Perovo field headquarters

The Perovo field headquarters was the emergency command center established by the Night Watch in a first-floor apartment in the Perovo district of Moscow to coordinate the response to the black Inferno vortex threatening the city. It served as the operational hub where Boris Ignatievich directed the search for the cursed woman Svetlana Nazarova, deployed field operatives, and managed the crisis, while also hosting the Dark Magician Zabulon as an observer from the Day Watch.

Location and Setup

The headquarters was set up in a four-room apartment on the first floor of a nine-story block in Perovo, a large city district east of central Moscow. The apartment's owners—a family of four including a five-year-old child—were put into a deep, healthy sleep to prevent interference. The heavy steel door, firmly closed in the human world, stood wide open in the Twilight, allowing Others to enter directly. Inside, the space was noisy, smoky, and hot, crowded with more than twenty Others including field operatives and backroom staff. A medium-size magic ball hung above a dressing table, transmitting a view of the vortex from above, operated by Lena, the Watch's best ball operator. Boris Ignatievich himself reclined on the bed in a brightly colored robe, soft oriental slippers, and an embroidered skullcap, smoking from a portable hookah—a habit he reverted to in moments of exceptional stress, recalling his time in Central Asia.

Strategic Role and Operations

The headquarters was the nerve center for the crisis. From here, Boris Ignatievich coordinated the search for Svetlana Nazarova, the young doctor under a Dark Magician's curse, whose black vortex had grown to thirty-two meters high and threatened to trigger a global catastrophe. He deployed field operatives like Danila and Farid to track the girl, and recalled vacationing agents from as far as Sri Lanka. The boss also used the headquarters to brief the assembled Watch members, revealing that the Day Watch had been given an ultimatum and that the unknown Dark Magician who created the vortex would be handed over to the Dark Ones if found. The headquarters was also where the boss analyzed Anton Gorodetsky's mistakes from the previous night's vampire hunt, and where he revealed that the boy Egor possessed potentially greater power than even he himself.

The Day Watch Observer

The headquarters was notable for hosting Zabulon, a top-flight Dark Magician, as an observer from the Day Watch—a standard practice under the Treaty. Zabulon sat modestly in the corner, dressed in a loose-fitting gray suit, with sunken cheeks and sad eyes. His presence was a constant reminder of the fragile balance between Light and Darkness. When Anton entered, Zabulon's brief probing glance cracked Anton's protective shell, forcing the boss to demand an amulet for Anton's immunity. Zabulon provided a carved ivory medallion on a copper chain, which Anton caught after the magician threw it. The Dark Magician's presence underscored the high stakes: the Day Watch did not want a global catastrophe either, but they were also maneuvering to claim the unknown Dark Magician for their own purposes.

Consequences and Aftermath

The Perovo headquarters was the site where the boss revealed the three probability paths for the vortex's development: the most likely catastrophic eruption, the elimination of the target (Svetlana), and the third path involving Anton. It was also where the boss sent Anton and Olga to search for the boy Egor, a seemingly secondary assignment that proved crucial to the larger plot. The headquarters' existence was temporary, dissolved once the crisis shifted to other locations—the roof of Egor's building, the Maharajah restaurant, and finally the Ostankino television tower. The Perovo command center exemplified the Night Watch's ability to rapidly establish a functional operations base in an ordinary human dwelling, transforming a private apartment into a war room for the invisible battle between Light and Darkness.