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"He may not be initiated," the boss snapped back. "His powers manifest themselves sporadically..."
"In the spring and the fall, just like any ordinary psycho..."
"Yes, Igor, that's perfectly right. In the spring and in the fall. And now, right after this latest killing, he must still be
carrying some trace of magic. That gives us a chance, if only a small one. Get on it."
"Boris, what exactly is our goal?" Semyon asked curiously.
Some people in the room had already started getting to their feet, but now they stopped.
"Our goal is to find this Maverick before the Dark Ones do. To protect him, educate him, and bring him over to our
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side. As usual."
"Clear enough," said Semyon and stood up.
"Anton and Olga, would you please stay," the boss said brusquely and walked over to the window.
On their way out, people glanced at us curiously, even enviously. A special assignment is always intriguing. I
looked across the room, caught Olga's eyes, and smiled. She smiled back.
She looked nothing like the dirty-faced, barefoot young woman who'd drunk cognac in my kitchen last winter.
Now she had a stylish haircut, a healthy complexion, and eyes full of... no, the confidence had been there all the
time, but now there was a certain flirtatious pride too.
Her punishment had been repealed. Partially, that is.
"Anton, I don't like what's going on here," the boss said without turning around.
Olga shrugged her shoulders and nodded for me to reply.
"I beg your pardon, Boris Ignatievich?"
"I don't like this protest lodged by the Day Watch."
"Neither do I."
"You don't understand, and I'm afraid none of the others do either... Olga, have you at least got some inkling of
what's going on?"
"It's very strange Day Watch hasn't been able to find the killer after several years."
"Yes. Do you remember Krakow?"
"I do, unfortunately. You think we're being set up?"
"It's possible..." The boss moved away from the window a bit. "Anton, do you think that could be the way things
are heading?"
"I don't completely understand," I mumbled.
"Anton, let's assume that we really do have a Maverick wandering around the city, a solitary killer. He's
uninitiated. From time to time his powers suddenly surface... he locates one of the Dark Ones and eliminates
him, or in this case, her. Would Day Watch be able to locate this Maverick? Unfortunately, believe me, they
would. Then the question is: Why haven't they caught and exposed him, when Dark Ones are dying?"
"Only unimportant ones," I pointed out.
"Correct. Sacrificing pawns is in the tradition..." the boss caught my eye and paused. "In the tradition of the
Watch."
"The Watches," I said vengefully.
"The Watches," the boss echoed wearily. "You haven't forgotten... let's think where a maneuver like this could be
leading. A blanket accusation of incompetence against the whole of Night Watch? Nonsense. We're supposed to
keep tabs on the behavior of the Dark Ones and the observance of the Treaty by known Light Ones, not go
hunting for mysterious maniacs. In this case it's Day Watch that is at fault..."
"That means it must be a provocation aimed at a specific person?"
"Well done, Anton. Remember what Yulia said? There's only a handful of us who could do this. That can be
proved conclusively. Let's suppose Day Watch has decided to accuse someone of violating the Treaty, to claim
that a member of our staff who knows the terms of the Treaty is meting out summary justice on his own
account."
"But that's easy to disprove. Just find the Maverick..."
"And if the Dark Ones find him first? But don't bother to announce the fact?"
"What about alibis?"
"And what if the killings took place at times when this person has no alibi?"
"A tribunal, with a full-scale interrogation," I said gloomily-having your mind turned inside out isn't a pleasant
experience...
"A powerful magician-and these killings were committed by a powerful magician-can close off his mind even
against a tribunal. Not deceive the tribunal, just close himself off from it. And in any case, Anton, with a tribunal
including Dark Ones, he would have to do it. Otherwise our enemies would learn far too much about us. And if a
magician conceals himself against investigation, it's automatically regarded as a confession of guilt, with all the
consequences that stem from that so-called confession-both for him and the Watch."
"You paint a dark picture, Boris Ignatievich," I said. "Very dark. Almost as dark as the one you painted for me
last winter, in my sleep. A young boy with incredible Other powers, an Inferno eruption that would flatten the
whole of Moscow..."
"I am telling you the truth here, Anton."
"What do you expect from me?" I asked bluntly. "This isn't really my area. Am I going to give the analysts a
hand? We'll be handling everything they bring in anyway."
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"Anton, I want you to figure out which of us is the target. Who has an alibi for all the known incidents and who
doesn't."
The boss slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and took out a DVD.
"Take this... it's a complete dossier for the whole three-year period. For four people, including me."
I gulped as I took it.
"The security codes have been removed. But you understand that no one else must see this. You have no right to
copy the information. Encrypt all your calculations and procedures... and make the key as complex as you can."
"I'd really need someone to help," I suggested hesitantly, with a glance at Olga. But then, what kind of help could
she give me? Everything she knew about computers she'd learned from playing games like Heretic and Hexen.
"You check my database yourself," the boss said, after a pause. "You can use Anatoly for the others. All right?"
"Then what's my assignment?" asked Olga.
"You'll cover the same ground, only by asking direct questions. Interrogating people, in other words. And you'll
start with me. Then the other three."
"All right, Boris."
"Get on it, Anton," the boss said with a nod. "Start immediately. You can pass everything else on to your girls;
they'll manage."
"Perhaps I could riddle about a bit with the data?" I asked. "If someone doesn't happen to have an alibi, I could
arrange one."
The boss shook his head.
"No. You don't understand. I don't want to set up any false alibis. I want to make sure that none of us are involved
in these killings."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes. Because nothing's impossible in this world. Anton, the really nice thing about our work is that I can give
you an assignment like this. And you'll carry it out. Regardless of who's involved."
There was still something bothering me, but I nodded and walked toward the door, clutching the precious disc. It
came to me in a flash. I turned back and asked:
"Boris Ignatievich..."
The boss and Olga instantly moved apart.
"Boris Ignatievich, you say there are four sets of data here?"
"Yes."
"For you, Ilya, Semyon..."
"And you, Anton."
"Why?" I asked dumbly.
"During the standoff on the roof you stayed down in the second level of the Twilight for three minutes, Anton...
that's a third-grade power."
"Impossible," I said.
"It happened."
"Boris Ignatievich, you always told me I was just an average magician!"
"Well, let's just say I need an excellent programmer more than one more field operative."
Any other time I would have felt proud. Offended at the same time, of course, but still proud. I'd always thought
that fourth-grade magic was my ceiling, and it would be a long time before I reached it. But just at that moment [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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