Evil Star

businessman in South America..." Matt remem-bered what the report had said. "Do you know who he is?"
    "We don't even know which country he lives in — and William Morton isn't saying anything." Fabian scowled.
    “You're the people who he said wanted to meet him in London,"
    Richard said.
    “Yes, Mr. Cole. We contacted Mr. Morton the moment he went Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star public with what he'd found."
    "We have to have the diary," Ashwood said. "We have to find the second gate and either destroy it or make sure it never opens.
    Unfortunately, as you heard, we're not alone. This 'businessman,'
    whoever he is, got in there ahead of us. Since that video was made, he has quadrupled his offer. He's now offering to pay two million pounds."
    "But you can pay more," Richard said. “You've got lots of money."
    "We told Morton that the last time we spoke to him," Fabian explained. "We said he could more or less name any price he liked.
    But it's no longer a question of money."
    "He's afraid," Susan Ashwood said. "At first, we didn't understand why. It seemed to us that he was being threat-ened by whoever he was dealing with in South America. They'd shaken hands on a price and he wasn't allowed to speak to anyone else. But then we realized it was something more than that."
    She paused.
    "He'd read the diary," Matt guessed.
    "Exactly. He had the diary for the best part of a month and in that time he read it and understood enough of it to comprehend just what it was he had on his hands. Right now he's in London. We don't know where, because he won't tell us. He has a house in Putney —
    but he's not there. As a matter of fact, there was a fire a few days ago. We assume it's connected. We don't know for certain. All we know is that William Morton has gone into hiding."
    "How do you contact him?" Richard asked.
    "We don't. He calls us. He has a cell phone. We've tried to trace the Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star calls, but it's no good. Until yesterday, all we knew was that he was going to sell the diary to the business-man and we weren' t even going to meet. But then, yesterday, he telephoned us again. I happened to take the call." Ashwood turned to Matt. "And I mentioned you."
    "Me?" Matt didn't know what to say. "He's never met me. ..."
    "No. But he knows about the five. Don't you see? He must have read about them in the diary. The fact that you're one of them, Matt... he couldn't believe it when we told him. But we managed to intrigue him, and he agreed, at last, to meet us. He made one condition."
    "He wants me to be there," Matt said.
    Ashwood nodded. "He wants to meet with you first, alone. He's given us a place and time. On Thursday, three days from now."
    "We're just asking you for one day of your time," Fabian said. "If Morton sees you and believes you are who we say you are, maybe then he'll sell us the diary. Maybe he'll give it away. I honestly believe that he wishes now that he had never found it. He wants to be rid of it. We just have to give him an excuse, a good reason to hand the diary to us." He gestured at Matt. " You are the reason. All you have to do is meet him. Nothing more."
    There was a long silence. At last, Matt spoke.
    "You keep on saying that I'm one of the five. And maybe you're right. I don't really understand any of it, but I know what happened at Raven's Gate." For a moment it all came back to him, and he knew he was saying the right thing. "I don't want to get involved. I had enough the first time. Right now I just want to get on with my life, and I want to be left alone. You say it's just one meeting in London, but I know it won't happen that way. Once I get started, I Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star won't be able to stop. Something else will happen and then something after that. I'm sorry. You can find Morton without me. Why don't you just offer him more money? That seems to be all he wants."
    "Matt —" Susan Ashwood began.
    "I'm sorry, Miss Ashwood. You can manage without me. You're going to have to. Because I don't want to know."
    Richard stood up. "I'm afraid that's it," he said.
    "You're only here because of the Nexus," Fabian snapped — and suddenly he was angry. His eyes were darker than ever. "We pay for your school. We have made it possible for you to stay here. Maybe we should think again."
    "We can manage without you —" Now Richard was get-ting angry, too.
    "It doesn't matter!" Susan Ashwood got stiffly to her feet.