Evil Star (6 page)

He looked up and saw that Gavin was staring at him. There were half a dozen other boys grouped around, too. How long had he been standing there, frozen like some sort of idiot? One or two of the boys were smirking. Matt struggled to speak. But he had nothing more to say.

"Loser," Gavin muttered, and walked away.

The other boys went with him, leaving Matt standing on his own outside the chapel door. It was half past nine. The first lessons of the day had begun.

• • •

Thirty miles away, the police had closed an entire street, sealing each end with blue-and-white tape and the usual signs:
police — do
not cross.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star The unconscious man had been discovered by a milk-man. He had been lying on the pavement about a hundred meters away from a Shell garage. The paramedics had arrived and they had quickly established that he had been hit once with a blunt instrument. . .

possibly a hammer or a crowbar. His skull was fractured . . . but the good news was that he was going to live. He'd sustained other injuries, too, and the police suspected that he might have been a passenger in some sort of truck. Perhaps he had been pushed out while the vehicle was moving at full speed.

It had been easy to identify him. There was a wallet in his back pocket, complete with cash and credit cards. The fact that it hadn't been taken had automatically ruled out theft as a motive. His wife in Felixstowe had been woken up and was being taken at high speed to the emergency ward at the hospital where he was being treated.

From her, the police had learned that Harry Shepherd was a driver for Shell petrol and should have been delivering over two thousand gallons of fuel to the garage.

Once the police knew what Harry Shepherd had been driving, they also realized what was missing: the tanker itself. They immediately contacted Shell's office at Felixstowe and circulated the registration number of the vehicle to all units.

The petrol in the tanker was worth many thousands of pounds. Was this why the driver had been knocked out? The police hoped so, because simple theft was something they could handle. It was certainly a lot less worrying than the alternative.

But the thought was still there. This might, after all, be a quite different sort of crime. Suppose the tanker had been taken by terrorists. The local police put a call through to London, and the decision was made to keep what had happened out of the news.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star There was no reason yet to start a panic. As they searched the roads up and down Yorkshire, the police remained tight-lipped. But they all knew. Over two thousand gallons of petrol could create a
very

large bonfire.

They didn't want to admit they were afraid

• • •

For Matt, the morning only got worse.

He arrived five minutes late for his first lesson, stumbling into the classroom while the teacher — Miss Ford — was in full flow.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Miss —"

"Why are you late, Matthew?"

How could he explain? How could he tell her that he'd had some sort of premonition outside the school chapel that had left him paralyzed, uncertain what to do?

"I forgot my bag," he said. It was a lie. But it was simpler than the truth.

"Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to put you in the detention book." Miss Ford sighed. "Now, will you please take your seat?"

Matt's desk was right at the back of the classroom. Although he kept his eyes fixed on the floor, he felt every-one watching him as he took his place. Miss Ford was one of the better teachers at Forrest Hill. She was plain and old-fashioned, which somehow suited her since she taught history. She had been kind to Matt and had tried to help him fill in the gaps in his knowledge. For his part, Matt had done his best to catch up, reading extra books after school. They Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star were studying the Second World War and he found it more interesting than medieval kings or endless lists of dates. It might be history, but it still mattered now.

Even so, he was unable to concentrate today. Miss Ford was telling them about Dunkirk, May 1940. Matt tried to follow what she was saying but he couldn't make the words link up. She seemed a long way away. It was becoming very warm in the classroom.

". . . the army was cut off and it seemed to many people in England that the war was already lost. .. ."

Matt looked out the window. Once again he became aware of the sharp, acrid, burning smell.

And that was when he saw it, floating through the air, making no sound. It was some sort of truck. There was a figure hunched behind the wheel, but the sunlight was reflecting off the windscreen and he couldn't make it out. Like a great beast, the truck soared toward the school, plummeting out of the sky. Its headlamps were its eyes. The radiator grille was a gaping mouth. The tanker seemed to stretch into the distance^ a huge, gleaming silver cylinder on twelve thick tires.

Closer and closer it came. Now it filled up the whole window and was about to smash through . . .

"Matthew? What is it?"

Everyone was looking at him. Again. Miss Ford had stopped whatever she was saying and was looking at him with a mixture of impatience and concern.

"Nothing, Miss Ford."

"Well, stop staring out the window and try to concen-trate. As I was saying, many people thought that Dunkirk was a miracle. . . ."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star Matt waited a few moments, then glanced out the window again.

The classroom looked across to the sports center, a solid, brick building on the other side of a field, separated from the main part of the school by a single road which rose steeply and then continued back toward York. There was no traffic. It was a beautiful day. Matt pressed a hand against his forehead. When he drew it away, there was sweat on his palm. What was wrong with him? What was going on?

Somehow he managed to stumble through history and then physics and PE. But the last lesson of the morning just had to be English with Mr. King. They were reading
Macbeth,
and Matt found Shakespeare's language difficult enough at the best of times. Today it meant nothing to him — and Mr. King seemed to have a built-in radar that allowed him to hone in on anyone who wasn't paying atten-tion. It only took him a few minutes before he pounced on Matt.

"Am I boring you, Freeman?" he asked with an unpleas-ant sneer.

"No, sir."

"Then perhaps you can tell me what I was just saying about the three weird sisters?"

Matt shook his head. He might as well admit it. "I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't listening."

"Then come and see me at the end of the lesson." Mr. King brushed a strand of ginger hair out of his eyes. "The weird sisters tell Macbeth his future," he went on. "And of course he believes them.

In Shakespeare's time, many people still believed in witchcraft and black magic.. . ."

The end of the lesson took forever to arrive and when it finally Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star came, Matt didn't hang around to receive whatever punishment Mr.

King had in mind. It seemed to be getting hotter and hotter in the school. The glass in the windows was magnifying the sun, dazzling him. The walls seemed to be bending and shimmering in the heat.

But he knew that he was only imagining it. This was early summer . . . the begin-ning of June. Looking around him, he could see that none of the other boys was feeling anything.

There was a fifteen-minute break before the entire school would cross the road and go into the sports center for lunch. Once again Matt thought about calling Richard and asking him to help. Cell phones weren't allowed at Forrest Hill but there were three pay phones on the other side of the quad.

"Matthew .. . ?"

He turned round and saw Miss Ford walking toward him, on her way to the staff room.

"Mr. King is looking for you," she said.

Of course, he would be. Matt had defied him. That would mean more trouble than ever.

"I wanted to tell you that your last essay was a real improvement,"

Miss Ford went on. She was looking at Matt a little sadly. Now she frowned. "Are you feeling ill?" she asked. "You don't look very well."

"I'm okay."

"Well, maybe you should go and see the nurse." She had said enough. Even the teachers at Forrest Hill didn't want to be seen spending too much time with Matt. She brushed past him and continued on her way.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star And that was when Matt made his decision. He wasn't going to see the nurse, a thin, scowling woman who seemed to treat any suggestion of illness as a personal insult. Nor was he going to call Richard. It was time to leave Forrest Hill. Today. The other boys had made it perfectly clear to him from the start that he didn't belong. Well, maybe they were right. What was he doing in a private school in the middle of Yorkshire? The only thing that he had in common with the rest of them was the uniform he was forced to wear.

There was a garbage can in the corridor, just outside the staff room.

Matt had been holding a pile of books, but now, without even thinking about it, he threw them all in.
Macbeth.
Math. A GCSE

Guide to the Second World War. Then he took off his tie and threw that in, too. He felt bet-ter already.

He turned round and began to walk.

• • •

Could she really do it? The school was spread out in front of her.

She could see it through the windscreen. It looked like a very posh place, very different from the com-prehensive she had sent Matt to when he lived with her. She couldn't imagine him going to a place like this. It wasn't like him at all.

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star There were a whole load of old buildings grouped around a church

— but she knew that she wouldn't find Matt there. He was going to be in the big brick building next to the football field. There would be lots and lots of boys in there with him. It was a shame, really, that so many of them would have to die. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if this was a good idea. It wasn't too late. So far she had only killed one person — Brian. At the last minute, she had decided to hit the driver of the petrol tanker with the flat end, rather than the blade, of the ax. He'd seemed a friendly sort of person. She hadn't even really wanted to fracture his skull.

The police would never catch up with her anyway. She could just get out of the petrol tanker and walk away. Maybe that's what she ought to do.

On an impulse, she reached out and turned on the radio. It was one o'clock. The news would be on and she would find out if the driver had been found yet. But strangely enough, nothing came out of the speaker. She knew the radio was on. There was a faint hiss. But nobody was talking.

And then she heard a single word.

"Gwenda. . ."

It was coming out of the radio, out of the dashboard. She knew who it was and she was so glad to hear him. But at the same time, she felt ashamed of herself. How could she have had second thoughts?

"What are you doing, just sitting there?" Rex McKenna asked.

"I don't know.. .." Gwenda muttered.

“You weren't thinking of walking away, were you, you naughty girl?" It made Gwenda tingle when he talked like that. She had seen Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star him do it on the television. Sometimes he treated adults like children. It was part of his act.

"I don't want to die," she said.

"Of course you don't, Gwenda. Nor do I. Nor does any-body. But sometimes, you know, it just has to happen. Sometimes you don't have any choice."

"Don't I have any choice?" Gwenda asked. A single tear trickled down her cheek. She caught sight of herself in the rearview mirror, but it only told her what she already knew. She was looking very old and dirty. There was dried blood on her coat. Her skin had no color at all.

"Not really, my love," Rex answered. "It's a bit like the Big Wheel in a way. You spin the wheel, and your number comes up. There's not much you can do about it." He sighed. “Your whole life was a bit of a waste of time, if you want the honest truth. But at least you've been given the chance to do something important now. We need this boy killed. And you're the one who's been chosen to do it.

So off you go! And don't worry — it'll all be over very soon."

Gwenda could imagine Rex McKenna winking at her. She could hear it in his voice.

The radio had gone silent again but there was nothing more to be said. Gwenda turned the engine on, pressed her foot on the accelerator, then slammed the gear into first.

• •

Matt was on his way out. He could see the double doors at the end of the corridor with notice boards on both sides, lining the way. There Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star were boys everywhere, getting ready to go for lunch. For once they didn't notice him. Nor had anyone seen him dump his books. He felt a sense of ela-tion. No matter what happened, he would be glad to leave Forrest Hill behind him.

And then Matt smelled it again. The burning. And at exactly the same moment, the doors burst open. As he stared in horror, a river of flame rushed in toward him, rolling down the corridor, peeling away the walls, scorch-ing everything in its path. There were two boys standing there and suddenly they were black skeletons, X-rays of themselves as they had been seconds before. It was as if Hell had come to Forrest Hill. Matt saw a dozen more boys swallowed up instantly, too quickly even for them to cry out. Then the fire reached him and he flinched, closing his eyes, waiting for his own death.

But there was no flame.