Сергей Лукьяненков - Last Watch

“Then try me,” said Zabulon, casually moving Garik aside as he entered the Saushkin family’s sitting room. He yawned and sat down on the divan.

“Don’t provoke me,” Gesar said quietly. “I might just take it as an official challenge to a duel.”

A deadly silence fell in the apartment. Zabulon screwed up his eyes and braced himself. As usual, he was wearing a suit, but without a tie. And for some reason I got the impression that he had chosen the black suit and white shirt deliberately, as a sign of mourning.

Olga and I waited, watching the standoff between these two Others who were responsible for what happened on a sixth of the world’s land surface.

“Gesar, it was a figure of speech,” Zabulon said in a conciliatory tone of voice. He leaned back on the divan. “You don’t think I was aware of this…excess, do you?”

“I don’t know,” Gesar snapped. But from his voice it was clear that he knew perfectly well that Zabulon had nothing to do with this business.

“Well, let me tell you,” Zabulon said just as peaceably, “that I am every bit as outraged as you are, or perhaps even more so. And the entire community of Moscow vampires is outraged and demands the execution of this criminal.”

Gesar snorted.

And Zabulon finally couldn’t resist making a jibe. “You know, they don’t like the idea of their food base being undermined…”

“I’ll give them a food base,” Gesar snapped in a low, grave voice. “I’ll keep a lid on the preserved blood for five years.”

“Do you think the Inquisition will support you?” Zabulon asked.

“I think so,” said Gesar, finally turning around and looking him in the eye. “I think so. And you will support my request.”

Zabulon lost the game of stare-me-down. The Dark One sighed, turned away, looked at me, and shrugged, as if to say, What am I to do with him, eh? He took out a long, frivolous pink cigarette and lit it. Then he said, “They’ve gone completely wild…”

“Then you make sure they don’t go wild.”

“Their children can’t grow up without this, you know that. Without fresh blood they never reach sexual maturity.”

Naturally, Zabulon was not in the least concerned for the fate of vampire children. He just wanted to make fun of Gesar. As far as that was at all possible.

“Children? We’ll allow the children fresh blood,” Gesar said after thinking for a moment. “We wouldn’t want thirty…er…Anton?”

“Thirty-two,” I told him, remembering the exact number.

“We wouldn’t want thirty-two bloodsucking teenagers. Fresh blood. But donor blood! We are suspending the issue of licenses for five years.”

Zabulon sighed and said, “All right. I’ve been thinking it was time to tighten their rein myself. I had asked the secretary of the community to keep an eye on the Saushkins… They proved to be a rotten little family.”

“I ought to have insisted on seven years,” said Gesar. “You agreed to five too easily.”

“But what’s to be done now, we’ve already agreed,” said Zabulon, puffing out a cloud of smoke. He turned to me. “Anton, did you come to see Gennady after Kostya was killed?”

“No,” I answered.

“But why didn’t you? As an old friend and neighbor…ai-ai-ai…”

I didn’t answer. Eight years earlier I would have blown my top.

“We’ve decided this matter,” said Gesar. He frowned as he looked out into the corridor, where they had started carrying out the bodies. The whole entrance and stairway had been put under a light spell that completely removed any desire the inhabitants of the building might have had to peek out their doors or look out their windows. But then, in view of the fact that no one had come to see what the woman from my old apartment was screeching about, people around here must all be exceptionally incurious anyway.

It kept getting harder and harder for me to love them. I had to do something about that.

“What else?” Zabulon asked. “As far as help in catching Saushkin is concerned, there’s no problem. My watchmen are already out hunting for him. Only, I’m afraid they might not deliver him in one piece…”

“You’re not looking too well, Zabulon,” Gesar suddenly said. “Why don’t you go to the bathroom and wash your hands and face.”

“Really?” Zabulon asked curiously. “Well, since you insist…”

He got up and then halted in the doorway for a moment to make way for two watchmen who were carrying along a half-decomposed corpse in a plastic sack. Apart from blood, there’s a lot of water in a human body. If you leave a bloodless body to rot inside a plastic cocoon, the result is extremely unpleasant.

Zabulon, however, was not appalled by the sight.

“I beg your pardon, madam,” he said, letting the remains pass. Then he strode cheerfully off to the bathroom.

“Were there women as well?” Gesar asked.

“Yes,” Olga replied curtly.

Gesar didn’t ask any more questions. Apparently even our boss’s iron nerves had given way.

That night the lads who were carrying out the bodies would get totally juiced. And although it was a breach of the rules, I wouldn’t try to stop them. I’d sooner go out on patrol duty myself.

Zabulon came back a minute later. His face was wet.

“The towel’s dirty; I’ll dry off like this,” he said with a smile. “Well?”

“Your opinion?” Gesar asked.

“I had this friend once, she liked to draw a Christmas tree on the mirror with toothpaste for the festive season. And the words ‘Happy New Year’ and little numbers.”

“Very funny,” Gesar said fastidiously. “Have you heard anything about such an organization?”

“About a ‘Last Watch’?” Zabulon asked, clearly emphasizing the capital letters in his intonation. “My dear enemy, even among the Dark Ones there are any number of sects, groups, and mere clubs that I have never heard of. But there are some that I have heard of. And the names that you come across! ‘Children of the Night,’ ‘Watchmen of the Full Moon,’ ‘Sons of the Wind.’ And, by the way, I recall one group of children-human children, not Others-who love to play at vampires. Perhaps we ought to bring them here? To make them realize that a vampire is not really an imposing gentleman in a black cloak who lures maidens into an ancient castle? It’s not that gothic at all…”

“Zabulon, have you heard anything about the Last Watch?”

“No.”

“Gorodetsky has suggested”-Gesar paused and looked at me-“that it’s what the three Others who tried to get their hands on the artifact in Edinburgh call themselves. The Dark One, the Inquisitor, and the Light One.”

“The Dark One is Saushkin, the Inquisitor is Edgar,” Zabulon said, nodding. “But who is the Light One?”

“I don’t know. We’ve checked all the Higher Ones; they’re clean.”

“Well, Saushkin wasn’t a Higher One…,” Zabulon said with a shrug. “Although…it’s easier for vampires. And then, what about Edgar, Gorodetsky?”

“I didn’t have time to study his aura thoroughly,” I replied. “There was a battle going on…and he was also hung with amulets from head to toe. Give me five minutes in a quiet situation, and I’ll know everything there is to know about him…”

“Nonetheless,” Zabulon insisted, “I know what happened on the Plateau of the Demons. In general terms. So tell us about it.”

“In battle he behaved like a Higher One,” I admitted after seeing Gesar nod his reluctant permission for me to reply. “There were three of us…Well two, if you don’t count Afandi, although he tried his best too. We had a set of protective amulets from Gesar, all very well chosen. But he was almost a match for us. I even think that he might have been able to continue the fight and had a chance of winning. But when Rustam left, Edgar had no reason to carry on fighting.”