face . . . It suggests certain rather interesting conjectures to me.'
I said nothing.
'You can be proud of yourself, Anton,' Witiezslav went on. 'What you said made perfect sense. I believe this man's father really does serve in a Watch. The Night Watch.'
Kostya laughed. Of course, he didn't much like Witezslav's decision. Kostya would have preferred to deliver Gesar's offspring to the Day Watch. But the way things were suited him pretty well too.
'Could the all-knowing Gesar really have committed such a blunder?' he asked in delight. 'How interesting . . .'
Witiezslav looked at him, and Kostya stopped short.
'Anyone can blunder,' Witiezslav said in a quiet voice. 'Even a magician beyond classification. But . . .'
He fixed his gaze on me:
'Can you ask Gesar to come here?'
I shrugged. It was a stupid question, of course I could. And so could Witiezslav.
'I don't like what's going on here,' Witezslav said in that same quiet voice. 'I don't like it at all. Someone here is bluffing far too brazenly.'
He ran his piercing, inhuman glance over all of us. Something had put him on his guard, but exactly what was it?
'I'll contact my chief,' Kostya said in a tone that brooked no denial.
Witiezslav didn't object. He was looking at Timur Borisovich and frowning.
I took out my phone and dialled Gesar's number.
'Someone's trying to make fools of us all,' said Witiezslav, his fury starting to break through. 'And that someone . . .'
'Tell him to get dressed,' I said as I listened to the beeping of the phone. 'Or do we have to humiliate an old man and take him in his underpants?'
Witiezslav didn't move a muscle, but Timur Borisovich stood up and started getting dressed, as if he were sleepwalking.
Edgar sidled up to me and asked sympathetically:
'Isn't he answering? In his place I'd . . .'
'It will be a long time before anyone offers you a place like that,' Witiezslav commented. 'If you can't see how we've been set up . . .'
If the look on Edgar's face was anything to go by, he couldn't see a thing. And neither could I, or Kostya, who had rolled his eyes back and up and was whispering something silently.
'Yes, Anton . . .' Gesar said when he answered. 'Anything interesting?'
'I've found the man who was promised he could be turned into an Other,' I said, forcing out the words with difficulty.
Total silence fell in the bathroom. Everyone seemed to be straining to hear the faint sound from my phone.
'Excellent!' Gesar exclaimed. 'Well done! Now get in touch with the investigators from the Day Watch and the Inquisition straight away. Let them join in. That Czech vampire, Witiezslav, is around there somewhere. The old guy's on the ball, even if he doesn't have any sense of humour . . . but that's a misfortune suffered by all vampires.'
Witiezslav turned towards me. His face had turned to stone and his eyes were blazing. He'd heard everything.
And I would have bet a crate of Czech beer to a bottle of triple cologne that Gesar knew perfectly well that Witiezslav was standing there beside me.
'Witiezslav is already here,' I said. 'And so is Edgar and . . . the investigator from the Dark Ones.'
'Great!' Gesar was delighted. 'Ask our visitor from Prague to put up a portal for me . . . if he can manage that, of course. I'll drop over to see you.'
I put the phone away and looked at Witiezslav. To be honest, I felt Gesar had overdone it a bit.
But how could I know how things stood between the old Light Magician and the vampire Inquisitor? And what scores they had to settle with each other?
'You heard him,' I said evasively.
'Tell me again,' Witiezslav replied curtly.
'The head of the Night Watch of Moscow, the Most Lucent Magician Gesar, requests you to put up a portal for him. If that is within your power, of course.'
Witiezslav simply glanced to one side and a narrow, bright doorway appeared in the air above the bubbling jacuzzi. Anyone stepping out through that strange door was bound to end up in the water.
'No problem,' Witiezslav said coolly. 'Edgar . . .'
The former Dark Magician looked devotedly into his eyes.
'The file on this man . . .' Witiezslav nodded towards Timur Borisovich, who was lazily knotting his necktie. 'It's probably downstairs, in the security office.'
Edgar disappeared. To save time, he went to get the file through the Twilight.
And a moment later Gesar appeared in the bathroom.