Evil Star

Richard asked.
    "What?"
    "The door. What you saw on the other side."
    Matt shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "I've been thinking about it. William Morton chose the church because of something he'd read in the diary. He used the door as a test, to prove I was who he thought I was."
    Richard nodded. "If anyone else went through the door, they'd find themselves standing in a puddle in East London."
    "But I went somewhere else. I'm not even sure I was in England."
    Matt thought for a moment. "Do you remember what it said on that news program? The one we saw on the video? It said something about an Internet working inside the church. . .."
    "It was one of the things in the diary."
    "Well, maybe that's what it meant. When you sit at a computer, you can click a mouse and go where you like. You can link up with another computer anywhere in the world. Maybe it's the same sort of thing . . . only for real."
    "That's great!" Richard smiled. "So all you have to do is find another church door in Peru and maybe you can go home without having to pay for another flight."

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star The flight attendant came with the drinks. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and the smell of lunch was already spreading through the cabin from the galley just behind them. Only four months ago, Matt had been living with his aunt in Ipswich, failing at school, struggling from Monday to Friday, and wasting time on weekends. And now he was here. It was hard to believe.
    Richard seemed to pick up his thoughts. “You didn't have to do this," he said.
    "I think I did, Richard." Matt gazed out of the window. There was nothing to look at. Just the clouds and an empty sky. "Miss Ashwood knew it. Even William Morton. I'm part of this and I think I always have been. I tried to pretend otherwise and I nearly got a whole lot of people killed." He sighed. “You don't have to be here.
    But I think I do."
    “Yeah, well, you're not going anywhere without me."
    "Then we're stuck in it together."
    • • •
    The flight seemed endless. Matt watched one film, then another. He read part of his book. He tried to sleep, but without success. The noise of the engines was all around him and he couldn't forget the fact that he was hanging in space with the ground far too far away.
    They landed in Miami and spent two hours in a characterless transit lounge while the plane refueled. By now Matt's inner clock was telling him that it was late in the evening — but it was still light outside. The entire day had been stretched out of shape and he felt exhausted.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star They took off again and suddenly the weather turned bad. The sky was dark and a fork of lightning cracked down-ward, flashing against the silver skin of the 747. They hit a patch of turbulence and Matt felt his stomach heave as the floor momentarily disappeared from beneath his feet. Inside the business section, the lights had been dimmed. A soft, yel-low glow illuminated the passengers, sitting in their seats, trying to look relaxed but at the same time gripping the arm-rests with all their strength. Nobody was talking.
    But as every buffet of wind made the plane shudder, as the tone of the engines rose and fell in the swirling air pockets, one or two of them swore softly or even muttered a near-silent prayer.
    And somehow, in the middle of all this, Matt finally managed to fall asleep. Not that it felt that way. One moment he was next to Richard, half concentrating on yet another film and counting the minutes until they were back on the ground, the next he was somewhere else.
    The island. He recognized it at once and knew it so well that he had to remind himself that he had never actually been there. He had only ever visited it in his dreams. There was the shaft of black, broken rock. And there was the sea, as ugly as liquid tar, spread out all around. There was no wind, but the clouds were still racing across a darkening sky. Matt wondered what it all meant. Why was he here?
    Why did he so frequently return?
    He looked down and saw the strange reed boat that had been making its way toward him the last time he came here. It had reached the edge of the island and sat, aban-doned, on the gray sand.
    "Matt!"
    Someone had called his name. He turned round and saw the boy from the boat, standing on a rocky shelf just below him. The two of Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star them were about the same age