several seconds before I realised that the boss was being perfectly serious.
'And not alone,' Geser added. 'Alisher will go with you. In the East, as you know, there are more important things than power and money. It is far more important for someone who is known and trusted to vouch for you.'
'Alisher too...' Ilya sighed.
'I'm sorry,' Geser said, without even the slightest note of apology in his voice. 'We must regard this as a military emergency Especially since that's just what it is.'
I don't often get to go back home in the middle of the day. If you've been out on Watch duty, then you come home early in the morning. If you have an ordinary working day to get through, you won't get back before seven. Even with the ability to foresee traffic jams on the roads ?what good is that if the jams are everywhere?
And naturally, even without the help of magic, any wife knows that a husband doesn't come back early from work without good reason.
'Daddy,' Nadya announced. Naturally, she was standing by the door. She can tell I'm coming just as soon as I approach the entrance to the building ?that's if she happens to be busy with some important childish business of her own. If she's feeling bored, she knows from the moment I leave the office.
I tried to pick my daughter up. But she was clearly far more interested in the cartoons on TV: I could hear a squeaky 'La-la-la, la-la, la-la-la' coming from the sitting room. She had done her duty as a daughter: Daddy had been met when he came back from work and nothing interesting had been discovered in his hands or his pockets.
So little Nadya deftly slipped out of my arms and made a dash for the TV.
I took off my shoes, tossed the Autopilot magazine that I had bought on the way home onto the shoe stand and walked through into the sitting room, patting my daughter on the head along the way. Nadya waved her arms about ?I was blocking her view of the screen, on which a blue moose with only one antler was hurtling downhill on skis.
Svetlana glanced out of the kitchen and looked at me intently. She said, 'Hmm!' and disappeared again.
Abandoning any attempts to fulfil my paternal functions until better times, I walked into the kitchen. Svetlana was making soup. I've never been able to understand why women spend so much time at the cooker. What does it take so long to do there? Toss the meat or the chicken into the water, switch on the hotplate, and it boils itself. An hour later drop in the macaroni or potatoes, and a few vegetables - and your food's ready. Well, you mustn't forget to salt it - that's the most difficult part.
'Will you pack your own suitcase?' Svetlana asked, without turning round.
'Did Geser call?'
'No.'
'Did you look into the future?'
'I promised you I wouldn't do that without permission...' Svetlana paused for a moment, because I had gone up to her from behind and kissed her on the neck. 'Or unless it's absolutely necessary...'
'Then why did you ask about the suitcase?'
'Anton, if you come home from work during the day, then I go to bed alone in the evening. They're either sending you out on watch or away somewhere on an assignment. But you were on watch two days ago, and the city's calm at the moment...'
In the sitting room Nadya laughed. I glanced in through the door ?the moose on skis was hurtling wide-eyed straight towards a line of small and obviously young animals, who were walking along the edge of a precipice. Oh, this was going to be a real disaster...
'Sveta, are you sure Nadya should be watching cartoons like that?'
'She watches the news,' Svetlana replied calmly. 'Don't avoid the issue. What's happened?'
'I'm going to Samarkand.'
'Your assignments do take you to some interesting places,' Svetlana said. She scooped up a spoonful of soup, blew on it and tasted it. 'Not enough salt... What's happened out there?'
'Nothing. Nothing yet.'
'The poor Uzbeks. Once you get there, something's bound to happen.'
'Geser held a meeting today. With the Higher Ones and the first level
I told Svetlana briefly about everything we had discussed. To my surprise, there was no reaction to the idea that from now on Nadya would be guarded in secret by two Light and two Dark magicians. Or rather, the reaction was exactly what Olga had fore cast it would be.