Gesar looked at me and said: “You have a go, Anton. What frightens you in all this?”

I thought for a minute before starting to answer.

“A plane . . . a plane that should have crashed, but didn’t. A boy-Prophet who turned up so fortuitously right in front of my eyes. What he said . . . about me in the first instance. A policeman I ran into many years ago and who can now see Others, although he himself isn’t an Other. His partner, whose aura has disappeared and who couldn’t give a damn about anything anymore. Some unknown individual, whom the policeman called a ‘tiger.’ The fact that the two policemen described this unknown individual quite differently. The fact that a clairvoyant Higher Magician is unable to foresee events.”

“But how can all that be interconnected?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly.

“And what exactly is it that frightens you? Surely not what was said about a ‘tiger’? This policeman of yours calls us ‘dogs’ and the Dark Ones ‘wolves.’ ”

“What frightens me is the intense concentration of strange elements,” I said. “It all started this morning. Only eight and a half hours ago. There’s so much, and all at once!”

Gesar nodded. He seemed satisfied with what I’d said.

“That’s right. Too many strange things. It can’t be a coincidence, so there must be a common reason. Can you suggest any possibilities?”

“You’re just like Dr. House, Boris Ignatievich,” Svetlana said ironically.

“What?” asked Gesar—it was one of the rare occasions when I’d seen the boss bewildered. I don’t believe he ever had any interest in the cinema, and all he watched on TV was the news and the figure skating, which he found attractive for some reason.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Svetlana. “Just this . . . famous doctor. He used to propose crazy theories to his junior colleagues, and then choose the correct one himself.”

Gesar gave Svetlana a rather dubious look. Then he nodded and said: “I hope he had more enterprising colleagues than mine. I haven’t heard a single theory so far.”

“A divine being,” Jermenson said unexpectedly. “No, I’m not talking about God or a Messiah, but perhaps we’re dealing here with a manifestation of some sacral, mystical entity . . .”

“Retirement’s having a bad effect on you, Mark,” Gesar said irritably. “The only mystical entity in our world is us—the Others. All the rest is human folklore.”

“Well, some Others don’t think so . . .” Jermenson muttered, but without any real conviction.

“So this is Other folklore, then!” Gesar snapped. “Are there any serious theories?”

“An emanation of primal Power,” suggested Glyba. “The Light or the Darkness . . .”

“That’s the same ‘divine entity’ again, only in different words,” said Gesar.

“But the Light and the Darkness exist,” said Glyba, with a shrug. “When we swear on the Light, it confirms our words.”