'Activate the pest control amulet,' Vitaly said reluctantly. 'If any of the creatures should be observed not to be affected by the action of the amulet, then it should be captured, exercising great care, and handed over to the duty magician for checking.'
'You do know it ... So we're not dealing with a case of forgetfulness here. Have you activated the amulet?' I asked.
The werewolf gave the vampire a sideways glance and then looked away.
'No.'
'I see. Failure to carry out duty instructions. As the senior member of the duty detail, you will be penalised. You will inform the duty officer.'
The werewolf said nothing.
'Repeat what I said, security guard.'
He realised it was stupid to defy me and repeated my words.
'And now get back to serving your watch,' I said and walked to the left, still carrying the sleeping mouse on my open palm.
'Bon appétit,' the werewolf muttered after me. Those creatures have no discipline – the animal half of them is just too strong.
'I hope that in a real battle you would be at least half as brave as this little mouse,' I replied as I got into the lift. I caught Kostya's eye – and it seemed to me that the young vampire was embarrassed, and even glad that the cruel amusement was over.
My appearance in the department with a mouse in my hand caused an uproar.
Anna Lemesheva, the senior witch on our shift, was about to launch into her usual tirade about young people who haven't been taught any discipline – 'Under Stalin for being five minutes late you'd have been packed off to a camp in Kolyma to brew potions' – when she saw the mouse and was struck dumb. Lenka Kireeva squealed and then howled: 'Oh, how lovely'. Zhanna Gromova giggled and asked if I was going to make the 'thief's elixir', which has a boiled mouse as an essential ingredient, and what I was planning to steal afterwards. Olya Melnikova finished painting her nails and congratulated me on a successful hunt.
I put the little creature down on my desk as if I never came to work without a fresh mouse and told everyone how the security guards had been amusing themselves.
Anna shook her head:
'Is that why you were late?'
'Partly,' I said honestly. 'Anna Tikhonovna, I was incredibly unlucky with the traffic. And then there were those nitwits playing their games.'
Anna Lemesheva is an old and experienced witch; it's pointless trying to deceive her by putting on a brave front. She's about a hundred years old, and after all the things she'd seen, the game with the mouse was hardly going to seem cruel. But even so she pursed her lips and declared:
'These werewolves have no respect for the idea of duty. When we were stationed at Revel, fighting the Swedes, we had a saying: "If they send the Watch a werewolf, detail a witch to watch him." What would have happened if an assault group of Light Ones had burst in while both guards were gawping at that rodent? They could have sent the mouse in deliberately. It's disgraceful. I think you should have demanded more serious punishment, Alisa.'
'The lash,' Lenka Kireeva said in a quiet voice. She flicked her head of long red hair. Oh, that hair of Lenka's, anyone would envy it. But the comforting thing is that none of the rest of her is up to the same standard.
'Yes, it was a mistake to end the practice of punishment with the lash,' Anna replied coldly. 'Throw that creature out of the window, Alisa.'
'I feel sorry for it,' I objected. 'It's blockheads like those two who are responsible for the image of Dark Ones that exists in the mass consciousness, a caricature of vicious sadists and monsters . . . Why torment the poor mouse?'
'It does create a certain discharge of energy,' said Olya, screwing the lid onto her nail varnish. 'But it's very i-ny . . .'
She shook her hands in the air.
Zhanna snorted derisively.
'A discharge! They used up so much energy creating the illusory cat, they'd have to torture a kilo of mice to make up for it.'
'We could work it out,' Olya suggested. 'We torture this mouse to death and measure the total power emitted . . . only we'd need a pair of scales as well.'
'You're terrible,' Lena said angrily. 'And you're quite right, Alisa! Can I take the mouse?'