Evil Star

he had come to the same conclusion as Matt: There was no way out, so it didn't matter where they went.
    They started forward, slowly, making their way down the deserted street. They could hear shouting all around them, disembodied voices flitting like night creatures, everywhere and nowhere. Only one thing was certain. Their pursuers were getting closer all the time.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star The street led nowhere. It was blocked by a tall^ metal gate that had been swung across the end and locked.
    There was no way back. Matt could hear footsteps rush-ing up behind them and knew that the police were only seconds away. He no longer had the heart to run or to hide. He reached out and raided the gate. It was too high to climb. Pedro had given up, too. He was looking angry and exhausted — with the bitterness of defeat obvious in his eyes.

    "Amigos!"
    The voice came from just behind them. Matt turned. Incredibly, there was a young man standing in the street, just a couple of meters away. He was wearing a red-and-mauve poncho, jeans, and a woven hat that had flaps hanging down over his ears. He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
    And Matt was sure he knew him. For a strange, unnerv-ing moment, he was sure it was Micos. But Micos was dead. So who . . . ?
    "Amigos, "the man repeated. "Come quickly!"
    Amigos. It was one word of Spanish that Matt knew.
    Friends.
    The man gestured. Matt looked past him and saw an incredible sight.
    Part of the wall had swung open, revealing a secret door with at least seven sides. It was impossible to imagine the hinge mechanism that had made it work, but when the door was closed, it was completely invisible. Matt and Pedro had just walked past it without realizing it was there. Millions of tourists must have done the same. Matt took a step forward. There was a passage inside the wall. He could just Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star make out a narrow corridor, but it ended almost at once in total blackness.
    "No." Pedro shook his head. He was afraid.
    The man spoke to him quietly and quickly in Spanish, then turned back to Matt. "The police will be here very soon," he said. "If you want to live, you must trust me. Come now. . . ."
    "Who are you?" Matt asked.
    The man made no reply and Matt understood. He wasn't prepared to talk about this, not now. An amazing secret, this hidden door, had been revealed to them. It had to be closed before the police, or anyone else, saw it.
    Pedro was looking at him, waiting for him to make a decision. Matt nodded. The two of them stepped into the wall. The man followed.
    The door swung shut behind them.

    • • •
    Darkness.
    Matt couldn't hear anything apart from the sound of his own breathing. He stood in pitch-black, and it occurred to him that he could have died — that death might not be so different from this. He had been cut off from the city of Cuzco the moment the wall closed.
    There was a slight dampness to the air that clung to his skin, but apart from that he felt nothing. He had to force himself not to panic, to avoid the thought that he might be buried alive.
    The man in the poncho turned on a flashlight, and the light sprang out to reveal a narrow corridor with a staircase leading down. They Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star were inside the wall. The great stones were on both sides. Where did the steps lead? Matt couldn't even begin to guess.
    The light also showed the face of the man who had come to their rescue. Matt had only glimpsed him in the street, and the earflaps of his hat had concealed much of his face. Looking at him more closely, he saw that he did have a very close resemblance to Micos
    — though without the scar. He was also slightly thinner, with a narrow chin and the beginnings of a beard. He couldn't have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three years old.
    "Who are you?" Matt asked. He wondered if his voice would carry out into the street. But that was impossible. The walls were at least a meter thick.
    "My name is Atoc," the man replied. His accent was strange. There was a hint of Spanish in it but also some-thing else.
    Atoc was the name that Micos had spoken just before he died. He had wanted to get a message to this man. His brother? That would explain why they looked so alike.
    "What is this place?" he asked.
    "It is an old Inca passage. Very secret. Very few peo-ple know."
    "Where does it lead?"
    "I take you somewhere safe where Salamanda cannot find