Evil Star (8 page)

Richard walked in. Matt followed and the door closed behind them.

So this was the Nexus! Matt knew only what Fabian had once told him. The Nexus was a secret, worldwide organization that existed only to fight the Old Ones. Its members included representatives from government, police, church, and business — but they were here independently, presumably at their own expense. Not that the cost would matter. The Nexus had all the money it needed. What it didn't have — yet — was him.

Quickly, Matt weighed up the twelve people sitting around the table.

Now that Fabian had joined them, there were eight men and four women. Two of the men were black. One looked Chinese. Their ages ranged from about thirty to seventy. The oldest person in the room was wear-ing a clerical collar and a crucifix — some sort of Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star priest. They were all smartly dressed. He could imagine them sitting at the theater together, or perhaps the opera. They shared the same sort of seriousness. None of them was smiling.

The room itself was long and narrow, with only one window giving a view of the street. The glass was tinted so that nobody outside could look in. The furniture was qui-etly expensive but there were no paintings or ornaments, just some maps and a number of clocks showing different times. Matt dropped into the nearest chair, trying to avoid eye contact. But not Richard. He was still standing by the door, looking around him in amazement.

"I know you!" he said. He pointed to a grim-faced man sitting with a straight back and an immaculately cut suit. "You're a policeman.

Tarrant. Isn't that your name? You're very senior. New Scotland Yard. I've seen you on televi-sion." He turned to the woman who was next to him, expensively dressed, with reddish hair that was surely dyed. "And you're Natalie Johnson."

Even Matt knew that name. He had seen it often enough in the newspapers. She was often called the female Bill Gates. She had made her fortune in computers and was one of the richest women in the world.

"Let's not bother with names, Mr. Cole," she said. She had an American accent. "Please take a seat and we can get started."

Richard sat down next to Matt. It was difficult to be sure who was in charge. Miss Ashwood was at the head of the table, but there was no obvious leader. It also occurred to Matt that someone in the room must be new. Fabian had told him that there were twelve members of the Nexus and sure enough there were twelve men and women here. But Professor Dravid had once been a member of the organization, too, and he had died. Presumably, he had been replaced.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"We are very grateful to you for coming to London, Matt," another man began. His accent was Australian. He was more casually dressed than the others, with an open-neck shirt and rolled-up sleeves. He was about forty and had the pale skin and bloodshot eyes of a man who had spent too many hours on long-distance planes. "We know you don't want to be here and we wouldn't have asked you if there was any other way."

"You must let us protect you," Susan Ashwood said. Her hands were resting on the table but her fists were clenched. “You were nearly killed at Forrest Hill. That can't happen. We are here only to help you."

"I thought it was Matt who was meant to be helping
you,"
Richard said.

"We've got to help each other," the Australian went on. "There's a whole lot of things we don't know, but this much is certain. Things are going to get bad. Worse than you can imagine. The reason that the twelve of us are here tonight is because we want to do something about it."

"About what? What are you talking about?" Richard asked.

"A third world war," Ashwood said. "Worse than the two wars that preceded it. Governments out of control. Destruction and death all across the planet. We don't know exactly what form the future will take, Mr. Cole. But we think even now that we can prevent it from happening."

"With your help." The priest, a bishop, nodded at Matt.

"Look, let's get one thing straight," Richard said. "Matt and I don't want to know about death and destruction. We're not interested in Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star world wars. The only help we need is to find somewhere else to live because, right now, Yorkshire doesn't seem to be an option and we don't have anyone else we can turn to."

"The petrol tanker that drove into your school. .. ?" The policeman had spoken. He left the question hanging in the air.

"It was driven by my aunt," Matt said. "Gwenda Davis. I saw her behind the wheel." He shivered. He had known it was her even as his every sense told him it was impossible. He had never liked her, not in all the years he had known her. But she had never been a monster. Not until the end.

“Your aunt?" the Australian muttered.

“Yes."

The information caused a stir in the room. The twelve members of the Nexus muttered briefly to each other, and Matt saw Fabian write something down.

"She didn't know what she was doing," Susan Ashwood said. "To steal a petrol tanker and somehow find her way to your school. . .

she couldn't have done it on her own."

"The Old Ones," Fabian muttered in a low voice.

Ashwood nodded. "Of course. They helped her. They influenced her. Maybe they forced her. But undoubtedly they were behind it."

"All right," Richard cut in. “You want us to go and meet this man . . . William Morton. Matt's agreed to that. But I'm telling you now, if it means putting him in any more danger..."

"That's the last thing we'd want," Natalie Johnson said. She leaned forward, her long hair falling over her eyes. She must have been about fifty years old, but she had spent a lot of money making Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star herself look younger. "All right, Richard — you don't mind if I call you that, do you? Let's give it to you straight. We need Matt to meet with this guy William Morton tomorrow afternoon at twelve o'clock because it's the only way we can get him to hand over the diary. But Matt is more important than the diary. Right now, if he really is who we think he is, he's just about the most important kid in the world."

“You've told Morton that Matt is one of the five," Richard said. He was speaking slowly, working it out as he went. "And Morton wants to meet him to see if it's true. But how's he going to do that? Is Matt going to have to see into the future or blow something up to prove it?"

"We don't know," the American replied. "Remember: Morton's read the diary; we haven't. He may know more than we do."

"All we know is that he's afraid," Susan Ashwood cut in. "He's afraid of the man he was dealing with in South America. And he's afraid of what he's read in the diary itself. William Morton has realized he's stumbled into something bigger and darker than anything he's experi-enced in his life, and he's looking for a way out."

"Where does he want to meet me?" Matt asked.

"At first he wouldn't tell us." This time it was a Frenchman who had picked up the story. He was slim and gray-haired and looked like an expensive lawyer. "He speaks to us only with his mobile phone and he gives us no idea where he can be found. But now he has mentioned a church in the city, not so far from here."

"St. Meredith's in Cannon Street," Ashwood said.

"He will be there at twelve o'clock tomorrow. He will meet with you alone. ..."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"Matt's not going in there on his own," Richard said.

"He tells us that he will be watching out for the boy," the Frenchman continued. "We have not described to him what Matt looks like but it is unlikely that there will be any other fourteen-year-old adolescents near the church at that time. The deal is very simple: If Matt is not alone, Monsieur Morton will disappear. We will never see him again. And whoever it is that he has been dealing with in South America will have the diary."

"Why this church?" Richard asked. "It seems to be a strange place to meet. Why not a restaurant or a cafe or something like that?"

"Morton insisted," Johnson said. "I guess we'll find out the answer to that when Matt gets there."

"Maybe the church is mentioned in the diary," the bishop suggested.

"As it happens, St. Meredith's is one of the oldest churches in the country. In fact, there's been a church on the site since the Middle Ages."

"And how can we be sure Matt will be safe there? For all we know, this mysterious South American businessman or whoever he is could have already got to Morton. This could all be a trap."

"Leave that to me," the policeman said. Richard had been right. His name was Tarrant and he was an assis-tant commissioner, one of the highest-ranking officers in London. "I'll have access to the security cameras all around Cannon Street. We can't go into the church, but I'll make sure there are a hundred officers in the immediate area.

One word from me and they'll move in."

"But I still don't understand what happens," Matt said. "This man —

William Morton — meets me. Maybe he asks me some questions.

But what then? Is he going to give me the diary?"

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"He's said he'll sell it to us if he believes in you," Natalie Johnson replied. "He's not
giving
it to anyone! He still wants his money."

There was a pause.

Richard turned to Matt. "Do you want to go?" he asked.

Matt shook his head. "No, I don't," he said. He glanced around the table. Everyone was staring at him. He could see his own face reflected in the black glasses that covered Susan Ashwood's eyes.

"But I will," he went on, "if you'll give me something in return."

"What do you want?" the Australian asked.

"You people have a lot of influence. You stopped Richard getting his article published in the newspapers. So maybe you can get him a job, here in London."

"Matt. . ." Richard began.

"That's what you always wanted," Matt said. "And I want to go to an ordinary school. I'm not going back to Forrest Hill. I want you to promise me that if you get the diary, you'll leave me alone."

"I'm not sure we can promise that," Fabian said. “You're part of all this, Matt. Don't you see that?"

"But if we can leave you out of this, we will," Susan Ashwood cut in. "We don't like this any more than you do, Matt. We never wanted to bring you here."

Matt believed her. "All right," he said.

A decision had been made, but even now Matt wasn't convinced that he'd been the one who'd made it. Much later that night, as he lay in his bed on the third floor of the hotel, he told himself that soon it would all be over. He'd meet with Morton. He'd get the diary. And Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star that would be the end of it.

But somehow he didn't believe it.

Everything that had happened in the last few days had been done against his wishes. And what happened next would be the same.

There was no way out for him. He had to get used to it. There were strange forces all around him and they were never going to let him go.

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

It was the middle of the afternoon in the town of lea, just south of the Peruvian capital of Lima. Peru was five hours behind Britain.

The sun was shining brilliantly, and as the room was open to the elements, with a tiled floor that stretched past a row of pillars into the courtyard, the entire room was flooded with light. High above, a fan turned slowly, not actually cooling anything but giving the illusion that it might. The man could hear the gentle sound of water splashing. An old fountain played in the court-yard. A few chickens pecked at the gravel. There were flowers everywhere and their scent hung heavy in the air.

The man was fifty-seven years old, dressed in a white linen suit that hung off him in such a way that it might still have been in the wardrobe. He moved slowly and with dif-ficulty, reaching out with his hands to find his chair and to lower himself into it.

He was horribly deformed.

He was unnaturally tall — well over six feet — but what gave him his extra height was his head, which was twice as long as it should have been. The head was huge, its eyes so high up that on anyone else they would have been in the middle of the forehead. He had a Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star few tufts of hair that were really no color at all, but mainly he was bald, with liver spots all over his skin. His nose extended all the way down to his mouth, which was too small in relation to everything else. A child's mouth in an adult face. A muscle twitched in the side of his neck as he moved. The neck was obviously strug-gling to hold up such a great weight.

The man's name was Diego Salamanda. He was the chair-man of one of the largest companies in South America. Salamanda News International had built an empire with newspapers and magazines, television stations, hotels, and telecommunications. Some people claimed that SNI owned Peru. And Diego Salamanda was the sole owner, the chair-man, and the single stockholder of SNI.

His head had been stretched quite deliberately. It was a practice from more than a thousand years before. Some of the ancient tribes of Peru had selected newly born babies whom they believed to be

"special" and had forced them to live with their head sandwiched between two wooden planks. This was what caused the abnormal growth. It was supposed to be an honor. Salamanda's parents had known that their baby was special. So they had done the same to him.

And he was grateful for it.

They had caused him pain. They had made him hid-eous. They had prevented him from ever enjoying a normal human relationship. But they had been right. They had recognized his talents the very day he was born.

The telephone rang. Still moving slowly, Salamanda reached out and took the receiver. It looked slightly ridicu-lous, far too small, as he held it against his ear.

“Yes." He didn't need to give his name. This was a pri-vate number.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star Only a handful of people had it. They would know who they were calling.