The Night Watch (Watch 1)

I concentrated, raising the temperature of the tip of the cigarette to two hundred degrees, and inhaled. So we'd wait. And we'd break a few little unquestionable rules.

People flowed past, giving me a wide berth. They sniffed the air in surprise, wondering where the smell of tobacco smoke was coming from. And I smoked, dropping the ash at my feet, eyeing the militiaman standing just five steps away and trying to figure out my chances.

They turned out to be not that bad. Pretty good, in fact. And that bothered me.

If they'd been preparing this manoeuvre for three years, one option they must have taken into account was that I'd see through it. They must have an answer for that – but what was it?

It took me a second or two to register the startled look. And when I realised who was watching me, I gasped in surprise.

Egor.

The kid, the Other with potentially great powers who'd got caught up in the battle between the two Watches three months ago. Played for a patsy by both sides. An open card that still hadn't been dealt. But players don't fight over cards like that.

His powers were strong enough to penetrate my casual cover and the meeting itself didn't really come as a shock. There are many chance events in the world, but apart from that, there's also something called predetermination.

'Hi, Egor,' I said without even pausing to think. I expanded the range of the spell to include him in the circle of distraction.

He started and looked around. Then he stared at me. Of course, he hadn't seen Olga in human form. Only as an owl.

'Who are you and how do you know me?'

Yes, he'd grown. Not on the outside, on the inside. I couldn't understand how he could have avoided making his choice for so long and still not joined either the side of the Light or the Dark. He'd already entered the Twilight, in circumstances that meant he could have gone either way. But his aura was still as pure and neutral as ever.

His destiny was his own. It must be good to have your own destiny.

'I'm Anton Gorodetsky, the Night Watch agent,' I said simply. 'Remember me?'

Of course he remembered me.

'But. . .'

'Take no notice. It's a disguise, we can swap bodies.'

I wondered for a moment if I ought to think back to the course on illusion and temporarily restore my usual appearance. But there was no need – he believed me. Maybe because he remembered the boss's body swap.

'What do you want from me?'

'Nothing, I'm just waiting for a friend, the woman this body belongs to. You just happened to meet me here by chance.'

'I hate your Watches!'

'If you say so. But I really haven't been trailing you. You can go if you want.'

The kid found that far harder to believe than the idea of swapping bodies. He looked around suspiciously and frowned.

Of course, it was hard for him to leave. He'd touched the secret and sensed powers that went beyond the human world. And he'd renounced those powers, at least for the time being.

But I could imagine how much he wanted to learn – at least just a few little things, stuff like conjuring tricks with pyrokinesis and telekinesis, suggestion, healing, cursing – I didn't know what exactly, but he must have wanted to know how to do these things, not just know about them.

'You really haven't been trailing me?' he finally asked.

'No, I haven't. And we can't lie – not directly.'

'How do I know that isn't a lie too?' the kid muttered, looking away. A logical question.

'You don't,' I agreed. 'Believe it if you want to.'

'I'd like to,' he said, still looking down at the floor. 'But I remember what happened up there on the roof. I dream about it at night.'

'You don't need to be afraid of that vampire,' I said. 'She's been laid to rest. By order of the court.'

'I know.'

'How?' I asked, surprised.

'Your boss called me. The one who swapped bodies that time.'

'I didn't know about that.'

'He rang one day when there was no one else home. He said the vampire had been executed. And he said that since I was a potential Other, even if I hadn't made a choice yet, I'd been taken off the list of humans. So I could never be selected by chance again, and I needn't be afraid.'

'Yes, of course,' I said.

'And I asked him if my parents were still on the list.'

I couldn't think of anything to say to that. I knew what the boss's answer had been.

'I'll be going, then,' said Egor, taking a step away. 'Your cigarette's finished.'

I dropped the butt and nodded.

'Where have you been? It's late.'

'Training, I swim. Tell me, is that really you?'

'You remember the trick with the broken cup?'

Egor gave a weak smile. It's always the cheapest tricks that impress people the most.

'I remember. Look—' He stopped short, staring past me.

I turned round.

It was strange to see myself from the outside. A man with my face, walking with my walk, wearing my jeans and sweater, with a walkman at his belt and a small bag in his hand. And that smile, so faint you could barely see it – that was mine. Even the eyes, those false mirrors, they were mine too.

'Hi, Anton,' said Olga. 'Good evening, Egor.'

She wasn't surprised to see the kid there. She seemed very calm altogether.

'Hello,' said Egor, looking first at her, then at me. 'Is Anton in your body now?'

'That's right.'

'How do you know me?'

'I saw you when I was in a different kind of body. Excuse us now, Anton's got serious problems and we've got to deal with them.'

'Should I go then?' Egor seemed to have forgotten that was what he'd been just about to do.

'Yes. And don't get angry, things are going to get hot around here any moment, very hot.'

The kid looked at me.

'I've got all of the Day Watch on my trail,' I explained. 'All the Dark Ones in Moscow.'

'Why?'

'It's a long story. You'd better get off back home.'

It sounded rude. Egor frowned and nodded. He glanced in the direction of the platform, where a train was just pulling in.

'But they'll protect you, won't they?' He was still finding it hard to grasp which of us was in which body. 'Your Watch will?'

'They'll try,' Olga replied gently. 'But now go, please. We haven't got much time, and it's disappearing fast.'

'Goodbye,' said Egor, turning and running towards the train. His third step took him out of the circle of distraction and he was almost knocked off his feet.

'If the boy had stayed, I might have believed he was going to join our side,' Olga said as she watched him go. 'I'd really like to check the probability lines to see why you met him in the metro.'

'By chance.'

'Nothing happens by chance. Ah, Anton, I used to be able to read reality lines like an open book, no problem.'

'I wouldn't mind having decent prevision.'

'Genuine prevision isn't something you can just order from a catalogue. Now, back to business. You want to give my body back?'

'Yes, right here.'

'As you wish.' Olga stretched out her arms – my arms – and took hold of my shoulders. It gave me a stupid, ambiguous sort of feeling. She obviously felt the same thing, because she laughed and said: 'Why did you have to get yourself into this mess so soon, Anton? I had such extravagant plans for this evening.'

'Maybe I should be grateful to the Maverick for disrupting your plans.'

Olga stopped smiling and concentrated.

'All right. Let's get on with it.'

We stood with our backs touching and held our arms out in the form of a cross. I took hold of Olga's fingers, which were also mine.

'Give back what is mine,' said Olga.

'Give back what is mine,' I repeated.

'Gesar, we return your gift!'

I started when I realised she'd spoken the boss's real name. And what a name!

'Gesar, we return your gift!' Olga repeated sternly.

'Gesar, we return your gift!'

Olga switched into some ancient language, intoning the words gently, speaking as if it was her mother tongue. It hurt to feel how hard she had to strain to perform a piece of magic that really shouldn't have been difficult with second-grade powers.

Changing bodies in reverse is like releasing a spring. Our minds had only been maintained in each other's bodies by the energy that Boris Ignatievich Gesar had transferred to us. All we had to do was relinquish that energy and we would resume our previous forms. If either of us had been a first-grade magician, we needn't even have been in physical contact, it could all have been done at a distance.

Olga's voice soared as she pronounced the final formula of renunciation.

For an instant nothing happened. Then I was racked by cramps and shooting pains, everything blurred and went grey in front of my eyes, as if I was sinking into the Twilight. For a moment I could see the whole station – the dusty stained-glass windows, the dirty floor, the slow movements of the people, the rainbows of their auras, two bodies thrashing about as if they'd been crucified on each other.

Then I was pressed and forced and squeezed into the shell of my body.

I gasped as I fell to the floor, putting my hands out just at the last moment. My muscles were twitching, my ears were ringing. The reversal had been far more uncomfortable, maybe because it wasn't performed by the boss.

'Are you okay?' Olga asked feebly. 'Anton, we've got about a quarter of an hour. Tell me everything.'

'What exactly?'

'What you've figured out. Come on. You didn't just want to get back into your own body, you've worked out some kind of plan.'

I nodded, then straightened up, dusted off my palms and brushed at my knees to clean off my jeans. The strap holding my holster was too tight under my arm, I had to loosen it. There weren't many people in the metro now, the flood tide had receded. But that meant those who were left weren't so busy manoeuvring through the crowd, and they had time to think: their auras flared up in bright rainbow colours and I caught the echoes of their owners' feelings.

They'd really limited Olga's powers. In her body it had cost me a lot of effort to observe the inner world of human feelings. But then, that was only a simple thing. Not even anything to feel proud of.

'It's not me the Day Watch want, Olga. They don't want me at all. I'm an ordinary, average magician.'

She nodded.

'But I'm the one they're hunting. There's no doubt about that. So if I'm not the quarry, I must be the bait. The same way Egor was the bait when Sveta was the quarry.'

'Have you only just realised that?' Olga shook her head. 'Of course. You're the bait.'