Evil Star

compartment and bring out a gun. Fabian must have been afraid of this from the start. He must have suspected that they might be attacked on the way into the city. Maybe that was why he had changed their destination. And why else would he have ensured that his driver was armed?
    He wasn't the only one. Two of the men coming at them from the van were carrying handguns. Everything was happening so quickly that Matt only had time to glimpse their faces — dark, of course, with long black hair. They were wearing jeans and open-neck shirts, the sleeves rolled up. Then somebody fired a shot, and the front windscreen became a frosted maze of cracks with a deadly eye at the center. Alberto cried out. He had been hit in the shoulder. His blood splattered against the back of his seat. But now he brought his own gun round and fired three times. The front window collapsed, the glass cascading down. The men from the van hesitated, then took cover.
    And that was when Richard acted. Grabbing hold of Matt with one hand, he threw open the door with the other. He was in the right-Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star hand side, the side farther away from the van.
    "Move!" he shouted.
    "No, senor!" Alberto twisted round in the front.
    Richard ignored him. Dragging Matt, he slid out of the car and into the street. Matt didn't resist. His head was spinning. He didn't know what was happening. But he agreed with Richard. He would feel safer in the open air.
    Two more shots. Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw Alberto heave himself clumsily out of the car and run off into the evening gloom, one hand clutching his wounded shoulder. He was abandoning them! Matt and Richard were in the street now. There were houses on either side, but nobody had come out to see what was happening. Nobody wanted to help.
    "Run!" Richard shouted. "Just keep moving! Don't stop for anything!"
    Matt didn't need to be told twice. He stumbled away from the car and began to run back up the street, heading in the direction from which they'd come. It was dark now. Streetlamps threw an ugly artificial light over them, turn-ing everything yellow. And it had become even hotter. Matt could feel the sweat trickling underneath his clothes.
    And the men were coming after them. Who were they? Who had sent them? Matt didn't dare look round, but he could hear their shoes hitting the pavement, knew they were getting closer.
    Richard cried out. /
    Matt stopped and turned. Two of the men had grabbed hold of the journalist. Matt saw one of them quite clearly. A round, almost Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star feminine face. Unshaven. A small scar next to one eye. He was holding Richard with one arm around his neck. The other two men were coming up fast behind.
    Richard was struggling and somehow, for just a brief moment, he managed to break free. "Keep going, Matt!" he shouted. "Move!"
    He lashed out with a foot, kicking one of the men in the stomach.
    The man groaned and collapsed. But the other man, the one with the scar, had grabbed hold of Richard again. As Matt watched, the others reached them, making it three against one. There was no way to save Richard. Matt twisted round and began to run. He heard one of the attackers calling out to him. Although he couldn't be certain, he thought he heard them using his name. His real name. So they knew who he was! The trap must have been set up long before they arrived.
    Matt turned a corner and sprinted down an alleyway. At the end, he turned again, came to a main road and crossed it, weaving recklessly between the traffic. Someone yelled at him. A bus shot past, punching at him with a fist of warm air. He came to a patch of wasteland and ran across it. A dog, dirty and half starved, barked at him. A few local women watched him with idle curiosity.
    At last he stopped, his breath rasping in his throat. He was covered in sweat. His shirt seemed to have glued itself to him. The jet lag still hadn't left him. He could feel it, sitting on his shoulder, trying to hammer him into the ground. But he was alone. He looked back across the waste-land, with the main road and the traffic in the distance. Nobody was coming after him. He had escaped.
    It was only then that the enormity of his situation struck him. He was in a strange country, with no money and no luggage. The driver who had been sent to collect him had run off, saving his own skin, Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star and his only friend had been