one I'd thought seemed doubtful.

No, not an Other after all. A human being.

I'd be doubly careful about that from now on.

Witiezslav said nothing, engrossed in thought, leaving Kostya and Edgar to fiddle with the locks. Then he cast a sideways glance in my direction and asked:

'Will you offer us a cup of coffee, watchman?'

I nodded. Why not?

We'd worked together on the same job. And we'd all been duped together, no matter what token compliments Gesar might have paid me.

CHAPTER 7

WE MADE A curious group – a young vampire from the Day Watch, two Inquisitors and a Light Magician.

All standing together in a big, empty apartment waiting for the water in the microwave to boil so we could make instant coffee. I'd even allowed Kostya to come in, and now he was sitting on the inside of the windowsill.

Witiezslav was the only one who just couldn't sit still.

'I'm not used to Russia any more,' he said, striding up and down in front of the window. 'I've lost the feel of the place. The country's unrecognisable.'

'Yes, the country's changing. New houses being built, new roads . . .' I exclaimed enthusiastically.

'Spare me your irony, watchman,' Witiezslav interrupted. 'That's not what I'm talking about. For seventy years the Others in your country had the strongest discipline of all. Even the Watches remained within the bounds of propriety.'

'And now it's like everything's gone crazy?' I asked shrewdly.

Witiezslav didn't answer that.

I felt ashamed. No matter what he was like, this Prague vampire from the Inquisition, today he had been thoroughly hoodwinked and bamboozled. It was the first time I'd seen the Inquisition humiliated. Even Gesar . . . well, he wasn't exactly afraid of it, but he acknowledged it as an insuperable force.

Then suddenly he had outwitted it. And with elegant ease.

Had something changed in the world? Had the Inquisition become a third side . . . just one more side in the game? Dark Ones, Light Ones and the Inquisition?

Or Dark Ones, Light Ones and the Twilight?

The water in the glass teapot began to seethe and bubble. I poured the boiling water into the cups standing along the windowsill. Set out the coffee, sugar and a carton of milk.

'Gorodetsky, do you realise that today the Treaty was violated?' Witiezslav asked suddenly.

I shrugged.

'You don't have to answer,' Witiezslav said. 'I already know you've understood the whole thing. An individual from the Moscow Night Watch provoked the Inquisition into acting injudiciously, after which he was granted the right to recruit a certain individual to the side of the Light. I don't think he will be of any great help to the Night Watch.'

I didn't think so either. Timur Borisovich wouldn't bother to learn how to use the Twilight Power. He'd have long life, the ability to do little magic tricks, to see his business partners' secret thoughts, to dodge bullets . . . That would be enough for him. Okay, you had to assume his firm would transfer large sums into the Night Watch account on a regular basis. And the businessman would become a better person, he would do some kind of charity work . . . pay for the upkeep of a polar bear in the zoo and ten orphans in a children's home.

But even so, it wasn't worth a quarrel with the Inquisition.

'Ignominious,' Witiezslav said bitterly. 'The abuse of an official position for personal ends.'

I couldn't help snorting.

'What's so funny?' Witiezslav asked guardedly.

'I think Gesar was right. You really have been shuffling papers around for too long.'

'So you think there's nothing wrong with all this?' Witiezslav asked. 'There's no call for outrage?'

'A man – okay, so he's not the best man in the world – will become a Light One,' I said. 'Now he will never do evil to anyone. On the contrary. So why should I be indignant?'

'Leave it, Witiezslav,' Edgar said quietly. 'Gorodetsky doesn't understand a thing. He's too young.'

Witiezslav nodded and took a sip of coffee. He said gloomily:

'I thought you were different from the rest of this Light fraternity. That it was the substance you cared about, not the form.'

That really wound me up.

'Yes, the substance is important to me, Witiezslav. And the substance here is that you're a vampire! And you, Edgar, are a Dark Magician! I don't know where you see a violation of the Treaty, but I'm sure there wouldn't have been any charges brought against Zabulon!'

'Light Magician . . .'Witiezslav hissed. 'Adept of the Light . . . All we do is maintain the balance,