Evil Star

guards in military dress patrolled the entire compound on foot, and security cameras, mounted on cor-ners, swiveled to take in anyone who passed.
    Matt, Pedro, Richard, and Atoc were lying on a sand dune, some distance away, examining the compound through binoculars that Professor Chambers had found for them. She herself was waiting in Paracas. Atoc had a bandage around his neck and moved slowly —
    but he had insisted on making the journey with them.
    "What do you think?" Richard said.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    "Professor Chambers was right," Matt said. "We'd need a small army to break in here."
    “Yes." Atoc nodded. "And we have one."

    • • •
    They came the next day with the setting sun. It had taken them twenty-four hours to cross Peru, coming by car and by train, but Atoc had called for them and now they were here, assembling on the beach at Paracas.
    The Inca army was about fifty strong, dressed in dark jeans and black shirts, ready for the attack that would take place that evening.
    But if their clothes were modern, their weapons were not. They had brought with them the arms and armor that their ancestors had used.
    As deadly as they looked, Matt couldn't help but think that it looked like a bizarre mix.
    Some of the Incas wore padded cotton jackets. Some had helmets made out of some sort of wood that was pitch-black and as hard as iron. Some carried wooden shields covered with deerskin and many of them had a club with a strange, star-shaped head made out of stone. This was the macana, a favorite weapon of the ancient Incas.
    One blow could crack open a skull or fracture a leg.
    There were other weapons, too. Matt saw spears, sling-shots, and halberds — which were a combination of spear, hook, and ax at the end of a long pole. A few of the Incas carried bolas, three copper balls tied together on leather cords. Thrown properly at a man's neck, they would swing round and strangle him, perhaps knocking him senseless at the same time.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star Professor Chambers had watched the arrival in silent astonishment.
    If she hadn't known about the Incas before, she certainly knew now.
    The soldiers were all physically similar — more Indian than Peruvian. And their weapons were instantly recognizable. She sat down heavily on a rock and began to fan herself. A crab scutded in front of her and she nudged it away.
    Fifty men. They stood silently on the sand, with the sil-ver waves beating down behind them. A few pelicans eyed them warily, sitting on a broken jetty. A flamingo took fright and hurried along on its way. There was nobody else in sight. Perhaps they knew what was happening here. Per-haps they had been warned to stay out of the way.
    Atoc had told the men what they had to do, speaking in their own language. Now he turned to Matt.
    "We are ready," he said. “You stay here with Pedro, the professor, and your friend. We return when job is done."
    "No." Matt didn't know what he was saying. Or, rather, he didn't know why he was saying it. A short time ago, in England, he hadn't even wanted to come to Peru. But since then, everything had changed. Every fiber of his being told him that he couldn't let the Incas take on his fight alone. "I'm coming with you, Atoc. I started this and I want to be there at the end."
    " Yo tambien, " Pedro said.

    Atoc hesitated for a moment. But he could see some-thing in Matt's eyes that hadn't been there before, and slowly he nodded. "We will obey you," he said. "For it is true, as the Inca said. You were sent to lead. ..."

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    "Then it looks like I'm coming, too," Richard said.
    Matt turned to him. “You don't have to, Richard. You can stay with the professor."
    “You're not getting rid of me that easily." Richard sighed. "I told you back in York. My job is to look after you, and that's what I'm going to do. All the way to the bit-ter end."
    "Then let's do it," Matt said.
    He raised a hand. And at that moment he was in com-mand, the head of an army that had assembled to do what he asked.
    As one, they set off to do batde.
    The night of Inti Raymi had arrived.
    Salamanda's compound lay ahead.

    Chapter 19 Control Center
    Darkness had already fallen as the Incas took their posi-tions around the compound, stretching out in a long line across the sand. Matt couldn't believe he was with them. A thousand years before, the Inca army had swept across South America: