Necropolis

kicking a ball, waiting for Professor Chambers to get back from the shops. Now she was dead, her house was in ruins, and the four of them were at each other's throats. How could things have gone wrong so quickly?
    "Scott, I don't think…" Jamie began.
    "Are you on his side?" Scott directed his anger at his brother.
    "We're all on the same side," Matt cut in. "And if we turn against each other, we might as well give up."
    'You've never been on my side, Matt. You've never trusted me, not from the day I arrived here. Well, you go without me. You can all go without me. I don't care."
    Scott got up angrily, knocking his chair over behind him. He didn't even notice. He walked away in the direction of the house and disappeared through the front door. Nobody spoke. Then Jamie stood up. "I'm sorry, Matt," he said. "I'll go and talk to him. He'll be all right."
    Jamie followed his brother. That left Richard, Pedro, and Matt. Richard poured a glass of the lemonade.
    He offered it to Matt, who shook his head. Richard drank it himself.
    "Where do you want me to go?" Pedro asked. "I don't think it is good for us to stay here."
    Matt sighed. "I thought you'd go back to Vilcabamba with Tiso and the other Incas," he said. "I was hoping you could spend a bit more time with Scott…" Pedro understood. Scott still needed help after his experiences as a prisoner of Nightrise.

    "I'll do what I can," he said. "But Scott has a lot of pain. There are things happening here…" He tapped the side of his head. "I do not understand."
    'You were nearly killed last night. He didn't help you."
    'Yes. But he and Jamie are very close. Twins. Maybe it is not such a great idea to split them up."
    There didn't seem to be anything more to say. Pedro collected the jug and the glasses and carried them in. Richard and Matt were left on their own.
    "That went well," Matt said gloomily.
    Richard finished his lemonade and set the glass down. "Don't be too hard on yourself," he said. "We're all feeling bad about last night, and Joanna's death. Jamie will talk to Scott. He knows you're doing the best you can. They'll work it out."
    "I hope so."
    "In just a week, you'll be in Vilcabamba. All of you. You've got the diary now. And despite what happened last night, you all came out of it okay. None of you was badly hurt. I'm sure you've made the right decision, Matt. It's all going to work out."
    But Matt wasn't so sure. He twisted round and looked at the house, at the scorched wood, what was left of the roof, and suddenly he was aware that something was wrong, that it didn't quite add up.
    If Ramon had been able to find them so easily, why had it taken the Old Ones so long? And if they had wanted the diary back so badly, why hadn't they sent a larger force? Matt had seen the sort of creatures the Old Ones had at their disposal. They had crawled out of the floor of the Nazca Desert…the armed soldiers, the giant animals, the hoards of shape-changers. But they hadn't been there last night.
    Was he making the right decision, splitting them up? Or was this what he was meant to do? Was he reacting to decisions that had already been made?
    Later that afternoon, two cars came to the house. One would take Pedro and Scott to Arequipa, the famous "White City" in the south of Peru. They would have to stay there overnight before flying to Cuzco. Because of the thin air high up in the Andes, planes were only able to take off and land in the morning. Two of the Incas would go with them and escort them up through the cloud forest to Vilcabamba.
    Jamie, Richard, and Matt had a shorter drive to Nazca Airport where a private plane was already waiting to fly them up to Miami. They would wait in Miami until Matt's new passport arrived and then they would cross the Atlantic to England. If things went well, they would only be apart for a few days.

    Matt took one last look at the professor's house. The town children would probably raid it in the next few days, stripping it of anything of value. He had been there for a long time. He had almost begun to think of it as his home, but now it was nothing. Burned out. Broken. Empty.
    Richard loaded their bags into the trunk.
    "Vilcabamba," Matt said.
    "Vilcabamba," Pedro agreed.
    The two of them shook hands. Scott and Jamie said nothing — but Matt knew that they were communicating even so.
    It was all over very quickly. The four boys climbed into their different cars and went their separate ways.
    ELEVEN
    The Happy Garden
    In London,