'Light and Dark live in peace?'
'Yes.'
'Those . . . the vampires .. .' He kept coming back over and over again to the same subject. 'They're Dark Ones?'
'Yes. They're people who have been totally transformed by the Twilight world. They acquire immense powers, but they lose the gift of life itself. And they can only carry on existing by using the energy of other beings. Blood's the most convenient form for transferring it.'
'And they kill people!'
'They can exist on donor's blood. It's like processed foods, it doesn't taste so good, but it's still nutritious. If the vampires just went out hunting—'
'But they attacked me!'
He was only thinking about himself right now. That wasn't good.
'Some vampires break the law. That's why we need the Night Watch, to police the observance of the Treaty.'
'Then . . . vampires don't just go around hunting people, right?'
I felt a breath of wind against my cheek from invisible wings. The claws dug into my shoulder.
'Now what are you going to tell him, Night Watch agent?' Olga whispered from out of the depths of the Twilight. 'Will you risk telling him the truth?'
'Yes, they go hunting,' I said. Then I added the thing that had struck me as most terrible of all five years earlier. 'If they have a licence. Sometimes . . . sometimes they need living blood.'
He didn't ask straight off. I could read everything the boy was thinking in his eyes, everything he wanted to ask. And I knew I'd have to answer all the questions.
'Then what do you do?'
'We make sure there's no poaching.'
'Then they could have attacked me . . . under that Treaty of yours? With a licence?'
'Yes,' I said.
'They could have drunk my blood? And you would have just walked by and looked the other way?'
Light and Dark . . .
I closed my eyes. The Treaty blazed brightly in the grey mist. Stark words, the product of thousands of years of war, costing millions of lives.
'Yes.'
'Go away!'
The boy was as tense as a coiled spring. On the brink of hysteria, on the brink of insanity.
'I came to protect you.'
'Don't bother!'
'The girl vampire's on the loose. She tried to attack—'
'Go away!'
Olga sighed.
'Now you've done it!'
I stood up. Egor shuddered and moved his stool further away from me.
'You'll understand some day,' I said. 'We have no other option. . .'
I didn't believe the words I was saying. And it was pointless to argue now. It was getting dark outside, pretty soon it would be hunting time . . .
The boy followed me, as if he wanted to make sure I left the apartment and didn't hide in the cupboard. I didn't say another word, just opened the door and went out into the stairwell. The door slammed shut behind me.
I walked up one flight of stairs and squatted down by the window on the landing. Olga didn't say anything and neither did I.
You can't just go revealing the truth like that out of the blue. It's not easy for a normal person even to admit that we exist. But to come to terms with the Treaty . . .
'There was nothing we could have done,' said Olga. 'We underestimated the boy, both his powers and his fear. We were discovered. We were obliged to answer his questions and to tell the truth.'
'Are we drawing up a report?' I asked.
'If you only knew how many reports like that I've drawn up . . .'
There was a smell of decay from the garbage chute. Outside, the noisy avenue was slowly descending into the evening dusk. The streetlamps were already beginning to flicker. I sat there, toying with my mobile phone and wondering if I ought to call the boss now or wait for him to call. Boris Ignatievich was probably observing me.
He was bound to be.
'Don't expect the boss to be able to give you too much help,' said Olga. 'He's up to his ears already with that black vortex.'
The phone in my hand started ringing, and I answered it.
'Yes?'
'Where are you, Anton?'
The boss sounded tired, worn out. I'd never heard him sound like that before.
'On a landing in a big, ugly apartment block. Beside the garbage chute. It's quite warm here, pretty comfortable really.'
'Did you find the boy?' the boss asked, sounding entirely uninterested.
'Yes.'
'Good. I'll send you Tiger Cub and Bear. There's nothing for them to do here anyway. And you come to Perovo. Now.'
I was just reaching for my pocket when the boss added:
'If you haven't got any money ... even if you have, stop a militia car and get them to bring you here as fast as they can.'
'Do you really mean that?' I asked.
'Absolutely. You can leave straight away.'