The Power of Five Oblivion

Mortlake – but it was the other man, much older with watery eyes and grey, unhealthy skin, who had spoken.
    “You hear that buzzing sound?” he went on. “There are thousands of volts running through that chain. It’s not electricity … not exactly. But you touch it and it’ll kill you just the same.” Scott said nothing so the man went on. “You don’t believe me? I could get someone to demonstrate, if you like. That kid with the buckets. You want to see him frazzle?”
    “This is one of the doors,” Scott said.
    “That’s right, son. And it’s out of service. The funny thing is, locking this one has locked all the others too, so don’t expect any of your friends to come tumbling through. I hope you weren’t thinking of leaving us?” Suddenly the eyes were full of suspicion as the old man waited for Scott to respond.
    Scott shook his head. “No. I like it here. Why would I want to leave?”
    “I’m glad to hear it.” The man extended a hand wrapped in a thick glove. “I’m the chairman of Nightrise,” he explained. “You’ve already met Jonas, of course.”
    Scott couldn’t see much of Jonas, with his hood and high collar, but his eyes gazed at him with undisguised hatred.
    “I need to talk to you, Scott,” the chairman continued. “Why don’t you step into my office?”
    Scott did as he was told, following the two men back into the tower he had just left. The chairman had a suite of rooms similar to his own but higher up, with a view overlooking Oblivion … the great expanse of unbroken snow with the scattering of planes at the end. The walls of his office were covered in fabric, making it feel less like a cave. The windows were more regularly shaped. There was a round, wooden table and four chairs. The chairman took off his outer garments, revealing a suit and an open shirt underneath. The three of them sat down.
    “So let me explain things to you,” the chairman began. “Any day now there’s going to be a fight and there can be no doubt that the Old Ones are going to win. Have you seen the rabble out on the ice? Pretty pathetic, really. You’d have thought mankind would have been able to come up with a little more than that. As for the so-called Five, the Gatekeepers, they’ve been split up. You’re with us. We don’t know where your brother is. He slipped through our fingers just outside London but we’re sure he’ll turn up soon enough. Pedro is somewhere in northern Italy. But you might like to know that Matt Freeman and Scarlett Adams are here in Oblivion. At least, that’s what we believe.”
    Scott started when he heard this. So two of them had actually made it all the way to Antarctica, even with the doors no longer working!
    “Matt Freeman is the one that matters to us,” the chairman went on. “He’s the leader of your little group and he did something very bad indeed, out in the Nazca Desert. He wounded Chaos. Do you have any idea how serious that is? The simple fact is that the boy has to be punished. That’s more important than anything. And you’re going to help us find him.”
    “Me?” Scott’s eyes flickered.
    “That’s right, Scott. We’ve taken a lot of time and trouble getting you here and I hope you don’t think we did it because we like you! We need you to make contact with him and draw him into a situation when he’s on his own. Despite everything that’s happened, Matt trusts you. If you tell him it’s safe, he’ll believe you.”
    “Why do you need me? You’ve got a whole army. Why don’t you just go out and get him?”
    “Because we want to be certain we get him alive.”
    “What are you going to do with him?”
    The chairman glanced at him sadly. “Do you really want to know?”
    “No.” Scott turned away, looking at the surface of the table.
    Jonas Mortlake had said nothing but now he leant forward with an ugly smile on his face. Behind his glasses, his eyes had come alive. “You can always refuse to help us,” he whispered.
    Scott knew what Jonas wanted. If he didn’t do what he was being asked, he would lose everything. He’d probably end up in a cell himself … or chained to a table beating out pieces of armour. There was no way he was going to let that happen. “How will I reach him?” he asked.
    “You can leave that to us,” the chairman replied. “We’ll make all the arrangements. You just have to turn up and lead him into the trap.”
    The interview was over. Outside the window, fifty soldiers were