For instance, take that old business with the boy Egor, the indeterminate Other who was being hunted by vampires. Why did Gesar suddenly decide to send me out “into the field” to catch bloodsuckers who broke the rules? Simply to shift me from office work to the front line? No—or rather, not just for that. It was also to create a thicker smokescreen around the boy and teach me a lesson about the “goodness” of the Night Watch—and the “wickedness” of the Day Watch. And very probably he was also nudging me in the direction of Svetlana, tying our relations together in the knot that would lead to Nadya being born. And perhaps even with the intention of explaining—to me and the other watchmen—what a Mirror is. Could the boss have been expecting a Mirror to appear, suspecting it was Egor and not that poor devil Rogoza, who was fated to turn into it? And incidentally, the Russian boy’s first name and the young Ukrainian’s family name even sounded vaguely similar—Egor and Rogoza . . .

Damn it! Now I was really going over the top! Inventing my own conspiracy theories. Gesar’s an arch-intriguer, of course, and all his actions have double and triple agendas, but latching onto the fact that two names have similar sounds—that’s a sure step down the path to paranoia.

What did Gesar really have in mind, sending me to London like this, and on such sensationally good conditions—a paid trip, a business-class flight, and a safe, hassle-free assignment? We had plenty of less powerful but highly professional members of the Watch, male and female, who could have met Erasmus and tried to find out something from him.

Either Gesar suspected that the assignment could turn out more dangerous than it seemed . . .

Or he saw some special qualities in me that would allow me to handle the assignment better than the others . . .

Or the whole deal was phoney, to distract someone’s attention from the real business. Say, Gesar believed that Zabulon was following me and would now go dashing off to London to see Erasmus too.

I sighed. I could carry on thinking up any number of theories. But somehow I had the feeling that I was missing something very simple and very logical—and therefore missing the most logical explanation.

“I wouldn’t bother my head about it if I were you,” Svetlana said as she packed a little suitcase for me. “Gesar’s being devious, of course. But he needs you, and in general I think he’s very fond of you. He had to send someone to London to see Erasmus for form’s sake—so why not you?”

“But he clearly thinks this business with the Tiger case isn’t over yet,” I said pensively. We were in the bedroom. Nadya was watching TV in the sitting room and we could talk frankly.