Evil Star

just want you to be there."
    “You don't want me. You want Matt."

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    "We want both of you."
    Matt put down his school bag, opened the door to the main living room, and went in.
    Susan Ashwood, the blind woman he had met in Manchester, was sitting in a chair, her back very straight, her hands folded in front of her. Her face was pale, made more so by her short, black hair and unforgiving black glasses. A white stick rested against her chair —
    but she hadn't come alone. Matt also knew the slim, olive-skinned man who was standing opposite her. His name was Fabian. He was the younger of the two, perhaps in his early thirties, and Matt had also met him before. It was he who had first suggested that Matt continue living with Richard and who had managed to get him a place at Forrest Hill. As usual, Fabian was smartly dressed, this time in a pale gray suit and tie. He was sitting down with one leg crossed over the other. Everything about him was very neat.
    Both Fabian and Susan Ashwood were members of the secret organization that called itself the Nexus. As they had made clear from the start, their role was to help Matt and to protect him. Even so, he wasn't particularly happy to see either of them here. He knew they could only be bringing bad news.
    Miss Ashwood had heard him come in. "Matt," she said.
    "What's going on?" Matt asked immediately.
    Richard moved away from the window. "They want you," he said.
    "I heard. Why?"
    "How are you, Matt? How's the new school?" Fabian smiled nervously. He was trying to sound friendly, but Matt knew the atmosphere was anything but.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    "School's great," Matt said without enthusiasm.
    “You're looking well."
    "I'm fine." Matt sat down on the arm of a sofa. "Why are you here, Mr. Fabian?" he asked. "What do you want me for?"
    "I think you know." Fabian paused as if unsure how to continue.
    Even though he'd changed Matt's life, Matt knew very little about him ... or about anyone else in the Nexus.
    "The first time I came here, I warned you," Fabian went on. "I told you that we believed there might be a second gate. You destroyed the first one, the stone circle in the woods outside Lesser Mailing.
    But the second one is on the other side of the world. It's in my country. In Peru."
    "Where in Peru?" Richard asked.
    "We don't know," Fabian answered.
    "What does the gate look like?" Richard followed up.
    "We don't know that, either. We hoped that after what happened here in Yorkshire, we would have time to find out more.
    Unfortunately, we were wrong."
    "The second gate is about to open," Susan Ashwood said. There was no doubt at all in her voice.
    "I suppose you've been told this," Richard said.
    “Yes."
    "By ghosts."
    “Yes." Susan Ashwood was a medium. She claimed that she was in contact with the spirit world. “You still don't believe me?" she continued. "After what you've been through, after everything you've Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star seen, I'm frankly amazed. You didn't listen to me last time. This time you must. It's as if winter has come in the spirit world. Everything is cold and dark, and I hear the whispers of a growing fear. Some-thing is happening that I don't understand. But I know what it signifies. A second gate is about to open, and once again we have to stop it if we don't want the Old Ones to return. We want Matt to come to London. Only he has the power to prevent it."
    "Matt's in school," Richard protested. "He can't just get on a train and take a week off. ..."
    Matt looked out the window. Soon it would start to get dark.
    Shadows had already fallen over the Shambles and the streetlamps had come on. Richard reached out and turned the lights on inside, too. Light and dark. Always fighting each other.
    "I don't understand," Matt said. "You don't even know where this gate is. Why do you think I can help you?"
    "We're not the only ones looking for it," Susan Ashwood replied.
    "There has been a strange development, Matt. You would doubtless call it a coincidence, but I think it's more than that. I think it was
    meant to happen."
    She nodded at Fabian, who produced a DVD. "Can I play you this?"
    he asked.
    Richard waved a hand at the television. "Be my guest."
    Fabian fed the video into the player and turned the television on.
    Matt found himself watching a news report. "We recorded this last week," Fabian said.
    The DVD began with a shot of a