get their guy off the hook, if they could, and if they couldn't, to find out how serious our losses were. Garik shook his head. I ignored the Dark One and walked off casually towards my car, which was parked right under a 'No Parking' sign. Anti-theft spells are used by all Others, but applying a spell that lets you be seen by everyone on the road and park wherever you like is a bit more complicated.
Getting an impression of the vampire's aura was a great stroke of luck. In a situation like that even experienced adult magicians lose their heads. But this kid had managed to do well. I was itching to get back to the office as quickly as possible and pass on the impression for the duty watchmen's information ?then everyone who went out on patrol could look for the bloodsucker. A Higher Vampire, unregistered... No, I couldn't count on a coincidence like that.
But it was a Higher Vampire!
Trying to set aside my excessive hopes, I got into the driving seat and set off for the office.
The city duty officer was Pavel. I flashed him the impression of the aura, and he was delighted to get it. It's always a pleasure to hand the patrolmen something serious instead of highly relevant information such as: 'At Chistye Prudy a wild vampire took out two of our side... His appearance? Male, kind of middle-aged...'
I sat down in front of the computer in my office, looked at the screen and said:
'This is plain crazy'
But I launched 'Comparison' anyway. The big problem with comparing auras is that you can't let the system compare them automatically, like you can with fingerprints. The impression of the aura can be passed 'from head to head' but not 'from head to computer' ?no computers like that exist. To get an aura into the database, we have an elderly artist who works with us, Leopold Surikov. Despite was some kind of impassable barrier. And I hadn't bothered to take even a single step sideways.
I was just about to print out the page when I realised that I couldn't even wait thirty seconds for the printer to purge its printing heads and make itself ready.
I leapt out of my office and dashed up the stairs.
But then I ran into a dead end ?Geser wasn't in. Of course, I realised that he needed to rest sometimes too, but why did it have to be right now? This was really bad luck...
'Hi, Anton,' said Olga, coming out of the door of the office. 'Why are you looking so ... hyped-up?'
'Where's Geser?' I howled.
Olga looked at me thoughtfully for a second. Then she walked up to me, pressed her hand carefully against my lips and said:
'Boris is sleeping. He hasn't gone home even once since the day you got back from Uzbekistan. An hour ago I used all the female wiles in the book to get him to go to bed.'
Olga was looking great. Her hair had obviously been worked on by a good stylist, her skin was covered with a wonderful gold tan, she was wearing a hint of make-up ?just enough to empha sise the beautiful outline of her eyes and the sexy plumpness of her lips. And she smelled of something very expensive: spicy and floral, hot and seductive.
She really had used all her female wiles.
But then, I'd seen her when she looked quite different. And not only seen her ?I'd actually been inside that magnificent body myself. The sensation had been instructive, but I couldn't say that I really missed it all that much.
'And if you, Anton, start yelling and phoning Boris and insisting that he has to come to work immediately, I'll turn you into a bunny rabbit,' Olga said. 'I just haven't decided yet if it should be a real one or a stuffed toy' 'An inflatable one from a sex shop,' I said. 'Don't try to frighten me, it's impossible anyway'
'You think so?' she asked, narrowing her eyes.
'I do. But if you really want to practise your battle magic that badly ?I have someone you can use as a target.'
'Who?'
'A Higher Vampire. The one who's been working with Edgar. The one who took out two Light Ones today at Chistye Prudy'
'Who?' Olga repeated insistently.
'Saushkin.'
A faint shadow ran across Olga's face. She took me very gently by the elbow and said:
'Anton, we all have tragedies in our lives. Sometimes we lose friends, and sometimes we lose enemies, but we still blame ourselves...'