The stiff Latvian waiters immediately started speaking Russian as soon as they’d added up the price of my order.
The service in the hotel was primitive and Soviet-style, despite its pretentious four-star rating. I wandered all around Jurmala, sat for ages in a little beer hall in Majori, strolled on the wet sand of the deserted beach, and in the evenings I escaped to Riga. There were two attempts to rob me, and one to rape me. I enjoyed myself as best I could… I had my Other powers then, and no human being in the world could cause me any harm. My heart was weary and empty, but I had all the Power I needed and more.
And then I suddenly felt sick of it all. All at once, in a single day. Maybe it was because of the two Night Watch agents who detained me in Dzintari for ages while they tried to frame me for some unsolved crime involving third-level magic. They were irreproachably polite and absolutely adamant. That was probably what the Latvian Red Riflemen were like, and then the Forest Brothers later. The Latvians are a very thorough, consistent people-once they take a job on, they see it right through to the end…
I managed to refute the charges-they were genuinely groundless in any case. But the very next morning I took a plane to Moscow. Without having swum in the sea even once all summer.
But now it was payback time for me.
Everything was going along all right, everything was normal. I met the woman in charge of the Azure section-a very nice woman, brisk and pleasantly businesslike, who spoke briefly and to the point in a good way. I felt we had parted entirely satisfied with each other.
Maybe it was because today I’d put on my light summer jeans, and not the provocative miniskirt?
At last I had done a bit of sunbathing and been in the sea. The beach at Artek was wonderful, except that there was too much howling from the kids. But that was an inevitable evil, no matter which way I looked at things. My little girls turned themselves over in the sun in a highly professional manner, trying to get a nice even tan. Almost half of them had suntan lotion and after-tan lotion, which they shared generously with each other, so there was no prospect of problems in the evening with burnt shoulders and backs.
If only I didn’t still have to keep an eye on the girls… I imagined myself swimming out a kilometer or two, or even three, throwing my arms out and lying on the water… looking up into the transparent sky, swaying on the gentle waves, not thinking about anything or hearing anything…
But no. I had to watch them. I had to teach Anya to swim and prevent Verochka, with her grade-one swimming diploma, from trying to swim off too far. I had to herd the girls into the shade-they might have suntan lotion, but rules were still rules… Basically, along with the wonderful sea, I had been given another eighteen capricious, noisy, fidgety little presents. The only thing that kept me smiling was the thought of the night ahead, when the time would come for me to get even with the most bothersome ones-I’d already decided it would be Verochka, Olga, and Ludmila! That night I wasn’t going to gather chance scraps of Power. I was going to sow the seeds that would sprout in their dreams.
And then I saw Igor.
No, I didn’t know what he was called then. I simply looked around as I was lying on the warm sand and noticed a well-built young man the same age as myself. He was messing about in the water with his little squirts-a gang of ten-or eleven-year-old boys-throwing them into the water, offering them his shoulders as a diving board, just
having a really good time. He wasn’t tanned at all, but that seemed to suit him somehow-in the middle of the crowd of swarthy children’s bodies he stood out like… like a white elephant moving condescendingly through a crowd of dark-skinned Indians…
A handsome young man.
I felt a sweet ache somewhere below my stomach. We haven’t really moved all that far away from people. I understood well enough that there’s an immense gulf between Others and human beings, that this young guy was not my equal and we couldn’t have any kind of lasting relationship, but even so…
I just like men like that: with strong muscles, light brown hair, and intelligent faces. There’s nothing to be done about it.
And what would be the point of doing anything? I’d been intending to find myself a friend for the summer anyway…
“Olechka, do you know what that camp leader’s called?” I asked the little girl pressing herself against me.
Olechka clearly felt fond of me because I’d singled her out from the crowd just a little bit, and now she was staying close to me, trying to build on her success. People are funny, especially children. They all want care and attention.
Olechka looked and shook her head. “That’s brigade number four, only they used to have a different leader before.”
A look of alarm appeared in the girl’s eyes-as if she were afraid that I would be disappointed with her for not knowing the answer. She probably really was afraid… “Do you want me to find out?” Olechka asked. “I know some boys in that brigade…”
“All right,” I said with a nod.
The little girl jumped up, scattering sand around her, and ran toward the water. I turned away, hiding a smile.
So now I already had my first informer. A nervous, skinny little girl desperately seeking my attention.
“He’s called Igor,” Natasha suddenly said out of the blue. She was sitting beside me. This was the same girl who had been dreaming about a boy the night before. She didn’t sunbathe like a child either-she sat up on the sand with her legs stretched out and her head thrown back, with her hands propping her up from behind. She must have seen the pose in some fashion magazine or a movie. Or perhaps she’d simply realized that in that position her new little breasts were clearly outlined under her swimming costume. She would go a long way…
“Thank you, Natasha,” I said. “I thought I’d met him somewhere before.”
The girl squinted at me and smiled. She said dreamily, “And he’s handsome…”
Whatever are young people coming to nowadays!
“But he’s too old, right?” I said, trying to tease her.
“No, he’s still not too bad.” And then she totally amazed me by declaring: “He’s reliable, though, isn’t he?”
“Why do you think so?”
Natasha pondered for a moment and replied lazily. “I don’t know. I just think so. My mom says the most important thing in a man is reliability. They don’t have to be handsome, let alone intelligent.”
“That depends on what you have in mind…” I wasn’t going to be bested by an eleven-year-old smarty-pants.
“Yes,” Natasha agreed readily. “There have to be handsome ones too. But I wasn’t talking about that sort of nonsense.”
How delightful! I thought that if this girl turned out to be an Other, I would definitely take her on as an apprentice.
There wasn’t much of a chance, of course, but just maybe…
A moment later, shedding all her precocious wisdom in an instant, Natasha jumped up and went dashing off along the beach after some kid who had splashed water on her. I wondered if the concept of reliability included daily dousings on the beach.
I looked at the young guy again. He’d already stopped messing about in the water and was driving his charges out onto the beach. What a remarkable figure! And the form of his skull was very regular. Maybe it’s funny but apart from a good figure there are two things I like in men-a beautifully shaped head and well-tended toes. Maybe it’s some kind of fetishism?
I couldn’t see his toes, of course. But so far I liked everything else I’d seen.
My little spy came back to report. Wet, excited, and happy. She plumped down on the sand beside me and started whispering, nervously winding a lock of hair around her finger.
“His name’s Igor Dmitrievich. He’s good fun and he only came yesterday. He plays songs on the guitar and tells interesting stories. The leader of the fourth brigade went away-his wife had a little boy. He thought it was going to be a month later, but it happened now.”
“Well, wasn’t that lucky,” I said, thinking mostly of my own interests. Bearing in mind that I had no powers at all and I couldn’t make the young guy fall in love with me, a coincidence like that was very useful. He’d just arrived, he hadn’t had a chance to form any romantic attachments… He surely wasn’t planning to spend his entire
session just practicing his educational skills, was he? He was there for the taking…
Olechka giggled happily and added in a very quiet voice: “And he’s not married either.”
What on earth can you do with them?
“Thank you, Olechka.” I smiled. “Shall we go in for a swim?”
“Uh-huh…”
I picked up the little girl, who squealed with delight, and ran into the water. It was clear that in the evening the favorite topic of conversation would be the new camp leader and my interest in him.
But that was okay.
In a couple of days I’d be able to make them forget anything I wanted them to.
The day rushed by like a film played at high speed.
The comparison was all the more appropriate because I’d arrived in Artek during the sixth session, when a children’s film festival was traditionally held there. Two days later there was going to be a grand opening, and film directors and actors were already giving talks in some of the camps. I didn’t have the slightest desire to watch any old or new children’s films, but the festival promised to give me a short break from keeping an eye on the girls. And I already felt like taking a break-I was as exhausted as after a long, tense spell of duty on the streets of Moscow.
After the afternoon snack, which consisted of apple juice and rolls with the romantic name Azure, I couldn’t hold out any longer and I phoned Zabulon. His satellite phone worked anywhere in the world, but there was no answer, which could only mean one thing-the chief was not in our world, but somewhere in the Twilight.
Well, he was a very busy man.
And sometimes his business wasn’t very pleasant. Traveling through the lower levels of the Twilight, where all parallels with the human world completely disappeared, was quite an ordeal. I’d never been down there myself; it required absolutely immense powers. Except, that is, for that one time, after my stupid stunt, when I was caught gathering energy from people illegally…
I can hardly remember anything about what happened. Zabulon rendered me unconscious, punishing me for my misdemeanor and protecting me against the deep levels of the Twilight at the same time. But sometimes I do recall something. As if there was one moment of clear awareness in the blank grayness.
It’s like a dream or a delirious vision. Maybe I was delirious? Zabulon, in the form of a demon, carrying me, thrown across his shoulder. His scaly hand squeezing my legs and my head dangling above the ground, above that shimmering, rainbow-colored sand. I look up and I see a glowing sky. A sky made entirely of blinding light. With big, black stars scattered across it. And between me and the sky there are two arches rising up to an immense height. Dull gray, as if they are made out of mist… there’s nothing frightening about them, but for some reason I am struck with terror. And the rustling-a dry, menacing rustling sound on all sides, as if the grains of sand are trembling and rubbing against each other, or there is a cloud of insects hovering somewhere outside my field of vision…
I was probably delirious after all.
Maybe now, when everything had been put right between us, I could risk asking Zabulon what was down there in the depths of the Twilight?
But the day rolled on, and now it was rapidly approaching evening. I got Olga and Ludmila to make up after they quarrelled. We went to the beach again and Anya swam a few meters for the first time without any help. She beat the palms of her hands against the surface of the water, with her eyes staring wildly, but she still swam…
This was hard labor, not a vacation! This was for the Light
Ones; they’d be only too happy to spend all their time on educational work. My only consolation was that night was approaching. The sun was already getting low in the sky and even the indefatigable children had begun to get tired.
After fish, pancakes, and potatoes for supper-I wondered where they put it all-I was ready for action. Now I only had to amuse the girls for another two hours until the second supper (anyone would have had to agree that all the kids who came were severely undernourished), and then it would be time to sleep.
It probably showed in my face.
Galina, the leader of the seventh brigade, came up to me. I’d got to know her that afternoon, more in order to keep up my cover than out of any real interest. She was an ordinary human girl, a standard product of the Light Ones’
tedious moralizing-kind, calm, and reasonable. She had a tougher job than me-her brigade was made up of girls who were twelve to thirteen years old, and that meant they were constantly falling in love, getting hysterical, and crying into their pillows. But even so Galina was positively on fire with the desire to help me.
“Tired?” she asked in a low voice, smiling as she looked at my girls.
I just nodded.
“The first session’s always like that,” said Galina. “Last year, after I’d worked here for a month, I swore I’d never come back again. And then I realized I couldn’t live without Artek.”
“Like a drug,” I prompted her.
“Yes.” Galina didn’t even notice my irony. “Everything here’s in color, if you know what I mean. And the colors are all so pure and bright. Haven’t you felt that yet?”
I managed a forced smile.
Galina took hold of my hand and, glancing mysteriously at the girls, she whispered, “Do you know what? The fourth brigade is going to build a bonfire now. They’ve invited us to the bonfire, and I’m inviting you! You’ll get two hours’ rest and your girls will be amused without you having to do anything.”
“Is it convenient?” I asked quickly, although I didn’t have the slightest desire to refuse. Not only because it was a chance to be free of work for two hours, but also because of the attractive camp leader, Igor.
“Of course it is!” said Galina, looking at me in surprise. “Igor comes to Artek every year. He’s one of our best leaders. You ought to get to know him too. He’s a nice guy, isn’t he?”