The third and fourth floors had already been refurbished and that assured my good mood. At long last it would be cool in the IT department too. Not that I was in there every day now, but even so… As I ran past I greeted the security guards who had clearly been posted here for the duration of the renovation. Just as I got to Gesar's office, I ran into Semyon. He was impressing something on Yulia in a serious, didactic tone of voice.

How time did fly… Three years earlier Yulia had still been just a little girl. Now she was a beautiful young woman. And a very promising enchantress-she had already been invited to join the European office of the Night Watch. They like to skim off the young talent-to a multilingual chorus of protestations about the great common cause…

But this time they hadn't gotten away with it. Gesar had held on to Yulia, and in addition let them know that he could recruit young European talent if he felt like it.

I wondered what Yulia herself had wanted in that situation.

"Been called back in?" Semyon enquired sympathetically, breaking off his conversation the moment he spotted me. "Or is your time up already?"

"My time's up, and I've been called in," I said. "Has something happened? Hi, Yulka."

For some reason Semyon and I never said hello, as if we'd only just seen each other. Anyway, he always looked exactly the same-dressed very simply, carelessly shaved, with the crumpled face of a peasant who has moved into the big city.

That day, in fact, Semyon was looking homelier than ever.

"Hi, Anton," Yulia said. Her expression was glum. It looked as though Semyon had been educating her again-he was a past master at that sort of thing.

"Nothing's happened," Semyon said with a shake of his head. "Everything's perfectly calm. Last week we only picked up two witches, and that was for petty offenses."