‘No. They’ve handed the case over to the European Office of the Tribunal. And I think Gesar will try to lay the responsibility for what they did at our door. As if we’d planned it. Or incited them.’
‘But they don’t have any evidence. Not a shred.’
‘Well, that’s why I’m sending you to Prague. You can take a look, see what’s what. And don’t take it easy on anyone. We’ve taken enough, we’ve given way to them over the last two years, it’s time we held our heads up higher.’
‘It was the circumstances. That’s what we gave way to,’ said Edgar. The prospect of spending Christmas and seeing in the millennium in the ancient Gothic city of Prague had really fired his enthusiasm. Edgar loved the solemn city, it was the embodiment of the European spirit, a city where Dark Ones felt free and at ease.
‘By the way. You’ll probably be flying on the same plane as those Regin Brothers. Take a moment to let them know that the Moscow Day Watch has no intention of abandoning Dark Ones who have suffered on its territory. Tell them not to panic or lose heart.’
‘And are we really going to defend them?’
‘Yes, we really are. You see, Edgar, I have some plans that involve that absurd trio. For the time being I need this international alliance. So pay a bit of attention to them as well. The Light Ones will probably have a spy on their trail. Keep an eye on him too. Don’t let him interfere. Don’t get involved in any unnecessary violence, just keep him at a distance, that’s all.’
‘I understand, chief.’
‘Take these,’ said Zabulon, opening the safe beside the desk and handing Edgar two amulets and a charged wand. ‘I don’t expect you’ll need to use the Mist. But just in case … And you know where to recharge the wand.’
‘At Kostnitsa? At that chapel built out of bones?’ Edgar asked immediately.
Zabulon nodded.
‘Dark!’ said Edgar, almost feeling envious of himself. ‘I haven’t been there for seventy years.’
‘And you can purge yourself at the same time,’ Zabulon advised. ‘Do you know how?’
Edgar frowned. They might be friends, but after all, Zabulon was a magician beyond classification, and Edgar hadn’t even reached the first grade yet, although he obviously had the potential to. Edgar still had to use his ordinary human name, but on the other hand, his surname had been completely forgotten by now.
‘I’ve mastered the general technique.’ It was obvious that Edgar would rather not have had to say that.
‘Then you can practise it,’ said Zabulon, closing the subject. ‘That’s all, now go and get ready. If you have any business outstanding, hand it over to someone else. Shagron or Belashevich.’
‘I understand, chief, I will.’
‘Good luck.’
Edgar left the chief’s office, then called into his own for a moment, composed a message for Shagron and suspended it in the Twilight, before he set off home.
On his way out he ran into Alita.
‘Hi there, beautiful!’
‘Hello, Edgar. Do you fancy going skating?’
‘I don’t have time.’
‘Oh, come on,’ said the young witch. ‘It’s almost New Year, what work can you have to deal with? The Light Ones are more bothered about the quality of the Russian champagne is than with their usual tricks. Holidays are for fun, not for work.’
‘Maybe, maybe,’ Edgar said with a sigh. ‘But anyway, I don’t have time. I’m going away.’
‘Where to?’
‘To Prague.’
‘Ooh!’ Alita said enviously. ‘For long?’
‘I don’t know. A week or so.’
‘New Year in Prague!’ Alita sighed. ‘And not just any New Year – the year two thousand … Perhaps I should go with you?’
‘Go if you like.’ Edgar didn’t try to dissuade her. ‘But not with me. I’m not going to have fun.’
He felt a little envious too: if the witch went to Prague, she’d be able to relax with a clear conscience. But Edgar had been on too many of these work trips to entertain any illusions that they wouldn’t involve much work.
There was always plenty of work. And especially at holiday times, as bad luck would have it. And during the most important holidays (who would suggest that the turn of a millennium wasn’t an important event?) there was always more work than even the most pessimistic forecast might predict.
On his way home Edgar quickly reviewed the probabilities and established that the morning flight to Prague would be delayed until the evening and he would have to take an afternoon flight with a stopover in Prague. Of course, there weren’t any tickets left, and he couldn’t really count on the special reserve either. But that didn’t bother Edgar too much – what could be simpler than the old double-booking trick? And, of course, the ‘right’ ticket would turn out to be the one held by the Other. Even if he only bought it a minute before check-in.
Packing for a trip doesn’t take an Other long. Why bother taking things with you when it’s simpler to buy them on the way? His entire luggage consisted of the amulets, the wand and a briefcase containing a solitary magazine and several wads of American dollars.
Of course, an Other can get anything that money can buy without spending a kopeck. But it’s not worth wasting the power. And not all interventions are the same. Manipulate a sales assistant’s mind for a piece of cake, and the Night Watch would nail you for an unsanctioned intervention. That would be just like them.
And apart from that, Edgar would simply have felt sorry for the sales assistant. The cake wouldn’t have bothered him, of course. But what if he suddenly needed a jeep from a car sales room? People were the Others’ foundation. Their feed base and substratum. They should be treated with consideration. And there was no need to worry about that kind of attitude sounding too much like that of the Light Ones.
The Dark Ones could tell the difference between treating human beings with consideration and doting on them.
They could tell it very clearly.
Edgar used the night to catch up on sleep, although it was harder than he expected to get to sleep at such an unaccustomed time. Even as he was nodding off, Edgar regretted that he hadn’t gone skating with Alita.
In the morning Edgar discovered that someone had put a lot of work into improving his natural magical shell, strengthening it and weaving in stiff, tightly connected reinforcing threads. Zabulon, of course, who else? It couldn’t be anyone else. ‘Hmm,’ thought Edgar. ‘Could this mission really turn out to be complex and dangerous? Or is Zabulon simply playing safe?’
Since clashes with the Light Ones had become more frequent, Zabulon had installed personal protection for many members of the Day Watch. Just where did he get all the energy to maintain so many shields?
There were probably only two Others in Moscow who knew the answer to that – Zabulon himself and his constant opponent Gesar. And maybe the Inquisition. At least its top echelons.
Shagron offered Edgar a lift to the airport. It seemed like the newly repaired magician simply enjoyed driving his newly repaired BMW round Moscow when the city was in holiday mood. His excuse couldn’t have been any simpler or more convincing: a briefing on current business. Not that there was much business for Edgar to brief him on. The hysteria of a thirteen-year-old girl who had discovered that she could enter the Twilight and accidentally looked at herself in a mirror while she was there. Win her confidence, talk some sense into her, support her … a beginniner’s assignment. And some gerontophilic succubus who was the laughing stock of half of Biruliovo.
This wasn’t even work, just a couple of trifling problems. Minor domestic turbulence.