The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (19 page)

They had cooked and eaten and slept and lived and been wounded and cured in the jungle. They had treated it with respect and it had reciprocated with kindness; for almost sixty years it had fed and clothed them, given them water and a place to sleep. They had been given the mandate to protect the jungle and that is what they had done and would do until word came from the Emperor himself. As Lisa and the others disappeared behind the bend in the bay, the figure stepped out from the shadows and stood, in the full glare of the early morning sun, in the uniform of the Imperial Japanese army. Over his shoulder a rifle was slung and in his breast pocket orders from the great General Yamashita who would one day come back and relieve him.
 

Chapter Eleven

The professor was having a hard time navigating the rocks; every other one he slipped on or caught his foot so that he lurched forward; he cursed and puffed his way through the rock pools that led to the open clearing of the jungle, the place that would begin their journey. Fraser had shaken most of the salt water from his ears and walked along in the sunlight studying the horizon for any sign of a plane or a boat. Joe lagged behind, puffing and wheezing, resting on the rocks as he took a few faltering steps forward. ‘Look,’ he said, sweating profusely. ‘Can we stop a moment, I mean, I’m not meant for walking this far.’

‘We’ve only gone a few hundred yards,’ Lisa said with a laugh.

‘Boy, I could do with a drink,’ Joe said.

‘There must be a stream around here somewhere we can drink from,’ the professor answered.

‘Unless it’s a whiskey stream I’m not interested,’ Joe said, and bent down to scoop up some of the water from a rock pool and splashed it on his face.

Lisa was beginning to like this island and the thought that there might be a radio on it somewhere that could get them off it pleased her even more. She craned her neck and heard all kinds of different sounds she had not heard before, sounds that she assumed were animals rather than spirits.

‘What did Anderson say about the aswang again, uncle?’

‘He said they were best left alone.’

‘What do you know of them, professor?’ Fraser asked.

‘The locals of these islands believe in them fiercely. It’s rumoured they live in the villages and can change shape to look just like you or me. Some are good, some are – well, most Filipinos think of them as a type of vampire that will stop at nothing to get you, if they so desire. They could be watching us right now.’

Fraser suddenly felt cold. He drew his damp coat about his shoulders and gazed into the jungle. It looked dark and mysterious. He didn’t know quite what he was doing here anyway and the last thing he wanted was to hear about the spirits that were after him. Ever since they had started on this walk he had had the strange feeling that he was being stared at. Every time he looked around to see who it was he saw nothing but, somehow, he knew that in the jungle eyes were on him.

He whistled a little but his lips were so dry he could make no noise. Behind him the professor had stopped. ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘I see fascinating strata here, untouched, undisturbed for millions of years. I’m sure I could dig up some seashells to prove that these islands were born from the sea. To a geologist it is a blank book waiting to be written.’

‘Can we keep moving, uncle? We want to find a camp before we go any further really.’

‘How come you know all this stuff about open air living, you a girl guide or something?’ Joe asked.

Lisa turned. ‘Yes, actually I was, but really it’s just common sense, something that may pass you by,’ she said with a giggle. Joe knelt down in a pool and felt the cool water seep into the legs of his trousers.                                                                                                                                                                                

Miles away, in the capital, Manila, Kono and Tanaka were making the last arrangements for their flight. They checked their luggage and made sure that the tracking device was still working. The red light flashed a constant pulse and a tiny beep was emitted from a speaker. Tanaka handed over a wad of dollars to the guard at the airport and whispered in his ear; this was going to be an easy trip, he had decided. Once they were on the island, the usual rules did not apply. There were no police who would come sniffing round, no university authorities getting in the way, and all he had to do was follow the professor to the gold and pluck it out of his hands. In a way this was almost better than stealing the map. If he had done that he would have had to find the tunnels, dig them out, pay for local workers to carry the gold to the plane and fly it home. Now all he had to do was find them, follow them and steal from them. The airport guard waved him through the terminus where he climbed aboard a pontoon plane. Beside him, Kono squeezed his bulky frame into the spare seat. ‘Do you have to sit so close?’ Tanaka said. ‘I’ll shove over a bit,’ Kono replied, moving his sizeable buttocks a fraction of an inch to the left. Tanaka pushed him so that he was flush up against the window. ‘Just stay there, will you, you fool.’

‘Sorry, boss.’

‘Just keep to your own side. Ah, why couldn’t I have got a decent right hand man?’

‘Sorry, boss.’

‘Just stay there.’

Tanaka did up his seat belt and tapped the pilot on the shoulder.

* * *

‘There it is!’ Lisa said. ‘There’s the exact spot where we should build our temporary camp.’ She raced through the last few pools of water to the clearing by the edge of the jungle and threw herself on the ground. ‘It’s got overhanging trees, not too shady though. It’s big enough, clear enough. There are no ants. This is feeling like home already.’ Joe wearily made his way to where she lay. ‘You sure have an imagination,’ he said, and slumped down on the ground. The professor and Fraser joined them.

‘Yes, yes, I think you are right, Lisa. I think this will make a perfect camp site, if only for tonight,’ the professor said.

‘Shall I make a start finding materials?’ Lisa said, and made her way into the undergrowth.

‘I’ll help,’ said Fraser and ran behind her, kicking at her heels. Joe and the professor stared out over the ocean.

‘You really think we’ll find anything, professor?’

‘Sure,’ the professor answered. ‘What, though, I don’t know.’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘Well, these are mysterious islands, Joe. I have been reading about nothing else lately, thinking about nothing else. They have overtaken my thoughts. There are physical things in the tunnels, actual dangers: gas, cave-ins, disease, rats – and then there are the things we don’t know about or can’t explain.’

‘Aswang?’

‘Yes, aswang, but also others. Has it not occurred to you that none of this was an accident?’

‘What you mean?’

‘Getting the map, finding you, finding the way here, the plane crashing. Has it not occurred to you that it could all be part of their plan?’

‘Who are they, professor?’ The professor looked about nervously. ‘Them,’ he said, and nodded into the jungle. ‘The spirits in there. The things in our dreams, Joe, the things that brought us here.’ Joe was silent for a while. The waves lapped slowly up on the beach and caused a ripple of sound to pass through the air. ‘Perhaps you’re right, professor. We’re here for the same reasons, you and me.’

Joe put his hands behind his head and lay back in the sand, staring up at the sky. There were wisps of white cloud floating over him which seemed to take forever to pass. He closed his eyes and felt the sun on his face and for the first time in years felt free and at peace. Here, on this island, there was no one who wanted him dead, no one who wanted to skin him alive and, more importantly, no bars that would take his money and leave him feeling like death. He crossed his legs.

‘You know,’ he said. ‘I could get used to this.’ He stared along the line of the shore and sighed. Suddenly his eye was caught by something glinting. ‘What was that?’

The professor snapped out of his doze and looked around. ‘What? What’s happening?’

‘I saw something,’ Joe said. ‘Glinting, over there.’ He pointed to a dense patch of foliage that lay on the outskirts of the jungle. ‘I swear it was metal.’

‘Probably a rockpool, Joe, they take on quite a metallic sheen if the sun hits them in the right spot.’

‘It was no rockpool. I swear it was metal or glass – real shiny, you know?’

Joe got to his feet. He strained his eyes towards the thicket but could see nothing. He sat back down again. ‘Jeez, just as I was getting a little relaxed I make myself all jumpy again.’

‘You want to forget about things for a while, Joe, take it easy.’

Joe sighed. ‘I have been running ever since I was born, professor. It’s a little hard to stop now.’

Behind them, Lisa and Fraser returned with armfuls of green vegetation. ‘How’s this?’ Lisa said smiling. ‘I think we could make a whole apartment block out of this.’ She dumped the leaves on the sand. ‘And these huge leaves to wrap ourselves in to sleep.’

Ordering everyone else about, Lisa set to making the shelter; she and Fraser cleared a space where the sand met the damp earth of the jungle floor and the professor and Joe began to make the frame of the shelter out of branches and fronds that had fallen or could be easily pulled free.

By the time they had finished it was nearing evening. The sat in their shelter examining the inside for leaks.

‘There are a million holes in this thing,’ Fraser said as he pushed his finger through the leaves.

‘It will do for tonight,’ Lisa said. ‘Tomorrow we’ll be off.’

‘I’ve heard it gets freezing cold, here,’ Fraser said. ‘I hope we don’t freeze to death, after all this.’

‘We won’t if we huddle,’ replied Lisa and comically cuddled into Fraser’s side. Fraser gulped and placed his arm around her.

‘I think, if we leave early tomorrow,’ the professor said, ‘We might be able to traverse the jungle, looking for these landmarks. This might not be a bad situation after all.’

He placed the map on the floor of the shelter. ‘These high hills, you see, and this river, should be easily located.’

‘If we find the river,’ Joe said, ‘We only have to follow it. It will lead us right into the heart of the tunnels.’

‘But where is the river?’

‘That is for tomorrow,’ the professor said.

That night, the stars were brighter than Joe had ever thought possible. He lay on his back outside the shelter looking up at them, trying to count each one. Lisa came to join him.

‘You keep staring,’ she said.

‘Have you ever seen them looking so beautiful?’ Joe asked. ‘As if each one were made from cut glass.’

Lisa laughed. ‘I have seen the stars before.’

‘I’ve only ever seen them through the haze of the city fog or against the lights of Hong Kong. I have never seen them like this, not even when I’ve been flying.’

‘You’ve lived in Hong Kong all your life?’

‘Yes, most of it.’

‘You’ve never been to the country at all?’

‘Well, my grandmother lived about a hundred miles out of the city but we hardly ever saw her. She was sick a lot and died when I was five. Wow, look at that one there, it’s so beautiful.’

Lisa looked. ‘There’s a shooting star,’ she said excitedly. ‘Look, two of them.’

Joe looked into the black sky. ‘That isn’t a shooting star,’ he said. ‘That’s the lights of a damn plane.’

He stood up to get a better view and, sure enough, against the black of the sky two small white lights made their way to the other side of the island and disappeared.

‘Who do you suppose that was?’ Lisa asked.

Joe scratched his head. ‘I don’t know. A doctor, perhaps. It’s possible they were going to another island, they are so close round here it’s difficult to tell which one is being visited. It looked like a pontoon plane.’

‘A pontoon plane?’

‘Yeah, you know, one that can land on water. Perhaps they were treasure hunters too.’

Lisa laughed. ‘Well, they won’t have a map, will they?’

Joe thought for a moment. ‘Who were those guys in Hong Kong, the ones we saw at the hangar? I mean the ones who weren’t after me.’

‘They were the ones who broke into my uncle’s apartment . . . Joe, you don’t think . . . ?’