Evil Star

a screech, and a body thumped onto the ground.
    Somehow, the three of them managed to get into the back.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    "This is impossible!" Chambers cried.
    "Just get us out of here!" Richard yelled back. "We can talk about it later."
    Chambers slammed her foot onto the accelerator and the Jeep's wheels spun. For a horrible moment, Matt thought they were stuck.
    But then the tires found a grip and they were propelled forward, heading toward the highway.
    But it wasn't over yet.
    Even as Matt slumped gratefully back, something ham-mered into the roof of the Jeep. The next thing he knew, there was a ripping sound, and the head of a condor burst down into the car. At the same time, two more condors swung into the sides, holding on with their claws and tear-ing through the soft material with their beaks. The Jeep zigzagged. Matt and Pedro were thrown left and right. It seemed that Chambers had lost control. But she had seen what was happening. She was deliberately wrenching the wheel, trying to throw the birds off.
    Richard punched upward. His fist caught one of the condors in the stomach and at once it was gone, whipped away into the night. Matt felt a sharp pain and cried out. Another condor had managed to get halfway in. It was peck-ing at his face and had drawn blood on his cheek. An inch higher and to the left and it would have taken out his eye.
    "They're breaking in!" he shouted.
    "Can you go any faster?" Richard demanded.
    "Not on this surface! I'm going as fast as I can!"
    "We're not going to make it!" Richard looked up. The roof had been Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star torn through in several places. There were still condors attached to the Jeep. He could see them through the gaps. He heard another hideous, unearthly screech, and what was left of the roof disintegrated as yet another condor burst through. It was inside the Jeep, a stinking, flapping ball of bone, feather, and claw. It lunged at Matt.
    There was an explosion, so loud it was deafening. On the backseat, Pedro jerked back in shock. Matt felt his ears ringing.
    It was Atoc. He had one hand clasped over the wound on his neck but in the other he was holding a gun. He had never even mentioned that he had it. Now, when it was almost too late, he had used it, firing at point-blank range into the bird's body. The bullet tore through it. The con-dor's beak snapped open, impossibly wide. The light in its eyes went out. Atoc fired five more times, aiming at differ-ent points of the roof. The other condors fell away.
    And then the Jeep hit the highway. Matt felt the tires bump onto the asphalt, and a moment later they had picked up speed. He looked back. A few condors were still circling but they were already far behind.
    "I. .. sorry," Atoc said. "I leave gun in Jeep."
    "Are you okay?" Richard asked.
    Atoc nodded. "Not hurt too bad."
    "I have bandages at the house," Chambers said.
    The Jeep tore down the Pan-American Highway, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. The last condors watched it dis-appear, then wheeled back into the darkness from which they'd come.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

    Chapter 18 Evil Star
    "I'm wrong," Professor Chambers said. "I don't understand it. But I've checked and double-checked."
    "What do you mean?" Richard asked.
    "The stars! That's what I mean. I was sure I was right. But I've looked at them and they simply don't add up."
    It was eleven o'clock the following morning. Matt, Pedro, and Richard had eaten a late breakfast, which the professor had brought to them in the garden. All three of them felt a little guilty, knowing that she had worked all night — but she didn't seem even slightly tired. Atoc was in his room, resting. A local doctor had stitched up the wound in his neck and given him tetanus and penicillin shots. He was still in pain but he was going to be all right. Pedro had been luckier. The skull is the toughest part of the human body and it had protected him from the condor's attack. He was missing a few bits of hair and he, too, had been given an anti-tetanus jab, but he was otherwise fine.
    Matt had spoken to him the night before, while they slept.
    "Where did they come from?" Pedro asked. "The condors ..."
    "From the Old Ones," Matt replied. "They must have been guardians. They were protecting the place of Qolqa. I knew there was something wrong, something evil the moment we arrived."
    "It was cold."
    “Yes. When something bad's