The Night Watch Read Online Free PDF

20
    "Why?" I blurted out and then hastily corrected myself. "We have to stop the Dark Magician, don't we?" The boss sighed.
    "He might have a license. He might be entitled to cast the curse… This isn't even about the magician. A black vortex as powerful as that… You remember the plane that crashed last winter?" I shuddered. We had not done anything wrong, but there was a loophole in the law: A pilot who was under a curse had lost control, and his airliner had crashed into a residential area of the city. Hundreds of perfectly innocent lives…
    "Vortices like that can't act selectively. The girl's doomed, but it won't just be a brick that accidentally falls off some roof onto her head. More likely a building will explode, there'll be an epidemic, or someone will drop an atom bomb onMoscow by mistake. That's the real problem, Anton." The boss suddenly swung around and cast a withering glance at the owl. It folded its wings away quickly and the gleam in its glass eyes faded.
    "Boris Ignatievich," I said, horrified. "I'm at fault…"
    "Of course you are. There's only one redeeming fact, Anton." The boss cleared his throat. "When you gave way to pity, you acted quite correctly. The amulet couldn't completely detach the vortex, but it has postponed the Inferno for a while. And now we have a day to work with… maybe even two. I've always believed that ill-considered but well-intentioned actions do more good than actions that are well-considered but cruel. If you hadn't used the amulet, half ofMoscow would already be lying in ruins."
    "What are we going to do?"
    "Look for the girl. Protect her… as well as we can. We'll be able to destabilize the vortex again once or twice. And in the meantime we'll have to find the magician who cast the curse and make him remove the vortex."
    I nodded.
    "Everybody will be involved in the search," the boss said casually. "I've recalled all the guys from vacation, Ilya will be back fromCeylon by morning and the others will be here by lunch. The weather's bad inEurope . I've asked our colleagues in the European office to help, but by the time they can disperse the clouds…"
    "By morning?" I asked, glancing at my watch. "Another whole day."
    "No, this morning," the boss replied, as if unaware of the midday sunshine outside the window. "You'll be searching too. Perhaps you'll get lucky again… Shall we continue with our analysis of your mistakes?"
    "Can we afford to waste the time?" I asked timidly.
    "Don't worry; it won't be wasted." The boss got up, walked over to the glass cupboard, took out the owl, and set it down on the desk. From close up you could see it really was a stuffed bird, with no more life in it than a fur collar… "Let's move on to the vampires and their victim." Page 21
    "I lost the girl-vampire. And the guys didn't catch her," I confirmed penitently.
    "No complaints there. You fought worthily enough. The point is—the victim…"
    "Sure, the boy kept his memories. But he took off so fast…"
    "Anton! Wake up! They hooked the boy with the Call from a distance of several kilometers! When he walked into that alley he ought to have been a helpless puppet! And when the Twilight disappeared, he ought to have fainted! Anton, if he was still able to move after everything that had happened—he possesses superb magical potential!"
    The boss paused.
    "I'm an idiot."
    "No, but you have been sitting on your backside in the lab far too long. Anton, this boy is potentially more powerful than I am!"
    "Oh, come on…"
    "Drop the flattery…"
    The telephone on the desk rang. It was obviously something urgent; not many people know the boss's direct number. I don't.
    "Quiet!" the boss snapped at the innocent phone. It stopped. "Anton, you have to find that young boy. The girl-vampire who got away is not dangerous in herself. Either our guys will find her or an ordinary patrol will pick her up. But if she drinks the boy's blood or, even worse, initiates him… You've no idea what a full-fledged