Evil Star (31 page)

"Here we go," Richard whispered.

Matt nodded. It was incredible to think of these age-old weapons being used to storm a twenty-first-century research center. But so far the Incas had proved themselves to be deadly effective.

The entire line of men rose up from the desert floor and began to move forward. At the same time, the men from the truck had slipped into the guard house and the elec-tronic gates slid open to let them in. Matt's mouth was dry. It seemed almost too easy. Was there Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star nobody in the com-pound watching out? But the guards in the watchtowers were already dealt with and — he reminded himself —

the Incas were all wearing dark clothes. Even if anyone did happen to be looking, they would blend into the gray emptiness of the desert. They were silent and just about invisible.

Pedro was the first in. Then came Atoc and the others, spreading out across the roads and walkways, finding shel-ter next to the nearest walls. The compound lay ahead of them, and for a moment there was nobody in sight. Only the lights behind the windows and the distant hum of machinery warned them that they were not alone.

Richard and Matt were among the last to enter. So they had the clearest view of what happened next.

A group of four Incas ran over to the radio mast and began to climb it. Atoc and the others were covering them, looking out for anyone who might approach. Still nobody knew they were there. But then, at the very last minute, a dead man gave them away. It was the guard in the watch-tower. He had been killed instantiy — but since he had died, the blood had run into the top part of his body and his weight had shifted. Quite suddenly, he fell forward, plunged through the air, and hit a corrugated roof with a thunderous crash. Nobody moved.

Nobody even breathed. Was it possi-ble that such a loud noise could have gone unheard?

An alarm rang out, shattering the still of the night. At the same time, searchlights exploded into life, and what had a few moments before been no more than a gathering of dark shadows and half-seen shapes was instantly blazing white. Every one of the Incas was exposed.

Matt and Richard, crouching together in a flat, open area of asphalt and rubble, were in the worst position of all. Doors crashed open.

Guards appeared. A machine gun began to chatter. Pieces of Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star brickwork were blown out of the walls. A whole group of Incas were sent flying to the ground, rolling in a hail of bullets. Richard grabbed hold of Matt and pulled him across to a pile of fuel drums.

Part of him knew that it was insane to hide behind gallons of petrol during a gun fight. Another part of him said that surely Salamanda's men wouldn't be mad enough to fire in this direction.

The Incas were scattering, trying to find cover. More shots were being fired. There were guards on the roofs. The door of the largest building opened and a man stepped out, a pistol clasped in one hand.

Seemingly unconcerned by the chaos all around him, he took careful aim and fired. One of the climbers who had made it halfway up the radio mast cried out and fell to the ground. Matt felt his blood go cold. He knew the man who had just fired the shot. It was Rodriguez, the police captain he had first met in Lima. As Matt watched, he took cover in the doorway, at the same time barking out an order to someone behind him. What was the police chief doing in the compound? It was no sur-prise that he was working for Salamanda. But it seemed he had now abandoned his normal duties completely to take over security here.

Something glinted in the hard light and a spear hurtled past Rodriguez, burying itself in the door. Rodriguez laughed, showing animal teeth, and fired a second shot. Matt saw something go whirling across the empty space in front of a building: three copper balls, tied together with cords. They vanished into the darkness and a moment later a guard stepped off the roof, half strangled, the cords wrapped around his throat. He crashed down in front of the police chief and lay twitching on the ground.

More machine-gun fire. There seemed to be guards everywhere, pouring out of doors and taking up positions across the compound.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star Matt's heart sank. They were obvi-ously outnumbered. And where was Pedro? Matt was beginning to regret coming here with the Incas. He couldn't help them. There was nothing he could do.

Unless . . .

He and Richard were in front of a small, brick building with a skull and crossbones painted on the side and the same word he had seen at the airport.
Peligro.
Danger. There was some sort of machinery humming inside.

"Richard!" he called out.

Richard understood. He drew back his foot and, using all his strength, kicked open the door. Matt hurried in. The building was filled with machines and heavy-duty fuse boxes, each one with silver handles set in the
on
position. Together, Richard and Matt began to turn them off. If they could cut the power supply running into the compound, perhaps they could interrupt the signals being sent into outer space.

There was a buzz and a crackle of electricity. The Klaxon fell silent and darkness returned to the compound. Richard and Matt had managed to disconnect the security system and this gave the Incas the advantage they needed. Spending their lives high up in the mountains, they were accustomed to the darkness. Now they used it, flitting in and out of their hiding places, taking out Salamanda's men one by one.

"Let's get inside," Matt said. Without waiting for Richard to reply, he ducked out of the generator room, underneath the radio mast, and into the building on the other side.

It had to be the main control center. It was right next to the radio mast, connected to the various satellite dishes by thick cables that Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star looped through the air. Matt didn't know what he was going to find inside. He wasn't armed and knew that he was taking a terrible risk.

But he couldn't just watch as the Incas fought his battle for him.

Somewhere in his mind it had occurred to him that if he and Richard could find the controls, they might be able to redirect the satel-lite, send it flying off into a different orbit. Or he might find Salamanda.

There had been no sign of him so far, but surely he would want to be here now. This was meant to be the night of his triumph. He wasn't just going to stay at home.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Matt made his way into a large, fully enclosed chamber. He looked up and took in the glass dome that he had seen from outside. On the other side he could make out the night sky and the radio mast with its satellites towering above.

All the walls were covered with plasma screens, some filled with digital readouts, some showing what must surely be live footage of the night sky. Mainframe computers stood beneath them and there were twenty or more work-stations set out on a shelf that curved the whole way around. There were about a dozen tables and chairs in the center, arranged like a classroom. They were covered in charts and other papers, some of which had been scattered onto the floor.

Most of the staff must have left when the fighting began. The whole place had been abandoned. But one man had remained behind. He was sitting alone at one of the tables, busily scribbling away at a pile of papers. As Matt approached, he turned slowly round.

It was Fabian.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then Fabian broke the silence. "Matthew!" he exclaimed. "Mr. ('ole!

What are you doing here?"

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"I think we should be asking you that," Richard said.

But it was obvious, really, when Matt thought about it. A driver —

Alberto — had been sent to the airport to pick him up and deliver him to the police at the Hotel Europa. He had always assumed that the driver had worked for Captain Rodriguez. In fact, he had been working for Fabian — and Fabian had admitted as much the last time they had spoken, on the telephone in Cuzco. And that telephone call had almost been Matt's undoing. The moment he had told Fabian where he was, the information had been passed on to Salamanda and the police.

Fabian was the traitor. He always had been.

Fabian seemed to have shrunk since they had last seen him. As always, he was wearing an expensive suit — but this time he had no tie. His clothes hung loose off him and he hadn't shaved. He had been drinking. There was a half-empty bottle on the table and his eyes were glazed. Staring at Richard and Matt, he blinked nervously

— more embar-rassed than scared or surprised.

“You ..." Richard swore viciously.

Fabian looked around him. "Where is everyone?" he asked. "There were a whole lot of people here a few min-utes ago."

"When did you start working for Salamanda?" Matt asked.

"Oh — a longtime ago. Before Raven's Gate. As a matter of fact, he's my publisher. He published two of my books and he asked me to meet him. He said he was very interested in some of the things I was writing about. Ancient history. Nazca. The Nexus was interested in me, too. They asked me to join them. But I'd already made my choice...."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"Why?"

"Because I want to be on the winning side. The world's going to change, you see. Everything's going to change. And the question you have to ask yourself is — do you want to spend the rest of your life in misery and pain or do you want to be with the winners? That was how Mr. Salamanda put it to me. He persuaded me that the Nexus didn't have a chance. I mean, it had always been predicted that the Old Ones would return. So what was the point of trying to fight against it?"

"You gave him the diary."

"I told him about the meeting at the church ... St. Meredith's. And I told him where you were, when you called in from Cuzco. I'm sorry about that. I didn't want you to get hurt — but it was all or nothing."

Fabian stood up, took a drink from the bottle, then went over to one of the largest screens. Matt had noticed it when they came in. It seemed to be showing some sort of radar signals. There were about a hundred dots, black on white, all of them static. But high up in the left-hand cor-ner, a single dot was moving slowly across, traveling about a centimeter every few minutes.

"There it is," Fabian said. "Cygnus. The swan. You have to admire Salamanda's genius. I mean, there's a guy with a head on his shoulders!" He laughed briefly to himself. "He's using an artificial star to unlock the gate." There was a time code at the bottom of the screen. It showed 22:19:58 for an instant; the numbers were rapidly changing as the seconds ticked away. "It'll be in place in less than two hours from now and there's absolutely nothing you can do," he mumbled. "Then it'll all be over. ..."

"We can still stop it," Matt said.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"No. You see . . ."

But before he could say any more, there was a crash as a door burst inward and a man reeled into the room. It was Rodriguez. He had obviously been in the thick of the fight-ing. His face was gray, streaked with dirt and sweat. He had a gun in one hand. His other hand was clutching his arm. He had been wounded. There was blood seeping through the jacket of his uniform. Matt would never know if he had come in here to hide or to look for him. Either way, Rodriguez had found him.

"You!" The single word was spat out with a mixture of hatred and amusement. Rodriguez straightened himself and raised the gun, aiming at Matt.

Matt said nothing. He was standing just a few meters away. The appearance of Captain Rodriguez had changed everything. He and Richard were defenseless. Fabian wasn't going to help them. There was nobody else in the room. What could he do? A thought flashed through his mind. Forrest Hill. The bully — Gavin Taylor —

holding a glass in his hand. Matt had used his power. It had been an acci-dent, but still it had been unforgettable. He had made the glass and the chandelier explode, simply by thinking about it.

Could he do the same now?

“You got away from me in Lima," Rodriguez said. "And again in Cuzco. But there will be no third time. This is where it ends."

"Leave him alone!" It was Richard who had spoken, and for a moment the gun turned on him.

“You are . . . the journalist?" Somehow the policeman had recognized him. "Do you want to die first or do you want to die second? Tell me! I can arrange it. ..."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star Desperately, Matt tried to focus on the gun. Why couldn't he do it?

What was the point of having some sort of hidden power if he didn't know how to use it? It should have been easy. A single blast of energy and the gun should have been spinning over to the other side of the room. Along with the man who held it.

But it wasn't happening.

Rodriguez was aiming the gun at his heart. Matt could almost feel the policeman's finger tightening on the trigger.

And then Fabian stepped into the line of fire.

“You don't have to kill them," he said.

"Get out of the way!" Rodriguez commanded.

Fabian was walking toward him. "No, no, no," he was saying.

"There's no need for this. You don't have to kill any-one. We've won! It's what Salamanda always said. In an hour, the Old Ones will be here and the whole world will be ours. I'm sorry, Captain Rodriguez. I don't care what you say. I'm not going to stand here and watch you shoot a child."

"Get out of my way!"

"No!" Fabian had reached him. He was unsteady on his feet. . . from the drink, from exhaustion. But he was between Rodriguez and Matt, his hand pressing down on the policeman's arm. "Salamanda promised me the boy wouldn't be hurt," he said.

"Salamanda lied!" Rodriguez laughed and pulled the trigger. Matt flinched. Fabian was thrown backward but somehow remained standing. He looked down at his stom-ach. Blood was gushing out of him. His shirt and his trousers were already saturated. He took a step back and collapsed quite suddenly, as if every nerve in his body had Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star suddenly been whipped out of him.