“Yes, that’s what I heard,” Alisher said, nodding.

“So Gennady had a talk with his wife. She was a human being. She knew her husband was a vampire…there are families like that. But he hadn’t killed anyone, he was a very law-abiding vampire, she loved him… Anyway, he bit her. Initiated her. Their plan was for the mother to initiate the son. But she was still metamorphosing, and the baby started dying. Gennady bit him, too, and Kostya got well. That is, he died, of course. Died as a human being. But he recovered from his pneumonia. The doctor started running around, crowing that it was all due to her remarkable talent. Gennady once admitted to me that he almost went for her throat when she started hinting that the right thing to do would be to reward her for the miraculous recovery.”

Alisher was silent for a while. Then he said, “All the same, they’re vampires. It would have been better if the boy had died.”

“Well, he did die,” I said. I suddenly found this conversation disgusting. Kostya had been a very normal child, except that once a week he had to drink preserved blood. He loved playing football, reading fairy tales and science fiction, and then he had decided to study biology, so that he could analyze the nature of vampirism and teach vampires how to manage without human blood.

But Alisher wouldn’t understand me. He was a true watchman. A genuine Light One. But I tried to understand even the Dark Ones. Even vampires. To understand and forgive…or at least understand. Forgiving was the hardest thing. Sometimes forgiving was the hardest thing in the whole world.

The telephone in my pocket rang and I took it out. Aha. An even gray glow.

“Hi, Edgar,” I said.

After a short pause Edgar asked, “Has your phone identified my number?”

“No, I guessed.”

“You’re powerful,” Edgar replied in a strange voice. “Anton, I’m already in Samarkand. Where are all of you?”

“All of us?”

“You, Alisher, and Afandi.” The Inquisitor clearly hadn’t wasted the last hour or so. “Well, you’ve created a fine mess here…”

“We have?” I protested, outraged.

“All right, maybe not just you,” Edgar acknowledged. “But you too. Why did you take the car from the director of the market?”

“We didn’t take it, we bought it. In accordance with the clauses concerning the need to confiscate means of transport in an emergency. Shall I recite the relevant paragraphs?”

“Anton, cool it,” Edgar said quickly. “No one’s accusing you of anything. But the situation really is pretty bleak. To cover it up, we’ll have to put out a story about the elimination of a large gang of terrorists. And you know how we hate disguising our own…our own failures as human crimes.”

“Edgar, I understand you,” I said. “But what has this got to do with us? I have personal business with an Other who doesn’t serve in the Watches. I flew here unofficially and I have a perfect right to move around the country.”

“By virtue of the emergency situation, only with the knowledge and under the surveillance of a member of a Watch,” Edgar corrected me.

“Well, Afandi’s with us.”

Edgar sighed. I thought I heard someone say something in the background.

“OK, Anton. Deal with your personal business…which the Inquisition will have to deal with afterward. Only, don’t go driving through the mountains at night, you’ll end up at the bottom of a precipice.”

To be honest, I was actually touched by his concern.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll rest until morning.”

“OK, Anton,” Edgar repeated. After a pause he muttered rather awkwardly, “It was good talking to you…despite everything.”

I put the phone away and said, “He’s strange, that Edgar. He was strange as a Dark One, too. But when he became an Inquisitor, he changed completely.”

“You know, I think that sooner or later you’ll end up as an Inquisitor yourself,” Alisher said in a very humdrum voice.

I thought about what he’d said and shook my head. “No, there’s no way. My wife and daughter are Higher Light Ones. They don’t take guys like that into the Inquisition.”

“I’m very glad that’s the case,” Alisher said seriously. “Well, then, shall we go?”

And at that very moment the mountains shook. Gently at first, as if the strength of the rocks was being tested. Then more and more powerfully.

“An earthquake!” Afandi howled, waking up instantly. “Out of the car!”

When he wanted, he could be very serious indeed. We jumped out of the jeep, walked a bit higher up the track, and froze. The mountains were shuddering. Small stones began slithering down the slope and showering onto us. Alisher and I automatically erected a joint protective dome. Afandi did his bit too-he set one hand above his eyes and started surveying the night in search of unknown danger.

And he actually spotted something.

“Look over there!” he shouted, jumping up and down and reaching out his hand. “That way! That way!”

We turned around, keeping the Shield above our heads: The rocks bounced off it with a clatter. We followed Afandi’s gaze and enhanced our night vision (actually, after the stimulation I’d given him, Alisher didn’t really need to do that).

And we saw the next mountain, covered with thick forest, being reduced to rubble.

It looked as if mighty hammer blows were being struck from within the mountain crest. The mountain was repeatedly jolted and waterfalls of small stones, avalanches of boulders, and entire groves of trees showered down off it, rapidly filling up the ravines. In a few minutes the kilometer-high peak was transformed into a plateau of crushed stone and woodchips from the shattered tree trunks.

Then I got the idea of looking at the mountain through the Twilight.

And I saw a vortex of Power spinning above the disaster zone.

It was either the vortex of a curse that had been put on the place or some special kind of spell that caused an earthquake. I didn’t know which. But there was no doubt at all that the catastrophe had been caused by magic.

“They missed,” said Alisher. “Anton…did you talk to Edgar?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure the Inquisition doesn’t have any beefs to settle with you?”

I gulped to swallow the lump that had risen in my throat. Beefs with the Inquisition were very, very bad news.

“The Inquisition wouldn’t have missed…,” I began, and then broke off. I took out my cell phone and looked at it through the Twilight. Inside its cocoon of plastic, metal, and silicon, the SIM card was pulsating with a blue light. Typical behavior for a working amulet.

“I think I know what happened,” I said, keying in a number. “And I don’t think it had anything to do with the Inquisition.”

“Hello, Anton,” Gesar said, as if I hadn’t woken him. But then, it was still evening in Moscow.

“Gesar, I need to have a word with someone from the European tribunal. Immediately.”

“With one of the Masters?” Gesar asked.

“Well, not the assistant night watchman!”

“Wait a moment,” Gesar said calmly. “And don’t cut the call off afterward.”

I had to wait for about three minutes. All that time we stood there, watching the vortex of Power calming down. The sight was like something out of a fairy tale. That earthquake had probably used up the energy of some ancient and powerful amulet. Like the ones they held in the special vaults at the Inquisition.

“My name is Eric,” I heard a strong, confident voice say. “What can I do for you, Light One?”

“Mr. Eric,” I said, without bothering to inquire what position he held in the Inquisition-they really don’t like revealing their hierarchy. “At the moment I am close to the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan. We have an emergency on our hands. Could you tell me if the Inquisition sent its staff member Edgar here?”

“Edgar?” Eric asked thoughtfully. “Which one?”

“To be quite honest, I never knew his surname,” I admitted. “A former member of the Moscow Day Watch, he moved to the Inquisition after the trial of Igor Teplov in Prague…”