WE MADE A FUNNY GROUP¡ªA 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.

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

"I'm not used to Russia anymore," he said, striding to and fro in front of the window. "I've lost the feel of the place. The country's unrecognizable."

"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.

Witezslav 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 win-dowsill. Set out the coffee, sugar, and a carton of milk.

"Gorodetsky, do you realize that today the Treaty was violated?" Witezslav asked out of the blue.

I shrugged.

"You don't have to answer," Witezslav 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 get his 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, I could 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 all worth a quarrel with the Inquisition.

"Ignominious," Witezslav said bitterly. "The abuse of an official position for personal ends."

I couldn't help snorting.

"What's so funny?" Witezslav asked guardedly.

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

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

"A man¡ªokay, so he's not the best man in the world¡ªwill 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, Witezslav," Edgar said quietly. "Gorodetsky doesn't understand a thing. He's too young."

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

"Light Magician..." Witezslav hissed. "Adept of the Light... All we do is maintain the balance, is that clear? And even Zabulon would have ended up facing a tribunal if he'd pulled a stunt like this!"

But there was no stopping me now. "Zabulon has done lots of things. He tried to kill my wife. He tried to kill me. He's constantly urging people toward the Darkness. You say one of our side acted dishonestly in outwitting the cheat? Well, maybe it was dishonest, but it was right! You're always so outraged when you get your own counterfeit coin back... well, that's easily fixed. Start playing fair for a change."

"Your fairness and ours are two different things," Edgar put in. "Witezslav, let's go..."

The vampire nodded and put down his unfinished cup of coffee.

"Thank you for the coffee, Light One. I return to you the invitation to enter."

And the two Inquistors walked out, leaving just Kostya, sitting silently on the windowsill and finishing his coffee.

"Moralists," I said angrily. "Or do you think they're right too?"

Kostya smiled. "No, of course not. They got what they deserve. It's high time the Inquisition was taken down a peg or two... I'm just sorry it was Gesar who did it, and not Zabulon."

"Gesar didn't do anything," I said stubbornly. "He swore, didn't you hear him?"

Kostya shrugged. "I've no idea how he set everything up. But it was his plot. Zabulon was right to wait it out. He's a cunning old fox, all right... You know what surprises me?"

"What?" I asked cautiously. Somehow I didn't find Kostya's support very reassuring.

"What difference is there at all between us? We scheme to drag the little people we want over to our side. And you do exactly the same. Gesar wanted to make his son a Light One¡ªand he did it. Good for him! I've got no complaints."

Kostya was smiling.

"What do you think, who was right in the Second World War?" I asked.

"What are you getting at?" Kostya was tense now, naturally expecting a trick.

"Just answer the question."

"Our side was right," Kostya said patriotically. "And, by the way, some vampires and werewolves fought in the war. Two of them were even awarded the order of Hero of the Soviet Union."

"And just why was our side right? Stalin would have been happy enough to swallow up the whole of Europe. And we bombed cities full of civilians too, and pillaged museums, and shot deserters..."

"Because it was our side. That's why it was right."

"Well then, now it's our side that's right. And our side is the Light Ones."

"You mean, that's the way you see it," Kostya objected. "And you refuse to consider any other point of view?"

I nodded.

"Ha..." Kostya said contemptuously. "Come up with at least one logical argument."

"We don't drink blood," I said.

Kostya put his cup down and stood up. "Thank you for the hospitality. I return to you the invitation to enter."

And I was left alone¡ªin a big, empty apartment, with just the half-empty cups, the open microwave, and the water cooling in the glass teapot...

Why had I heated it in the microwave? A single pass with my hands¡ªand the water would have boiled right there in the cups.

I took my cell phone out and dialed Svetlana's number. There was no answer. She must have gone for a walk with Nadiushka and left her phone in her room again...

Deep down I wasn't feeling nearly as jaunty as I'd tried to make out.

In what way were we really better after all? Scheming, fighting, deceiving? I needed the answer, I needed it once again. And not from the smart-aleck Gesar, with his way of weaving words into fancy lace patterns. And not from myself, either¡ª I didn't trust myself anymore. I needed the answer from someone I did trust.

But I also needed to understand how Gesar had tricked the Inquisition.

Because if he had sworn on the Light, and lied... Then what was I fighting for?

"Aw, to hell with the..." I began and stopped short. Don't curse¡ªthey taught us that in the first few days after initiation. And I'd almost let rip...

Let the whole business be. Just let it be.

At that moment someone rang the doorbell¡ªas if they'd guessed this was a bad time for me to be left on my own.

"Yes!" I shouted right across the room, remembering that I hadn't locked the door.

The door opened a bit and my neighbor Las stuck his head in. He glanced around and asked, "Okay to come in? I'm not interrupting anything?"

"No, that's fine, come in."

Las walked into the room and took another look around. He said, "Nah, it's not so bad in here... only you need to get a toilet installed... Okay if I grab a quick shower? Now or this evening... I really enjoyed it."

I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt for my bunch of keys. Imagined the keys swelling and splitting...

I tossed Las the new set.

"Here, catch!"

"What are these for?" Las asked, inspecting them.

"I have to go away. Use the place in the meantime."

"Oh no, the first straight-up guy to move in..." said Las, disappointed. "What a drag. Are you leaving soon?"

"Right away," I said. I'd suddenly realized how much I wanted to see Svetka and Nadya. "Maybe I'll be back again."

"And maybe not?"

I nodded.

"What a drag," Las repeated, moving closer. "I saw your disk player somewhere around the place... here."

I took the disk.

" 'Combat Implants,'" Las explained. "My album. Only don't play it when there are women or children present."

"I won't." I twirled the disk in my hands. "Thanks."

"Have you got problems or something?" Las asked. "Pardon me if I'm sticking my nose in, but you're looking pretty low..."

"No, it's nothing," I said, shaking myself. "I'm just missing my daughter. I'll go in a minute... she's with my wife at the dacha, and I've got all this work to do here..."

"A sacred duty," Las said approvingly. "A child must not be left without attention. At least if her mother's with her, that's the most important thing."

I looked at Las.

"The mother's most important for a child," Las said, with the air of a Vysotsky, Piaget, or some other doyen of child psychology. "It's biologically determined. What we males mostly do is take care of the female. And the female takes care of the child."

I was let into Timur Borisovich's apartment without any arguments. The bodyguards looked perfectly okay and they probably didn't have the slightest idea about recent events.

Gesar and his newfound son were drinking tea in the study. The study was large. I'd even be tempted to call it substantial, with a massive desk and heaps of all sorts of amusing trinkets on the shelves of the antique cabinets. It was amazing how similar their tastes were. Timur Borisovich's study was remarkably like his father's office.

"Come in, young man," Timur Borisovich said, and smiled at me. "You see, everything's been worked out."

He cast a quick glance at Gesar. "He's still young, hotheaded..."

"That's for sure," Gesar said with a nod. "What's happened, Anton?"

"I need to have a word," I said. "In private."

Gesar sighed and looked at his son. His son stood up:

"I'll go see my blockheads. No point in them polishing the seats of their pants here. I'll find them something to do."

Timur Borisovich went out, and I was left alone with Gesar.

"Well, what's happened, Gorodetsky?" Gesar asked wearily.

"Can we speak freely?"

"Yes."

"You didn't want to see your son become a Dark Magician, did you?" I asked.

"Would you like to see your Nadiushka as a Dark Enchantress?" said Gesar, answering a question with a question.

"But Timur was certain to have become a Dark One," I went on. "You needed to be granted the right to his remoralization. And for that the Dark Ones or, even better, the Inquisition, had to panic and apply unreasonable force to your son."

"And that's what happened," said Gesar. "All right Gorodetsky, are you trying to accuse me of anything?"

"No, I'm trying to understand."

"You saw me swear on the Light. I hadn't met Timur before. I didn't promise him anything, I didn't send the letters. And I didn't engage anyone to do these things."

No, Gesar wasn't making excuses. And he wasn't trying to pull the wool over my eyes. It was as if he were setting out the terms of a problem¡ªwaiting with relish to see what answer his pupil would give.

"Witezslav only needed to ask one more question," he said. "But apparently that question was too human for him..."

Gesar flapped his eyelids as if he were rehearsing a nod.

"The mother," I said.

"Witezslav killed his own mother," Gesar explained. "Not with deliberate intent. He was a young vampire and he couldn't control himself. But... ever since then he tries not even to pronounce that word."

"Who is Timur's mother?"

"There ought to be a name in the file."

"There could be any name at all in the file. It says that Timur's mother disappeared at the end of the war... but I know a female Other who spent the time since then in the body of a bird. As far as people knew, she had died."

Gesar didn't say anything.

"Could you really not find him any sooner?"

"We were sure that Timka had died," Gesar said quietly. "Olga was the one who didn't want to accept it. And when she was rehabilitated, she went on looking..."

"She found her son. And she made him a rash promise," I concluded.

"It's permissible for women to give way to their feelings," Gesar said dryly. "Even the wisest of women. And men exist to protect their woman and their child. To organize everything on a serious, rational basis."

I nodded.

"Do you blame me?" Gesar asked curiously. "Anton?"

"Who am I to blame you?" I asked. "I have a daughter who's a Light Other. And I wouldn't want to let the Darkness have her."

"Thank you, Anton." Gesar nodded and visibly relaxed. "I'm glad you understand that."

"I just wonder how far you would have gone for your son and Olga," I said. "You know Svetlana had a premonition? Some kind of danger for me."

Gesar shrugged. "Premonitions are pretty unreliable things."

"What if I'd decided to tell the Inquisition the truth," I went on. "Decided to leave the Watch and join the Inquisition... What then?"

"You didn't leave," Gesar said. "Despite all Witezslav's hints. What else, Anton? I can tell you've got another question on the tip of your tongue."

"How did your son turn out to be an Other?" I asked. "It's a lottery. It's rare for a family of Others to have a child who's an Other."

"Anton, either go to Witezslav and present him with your conclusions," Gesar said in a low voice, "or beat it and go back to Svetlana, as you were planning to do. Spare me this interrogation."

"Aren't you afraid the Inquisition will think it all through and figure out what happened?" I asked.

"No, I'm not. In three hours Witezslav will sign a document closing the investigation. They won't open the case again. They're already up to their ears in shit."

"Good luck with remoralizing Timur," I said.

And I headed for the door.

"You still have another week's leave¡ªspend some time with your family." Gesar called after me.

At first I was going to reply proudly that I didn't need any handouts.

But I stopped myself in time. What the heck.

"Two weeks," I said. "At this stage I've got at least a month of compensatory leave coming."

Gesar didn't say a word.