Evil Star (23 page)

Matt wondered how the animals could bear to stand here, so far underground, but he supposed they must be used to it. The Indian bowed low as he approached. Matt smiled, feeling increasingly uneasy.

"Please. We must hurry," Atoc said.

Matt and Pedro climbed onto the first two mules. Atoc and the Indian took the next two. There were no saddles, just brightly colored blankets tied underneath. Matt had never ridden an animal in his life and wondered how he was meant to make this one go. But the mule knew what it was doing. The moment all four of them had mounted, it set off at a fast pace, its hooves thudding rhythmically on the soft, earth-covered floor.

One after another, the flickering oil lamps lit their progress. Nobody spoke. Matt noticed that some of the gold panels had designs beaten into them: faces and warrior fig-ures bristling with weapons. After a while, the passage widened and they passed countless treasures lined up against the walls: jars and pitchers, cups and trays, idols and funeral masks — many of them made out of silver and gold. He wondered how long it would take them to reach wher-ever they were going. The fact that he had no idea where that was only made the journey feel longer. And it was almost impossible to measure the passing of time. All he knew was that they were climbing. The path had been slop-ing upward almost from the start, although the ceiling felt as heavy as ever and he was sure they were getting no closer to the surface. So they were heading out of Cuzco, into the mountains.

That was the only possible explanation.

After at least an hour and possibly as much as two, they suddenly Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star stopped. Despite everything, Matt had been drift-ing into sleep and he was nearly thrown right over the animal's head. His legs were sore from constantly rubbing against the coarse hair. He added the smell of mule to the many other odors he had picked up since Lima.

"We walk from here," Atoc said.

They all dismounted, leaving the animals with the other Indian, who had never spoken, not even to tell them his name. Matt assumed that there must be another exit from the tunnel, some other way to bring the mules into the open air. Ahead of them was another narrow staircase and a lever set in the wall. Atoc raised a finger to his lips and pulled the lever. Matt heard a slight creaking, the turning of a wheel, and guessed that a mechanism like the one that had opened the first wall was being used.

Atoc waited a moment, listening. Somebody whistled, two single notes that sounded like a bird. At once, he relaxed. "We can go up,"

he said, then repeated it in Spanish for Pedro.

They began to climb. Matt could see a circle ahead of him, lit by a white light that seemed to hang in the far dis-tance. Some sort of tattered curtain hung down. It was only as he passed through that he realized this was the mouth of a cave, surrounded by foliage. The light was a full moon. Matt walked back out into the open, on a hillside high above Cuzco, with two more Indians in ponchos bowing at him.

Pedro joined him and they saluted him, too. Then Atoc appeared.

Matt looked back. There was a round hole in the ground, the entrance to the cave. But it was only a couple of meters deep, with a solid back wall. The steps had disap-peared. Matt realized that the lever must have been pulled a second time and some sort of huge boulder had rolled into place. The exit from the tunnel was as Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star impossible to find as the entrance.

The two Indians gestured and he followed them away from the edge of the hill and into what looked like the ruin of an ancient stadium, a theater, a fortress ... or perhaps a mix of all three. There was a flat area, roughly circular, covered by grass and surrounded by gigantic boulders that had been arranged in a zigzagging line. There were three levels to the stadium, so whatever activity had once taken place in the circle could have been witnessed by thousands of people, standing or sitting above. The place was lit by floodlights and there were still twenty or thirty tourists wan-dering through the ruins. Nobody took any notice of Matt, Pedro, and Atoc. They had come out of nowhere, but Atoc had made sure nobody had seen them arrive.

"This . .. Sacsayhuaman," he told Matt. "Sacsayhuaman means

'Royal Eagle' and this place was a great fortress until the Spanish came. You see the throne of the Inca!" He pointed to the rough shape of a seat that had actually been cut into the rock on the opposite side. There was a girl in a fleece jacket sitting there, having her photograph taken. Atoc frowned in distaste. "Now we leave," he said.

There were a few taxis and a single bus parked in a car park on the other side of the ruin. Matt could see a road twisting back down the hill and into Cuzco. But that wasn't where they were heading. For the second or third time that night, Matt stopped in total amazement.

Right in front of them, parked out of sight behind the Inca throne, a heli-copter stood waiting for them with two more Indians on guard, looking out anxiously for any sign of the police. Matt could see now how much organization had gone into finding him. From the moment that he had run out of the main square in Cuzco, an Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star invisible net had been drawing in on him, waiting to scoop him out.

"You're not serious," Matt muttered.

"We must go long way," Atoc said.

"Where's the pilot?"

"I'm the pilot."

There were just four seats in the helicopter, two in the front, two behind. The cabin was little more than a glass bubble in a metal frame with the rotors hanging limp above. One of the Indians opened the door. Matt hesitated. But wherever they were going, it had to be better than Cuzco. Captain Rodriguez was there, looking for him. The helicopter would take him out of the city. Maybe it would even take him out of Peru.

But before he could move, he heard the sound he had most dreaded: sirens. The police were on their way, com-ing to investigate.

Someone must have seen the helicopter land. And suddenly, there they were, two cars no bigger than toys, bouncing up the road still far below but getting nearer all the time. Atoc pushed Matt forward.

It was defi-nitely time to go.

But Pedro wasn't budging. Matt could see how tense he was, his fists clenched, refusing to move. Pedro turned to Atoc and let loose a torrent of Spanish. Atoc tried to reason with him. Matt remembered how he had felt as they took off from Heathrow. He had been sweating all the way. Pedro would never have flown in his life, so this helicopter had to look to him like some sort of oversize nightmare insect.

The police cars were getting closer. Their headlights seemed to be Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star reaching out in front of them, eager to arrive first. Pedro stayed where he was. He pointed at the helicop-ter and snapped out a few ugly words. Atoc held up his hands — a gesture of surrender — but at the same time, he spoke again. His voice was soft despite the urgency. The first police car was perhaps a quarter of a mile away.

At last Pedro turned to Matt.
"Qué piensas tu?”
he asked.

Matt hoped he'd understood. "It's okay," he said. "I think we should go."

Pedro let out a deep breath. He unclenched his fists, ran forward, and climbed in. Matt could see how much effort it took him. He followed. Atoc climbed into the front seat and punched at the controls. The rotors began to turn.

Matt wondered if they had left it too late. It would be several minutes before the helicopter was ready for takeoff. The rotors were still turning so slowly he could see them. The police cars were close enough now for him to make out the men inside. Pedro wasn't even watching. As the engines began to scream, he went completely white and sat frozen, staring out at the sky. The first police car reached the car park and leaped over the gravel, heading toward them. But then its windscreen shattered and Matt saw that the Indian who had opened the door for them was holding a slingshot, the same weapon that Pedro had used. He had hurled a stone at the car and scored a direct hit. The police car wheeled round and came to a sudden halt.

The second police car smashed straight into it, spinning it round.

Both police cars stalled and sat still.

The doors opened, and uniformed men tumbled out, pulling guns out of their holsters. The two Indians next to the helicopter turned and ran. Matt wondered what would happen next. They were sitting targets. The rotors still weren't turning fast enough. He glanced Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star round and saw the tourists diving for cover. One of the policemen took aim.

But the rotors had picked up speed. Suddenly the dust rose in a cloud. The policemen disappeared from sight — Matt guessed they must have been blinded. Pedro cried out. The entire cabin rocked as Atoc played with the con-trols. Then he pushed forward and the helicopter lurched into the air, hovered for a moment, then spun round and flew into the moonlight. Behind them, the great stones of Sacsayhuaman quickly dwindled away.

The policemen cursed and rubbed grit out of their eyes. But by the time they were able to look up, the helicop-ter had gone.

Chapter 14 Through the Cloud

Forest

There was no view. As the helicopter droned on through the night, Matt was as disoriented as he had been when he'd first entered the wall. The lights of Cuzco had long since faded away behind them, and for a time the moon had been their only guide. But even that had disappeared, swallowed up by clouds so thick it was hard to believe they could actually float. Atoc remained clamped over the con-trols, his face lit by a soft, green light. The helicopter blades thudded at the air, but sometimes Matt got the impression that they weren't moving at all but had somehow got stuck in the gluey stillness of the night.

Pedro hadn't spoken a word since the takeoff. Nor had he tried to Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star look out the window. His whole body was rigid, his eyes fixed on the pilot as if he couldn't believe he knew how to fly this machine —

or might forget at any time. Eventually, he fell asleep and Matt must have followed him, because suddenly he was back at sea, making an altogether different journey, drifting with the tide.

"Do you still think I'm one of the five?" Pedro asked.

"Of course." Matt was surprised by the question. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm a stupid coward. I was too scared to get into the helicopter. I almost got us caught by the police. I'm still scared now, even though I'm asleep."

Matt shook his head. "You're not a coward," he said. "If you want the truth, I'm afraid of flying, too."

"I saw planes flying out of Lima. When I was doing my juggling, near the airport. I could never understand how anything so heavy could fly. I still don't." Pedro scowled. 'You really think I'm one of the five?"

"I know you are. And I'm glad you're with me, Pedro. When I think about it, I've never had a real friend. Not for as long as I can remember."

"I stole your watch!"

"I'll get another. . . ."

They both woke at the same moment. The helicopter had landed.

Matt looked out the window while Pedro stretched and yawned.

They had come to a halt in a field in the middle of nowhere. Three oil lamps had been laid out on the grass — Atoc would have been able to see them from the air and had used them to know where to land. But there were no other lights anywhere. Instead, the flames Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star illuminated a line of trees, the edge of what must have been thick jungle. A hand slapped against the helicopter window and Matt started. Atoc, however, had been expecting it.

"Is all right. . . friends," he said.

There were two more Indians waiting for them outside. One of them opened the door and helped the boys to climb down. They were both wearing ponchos and woven hats and kept their heads down as if unwilling to meet the boys' eyes. It was cold outside the helicopter, much colder than it had been in Cuzco. Matt wondered if they had climbed to an even greater altitude. He breathed in. Very little oxygen made its way to his lungs. He was obviously high up. But where? The second Indian hurried forward, holding out ponchos for Pedro and himself. They were beautifully woven, with gold thread forming intricate patterns against a dark green background. Matt slipped his head through the hole in the middle and let the rich material hang around him. He was surprised how effectively the poncho protected him from the chill.

"We stay here tonight," Atoc said. "Travel tomorrow in the light."

"Where are we?" Matt asked.

"This place . . . Vilcabamba." The answer left him none the wiser.

"We are in cloud forest," Atoc went on. "Tomor-row we must walk for many hours. Not possible to go in helicopter."

"So where do we sleep?"

"We make ready. ..."

The Indians led them to the edge of the clearing, where three tents had been prepared. Atoc indicated that the two boys were to share.

“You need sleep," he said. "Tomorrow is very hard."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star He left them together. The tent was brand-new and there were two sleeping bags rolled out on foam mattresses inside. A battery-operated light hung from the main sup-port. Matt didn't bother undressing. He slipped out of the poncho and rolled it up, using it as a pillow. Then he slid into the sleeping bag. Pedro did the same.

For a brief moment, he thought about Richard. He
wondered if he was being carried even farther away from his friend. And what of Fabian? Was he somewhere in Cuzco, searching for them even now?

There was so much he didn't understand, but he was too tired to think about it now. He was asleep before he knew it.

This time there were no dreams.

• • •

He was woken up by the light trying to break through the fabric of the tent. Pedro was still asleep, his body curled up and his head facing the other way. Matt stretched him-self with difficulty inside his sleeping bag. The foam had done little to protect him from the hard ground, and his back and shoulders were stiff. He thought of staying where he was and trying to get back to sleep, but there was no chance of that. He was too uncomfortable — and, anyway, Pedro was snoring. Making as little noise as possible, Matt crawled out of the tent, dragging the poncho with him. Once he was outside, he stood up and put it on.