Evil Star

We wash car windows.
    We sell finger puppets. Sometimes we get work collecting tickets on the buses. Sebastian knows all the drivers, and that's how he'll get us out tomorrow."
    Pedro fell silent.
    "There's one thing you haven't told me," Matt said. "Did you know the river was going to flood?"
    "How would I know that?"
    "You didn't get any warning. . . perhaps the day before?"
    "No."
    "When my parents were killed, I knew it was going to happen. I saw it in a dream."
    "I never had dreams like that. Forget it, Matteo. I'm not like you. I Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star don't have any special powers, if that's what you're thinking. I'm not special. . . except maybe I have these stupid dreams where I'm with you. And they don't help much, either."
    “You're coming with me to lea," Matt said.
    Pedro frowned. "I don't want to. But Sebastian says I can't stay with him anymore. It's too dangerous. And any-way . . ." He relaxed a little and the frown left his face. "Now that we've found each other, I don't see how I can walk away . . . even if I want to. So — yes. I'm coming along."
    "Thank you," Matt said.
    It was all the help he needed. He was no longer alone.
    He stood up, and at that very instant it was as if the entire dreamworld had been cut in half by a vast, white guillotine. He felt no pain. There wasn't even any sense of shock. But suddenly the sea and the island had gone and he was sitting on the floor in the house in Poison Town.
    He looked across at Pedro, still fast asleep underneath the blanket.
    The Peruvian boy hadn't changed, but now Matt saw him differently.
    He knew everything about him. They could have been friends throughout their entire lives. In a way, Matt reflected, they had been exactly that.
    Outside, dawn was breaking, the first ribbons of pink light bleeding through the sky, signaling the start of another day.

    ************************************
    Midnight in London.
    Susan Ashwood was sitting in the spacious living room of a penthouse flat, high above Park Lane. Floor-to-ceiling windows Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star provided a panoramic view over Hyde Park, an area of dense black, with the lights of Knightsbridge twin-kling far behind. She had her back to it. Sometimes she was able to sense the appearance of a city from the way its sounds traveled, from the feel of the breeze against her face, from the smell of the night air. She knew beauty. But tonight all her attention was focused on the woman who owned the penthouse and who was sitting opposite her now.
    "Thank you for seeing me," Ashwood said. "There's no need to thank me," Natalie Johnson replied.
    The American woman was sitting on a sofa with her legs tucked up under her, holding a glass of white wine. Her reddish brown hair was tied back and she was wearing a simple black dress. She had been about to go to bed when the blind medium had called. This was her home when she was in London. She had a similar apartment looking out over the Hudson River in New York.
    "I didn't know who else to come to."
    “You don't need to worry, Susan. My door's always open to you."
    Natalie Johnson had been a member of the Nexus for eleven years.
    In that time, she had built up a huge business empire selling low-cost computer hardware, mainly to schools and youth clubs. The newspapers called her the female Bill Gates. She found the description sexist and irrelevant.
    "Matthew Freeman is still lost," Susan Ashwood contin-ued. "But it's now been confirmed that there was a gunfight near Jorge Chavez airport. Richard Cole was kidnapped but Matt managed to get away.
    As far as we know, he hasn't been seen since."
    "We sent him to Peru because we wanted something to happen," the American woman said. "It seems that we got more than you Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star bargained for."
    "None of us could have expected this."
    "What shall we do?"
    "That's one of the reasons I'm here. I was hoping you might be able to help. You have business interests in South America. . . ."
    "I could talk to Diego Salamanda if you like."
    “You said you'd had dealings with him."
    "I've never met him but we've spoken often on the tele-phone."
    Natalie Johnson paused. "I think we should be careful. Salamanda is our number-one suspect. It seems more than likely that he's the one who's trying to open the gate."
    "Fabian is trying to find Matthew," Ashwood continued. "He's worried sick and blames himself for not driving per-sonally