Evil Star
He held up the diary.
    "There are plenty of people out there who said that the diary didn't exist," he went on. "For that matter, there are people who think that Joseph himself didn't exist! Well, it looks as if I've proved them wrong."
    "You're planning to sell the diary," the commenta-tor said.
    “Yes, that's right. And I have to tell you that I've already had one or two quite interesting offers. A certain busi-nessman in South America — I'm not mentioning any names! — has already made an opening bid in excess of half a million pounds. And there are some people in London who seem very keen to meet me. It looks as if I may have an auction on my hands. .. ." He licked his lips with relish.
    The camera cut back to the diary. More pages were being turned.
    "If anyone can untangle the strange riddles, the often illegible handwriting, and the many scribbles, the diary could reveal a completely new mythology," the voice con-cluded. "St. Joseph had his own, very peculiar view of the world, and although some think he was mad, others call him a visionary and a genius. One thing is sure. William Morton has struck it lucky, and for him the book is Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star quite literally pure gold."
    The pages were still turning. Fabian froze the image. Matt gasped.
    At the very end of the film, the camera had rested on one page with handwriting — hundreds of tiny words com-pressed into narrow lines — at the top and the bottom. But in the middle there was a white space and a strange symbol. Matt recognized it at once.

    He had seen it at Raven's Gate. It had been cut into the stone on which he had almost been killed. It was the sign of the Old Ones.
    “You see?" Fabian said. He left the image frozen on the screen.
    "We believe the diary will tell us the location of the sec-ond gate,"
    Susan Ashwood said. "It may also tell us when, and how, it is supposed to open. But as you've heard, we aren't the only ones interested in it."
    "A businessman in South America..." Matt remem-bered what the report had said. "Do you know who he is?"
    "We don't even know which country he lives in — and William Morton isn't saying anything." Fabian scowled.
    “You're the people who he said wanted to meet him in London,"
    Richard said.
    “Yes, Mr. Cole. We contacted Mr. Morton the moment he went Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star public with what he'd found."
    "We have to have the diary," Ashwood said. "We have to find the second gate and either destroy it or make sure it never opens.
    Unfortunately, as you heard, we're not alone. This 'businessman,'
    whoever he is, got in there ahead of us. Since that video was made, he has quadrupled his offer. He's now offering to pay two million pounds."
    "But you can pay more," Richard said. “You've got lots of money."
    "We told Morton that the last time we spoke to him," Fabian explained. "We said he could more or less name any price he liked.
    But it's no longer a question of money."
    "He's afraid," Susan Ashwood said. "At first, we didn't understand why. It seemed to us that he was being threat-ened by whoever he was dealing with in South America. They'd shaken hands on a price and he wasn't allowed to speak to anyone else. But then we realized it was something more than that."
    She paused.
    "He'd read the diary," Matt guessed.
    "Exactly. He had the diary for the best part of a month and in that time he read it and understood enough of it to comprehend just what it was he had on his hands. Right now he's in London. We don't know where, because he won't tell us. He has a house in Putney —
    but he's not there. As a matter of fact, there was a fire a few days ago. We assume it's connected. We don't know for certain. All we know is that William Morton has gone into hiding."
    "How do you contact him?" Richard asked.
    "We don't. He calls us. He has a cell phone. We've tried to trace the Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star calls, but it's no good. Until

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