The Power of Five Oblivion

shape-changers, the fly-soldiers, the monsters and the mutants – were lined up against them. And then, one of the Five, the boy called Sapling, was ambushed and killed at a place called Scathack Hill.
    “The Old Ones thought they were safe. What they didn’t realize was that killing Sapling allowed his modern self to travel back in time and replace him. The American boy, Jamie Tyler, went back without anyone noticing and joined with the four others to make five. That was the trick. The Old Ones didn’t see what had happened until it was too late. The circle was formed, the gate opened, and the rest you know.”
    Jonas drank a little more of his wine. He wondered where this was all leading. The chairman had announced that he was dying. Well, good riddance to him. But was it possible that he was being groomed to take over Nightrise? His face gave nothing away but the thought of it thrilled him.
    “Returning to modern times,” the chairman continued, “the Five came together again very briefly in Hong Kong. It’s extraordinary to think that they were actually in the same room, in a temple in Kowloon. If they had been able to stay together, if they had formed another circle, who knows what might have happened! But the city was being hit by a typhoon. It was falling down all around them. They had to get out fast so they all piled into a magic door, which had been specially built for them inside the temple and which could transport them to safety on the other side of the world.
    “There are twenty-five of these doors and they’ve used some of them before. But this time they forgot the one simple rule. They had to know where they were going. Otherwise, they would be sent anywhere. And that’s exactly what happened. They went in together through one door but they came out of different ones. Jamie Tyler, for example, turned up in a village in England and we very nearly captured him. We’re still looking for him now. In a way, you’ve got to laugh. All that effort just to come together and they’ve found themselves scattered all over the globe.
    “And there’s something else. The door was blown to pieces even as they went through it. The typhoon destroyed the entire temple … and this caused a gash in the fabric of time. Although the journey only felt like a few seconds for them, it actually took them ten years to arrive at the other end.
    “I’m afraid they’ve come back to a world very different from the one they left. Their position is hopeless. They’re alone, scared, weak and divided…”
    “And we have taken two of them prisoner.”
    “Yes, Jonas. We knew the exact location of seventeen of the twenty-five doors and we have been watching them for ten long years, waiting for the children to appear.”
    “So which two are they?”
    The chairman waited before answering and Jonas knew that he was toying with him, enjoying the moment. “One is a Peruvian boy. His parents died in a mud-slide in his village and he ended up scavenging and begging in the streets of Lima. His name is Pedro.”
    “And the other?”
    “Scott Tyler.”
    The words were out and Jonas felt a warm glow of satisfaction. Scott and Jamie Tyler had been responsible for the death of his mother in California, ten years ago. One or the other of them – maybe it was both – had turned the hand of an assassin and sent a bullet straight into her head. Jonas had been seventeen at the time. Of course he didn’t care about his mother – but that wasn’t the point. This boy, Scott, had been responsible for her death and that made it personal. It would give Jonas great pleasure to meet up with him. Suddenly the wine tasted sweet.
    “What do you want me to do?” he asked.
    “Pedro is of very little interest to us. He’s weak and he’s loyal and it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to do very much with him. Scott is a different matter. Your mother already spent a certain amount of time with him and almost managed to persuade him of our point of view. She was using drugs and various brainwashing techniques.” The chairman produced a memory stick and handed it to Jonas. “This is her report and there are video files too, which will give you a general idea of what went on. Obviously the process wasn’t completely successful as Scott and his brother were reunited and your mother is dead.
    “But it’s still our belief that Scott is the weak link. He may be one of the Five but he’s not really one of them, if you know what I mean.