Evil Star

other."
    "Why can't they stop him?" This was something Matt didn't understand. "They know who he is. They know where to find him. ..."
    "What do you want them to do, Matt? Murder him?"
    Matt shrugged. "It doesn't seem like a bad idea."
    "They'd have to get to him first, and he's well pro-tected."
    "They could go to the police."
    "He owns the police. Diego Salamanda is one of the most powerful men in Peru. What does he call his com-pany? Salamanda News International. He should call it Salamanda International News because that would spell SIN, which sounds right to me.
    Salamanda's worth billions, and if he went out of business, half the country would go with him. News, telecommunications, software . . . only last week lie sent an enormously expensive satellite into space, paid for out of his own pocket. He plays chess with the pres-ident. They do it over the telephone, and Salamanda is the one who put in the direct line."
    "If Salamanda is so rich and so successful, why does he want to Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star open the gate? What's in it for him?"
    "I don't know, Matt. Maybe the Old Ones can shrink his head back to normal for him. Maybe they can give him eternal life. Why did the last lot want to open Raven's Gate? If you ask me, they're all mad."
    Richard fell silent. Someone had begun to play pan-pipes outside the house. The notes hovered eerily in the air. Matt looked out the window, across the canyon. He had forgotten how high up they were. The ground fell away forever.
    “You said the Incas were waiting for us," he said. "How did they know we were coming?"
    "Yes. I asked Atoc about that. I wish I could tell you they read about it in the newspapers, but it's a bit more compli-cated. The Incas know more or less everything that's happening in Peru. They've got people everywhere. But there's something else. They use magic."
    "Magic?"
    "They have these people — they call them amautas. They're like sorcerers ... a bit like dear old Miss Ashwood. They know about the Old Ones. And they know about you. You may meet one of them later. He's an old chap. I've spent a bit of dme with him. I think he's about a hundred and twelve."
    It took Matt a moment to absorb all this. "They knew I was coming,"
    he said. "But so did Salamanda. Who do yon think told him?"
    "I've been thinking about that. I'm afraid it looks as if it was someone in the Nexus."
    "That's what I thought. I rang Mr. Fabian, but the police arrived before he did."

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    "Well, I don't have any real idea, but if it was anyone, Tarrant's the one I'd most suspect. Do you remember him? He was the policeman who gave us the false passports. That's what caused half the trouble.
    Having fake passports turned us into criminals . . . and they were his idea."
    "So what happens now?"
    Richard thought for a moment. "We can't get in touch with the Nexus again, that's for sure. We can't trust them. So it looks like we're on our own."
    "Again . . ." Matt yawned, suddenly tired.
    “You'd better get some sleep," Richard said. “You must be exhausted. Then you'd better wash and change those clothes. I have to say, I hardly recognized you when I saw you just now. You look ridiculous!"
    "Thanks."
    "And then you can introduce me to your friend, Pedro. We've all got to be in the main square at sunset." Richard smiled. "The Incas are having a party and we're invited!"

    ************************************
    Matt slept until the middle of the afternoon. When he woke up, Richard took him to the bath house — a series of wooden cubicles in a stone building with a jet of water pouring through a hole in the wall in a nonstop stream. The water was ice cold but sparkling clean.
    It couldn't wash off the dye, so Matt felt he came out looking much as he had when he went in. But he was certainly refreshed.
    He had been given new clothes to wear. The Indians who lived in Vilcabamba wore clothes that were a strange mix of the ancient and Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star the modern, with brightly colored hats and ponchos above and jeans and sneakers below. When he came out of the shower, he was given his own poncho — a deep red with a green diamond pattern around the border. The strange thing was, he didn't feel self-conscious wearing it. Perhaps he had changed so much in the last few days that he no longer had any idea who he really was.
    Then he and Richard were taken to a grand building, twice the size of