He was telling the truth. Every single word. But he wasn't quite telling me the whole story.

"It's impossible to make you into an Other," I explained. "You're an ordinary human being. I'm sorry, there's no way you'll ever be an Other."

Timur Borisovich snorted again.

"It's… well, if you like, it's in the genes," I explained. "Timur Borisovich, did you realize that your contact was caught in a trap? That he had formulated his proposal wrong, and as a result he was obliged to do something for you that's impossible?"

The self-confident businessman didn't have anything to say to that.

"You did," I said. "I can see that you did. And you still went on demanding?"

"I told you-it can be done!" said Timur Borisovich, raising his voice. "I can feel it. I can tell when someone's lying just as well as you can. And I didn't make any threats, I only asked."

"It was probably your father who came to see you," I said. "Do you realize that?"

Timur Borisovich froze in his seething Jacuzzi.

"He wanted to help you all right," I said. "But he can't do this. And your demand is literally killing him. Do you understand that?"

Timur Borisovich shook his head.

"The promise he gave was too vague," I said. "You took him at his word, and if he fails to carry out his promise, then he'll die. Do you understand?"

"Is that one of your rules?"

"It's a corollary of Power," I said curtly. "Well, for the Light Ones."

"Where was he all that time, my dad…" Timur Borisovich said with genuine sorrow in his voice. "I suppose he must still be young? Why did he come to me when my grandchildren are already married?"

"Believe me, he couldn't have come sooner," I replied. "Most likely he didn't even know about you. It just happened that way. But now you're killing him. Your own father."

Timur Borisovich didn't say anything.

But I was exultant. Because this businessman lounging in his Jacuzzi wasn't a hardened scoundrel. He'd grown up in the East, and the word "father" meant a lot to him.

No matter what.

"Tell him that I withdraw my… request," Timur Borisovich muttered. "If he doesn't want to… then to hell with him… He could simply have come and told me everything honestly. He didn't need to send his staff."

"Are you sure I'm one of his staff?"

"Yes. I don't know who my dad is. But he's some big wheel in those Watches of yours."

I'd done it. I'd removed the Sword of Damocles that had been hanging over Gesar's head.

Maybe that was why he'd sent me to the Assol? Because he knew I could do it?

"Timur Borisovich, one more request," I went on, striking while the iron was hot. "You have to disappear for a while, get out of town. Certain facts have become known… there are Others on your trail, apart from me. Including Dark Ones. They'll make trouble for you, and for… for your father."

Timur Borisovich jerked upright in his bath. "What else will you order me to do?"

"I could order you," I explained, "just as easily as your bodyguards. And you'd go dashing to the airport without your trousers. But I'm asking you, Timur Borisovich. You've already done one good deed by agreeing to withdraw your demand. Take the next step. Please."

"Do you realize what kind of ideas people get about businessmen who take off without warning to God knows where?"

"I can imagine."

Timur Borisovich grunted and suddenly looked older somehow. I felt ashamed. But I carried on waiting.

"I'd like to talk… to him."

"I think that'll be okay," I agreed. "But first you have to disappear."

"Turn around," Timur Borisovich growled.

I obediently turned around, because I believed I wouldn't get a heavy nickel-plated soap dish across the back of my head.

And that entirely groundless trust saved me.

Because I glanced at the wall through the Twilight to make sure the bodyguards were still sleeping peacefully by the door. And I saw a fleeting shadow-moving far too quickly for a human being.

What's more, the shadow was moving through the wall. Not walking normally, like a magician, but gliding along like a vampire.

By the time Kostya walked into the bathroom, I'd already set my face into the calm, mocking expression appropriate for a Light Watchman who's gotten the better of a Dark One.

"You!" said Kostya. In the Twilight his body gave off a light vapor. Vampires generally look different in the Twilight world, but Kostya still looked a lot like a human being. Amazing for a Higher Vampire.

"Of course," I said. My words seemed to sink into wet cotton wool. "What are you doing here?"

Kostya hesitated, but he answered honestly:

"I sensed you using Power. So I knew you must have found something… Someone."

He turned his gaze on Timur Borisovich. "Is this the blackmailer?"

There was no point in lying now. Or in trying to hide the businessman either.

"Yes," I said. "I've got him to withdraw his demands."

"How?"

"I lied, told him it was his own father who promised to turn him into an Other. And now his father's in serious trouble… He felt ashamed and withdrew his demands."

Kostya frowned.

"I'm planning to send him as far as possible out of harm's way," I lied, inspired. "He can settle down somewhere in the Dominican Republic."

"That's only half of the investigation," Kostya said sullenly. "I think you Light Ones are protecting one of your own."

"We are, or I am?"

"You are, Anton. Finding the human being isn't the most important thing. We need the one who spoke out of turn. Who promised to initiate him."

"But he doesn't know anything!" I protested. "I checked his memory, there's nothing there. The traitor came to him disguised as a movie actor from the last century. And he didn't leave any clues."

"We'll see about that," Kostya decided. "Let him get his pants on, and I'll take him in."

How about that for cheek.

"I found him, and he's going with me," I barked.

"And I think you were going to cover up the clues," Kostya said with quiet menace in his voice.

Behind our backs the old man was slowly toweling himself off, without even the slightest idea of the conversation we were having in the Twilight. And we glared at each other, neither of us willing to back off.

"He's going with me," I repeated.

"Fight you for him?" Kostya asked, almost cheerfully.

And in a single gliding movement he was there beside me. He glanced into my eyes, and in the Twilight his eyes glittered with red fire.

He really wanted this fight.

He'd been wanting it for years. To finally convince himself that truth was on the side of the Higher Vampire Konstantin, and not the naive youth Kostya, who had dreamed of freeing himself from the curse and becoming human again…

"I'll annihilate you," I whispered.

Kostya just laughed. "Shall we find out?"

I looked down at my feet. The shadow was barely visible, but I raised it and slipped down into the next level of the Twilight, where the walls of the building were mere hints in the mist and space was filled with a low, disconcerting drone.

But I only held the advantage for a brief moment.

Kostya appeared at the second level immediately after me.

Now he had really changed a lot-his face looked like a skull with the skin stretched tight over it, and his eyes had sunk into the skull. His ears were long and pointed.

"I've really learned a lot," Kostya whispered. "Well then, who's the suspect going with?"

And then another voice spoke. "I have a proposal that will suit everyone."

Witezslav materialized in the gray mist. His body was also distorted, and it was steaming, like a lump of dry ice in the sun. I shuddered-the Prague vampire had emerged from the third level of the Twilight, from depths that were beyond my reach. Just how powerful was he?