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was already up and the light was too bright for it. From down in the street, of course, it would have been hard to tell what kind of bird had landed on the tenth-floor window. But if the neighbors had happened to glance out, they'd have got a real surprise. A polar owl in the center ofMoscow …
    "What the hell…" I grunted.
    I felt like being more specific. But that was a habit they'd cured me of when I first started working in the Watch. Or rather, I'd cured myself. Once you've seen a couple of Dark twisters above the heads of people you've sworn at, you soon learn to hold your tongue.
    The owl was looking at me, waiting.
    All the birds nearby went wild. A swarm of sparrows sitting in a tree not far away started chirping crazily. The crows were a bit bolder. They settled on the next-door balcony and the nearest trees and started squawking, every now and then launching off from the branches and circling near the window. Their instincts told them this surprising new neighbor meant trouble.
    But the owl didn't react at all. She didn't give a damn about the sparrows, or the crows.
    "Just who are you?" I muttered as I threw open the window, ripping off the paper strips glued over the cracks. The boss had really saddled me with this new partner…
    The owl flapped its wings once and flew into the room. It landed on the wardrobe and closed its eyes, as though it had always lived here. Maybe it got cold on the way over? But then again, it was a polar owl…
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    I started closing the window, trying to think what to do now. How would I communicate with her, what would I feed her, and how, in God's name, could this feathered creature possibly help me?
    "Is your name Olga?" I asked, when I'd finished with the window. There was a draft from the cracks now, but I could fix that later. "Hey, bird!"
    The owl half-opened one eye, taking no more notice of me than of the fussy, chattering sparrows. I was feeling more awkward with every moment. In the first place I had a partner I couldn't even talk to. And in the second place my partner was a woman!
    Even if she were an owl.
    Maybe I ought to put my pants on? I wasn't really awake yet, standing there in just my crumpled shorts, I hadn't shaved…
    Feeling like a total idiot, I grabbed my clothes and dashed out of the room. I muttered to the owl,
    "Excuse me, I'll just be a moment."
    If this bird really were what I thought it was, I couldn't have made the best of impressions. What I really wanted was to take a shower, but I couldn't afford to waste that much time. I made do with a shave and sticking my buzzing head under the cold faucet. On the little shelf, between the shampoo and the deodorant, I found some eau de cologne, which I don't normally use.
    "Olga?" I called as I stuck my head out into the corridor.
    I found the owl in the kitchen, on the refrigerator. Just sitting there looking dead, like a stuffed dummy stuck up there as a joke. Almost the way it had looked on the boss's shelves.
    "Are you alive?" I asked.
    One amber-yellow eye peered at me.
    "All right," I said, spreading my hands. "Why don't we start from the beginning? I realize I haven't made a very good impression. And I'll be honest about it, I do that all the time." The owl was listening.
    "I don't know who you are," I said, straddling a stool and facing the refrigerator. "And you can't tell me either. But I can introduce myself. My name's Anton. Five years ago I discovered that I was one of the Others."
    The owl made a sound that was more like a muffled laugh than anything else.
    "Yes," I agreed. "Only five years ago. That was just the way things went. I had a very high level of resistance. I didn't want to see the Twilight world. So I didn't, until the boss found me." The owl seemed to be getting interested.
    "He was doing a practical exercise, briefing agents on how to identify secret Others. When he came Page 25
    across me…" I laughed as I remembered. "He broke through my resistance, of course. After that it