Free The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, Sergei Luk'ianenko Page B

asked.
    "Yes, as a matter of fact, you are," I replied. "Light and Darkness… why do you look that way?"
    "The last time I assumed human form was fifty-five years ago." I nodded.
    "I get it. They used you in the war."
    "They use me in every war," Olga said with a sweet smile. "In every serious war. At any other time I'm forbidden to assume human form."
    "There's no war on now."
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    "Then there's going to be one."
    She didn't smile that time. I restrained my oath and just made the sign to ward off misfortune.
    "Do you want to take a shower?"
    "I'd love to."
    "I don't have any woman's clothes… will jeans and a shirt do?" She nodded. She got up—moving awkwardly, waving her arms around in a funny way and looking down in surprise at her own bare feet. But she walked to the bathroom like it wasn't the first time she'd taken a shower at my place.
    I made a dash for the bedroom. She probably didn't have much time.
    A pair of old jeans one size smaller than I wear now. They'll still be too big for her… A shirt? No, better a thin sweater. Underwear… hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm.
    "Anton!"
    I piled the clothes into a heap, grabbed a clean towel, and dashed back. The bathroom door was open.
    "What kind of faucet is this?"
    "It's a foreign import, a ball mechanism… just a moment."
    I went in. Olga was standing naked in the bath with her back to me, turning the lever of the faucet left and right.
    "Up," I said. "You lift it up to get pressure. Left for cold water, right for hot."
    "Okay. Thanks."
    She wasn't even slightly embarrassed. Not surprising, considering her age and her rank… even if she no longer held one.
    But I felt embarrassed. So I tried to act unfazed.
    "Here are the threads. Maybe you can pick something out. That is, if you need anything."
    "Thank you, Anton…" Olga looked at me. "Take no notice. I've spent eighty years in a bird's body. Hibernating most of the time, but I've still had more than enough."
    Her eyes were deep, fascinating. Dangerous eyes.
    "I don't think of myself as a human being, or an Other, or a woman any longer. Or as an owl, either, come to that. Just… a bitter, old sexless fool who can sometimes talk." The water spurted out of the showerhead. Olga slowly raised her arms and turned around, reveling in the Page 49
    sensation of the firm jets.
    "Washing off the soot is more important to me than… the embarrassment of an attractive young man." I swallowed the "young man" without any arguments and left the bathroom. I shook my head, picked up the cognac, and opened the bottle.
    One thing at least was clear: She was no werewolf. A werewolf wouldn't have kept the clothes on its body. Olga was a magician. A female magician maybe two hundred years old who'd been punished eighty years ago by being deprived of her body but still hoped for a chance to redeem herself. She was a specialist in conflicts involving force, and the last time she'd been used for a job had been about fifty years earlier…
    That was enough information to search the database in the computer. I didn't have access to the complete files; I wasn't that senior. But fortunately the top management had no idea how much information an indirect search could yield.
    Provided, of course, that I really wanted to find out who Olga was.
    I poured the cognac into the glasses and waited. Olga came out of the bathroom about five minutes later, drying her hair with a towel. She was wearing my jeans and sweater.
    I couldn't say she was totally transformed… but she was definitely looking way more attractive.
    "Thanks, Anton. You've no idea how much I enjoyed…"
    "I can guess."
    "Guessing's not enough. That smell, Anton… that smell of burning. I'd almost got used to it after half a century." She sat down awkwardly on a stool and sighed. "It's not good, of course, but I'm glad this crisis is happening. Even if they don't pardon me, for a chance to get washed…"
    "You can stay in this form, Olga. I'll go out and buy some decent clothes."
    "Don't