Anton kills the guard Dark Magician at Ostankino Tower

Anton Gorodetsky's infiltration of the Day Watch field headquarters at the Ostankino television tower and his killing of the guard Dark Magician marks a decisive turning point in the second story of The Night Watch, where the hunted becomes the hunter and the rules of engagement are abandoned. Having deduced that the Day Watch has set up a command post to coordinate the hunt for him, Anton walks into the trap deliberately, relying on a disguise and the element of surprise. The confrontation that follows is not a duel of spells but a brutal, improvised struggle in the deepest layers of the Twilight, ending with the guard's body tumbling three hundred meters to the ground. This act transforms Anton from a fugitive into an active combatant, and the intelligence he gathers inside the headquarters confirms that the entire manhunt is a feint designed to provoke Svetlana Nazarova into a rash, self-destructive intervention.

Infiltration and Discovery of the Headquarters

After escaping from the Maharajah restaurant, Anton deduces that the Day Watch must have established a field headquarters to coordinate the citywide hunt for him. He buys a ticket to the observation platform of the Ostankino television tower, a location he associates with the phantom that directed him there from the Twilight. The tower is eerily quiet: the elevator attendant remarks that "everyone just disappeared about two hours ago," a sign that ordinary people sense the concentration of Dark power. On the observation platform, Anton finds fewer than twenty visitors, all confused and depressed, and a single guard—a young Dark Magician in a gray suit who greets him with the name "Anton." The guard's casual familiarity reveals that the Day Watch has stationed a namesake of Anton's as a sentry, a detail that momentarily unnerves him. When the guard reaches for a charged wand made of carved shinbone with a ruby crystal, Anton realizes he cannot win a straight fight and must act instantly.

The Kill in the Second Level of the Twilight

Anton raises his shadow from the floor and enters the second level of the Twilight, a realm of cold, swirling mist and three moons—white, yellow, and blood-red—where time moves far more slowly than in the human world. The Ostankino tower does not exist in this reality; Anton is falling, but so slowly that he can still act. He grabs the Dark Magician's shadow, a "limp rag, a blur in space," and jerks the guard into the second level, a place the young magician has never visited. The guard screams when the world becomes unrecognizable. Anton braces himself on the guard's shoulders, pushes him downward, and climbs upward over his back, recalling the maxim that "great magicians climb their way up over other people's backs." The guard, still not recognizing Anton, howls and clutches at his leg. Anton kicks him repeatedly, not to inflict lasting injury but to force him lower, through all levels of reality. When he judges the guard is low enough, Anton pushes off from the spread-eagled body, leaps upward through the cold mist, and jerks himself back into the human world, appearing on the observation platform soaked and coughing.

The Fall and the Aftermath

Back on the platform, Anton sees the Dark Magician through the reinforced glass floor. The guard is screaming, his eyes black with pain and terror, his fingertips embedded in the glass as he hangs by them, his body swaying in the wind. The wand is still on his belt, forgotten. Anton stands above him and stamps his heel on the glass—once, twice, three times—knowing the blow will not reach the fingers fused into the glass. The guard jerks his hand away in a reflexive, irrational reaction, and the flesh gives way. The glass is covered with a film of blood, then the wind sweeps it away. Anton watches the vague outline of the Dark Magician's body tumble over and over in the tower's turbulent slipstream, carried toward the restaurant at the foot of the tower. The invisible clock ticking in Anton's mind gives a loud click and instantly cuts the time he has left in half. He steps off the glass and walks around the platform, now empty of visitors, and begins his reconnaissance of the headquarters.

Intelligence Gathered and the Deeper Plot Revealed

Inside the Bronze Hall restaurant, Anton observes the Day Watch's command post: three young operators working at computer terminals connected to cell phones, a Dark Magician of at least third-grade powers debating with Tiger Cub, the Night Watch observer, and a barwoman turned into a puppet. The operators report that districts like Sokolniki and the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line are under surveillance, but the net has gaping holes—the Botanical Gardens and Economic Exhibition districts are the last to be closed off. Tiger Cub, recognizing Anton despite his disguise, engages the Dark Magician in a philosophical argument about the nature of the Watches, subtly confirming that the Night Watch understands the hunt is a front. Anton realizes that the real target is not him but Svetlana: the entire manhunt is designed to provoke her into a reckless, self-destructive intervention that would either kill her or force her to lose control. The guard he killed, the operators, even the debating magician—all are expendable pieces in Zabulon's larger game. Anton leaves the headquarters with the knowledge that he must find the real Maverick before the trap springs, and that his only chance is to act outside the rules the Watches have imposed on him.