The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, Sergei Luk'ianenko

bother. I only have half an hour a day."
    Olga screwed up the towel and tossed it onto the windowsill. She sighed:
    "I might not get another chance to take a shower. Or drink cognac… Your health, Anton."
    "Your health."
    The cognac was good. I took a sip and savored it, despite the total muddle in my head. Olga downed it in one and pulled a face, but she declared politely:
    "Not bad."
    "Why won't the boss let you assume your normal form?"
    "That's not in his power."
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    Clear enough. So it wasn't the regional office that had punished her, but the higher authorities.
    "Here's to your success, Olga. Whatever it was that you did… I'm sure your guilt must have been expiated by now."
    The woman shrugged.
    "I'd like to think so. I know people find me easy to sympathize with, but the punishment was just. Anyway, let's get down to serious business."
    "Okay."
    Olga leaned toward me across the table and spoke in a mysterious whisper:
    "I'll be honest with you: I've had enough. I've got strong nerves, but this is no way to live. My only chance is to carry through an assignment so important that our superiors will have no option but to pardon me."
    "Where can you find a mission like that?"
    "We already have it. And it consists of three stages. The boy—we protect him and then bring him over to the side of the Light. The girl-vampire—we destroy her."
    Olga's voice sounded confident and suddenly I believed her. Protect one, destroy the other. No problem.
    "But that's only the small change, Anton. An operation like that will get you promoted, but it won't save me. The really important part is the girl with the vortex."
    "They're already dealing with her, Olga. They've taken me… us off the assignment."
    "Never mind that. They won't be able to handle it."
    "Oh no?" I asked ironically.
    "They won't. Boris Ignatievich is a very powerful magician. But not in this area." Olga half-closed her eyes in a mocking smile. "I've been dealing with Inferno eruption breaches all my life."
    "So that's why it's war!" I exclaimed, catching on.
    "Of course. You don't get sudden eruptions of hatred like that during times of peace. That son of a bitch Adolf… he had plenty of admirers, but he would have been incinerated in the very first year of the war. And the whole ofGermany with him. The situation with Stalin was a different case, adoration on a monstrous scale like that is a powerful shield. Anton, I'm a simple Russian woman…"—the smile that flitted across Olga's face showed what she really felt about the word "simple"—"and I spent all the last war shielding the enemies of my own country against curses. For that alone I deserve to be pardoned. Do you believe me?"
    "I believe you." I got the impression she was already getting tipsy.
    "It's lousy work… we all have to go against our human nature, but going that far… Anyway, Anton, they Page 51
    won't be able to handle it. I… can at least try, though even I can't be absolutely certain of success."
    "Olga, if this is all so serious, you should put in a report…" The woman shook her head and straightened out her wet hair.
    "I can't. I'm forbidden to associate with anyone except Boris Ignatievich and my partner on the assignment. I've told him everything. All I can do now is wait. And hope that I'll be able to deal with this—at the very last moment."
    "But doesn't the boss understand all that?"
    "I think he understands it all very well."
    "So that's the way…" I whispered.
    "We were lovers. For a very long time. And we were friends too, something you don't find so often…
    Okay, Anton. Today we solve the problem of the boy and the crazed vampire. Tomorrow we wait. We wait for the Inferno to erupt. Agreed?"
    "I have to think about it, Olga."
    "Fine. Think. But my time's up already. Turn away."
    I didn't have time. It was probably Olga's own fault. She'd miscalculated how much time she had left. It was a genuinely repulsive sight. Olga shuddered and arched over backward. A spasm ran