe third or fourth grade. Like me and Anton.’
Anton didn’t say anything – strictly speaking, Tolik was incorrect, but essentially he was right. Gesar had called Anton a second-grade magician, but Anton’s powers had only risen to that level on a few occasions. It would be more honest to admit that for the time being he was still third grade.
‘But as soon as I tried to probe him,’ Tolik went on, ‘that was it. A blank wall. He’s definitely more powerful than me. Anton, did you try to probe him?’
‘No.’
‘Looks like he’s first grade,’ Tolik said with a sigh. ‘If it comes to it, we’ll have to call in Ilya.’
‘I’m afraid we might even have to call in Olga and Sveta and the boss,’ Anton remarked. Nobody responded. Nobody liked the idea of asking the higher magicians for help.
Tiger Cub squirmed about, making herself more comfortable on the seat:
‘There’s no way he’s not connected with these murders. I can understand the first time – he arrived in Moscow, went out for a walk and accidentally stumbled across a poacher. But this time? What was he doing on Pervomaiskaya Street?’
‘But did he definitely arrive on Saturday?’ Tolik asked.
‘Definitely,’ Tiger Cub assured him. ‘I didn’t like the look of him, you know? I even found the train he was on and scanned the conductress for memories. He almost never came out of his compartment, but he was on the train all right.’
‘And do we have anything on him?’
Anton thought he caught a hint of hopefulness in Tolik’s question.
‘Compromising information, you mean? Not a thing. Not a single violation. He doesn’t need any licences, he’s not a vampire or a shape-shifter. And he was only initiated fairly recently, just seven years ago … Like me.’
Tolik nodded thoughtfully.
‘There aren’t many Others in Nikolaev. So the Watches are small as well, only twenty or thirty agents … Okay, when we get back, I’ll dig a bit deeper,’ Anton promised. ‘Did you lock up your station wagon?’