Evil Star (11 page)

"William Morton thought he was safe," Richard pointed out. "And look what happened to him!"

"We don't know what went wrong," Ashwood admitted. "None of us knew the meeting place until the day before, and of course we didn't tell anyone. We can only assume he must have been followed.

However, I agree with you. Your safety is of paramount importance

— which is why we've decided to take extra precautions. Nobody must even know you've left England."

"What about passport control?" Richard asked.

"I'm seeing to that." Tarrant took over. "I'm going to arrange false passports for you. This man — Salamanda — may not have any agents at Heathrow Airport, but he's sure to have people on the lookout when you arrive in Lima. So you'll both travel under assumed names. Nobody outside this room will know who you are."

"It still sounds crazy," Richard said. “Your plan is that you don't have a plan. Go to Peru! Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred pounds!"

"No," Matt interrupted. It was almost the first time he had spoken, and the thirteen adults in the room all turned to look at him. "I think Miss Ashwood is right. We can'tjust walk away. Not after all that's Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star happened. The second gate is in Peru. It's going to open. We have to be there."

Now, hours later on the plane to Peru, Matt wondered why he had been so decisive.

Maybe the twelve members of the Nexus had been right. His life was completely tangled up with the second gate, and there seemed to be no escaping it. Or was there part of him that genuinely wanted to help, to fight back at an ancient enemy? Matt wasn't sure. All he knew was that he was sweating and felt sick. As the engines began to roar in the buildup before takeoff, he was certain they would fall off the wings. And how could this huge machine with its six hundred passengers, suitcases, meal carts, and all the rest of it possibly stay up in the air? Matt had only ever flown twice in his entire life and those had been short hops to Marseilles and Malaga with his parents, when he was very young. This flight was going to last seventeen hours! He wasn't afraid of what he might find in Peru.

But he was certainly afraid of flying there.

Twenty minutes later, the 747 was well above cloud level, already leaving the west coast of England behind. A flight attendant came up to them with a menu.

"Would you like a drink, Mr. Carter?" she asked.

It took Matt a moment to realize that she was talking to them. Paul and Robert Carter. Two brothers traveling together. Those were the names on the false passports they had been given.

"I'll have a beer, thanks," Richard said.

"Just some water for me," Matt added.

They were traveling in business class, close to the front of the plane.

The tickets had cost thousands of pounds, but the Nexus had been Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star ready to pay millions for the diary. They obviously weren't short of cash. Matt settled back in his seat. He had a personal television set with a choice of about ten films as well as a selection of computer games. Richard had also bought him books and magazines. But he didn't feel like doing anything. Sitting there, suspended in the air somewhere above the Irish Sea, he felt empty, dis-connected.

"So do you want to talk about it?" Richard asked.

"What?"

"The door. What you saw on the other side."

Matt shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "I've been thinking about it. William Morton chose the church because of something he'd read in the diary. He used the door as a test, to prove I was who he thought I was."

Richard nodded. "If anyone else went through the door, they'd find themselves standing in a puddle in East London."

"But I went somewhere else. I'm not even sure I was in England."

Matt thought for a moment. "Do you remember what it said on that news program? The one we saw on the video? It said something about an Internet working inside the church. . .."

"It was one of the things in the diary."

"Well, maybe that's what it meant. When you sit at a computer, you can click a mouse and go where you like. You can link up with another computer anywhere in the world. Maybe it's the same sort of thing . . . only for real."

"That's great!" Richard smiled. "So all you have to do is find another church door in Peru and maybe you can go home without having to pay for another flight."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star The flight attendant came with the drinks. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and the smell of lunch was already spreading through the cabin from the galley just behind them. Only four months ago, Matt had been living with his aunt in Ipswich, failing at school, struggling from Monday to Friday, and wasting time on weekends. And now he was here. It was hard to believe.

Richard seemed to pick up his thoughts. “You didn't have to do this," he said.

"I think I did, Richard." Matt gazed out of the window. There was nothing to look at. Just the clouds and an empty sky. "Miss Ashwood knew it. Even William Morton. I'm part of this and I think I always have been. I tried to pretend otherwise and I nearly got a whole lot of people killed." He sighed. “You don't have to be here.

But I think I do."

“Yeah, well, you're not going anywhere without me."

"Then we're stuck in it together."

• • •

The flight seemed endless. Matt watched one film, then another. He read part of his book. He tried to sleep, but without success. The noise of the engines was all around
him and he couldn't forget the fact that he was hanging in space with the ground far too far away.

They landed in Miami and spent two hours in a characterless transit lounge while the plane refueled. By now Matt's inner clock was telling him that it was late in the evening — but it was still light outside. The entire day had been stretched out of shape and he felt exhausted.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star They took off again and suddenly the weather turned bad. The sky was dark and a fork of lightning cracked down-ward, flashing against the silver skin of the 747. They hit a patch of turbulence and Matt felt his stomach heave as the floor momentarily disappeared from beneath his feet. Inside the business section, the lights had been dimmed. A soft, yel-low glow illuminated the passengers, sitting in their seats, trying to look relaxed but at the same time gripping the arm-rests with all their strength. Nobody was talking.

But as every buffet of wind made the plane shudder, as the tone of the engines rose and fell in the swirling air pockets, one or two of them swore softly or even muttered a near-silent prayer.

And somehow, in the middle of all this, Matt finally managed to fall asleep. Not that it felt that way. One moment he was next to Richard, half concentrating on yet another film and counting the minutes until they were back on the ground, the next he was somewhere else.

The island. He recognized it at once and knew it so well that he had to remind himself that he had never actually been there. He had only ever visited it in his dreams. There was the shaft of black, broken rock. And there was the sea, as ugly as liquid tar, spread out all around. There was no wind, but the clouds were still racing across a darkening sky. Matt wondered what it all meant. Why was he here?

Why did he so frequently return?

He looked down and saw the strange reed boat that had been making its way toward him the last time he came here. It had reached the edge of the island and sat, aban-doned, on the gray sand.

"Matt!"

Someone had called his name. He turned round and saw the boy from the boat, standing on a rocky shelf just below him. The two of Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star them were about the same age but the boy was smaller and thinner than he, wearing clothes that were little more than rags. Matt opened his mouth to answer. He knew who the boy was and why he was there. He had come to collect him, to take him to the three others who were still waiting on the mainland, just half a mile away.

But the words never came. There was a scream. Matt looked up just in time to see the swan plunging out of the sky, its neck straining forward. It came at him with all the power of a plane crash. Even as he looked, the swan drew closer, its gaping beak filling his vision as if it were about to swallow him whole.

The other boy cried out. Matt felt himself falling.

There was a bump, and he opened his eyes.

Richard was sitting next to him.

They had arrived in Lima.

************************************

After the bright lights and bustle of Heathrow, with crowds milling among the duty-free shops as if every day were Christmas, he had arrived at a blank, empty space where the passengers were invited to queue up at a row of cubicles manned by border guards in black-and-white uniforms. The ceiling of the arrivals lounge was missing tiles and none of the fans were working. A few pot-ted plants sat wilting in the sticky heat. It wasn't so much Welcome to Peru as Welcome to Nowhere in Particular.

Matt was feeling tired and grimy as he waited in line with Richard

— looking just the same — next to him. But there was something else. As he watched the passengers moving ahead of him and heard Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star the clunk of the passport stamps as they were admitted into the country, he real-ized he was getting nervous. It was only now that he remembered that he and Richard were committing a crim-inal offense. They were traveling with false passports. He supposed the Nexus knew what it was doing, but even so, it suddenly seemed less of a good idea.

The two of them reached the front of the queue and found themselves facing a tired-looking official with suspi-cion etched into his face. Presumably that was his job, to be suspicious of everyone.

But Matt felt his heartbeat quicken as Richard handed over their documents. He glanced away. Part of the hall was held up by scaffolding and there was a large sign hanging below:
no cruzar.

area de peligro.
Richard had followed his eyes.

"Don't cross. Danger area," he translated.

Matt nodded, wondering if the words might be pro-phetic.

The border guard had run both the passports through a machine and was studying a television screen. Now he looked up. "What is the purpose of your visit?" He must have asked the same question ten thousand times.

"We're here on holiday," Richard lied.

The stamp came down twice more. That was it. They were through and Matt was annoyed with himself for even being slightly worried in the first place.

It had been agreed that Fabian wouldn't come to the airport himself to collect them. Again, there was always the chance that he might be recognized and followed. Instead, he would send a driver — and sure enough, there was a stocky Peruvian in a white short-sleeve shirt, waiting for them after they had picked up their luggage. He Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star was hold-ing up a sign with their false names:
paul and Robert
carter
. Two brothers on holiday. Nothing at all to do with Matt Freeman and Richard Cole, who had come here to save the world.

"Buenos dias,
" the driver said, reaching out to take the cases for them. "I am Alberto. Mr. Fabian sends you his good wishes. I hope you had a good flight."

"It was long," Richard said.

The driver laughed. "Long flight. Yes. You have come very far. But Mr. Fabian is near. I take you to him."

He led them out. of the airport, pushing through a crowd of anxious-looking people who immediately sur-rounded them shouting, "Taxi!

Taxi!" and trying to snatch at their hand luggage. Matt was feeling really tired now. It was early evening and a heavy darkness hung in the sky. The air was warm and smelled of diesel. He hoped it wouldn't take them too long to reach the hotel.

Their car was a brand-new shuttle bus. As the door slid shut and the driver turned on the engine, Matt felt the wel-come chill of the air-conditioning. He sunk back in the leather seat with Richard beside him.

"Peru..." Richard muttered.

"Yeah." Matt didn't know what to say.

"It's not as Peruvian as I'd imagined. Shouldn't there be llamas?"

"We're in the middle of an airport, Richard."

"Well. . . something." Richard closed his eyes tiredly.

Alberto put the car into gear and they moved off.

Matt gazed out the window. After the long journey, the hours spent Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star in the air, it was difficult to believe that he had arrived. He was in South America! Not just a foreign coun-try but a whole new continent. A different world.

They drove past some sort of naval base — the airport had been close to the sea — and joined a six-lane motor-way, somehow blending in with about a thousand other vehicles, rushing along on all sides. Brightly colored buses, just big enough for twenty passengers but carrying twice as many, rumbled past. Toyota vans, also crammed with peo-ple, swerved in and out of the traffic, horns blaring. On each side of the road there was a wide strip of wasteland, rubble strewn with old tires, oil drums, and garbage. Broken walls covered with graffiti dotted the way, along with ancient watchtowers, some of them sprouting the red-and-white Peruvian flag. To Matt, it seemed as if a war had been fought here, but a very long time ago, and the people were still clearing up the mess.

Somehow the tangle of dust, graffiti, traffic, and concrete managed to tumble together into something vaguely resem-bling a city. As they drew closer to the edge of Lima, Matt saw a row of modern office buildings, a garage with its name —
repsol
— flashing in neon, a few shops still open, with people lolling around outside.

Signs of everyday life. Green-and-red taxi bikes buzzed past them, their own horns blasting out angry little tunes. Billboards carrying adver-tisements for computers and mobile phones sprung up, blocking out the view. And then they turned off and came back once again to the sea, gray and uninviting, breaking against sand that seemed to have been mixed with cement, forming a beach that was barely more attractive than a building site.