Evil Star

amused. "From London?"
    "I flew from London. But I live in a place called York."
    "York." The man repeated the word but had obviously never heard of it. "Pedro says that you are alone. That you were beaten by the police. That they were going to arrest you."
    “Yes. Can you thank him for helping me?"
    "He does not need your gratitude. What makes you think he wants anything from you?"
    The man reached down beside the bed and produced a bottle, half filled with some transparent liquid. He drank and as he lowered it, Matt caught the scent of alcohol. Next he took out half a cigar from his jacket pocket and lit it. All the time, his eyes never left the new arrival.
    "Pedro says you have money," he said.
    Matt hesitated — but once again he knew he had no choice. He took out the ten-pound note and gave it to the man.
    The man turned the note in his hands, then slid it into his jacket pocket with a twitch of the lips that might have been a smile. A Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star moment later, he snapped something at Pedro. Pedro scowled. The man waited. Pedro slipped Matt's watch off his wrist and handed it over.
    "What is your name?" the man asked.
    Once again, Matt hesitated. What name should he use? But there was no point trying to pretend he was someone he wasn't. The fake passport had already proved itself to be useless. "I'm Matt," he said.
    "And I am Sebastian." The man blew out smoke. It hung in the air, silvery gray. "It seems that you need help, my friend."
    "I haven't got any more money to give you," Matt mut-tered angrily.
    “Your money and your watch will buy me food. But right now, I think, they are of no use to you. If you want them, take them and go.
    You will probably be dead, or in jail, before the sun goes down. But if you want my help, be polite to me. You are in my house.
    Remember that."
    Matt bit his lip. Sebastian was right. The money was irrelevant.
    "Who are you?" he asked. "What is this place?"
    "This community has a name," Sebastian replied. "The local people call it Ciudad del Veneno. In English, you would say . . . Poison Town. They call it that because of the amount of disease that there is here. Cholera. Bronchitis. Pleurisy. Diphtheria. None of us has any right to live in this place. We have stolen this land and built our homes. But the authorities — the police and the landlords — never come here. They are too scared."
    Matt looked around him, almost afraid to breathe.
    "Don't worry, Matt." Sebastian smiled, showing two gold-capped teeth. "There is no illness in this house or in this street. Nine of us Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star live here. And there are seven more next door. And nobody understands why. We have noth-ing . . . but we have our health."
    "Does Pedro live here?"
    Pedro glanced up, hearing his name. Until now, he had been examining Matt with a look of complete mistrust. But he had shown no interest in what was being said.
    "He sleeps on the floor, right where you are standing now. He works for me. He and the other children. But why are we wasting time, talking about him? There are a million kids like him in Lima. They live. They die. They are of no use at all. But an English boy in Poison Town, that is another matter. How do you come to be here, Matt? Why are the police looking for you? You must tell me everything and then we will see how we can help. If we can help. If we want to . . ."
    Everything?
    Matt didn't know where to start. His story was so huge. It had swallowed up his life. And where did he begin? With the death of his parents six years ago or his involvement with Raven's Gate and the Nexus? It was hopeless. Matt knew that. He could talk all day and this man wouldn't believe a word of it.
    "I can't explain it all to you," he said. "I came to Peru because something bad is about to happen and there are people who thought I could stop it. There were two of us. Me and a friend. His name is Richard Cole and he's older than me . .. twenty-six. Neither of us wanted to come here but we were sent. . ."
    "To stop this thing from happening."
    Matt nodded. “Yes. I have no passport. The passport I was given is a fake. It was meant to protect me. But the moment I arrived, I was Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star attacked. Richard was kid-napped, and the police tried to arrest me.
    There was a police captain. He said he was working for someone called Diego Salamanda."
    Sebastian had been listening to all this with a look