Evil Star

knows. Prisons far away where you can go in and never come out. It would be easy to kill you. I could kill you now and go to have my breakfast and not think twice. But that is not what is going to happen to you, Matthew Freeman. You are going to be buried alive in a concrete cell far beneath the ground and you are going to be left to rot and nobody is going to hear from you again."
    He raised Matt's head a little farther so that his lips were almost touching his ear. And then the final words came, a whisper of sheer hatred.
    "Diego Salamanda sends you his regards."

    He let Matt's head fall, and Matt felt another spasm of pain as his skull came into contact with the marble floor.
    Rodriguez must have given a signal. The other three policemen Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star closed in on Matt and scooped him up. Between them, they dragged him out of the hotel. Matt didn't even try to resist. He could feel his feet, toes downward, sliding along behind him. His vision was blurred. He could just make out the reception desk with Rodriguez standing in front of it, but both of them were out of focus. He was bun-dled out through the door. There was no sign of the doorman.
    Like the businessman, he must have gotten out of sight as quickly as he could. Matt remembered the two cars parked out front. They had been waiting for him! And he had just walked in and given himself up.
    They dragged him across to the first car, and one of the policemen fumbled in his pockets for his keys. That left just two of them supporting Matt. Did he have the strength left to fight back? No.
    They were holding him too tightly. What about his powers? Briefly, Matt remembered the chandelier exploding at Forrest Hill. It felt as if it had happened a cen-tury ago. He wondered if he could do something similar now. Turn on the power and make the police car blow up. Send these two men spiraling away like puppets in the wind. But it wasn't as easy as that. There was no switch he could throw. Whatever power he had, it still wasn't under control.
    But then the policeman holding him on the side near-est to the car cried out and suddenly let go. Looking up, Matt saw blood pouring down his face. Had he done that to him? Matt was so shocked that for a moment he thought he had. But then he saw a fist-size stone come flying through the air and the second policeman staggered back, his hand clutching his face. Matt was free. He fell back against the car and looked away from the hotel, down toward the main street. And there was the answer.
    Pedro was there. He was holding a slingshot made out of a strip of Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star some sort of black material — rubber or leather. He had used it twice with deadly accuracy, bringing both the policemen down. But that still left one more, the policeman with the car keys. Matt shouted a warning as the policeman reached down to his holster and pulled out a gun.
    But before it had come halfway up, Pedro swung the slingshot a third time. Another rock flashed through the air and slammed into the policeman, catching him just above the eye. The policeman swore and dropped the gun.
    "Matt!" Pedro called out his name.
    Matt looked back at the hotel. Captain Rodriguez had appeared, alerted by the cries of his men. His own gun was in his hand.
    Quickly, he took in what had happened. His men were hurt. The English boy was free, leaning against the car that should have been taking him away. And there was another boy, with a slingshot.
    Rodriguez took aim at this second boy.
    Matt dived forward and snatched up the fallen gun. He rolled over on his stomach and fired six shots in the direc-tion of the hotel. He wasn't sure if any of them hit Captain Rodriguez, but he saw the senior policeman dive for cover behind a parked car. The glass doors of the hotel shattered. At the same time, an alarm went off inside the hotel. Matt dropped the gun and got unsteadily to his feet.
    The first policeman that Pedro had hit was already recovering. Matt took one look at him and then, finding some last hidden reserve of strength, lashed out with his foot. His toe cap came into contact with soft flesh. He had kicked the man right between the legs and the man crum-pled without a sound.
    Another rock sailed past. One of the other policemen was hit a Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star second time and knocked off his feet, stumbling into the side of his car and setting off another alarm. The third