supply Power artificially? Pump it out of people, out of artefacts... what then? You can't keep raising the voltage in the mains for ever, the wires will melt! What's needed is a superconductor, do you understand? And that superconductor is a zero-point Other, someone who produces absolutely no magical energy!'
'Oh, these technical explanations,' Edgar sighed. 'Gennady, did you understand that?'
'I did. I told you?
'All right, be quiet. Anton, I understand that you can't jump over your own head. And neither can I...'
'Edgar, when did you become a Higher One?'
The former Inquisitor laughed.
'Just recently. Don't pay any attention to that.'
'Okay, so you removed Gennady's registration seal,' I said, thinking out loud. That's fine, I know they taught you fancier tricks than that in the Inquisition. But you can only raise your level of Power with the Fuaran. The book was burnt up...'
'Don't try to blind me with science,' Edgar said. 'Tell it to Gennady, he likes that stuff. Nobody's expecting any miracles from you. What's expected is a bit of savvy. Find the way round the barrier.'
'I'm sure Thomas the Rhymer has been searching for that for hundreds of years.'
'But he didn't have a wife and a daughter sitting on a nuclear bomb all set to blow,' said Edgar, glancing at his watch. 'We're on time. Well done, you're a good driver. And now listen ?don't go into the parking lot, we don't want to leave any unnecessary tracks. There's a young guy waiting for us at the entrance to the depar tures hall, give him the keys. He has been paid to drive your car to a parking lot and pay for three days. If you come back, you can pick it up.'
'If you come back,' Gennady growled.
'I'm sorry, but I think his chances are better than you do,' Edgar snapped. 'So, we'll slip through passport control quickly, and you won't try to attract the attention of the Others at customs. A Light One wouldn't want any unnecessary casualties, right? We'll get into the plane and you'll have a cup of coffee, even a sip of brandy is permissible. And you'll think. Think hard. So hard that I can hear your brains creaking. And it will be very good if by the time we reach Edinburgh you already know how to get the Crown of All Things. Because we don't have any time to spare. Only twelve hours until the bomb goes off.'
'You bastard,' I said.
'No, I'm a highly effective personnel manager,' Edgar said, with a smile.
Part Three CHAPTER 4
THERE ARE SOME words that can send a man into a trance without using any magic.
For example: 'Tell me something funny' Even if you've just watched the final of Smart-Alecs Club?on TV, read the latest Terry Pratchett book and dug up ten really funny, fresh jokes on the internet ?that will all fly right out of your head in an instant.
The words 'Sit and think' are pretty effective too. They imme diately remind me of an algebra test or some quarterly essay at school, and the weary face of the teacher who no longer expects anything good from his pupils.
This time we were flying directly to Edinburgh, on Aeroflot. If this had been a standard assignment, I wouldn't have minded at all ?I liked what I'd seen of Scotland. And particularly since Edgar, of course, had taken seats in business class. Three infuriated com patriots of ours, who between them could obviously have bought the Boeing 767 we were flying in, were left fuming at check-in when their tickets proved to be invalid. I didn't say anything, but I felt hope beginning to warm my chest. Most human problems with double bookings or invalid tickets are caused by the machin ations of certain light-fingered Others, most often Dark Ones but sometimes Light Ones too. That's why all such incidents are investigated by the Watches. Well, in theory all, but in practice only the ones that cause serious scandals. In this case it looked as if a really large-scale scandal was in the offing...
But I was afraid that the investigation still wouldn't be as prompt as I needed it to be. Especially right then, when everyone all the way across Moscow was hunting for Saushkin.
The customs post at departures had also been reinforced. Instead of two Others on duty, there were four ?in such cases parity is strictly observed. I had been hoping that perhaps they might use some of our lads for the reinforcements and they would spot me, but all