The Night Watch (Book 1) by Sergei Lukyanenko

Author:Sergei Lukyanenko [Lukyanenko, Sergei]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction
ISBN: 9780099489924
Publisher: Random House Uk Ltd
Published: 2006-01-15T06:00:00+00:00

* * *

A cell phone trilled in the corner of the room and a dozen people automatically reached for their phones. Maxim located the source of the sound and caught his breath.

The man talking into the cell phone in rapid, quiet bursts was not simply Evil. He was enveloped in a black shroud that other people couldn’t see, but Maxim could sense it.

The draft was coming from him, it smelled of danger, appalling danger, coming closer.

Maxim felt a sudden ache in his chest.

“You know what, Lena, I’d like to live on a desert island,” Maxim blurted out before he realized what he was saying.

“Alone?”

“With you and the children. But no one else. Not a soul.”

He gulped down the rest of his wine and the waiter immediately refilled his glass.

“I wouldn’t like that,” his wife said.

“I know.”

The dagger felt heavy and hot in his pocket now. The mounting excitement was acute, almost sexual. It demanded release.

“Do you remember Edgar Allan Poe?” Svetlana asked.

They’d let us in without any fuss. I hadn’t been expecting that-the rules in restaurants must have changed, been made more democratic, or maybe they were just short of customers.

“No. He died too long ago. But Semyon was telling me…”

“I didn’t mean Poe himself. I meant his stories.”

“The Man of the Crowd,” I guessed.

Svetlana laughed quietly.

“Yes. You’re in the same fix as him right now. You have to stick to crowded places.”

“Fortunately I’m still not sick of those places just yet.”

We had a glass of Bailey’s each and ordered something to eat. That probably gave the waiter certain ideas about why we were there: two inexperienced prostitutes looking for work-but I didn’t really care.

“Was he an Other?”

“Poe? Probably an uninitiated one.”

“There are some qualities-some incorporate things,

That have a double life, which thus is made

A type of that twin entity which springs

From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.”

Svetlana recited in a quiet voice.

I looked at her in surprise.

“Do you know it?” she asked.

“How can I put it?” I said. Then I raised my eyes and declaimed:

“He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!

No power hath he of evil in himself;

But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!) Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf, That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod No foot of man), commend thyself to God!”

We looked at each for a second and then both burst into laughter.

“A little literary duel,” Svetlana said ironically. “Score: one-one. A pity we don’t have an audience. But why did Poe remain uninitiated?”

“A lot of poets are potential Others. But some potentials are best left to live as human beings. Poe was too psychologically unstable; giving people like that special powers is like handing a pyromaniac a can of napalm. I wouldn’t even try to guess which side he would have taken. He’d probably have withdrawn into the Twilight forever, and very quickly.”

“But how do they live there? The ones who have withdrawn forever?”

“I don’t know, Svetlana. I expect no one really knows. You sometimes come across them in the Twilight world, but there’s no contact in the usual sense of the word.

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