pulling any tricks.'
Part Three CHAPTER 6
GENNADY WAS DRIVING. Apparently Edgar and Arina thought that they could restrain me better than he could if I attempted to escape or attack them. I was sitting on the back seat with Edgar on my left and Arina on my right.
But I didn't attempt to attack or to escape - they had too many trump cards up their sleeves. Now that they had taken the Cat off my neck, the skin where the fluffy strap had been was scratched and itchy.
'They're guarding the Crown much more seriously now,' I said. 'Aren't you afraid of a massacre, Arina? Will your conscience be able to handle it?'
'We'll manage without bloodshed,' Arina replied confidently .'As far as that's possible.'
I doubted very much that it was possible, but I didn't try to argue. I looked out in silence at the suburbs we were driving through, as if I was hoping to see Lermont or his black deputy and at least be able to warn them with a look or a gesture...
If I tried to get away, they would almost certainly catch me. I had to wait.
The day was just declining into evening. It was the busiest time for tourists, but today Edinburgh seemed quite different from two weeks earlier. The people on the streets seemed somehow muted and joyless, the sky was obscured by a light haze and the birds circling overhead seemed alarmed by something.
So apparently everything in the world could sense the approaching cataclysm, including people and birds...
The cellphone in my pocket jangled. Edgar started and tensed up. I looked enquiringly at Arina.
'Answer it, but be discreet,' she said.
I looked at the phone. It was Svetlana.
'Hello.'
As ill luck would have it, the connection was excellent. You would never have suspected that we were thousands of kilometres apart.
'Are you still working, Anton?'
'Yes,' I said. 'I'm driving in the car.'
Arina was watching me closely. She was bound to be able to hear every word that Svetlana said.
'I deliberately didn't ring. They told me something had happened ?some terrorists or other, pumped full of magic ?is that why you're late?'
A faint spark of hope began to glimmer in my breast. I wasn't late yet! Svetlana couldn't have been expecting me home from work so early.
'Yes, of course that's why,' I said.
Come on now, guess! Use magic! You can find out where I am now. Raise the alarm. Warn Geser, and he'll get in touch with Lermont. If the Edinburgh Night Watch are expecting an attack, that will be the end of the 'Last Watch'.
'Make sure you don't get stuck for too long,' Svetlana told me.
'Surely you have enough people working for you to manage all these things? Don't take everything on yourself. Okay?'
'Of course I won't,' I said.
'Is Semyon with you?' Svetlana asked casually.
Before I could answer, Arina shook her head. Of course, if Svetlana suspected something, she could phone Semyon after I said yes.
'No,' I said, 'I'm on my own. I've got a separate job to do.'
'Do you want me to help? I'm getting a bit bored sitting at home,' Svetlana said and laughed.
Arina was alarmed and tense now.
'Don't be silly, this is nothing special,' I said. 'Just an inspection visit.'
'As long as you're sure,' said Svetlana, sounding a bit disappointed. 'Call me if you get completely stuck. Oi, Nadya's trundling something around, bye...'
She cut off the call and I started putting the phone away in my pocket. Looking straight into Arina's relaxed face, I pressed three buttons on the phone: Incoming calls ?Call last number ?Off.
That was all. I couldn't risk leaving the phone switched on. Arina might hear the ringing tone from inside my pocket. Had the call gone through, had the international telephone network managed to process it before it was cancelled? I didn't know. I could only put my hope in the greed of the cellphone network operators - it was more profitable for them to put the call through and take the money for it from my account.
And also, of course, I put my hope in Svetlana's common sense. When her phone rang and then stopped again, she had to use magic, not try calling back. Arina and Edgar were far older than me. But for them a cellphone would always be a portable version of a cumbersome apparatus into which you had to shout: 'Young lady! Young lady! Give me the Smolny Institute!'
'She suspected something,' Edgar said. 'You shouldn't have done that with the bomb ... it didn't have to be detonated,