Matt was almost ready to give up. He couldn’t believe that it was going to end this way, surprised and surrounded in a garden in Nazca. Was this what the fight had all been about? He was a Gatekeeper. He had returned to the world after ten thousand years. Was he really going to allow himself to be beaten so easily?
And then the night exploded a second time, with lights bursting out all around them, slanting in from every direction. Matt and Pedro stood where they were, swaying on their feet. Jamie moved towards his brother. Richard and Professor Chambers swung round with their now useless guns. They were trapped, huddled together in a group with the blazing house behind them, the lights in front, surrounded on all sides. Matt tried to see who it was that had arrived at this late stage. Did he have the power to send them back? He bowed his head, drawing on the last of his strength.
Then, as if from nowhere, a volley of arrows was fired in his direction. But not at him. They had been aimed deliberately over his head. Some of the creatures on the edge of the house cried out and fell back as they were hit. Another volley followed, taking out more of them. The lights were coming from the headlamps of four or five cars that had driven to the edge of the garden and parked in a semicircle. There were men running across the lawn. There were several gun shots. One of the men stopped and reached out for Professor Chambers who more or less collapsed in his arms. The others continued into the house, blasting away with hand guns, searching for any remaining attackers and setting to work, fighting the fire.
And suddenly Matt knew who they were.
They had helped Pedro and him when they had first come to Peru, spiriting them out of Cuzco through a network of underground tunnels. The two boys had stayed with them in their hidden city, Vilcabamba, high up in the mountains. They were Incas, the tribe that had once ruled Peru, but which had been reduced to little more than a handful of survivors, living in secret. They had promised to look after Matt and the other Gatekeepers while they were in Peru. And they had come, true to their word.
They were armed with guns as well as their own traditional weapons and they made short work of the attackers. Machetes swung through the darkness, slicing into rags and flesh. Bullets hammered through the night. It was over very quickly. Matt, Pedro, Scott and Jamie waited on the lawn while the last of the creatures was finished off. Richard was now helping to support Joanna Chambers. All the colour had left her face. She was barely able to stand.
One of the Incas came over to them. He was short with broad shoulders and a dark, serious face. “Are you OK?” he asked.
“We’re all right,” Richard said. “But Professor Chambers has been hurt.”
“I am Tiso. We came when we heard the first alarm. I am sorry. We arrived too late.”
“We’re just glad you’re here,” Richard said. “Can we go back into the house? We need to get her inside…”
But it was another half hour before the Incas had put out the flames and they could get back in. The roof and part of the first floor had gone, but there were still two bedrooms that were habitable and, once the debris and the dead bodies had been cleared, the six of them would be able to camp out on the ground floor.
The house would never be the same again. Matt looked at the charred wood and the soiled carpets, the broken windows and debris, and felt a mounting sadness. It had been such a beautiful place. Professor Chambers had lived there for much of her life but then he and the others had come along and ruined it for her. In a few hours, they were supposed to be departing – on their way to London. And this was the mess that they were leaving behind.
Tiso and some of the other Incas helped carry Professor Chambers into her study. Richard went with her and Pedro followed too. His healing powers were going to be needed more than ever, although it looked as if the professor might be too badly injured even for him. She needed medical help, and sure enough a doctor arrived a few minutes later, urgently summoned from the nearby town. Matt, Scott and Jamie stayed outside while she was examined. None of them said anything. They were exhausted. Just a few hours before they had been laughing together, having dinner and playing dice games. And now this!
Matt glanced at Scott. “Where’s the diary?” he asked. At that moment he almost wished they didn’t have it. It didn’t matter how valuable it was. It had so far brought them nothing but trouble.
Scott took it out of his jacket pocket and handed it over. “I’m sorry,” he said. His voice was low. “I didn’t help you, back there. I didn’t help Pedro. I wanted to. But…” His voice trailed off.
“It doesn’t matter,” Matt said. “Everything happened so quickly. Anyway, Pedro’s going to be OK.”
“What are they doing in there?” Jamie stared at the closed study door. His voice was angry. He kicked out at the sofa were Ramon had been sitting. The dead man had been carried outside but there was still a great gash in the leather to remind them of what had happened. He turned to his brother. “You got it wrong,” he said. “You said he was telling the truth.”
Scott blushed – with embarrassment or perhaps with anger. “I thought he was telling the truth,” he said.
“You may have been right,” Matt interrupted. The two brothers seldom argued and he was surprised to see them starting now. “We can’t be sure that Ramon was responsible for what happened tonight. He told us he was in danger and he was certainly right about that. They killed him. So maybe the rest of his story was true.”
“Can we use it?” Scott asked.
Matt opened the diary. There was a page covered with diagrams. One of them looked a bit like a motor car, though as if drawn by a child, and he remembered that Joseph of Cordoba – the mad monk – was supposed to have been able to predict the future. He flicked through it. Some of the pages had been marked with a modern pen. Someone had scribbled down words and figures, underlining certain areas of the text. Diego Salamanda? The diary had belonged to him and he could have spent weeks deciphering it. It seemed that he had left some of his handiwork behind.
Matt tried to make sense of some of the words but the monk had written in ancient Spanish and anyway his handwriting was almost illegible. “I can’t read this language,” he said. “And although Pedro can speak it, he can’t read…”
“Maybe the professor will be able to work it out,” Jamie suggested.
Professor Chambers. Matt remembered how Richard had looked when he had helped carry her in. The two of them had been inside for a long time.
And then the door of the study opened. Pedro came out. He shook his head briefly and sat down, looking miserable. The doctor followed him. He muttered a few words to Richard, then left the house, doing his best to avoid eye contact. That was when Matt knew that it wasn’t going to be good news.
“Matt…” Richard called him over to the door. “She wants to see you,” he said. His voice was hoarse. “She wants to say goodbye.”
“Is she…?” Matt realized what he’d just been told. “She can’t be dying,” he said. “What about Pedro? Can’t he help her?”
“It’s too late for Pedro. There’s nothing he can do.” Richard sighed. “We’ve called an ambulance for her and it’s on its way now. But she’s not going to make it. I’m sorry, Matt. I don’t know how it happened but she was stabbed. There’s been a lot of internal bleeding and…” He stopped and took a deep breath. “She’s not in any pain. The doctor’s seen to that. But there’s nothing more we can do for her. Do you want me to come in with you?”
“No…” Matt went into the study.