Nightrise

CAVE ROCK

There was no time to think and there was so much they needed to do. Nearly everyone had left the bleachers by now, desperate to get away from the sprawled-out corpse of the woman who had been shot. At the same time, police and paramedics had arrived and taken charge. They had no interest in Scott, who was still sitting there, staring ahead of him. There were some spots of bright red blood on his white shirt.

“Was he with her?” one of the paramedics asked. The boy looked as though he was in shock. Maybe it was his mother who had been killed.

“No,” Nathalie replied. “He’s with me.” She turned to Jamie. “We have to get him out of here,” she said.

“Scott!” Jamie crouched beside his brother. Scott had blocked him out before but if he saw him, if he heard his voice, maybe it would be different. “It’s me… Jamie. It’s all right now. Nightrise is finished. They’ve closed Silent Creek. I’ve been looking all over the place for you but I’m here. Everything’s going to be OK.”

Something passed very briefly through Scott’s eyes – perhaps a flicker of recognition. He opened his mouth and tried to speak but no words came. Jamie turned to Nathalie Johnson and there were tears in his eyes. “What have they done to him?” he cried. “What have they done?”

Between them they helped Scott to his feet and carried him with them. He moved like a sleepwalker, not resisting but seemingly unaware of where he was going. Alicia was waiting for them at the bottom of the bleachers, with Daniel. She hadn’t been able to come any closer. She couldn’t expose her eleven-year-old son to the sight of the dead woman.

“Jamie! Scott!” She didn’t know what to say.

“Are you Alicia McGuire?” Nathalie asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s all right. I’m a friend. John told me about you.”

“Who are you?” Alicia asked.

Nathalie looked around her. The streets were emptying rapidly, people scattering in all directions. Soon there would only be policemen left. “We can’t talk here,” she said. “We have to get these boys on their way.”

“On their way where?”

“Alicia…!” It was already too late. Jamie pointed. The policeman with the moustache was striding purposefully towards them. He had unfastened his holster and his hand was on his gun.

“Tyler.” The single word was an accusation. The policeman stood with his legs slightly apart, like a cowboy in an old film.

“Jamie Tyler. Right?”

“No.” Jamie looked him straight in the eyes and pushed.

“Jamie Tyler was here but he’s gone. You’ve missed him. And now you’ve got to help all these people. You’re not interested in us.”

The policeman frowned as if he hadn’t quite heard what Jamie had said. Then he relaxed. “You’re right. I’ve got to help these people.” He turned round and walked away.

Nathalie Johnson stared, not sure what she had seen. But Alicia understood. Jamie had done the same thing when they were trapped in Don White’s house in Sparks. Even so, she shivered. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for a fourteen-year-old to have so much power.

She turned to Nathalie. “Listen to me,” she said. “We’re not going anywhere until we know who you are.”

“I’m Nathalie Johnson.”

The name meant something. Alicia had seen it in the news.

“Computers?” she asked. “Are you that Nathalie Johnson?”

“Yes.”

“You helped the senator. You did a couple of fundraisers last year…”

“Yes. But that’s not why I’m here.” Nathalie stopped. The policeman with the moustache had disappeared but she had no doubt that others would soon arrive. They had been lucky that he had decided to make the arrest on his own – but he would surely have put out an alert before he moved in. “I have a car very near here,” she said. “Will you come with me at least that far? I’ll tell you the rest once we’re on the way.”

Alicia nodded. She couldn’t take her own car. The police would surely be guarding it, waiting for her to return. And anyway, they would have circulated its number.

They hurried round behind the bleachers and down towards the statue. Nathalie first. Then Jamie and Alicia, guiding Scott between them. Finally Daniel. As they went past, Jamie glanced one last time at the statue. He felt a strange mixture of emotions, looking at the craggy face, doomed to kneel for ever with the dusty highway in front of him. The prospector had travelled a long way to deliver his warning. At least Jamie hadn’t let him down.

Nathalie’s car – a blue Mercedes – was parked near by in a spot reserved for VIPs. Normally she would have had a chauffeur, but today she had decided to drive herself.

“You can take my car,” she said. She handed Alicia the keys. “The best way I can help you is to make some calls.”

“Where am I meant to go?” Alicia asked.

“Give me a minute. You need to get to an airport. I’m just trying to think which one.”

“An airport?”

Nathalie sighed. “I know this is difficult for you but you have to understand. I know what’s been happening… or some of it anyway. You see, I belong to a group of people, an organization, that exists solely to help Jamie and Scott and the other Gatekeepers.”

Gatekeepers.

Jamie stared. Had this woman really said that?

“What do you mean?” Alicia demanded.

“It’s all right, Alicia,” Jamie cut in. He looked at Nathalie.

“You know about the Gatekeepers,” he said.

“Yes, Jamie. The Gatekeepers. The Five.” She paused. “I know Matt Freeman.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“In England. I met him there twice. But he’s not there now. He’s in Peru. A place called Nazca, just south of Lima. And that’s where you have to go.”

“Peru…?” Alicia couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“It’s OK.” Jamie hadn’t told Alicia anything about the time after he was shot. He had decided it was too much to explain.

He hadn’t even wanted to try. “Why is Matt in Peru?” he asked.

“There was a second gate. It opened. Matt tried to stop it but he was hurt. Pedro is with him now. Pedro may be able to help your brother. That’s another reason why you have to be there.”

“What about Scar?”

Nathalie shook her head. “I don’t know any Scar.”

Jamie had made his decision. Everything that Nathalie had said had made him think that she was telling the truth, and the mention of Pedro clinched it. That was Inti’s other name. Matt had told him. And Inti had the power to heal. The sooner Scott was with him, the better.

“How do we get there?” he demanded.

Nathalie let out a deep breath. She had been afraid that she would be unable to persuade them – but somehow Jamie had found out who and what he was. One day she would ask him how that had happened. But for now, she had to think straight. They were in Auburn. The police were still looking for them. Nightrise might be looking for them too. How to get them away.

“Lake Tahoe Airport,” she said. She glanced at Alicia. “It’s just off the 89. Right down at the south end of the lake.”

“I’ve passed it,” Alicia said. “But Sacramento is nearer.”

“If the police are looking for you, they’ll close off all the airports. Lake Tahoe is tiny. And there are no main roads. It’s the last place anyone will think of looking.”

“What happens when we get there? I just buy the boys a single ticket to Lima?”

“I can arrange a private jet. I can have it in the air within fifteen minutes. It’ll fly out from San Francisco and it should be there waiting for you when you arrive.”

“And you’re just going to give us your car?”

“The car doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Just get them there.” She rested a hand on Jamie’s arm. “I’ll call Matt and tell him you’re coming,” she said. “And one day you and I will meet properly and you can tell me everything that’s happened.” They heard the squawk of a radio on the other side of the bleachers. The police were sealing off the entire area. It was time to go.

Alicia didn’t even try to argue. She unlocked the doors. Daniel got into the front. Jamie helped Scott into the back and was about to follow him. But then he remembered something. He straightened up, facing Nathalie.

“The security man,” he said. “Warren Cornfield…”

“You made him do that.” So she had guessed what had happened.

“I couldn’t do anything else. Will you be able to help him?”

“I’ll do what I can, Jamie. I promise.”

Then another policeman appeared, walking towards them. Jamie got into the car. Alicia didn’t even wait for him to close the door.

She started the engine. They sped off.

Nobody said anything for the first few miles. They were heading south towards Placerville, another gold-mining town. From here they would pick up the 50 heading east back to Nevada. Scott seemed to be neither awake nor asleep but somewhere between the two. He was sitting slumped against the window. Jamie was next to him, watching the scenery go past without taking any of it in. He was thinking about Matt. Of course, it wouldn’t be the same Matt that he had spoken to after the battle, at the river’s edge. For a start, this Matt would never have met him or Scott. But they were still the Five. The same… but in a different time. That was how Matt had explained it. Perhaps when they were all together in Peru it would make sense.

Peru. Jamie didn’t even know where it was. Somewhere in South America? Even now, a private jet should have been taking off to collect them. The very thought of it made his head spin. He had never flown in his life.

Alicia glanced round. “How’s Scott?”

“I don’t know.” Jamie had examined his brother. He could see no sign of any external injury, but in a way that made his condition even more disturbing.

“We’ll be there in a couple of hours. Maybe you should try to get some sleep.”

But they never made it to Lake Tahoe Airport.

They had just passed through the Eldorado National Forest and some of the most beautiful countryside in California and were heading north towards the lake itself. They came to a sign pointing to the airport and Alicia turned off, following a narrow leafy road. Nathalie had certainly been right. Nobody would think of coming here.

But the police must have decided to cover every airport in the surrounding area. It was always possible that they weren’t working alone. Perhaps Nightrise had been influencing and advising them. Either way, the road was blocked. There was a single police car parked across with two young officers checking every car that came their way. They were looking bored. There couldn’t have been more than half a dozen cars in the last few hours.

Alicia pulled in and waited with the engine ticking over.

What now?

“Is there another way?” Daniel asked.

Alicia bit her lip. “I don’t think so, Danny. I didn’t see any other signs.”

Jamie was sitting up in the back seat. He was feeling sick.

They were so near. It didn’t seem fair that they should be stopped at the very end. “Can you drive round?” he muttered.

“There’s no point,” Alicia said. “I could get past them – but suppose the plane hasn’t arrived? They’d just follow us into the airport and that would be the end of it. And even if the plane’s there, we’d never reach it in time.”

“We could try on foot…”

“Scott won’t make it. And anyway, it’s too late.”

She was right. The two police officers had noticed them. They were already muttering to each other, staring at them suspiciously. It was always possible that the details of Nathalie’s number plate had been sent out. It didn’t really matter. A car had been driving towards them. Now it had stopped. Something was obviously wrong.

Alicia made a decision. It was probably the wrong one but she couldn’t think of anything else to do. She slammed the car into reverse, spun the wheel and sped off.

“What are you doing?” Daniel demanded.

“We can’t get past them. The road to the airport’s closed. The only thing to do is to get back to Reno. We can hide out at the trailer park. Nobody knows we’re there. The senator will help us. Maybe that’s what we should have done from the start.”

The two police officers had seen them leave. Without a moment’s hesitation, they ran back to their car and set off in pursuit. One of them was already on the radio calling for assistance from every town in the area. Four suspects heading east towards Carson City. A blue Mercedes, registration number NATHAL3. There were few roads in this part of the country and the distances were huge. There was no chance they were going to get away.

The Mercedes was doing almost a hundred miles an hour. Alicia was gripping the wheel, her eyes fixed on the road. She already knew that she had made a mistake, trying to break away. She had turned herself into a target. Any minute now she expected to see more cars blocking the road. Maybe a helicopter would come swooping out of the sky. She had lost sight of the police car but she could hear it. The officers had turned on their siren. It was less than a mile behind.

They flashed through a commercial centre with supermarkets and shops selling boat equipment and ski gear. That was the thing about Lake Tahoe. Skiing in the winter, boating in the summer, beautiful all the year round. Now they caught occasional glimpses of the lake on their left, the icy, deep blue water shimmering on the other side of the pine trees that covered the banks. They were still speeding, putting more space between themselves and the pursuing police car, which seemed to have dropped back a bit in the distance. Certainly its siren seemed fainter. Alicia wondered if she should come off the road – but there was no turning, nowhere to hide. On one side there was the lake. On the other, the ground rose up steeply with a rough sandy rock face and above it more trees that seemed to continue all the way to the sky.

They were trapped on the road and Jamie had come to the same conclusion as Alicia. They weren’t going to get away. What would happen if they were arrested by the police? John Trelawny would help them – but would he be able to reach them in time? It only took one policeman, paid the right amount of money, to make sure that none of them were ever seen again.

They shot through a tunnel that had been bored through a huge mass of rock. Ahead of them the road twisted to the right.

And then Jamie heard it. A whisper in his head.

Stop the car…

Three words. But he hadn’t heard them. Nor had he imagined them. With a thrill of excitement, he realized what had happened. Scott had sent them. He had finally made contact.

“Stop!” he shouted.

Alicia carried on driving.

“Alicia! Stop the car! Now!”

The urgency in his voice made itself felt. Daniel was already twisting round, looking at him as if he was mad, but Alicia slammed her foot on the brake and the car sliced across the road and skidded to a halt in a lay-by. The engine stalled. Somewhere behind them, the scream of the siren filled the air.

“Jamie…” Alicia began.

She was on the edge of tears, blaming herself for what had happened. But looking around him, Jamie realized something.

He knew where he was. He had been here before.

Five or six years ago. Before Don and Marcie. Even before Ed and Leanne. Derry, their social worker, had brought them to this exact spot because she had wanted to show them where they had been found. It was this lay-by, right here. This was where the two babies had been abandoned in a box intended for garden seeds.

And she had told them something about the area. According to Derry, the Washoe Indian tribe had been living here as long ago as ten thousand years. It was the main reason she had assumed that Scott and Jamie were Washoe themselves. Lake Tahoe was the very centre of their universe and somewhere below them there was a cave that was so sacred that tourists weren’t allowed anywhere near it. Even the shamans wouldn’t go there.

The Washoe called this place de’ek wadapush. In English, that translated as Cave Rock.

“We’re getting out,” Jamie said.

“Jamie…” Alicia knew from his voice that there was no point arguing. They had only seconds left. The police car was still out of sight but it would be thundering towards them.

“I think this is goodbye, Alicia.” Jamie didn’t know how he knew. He just did. “Thank you for helping me. Thank you for everything.”

“You did it all, Jamie. Not me…”

“Goodbye, Danny.” Jamie reached forward and shook hands with Alicia’s son, then opened the door. He slid out, then waited for Scott to follow. Alicia had also got out. They had no time. She seized hold of Jamie and kissed him briefly on the cheek, then pressed something into his hand. The scream of the police siren had disappeared. For a brief instant she thought it might have gone a different way or even broken down – but her hopes were dashed almost at once. The car had simply entered the tunnel and the bulk of the mountains was blocking any sound. As she looked up the road, it burst out. Worse still, a second police car had joined it. Both cars were racing towards them.

A sandy track ran through the fir trees and past a series of boulders. Jamie and Scott had broken into a run, heading away from the road and down towards the lake. The ground tumbled unevenly all the way to the water’s edge. A wooden platform had been built for tourists and the view was certainly awesome, with the lake a dazzling blue in the afternoon sun and a range of mountains, some of them snow-peaked even now, spread out on the other side. There was nobody else around. Jamie leapt over a fence and breathed a sigh of relief as his brother did the same.

Scott – are you with me? He sent the thought without opening his mouth.

I’m with you. The words were indistinct, as if transmitted by a faulty radio. But Jamie heard them and felt a surge of hope that carried him on. He had no real idea why he was doing this. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing. The very fact that they were here at all was surely some sort of crazy coincidence. But at the same time he knew that it was meant. They were doing the right thing.

“This is the police! Stay where you are! If you don’t stop, we’ll open fire!”

The words rang out, amplified through a bullhorn. Jamie almost laughed. They weren’t going to stop now. Did the police think that having come so far they would turn round and give themselves up? But the smile was wiped off his face a second later. There was a gunshot and a bullet ricocheted off one of the boulders just a few yards away. A warning shot? Or were the police really prepared to shoot them in the back?

He didn’t intend to find out. They were climbing down. The ground had fallen away so steeply that they had to use their hands and feet to guide them. The road was high up above them and unless the police followed them over the fence, they would be out of sight. With Jamie leading the way, they scrambled down the last few yards, using the lower branches of the fir trees to stop themselves falling. At last their feet hit shingle. They had reached the edge of the lake. The water spread out in front of them, millions and millions of gallons. And despite everything that had happened and the exertion of the descent, Jamie felt strangely at peace. It was as if he had come home. He still didn’t know for certain that he would find what he expected to find, but he was glad he was here.

He turned round – and there it was, just as Derry had said. A path of pure, white sand led to an opening in the rock. The cave was very dark and twisted back underneath the road. There was a design scratched into the surface, just above the entrance, so faint that he might not have noticed it unless he had been looking for it. A five-pointed star. Anyone else might think it had been carved recently but Jamie knew differently. It had been put there a long, long time ago.

Someone shouted, high above. One of the policemen. Jamie took a deep breath. It was finally over. It was time for him to go.

He took hold of his brother. The two of them walked up the path and together they went into the cave.

The police never found them. They climbed down and searched along the shoreline. They even looked inside the cave although they had heard of the Washoe traditions and knew they had no right to be there. By the time the sun began to set there were more than a dozen officers in the area. But if Scott and Jamie Tyler had ever been there, they had now completely disappeared. Had they walked into the lake and drowned? It seemed impossible. They would surely have been seen from above, and anyway there was no sign of the bodies.

Alicia was admitting nothing. In fact she and Danny denied that the two boys had ever been in the car. She demanded to speak to Senator Trelawny.

And while the police were calling off the search and discussing what to do next, many thousands of miles away, a door in a church had opened and two boys were stepping out into a strange and unfamiliar world. A few tourists glanced at them curiously. A priest, who had seen them emerge, scratched his head in puzzlement. The door had been kept locked for as long as he could remember and he was sure that there was nothing more than an empty storeroom on the other side.

It took Scott and Jamie half an hour to find a tour guide who spoke English and from her they learnt that they had arrived in Peru, even if they had managed to wind up in quite the wrong part of the country. They were in the city of Cuzco, high up in the Andes. The church was called Santo Domingo and had been built by the Spanish on top of another sacred site… Coricancha, the temple of gold, once a place of worship for the ancient Incas.

They were far away from California and although everything – including the language – was very alien to them, they knew they were safe. That night, they stayed in a hotel. At the very last moment, acting on impulse, Alicia had pressed a hundred dollars into Jamie’s hand. The money would pay for a room and a meal. The next morning they would use it to buy two bus tickets to a little town on the western coast. A place called Nazca.

In fact, the journey took them more than thirty hours. Scott still wasn’t talking – he wasn’t even sending any thoughts -and at night, when he was asleep, he would mutter and cry out and his body would twitch as if it was being prodded or given electric shocks. Jamie forced himself not to worry. Pedro was waiting. The healer. Scott would see him and he would be all right.

Three days later, they arrived. A taxi dropped them at an attractive whitewashed house set in a large garden with fountains playing and llamas wandering across the lawn. As they walked through the gate, the front door of the house opened and a boy emerged. Jamie recognized him at once. Dark hair cut short. Broad shoulders. Blue eyes.

It was Matt.

Another boy stepped out behind him and again Jamie knew at once who he was. Pedro. It seemed strange to think that the last time they had met, they had been drinking wine together in a field just hours after finishing a war. He wondered how he would ever explain it all. Where would he even begin?

Matt stepped forward. Although he was trying not to show it, it was obvious that he was in pain. So that made three of them. Scott needed help. And Jamie still had a large hole in his shoulder. He wondered how many of them would be hurt, how many of them would have to die before this was all over.

At last they stood facing each other.

“Jamie,” Matt said. “And Scott.”

He reached out a hand. Jamie took it.

Four of the Five had come together. The circle was almost complete.