The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (36 page)

The group followed the abbot deep down into the hidden tunnel, and Joe wasn’t the only one who was trying to push thoughts of the Philippine tunnel out of his mind. At least this one wasn’t quite so cramped, or filled with decay and long-lost souls.

They seemed to have been walking for an age, and they were now quite clearly deep underneath the main monastery building. It was getting darker the further into the tunnel they went, although every so often there would be a small, pale light flickering on the wall.

The sound of the trolley wheeling along the slightly uneven ground was the only noise for several minutes, the group not wanting to talk to each other on their journey. For some reason it didn’t feel right, so they remained in silence, the squeak of the trolley’s wheels their soundtrack as they moved deeper underground.

The abbot finally stopped, turning to face the others in the flickering light. ‘Please, I ask you not to tell anyone about this place. None of the others have even been down here, and I ask you to respect my wishes in this matter.’

They all nodded. The abbot turned to the door in front of him, barely visible in the dinginess of the tunnel, and pulling a large, ancient-looking key out of his robes, he pushed it into the keyhole, the sound of which echoed around the small tunnel. The door opened with a loud creak.

The space beyond was larger than they’d expected – more of an underground chamber than a room – and it was mind-boggling to think that all this lay beneath the monastery, unknown to all of the visitors and even the monks who lived here. The stale air that hit them as they entered told them it was rarely used or even visited, and it was made even more mysterious by the fact that this room was also lit by the same small, pale lights that had been dotted along the tunnel.

The abbot gestured for Kono to wheel the trolley over to a certain spot in the middle of the room, and as he and Joe got nearer, they saw an empty plinth standing there, just waiting for the day when it again would have something worthy to carry.

Today was that day.

Kono and Joe lifted the golden Buddha off the trolley and onto the plinth before stepping back, admiring their handiwork. It had taken a lot for them to bring the Buddha home, and this moment made everything seem worth it.

The golden Buddha looked like it had been there forever.

Where it should have been all along.

It was finally home.

Joe didn’t know if it was the significance of what he’d just done, or the way the strange chamber suddenly seemed to be pressing in on him from all sides, but he started to feel extremely faint. Not like he was going to throw up, nothing like that, but like… like he was moving, somehow…

He stared at the golden Buddha, the room slowly fading to black around him. The colours of the chamber drained away, the voices of his friends vanishing into thin air.

Where was he again? Some kind of monastery? No… no, of course not. He looked around him, at the aircraft hangar he was in, at the old-fashioned plane right in front of him.

He jumped, his whole body suddenly alert.

How long had he been here? How had he even come to be here?

The chamber, the abbot, the golden Buddha… it was all starting to feel like some sort of faraway dream.

He looked around him, taking in the smells of oil and machinery, glancing up at the curved roof and soaking in the excited atmosphere, the feeling of anticipation that seemed to hum in every single part of the hangar. He jumped as an American airman ran past in full uniform, quickly followed by several others. They were all rushing about, as if they were preparing for an imminent take-off.

Suddenly, he felt pressure on his palm, and looking down, he saw a small hand on top of his own. His gaze travelling from the tiny hand to the face of the person attached to it, Joe saw that it was the young spirit boy from the Buddha. Strangely, he didn’t feel at all surprised by this bizarre development.

‘My name is Ram.’ He smiled at Joe, a sort of shy, half smile. ‘Come, I want to show you something.’

Joe nodded, but before he could speak the boy disappeared, the feel of his hand in Joe’s gone in an instant. What did he want to show him? How was he supposed to follow him if he didn’t know where he’d gone? Joe was starting to panic, but looking up, he saw a strangely familiar figure coming towards him. He stood out from the other men rushing around the hangar, and it took him a few minutes to realise who it was. His face was exactly the same as on the photograph Joe had been given by his mother, years and years ago. He’d never forget that face – it was the face of his father.

‘Son.’

That one word took the wind right out of Joe. He couldn’t say anything, didn’t even feel like he could breathe, and so he just waited for his father to speak to him again. Something which he had never done in real life.

‘It’s good to see you, Joey.’ He smiled at his son, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. His expression was one of both joy and pain.

Joe still couldn’t respond.

‘I never meant to leave you, Son. I had no idea your mother was pregnant when I left to fight in the Great War. You have to know that.’ He paused, looking at Joe, taking him in. He seemed to relax a bit. ‘I’m glad I got to see how you turned out. Your mother is here with me now. Everything is fine. You don’t have to worry. Believe me.’

Overcome with emotion, Joe took a step towards his father, then faltered. He didn’t want to get too close, although he wasn’t sure why. Fear what would happen? Concern that he would suddenly fade away? Leave Joe alone all over again? So instead, he stood his ground, taking a deep breath and clearing his throat before answering in a raspy voice, ‘I believe you. About everything.’

His father smiled at him. ‘Thank you. That means a lot to me.’

‘And Mom’s there?’

He nodded.

Joe smiled back at him, or he tried to. It came out more like a scared grimace. ‘You look after her, you hear me?’

His father laughed, nodding. ‘You can count on it, Joey.’

Joe laughed as well. What else could he do? Then, suddenly, the laughing stopped. ‘I wish I could have known you.’

‘Me too, Son. Me too.’ His father stared at him for a couple more seconds before glancing around him, gesturing at the chaos of the aircraft hangar. ‘I’m afraid I have to go now. Remember that we’re always thinking of you, and we’re so proud for what you’ve done.’

Joe smiled, tears running down his face. The hangar was starting to fade around him, and he only just managed a quick, ‘Goodbye, Dad!’ before the picture in front of him dissolved, taking away the wonderful image of his father and bringing him crashing back down to reality.

He was standing in the underground chamber beneath the monastery, staring at the golden Buddha, the trail of tears still lingering on his face.

He breathed deeply, worried he might faint or that his knees might buckle beneath him.

Lisa suddenly appeared in his field of vision, standing in front of him and placing one of her hands on his cheek. ‘Joe? What is it? What’s wrong?’

Her frowning face snapped Joe out of it, and the incredibly emotional journey he’d just been on flowed out of him as he held Lisa tightly, hugging her like he’d wanted to hug his father just moments before.

‘Joe…’ Lisa’s voice was muffled, her mouth pressed to his shoulder.

He could hear the abbot come and stand next to him. ‘I believe that was Ram, saying thank you. Am I right?’

Joe nodded, or as much as he could do with his arms still around Lisa.

After a couple more seconds, she pulled back from the hug, staring at Joe intently. ‘Are you alright? What’s he talking about? Who’s Ram?’

Wiping the tears from his face with his sleeve, and feeling a bit of an idiot for crying in front of Lisa, he nodded. ‘I’m fine. Better than I’ve been in a long time, in fact. I’ll tell you about it later.’ And he would. Actually, he couldn’t wait to tell her all about it, a feeling he wasn’t quite familiar with; he didn’t usually have deep and meaningful conversations with the women in his life.       

Suddenly extremely grateful to have Lisa there with him, he leaned forward to kiss her briefly on the lips. He wanted to do much more than that, of course, but he was extremely aware that he was in the same room as a Japanese gangster, a monk, and her uncle. He’d wait until later.

Instead, he took her hand in his, squeezing it tightly. ‘We should go.’ He gave one last glance at the golden Buddha and turned to face the way out. As he walked towards the door he felt a strange compulsion to remain in the chamber. Something was holding him back, some unfinished business needed to be attended to. Joe had survived on his instincts all his life and if his instincts were telling him something, he listened. 

The only problem was that he didn’t know if he was dreaming again. His reality had become distorted, he felt like there were two people inside his head, one of them was filling his imagination with visions, leading him on this quest to recover the golden Buddha, the other, he knew was himself, a rather lacklustre
individual who definitely did not believe in the supernatural, yet here he was, being influenced by some unknown power that was trying to push him in another direction. 

He felt Lisa’s hand tightening on his, bringing him back to reality with a jolt. He shook his head as if to clear his mind catching a glimmer of metal in the corner of his eye as he did so.
‘

‘What’s in there?’

They all turned towards a barely visible metal door that was placed in the middle of one of the walls, and the abbot responded,

‘It is just a relic from the Great War.’

Something about the tone of the monk’s voice as he said the word ‘relic’ caught Joe’s attention. Curious, he turned to the abbot.

‘Can I see it?’

The abbot stared back at Joe, his brow furrowed. ‘I’m afraid we do not let anyone see the relic. It is quite old and delicate.’

The professor stepped forward, suddenly intrigued as well. ‘Surely a few seconds can’t hurt? I’d love to see it; I’m a big fan of war memorabilia.’ He smiled at the abbot, letting his gaze slide slightly to the right – towards the golden Buddha – for just one second.

The abbot followed his gaze and sighed.

‘I suppose it is the least I can do, considering that you have all brought our Buddha home to us. Please, allow me.’

He walked over to the door, and Joe expected him to get yet another ancient key from out of his seemingly never-ending robes. Instead, the abbot leaned over a plaque on the wall and pressed a sequence of symbols. Slowly, the door opened, creaking much like the one they’d just come through. This one, though, seemed to be taking forever, and Joe walked over to help the abbot push it back. It clearly hadn’t been opened in a while, but with the two of them leaning against it, the door was soon open wide enough for the five of them to traipse through.

Stepping forward, Joe looked around the chamber. He had been expecting some sort of small side room, but it was huge – much bigger than the chamber they’d just come from.

‘What’s in here?’

The abbot looked straight into Joe’s eyes as if he was trying to send him some kind of subliminal message or warning.

‘I don’t know. We have been forbidden to ever enter this chamber. There are rumours,’ the abbot paused mid-sentence, ‘that this was used many years ago as a gateway to the other world. I have never actually entered, and don’t intend to.’  

Joe noticed that the abbot seemed a little uncomfortable, but his interest had been piqued. He needed to see what was inside the chamber.

‘Can we look around?

‘Yes, but there are things I must attend to. Please make your own way out once you’ve finished, and thank you again.’ With that, the abbot walked back out the door, leaving the group to look around them in awe.

The chamber was dark, it had the same pale lights flickering on the walls that provided just enough illumination for them to see their way around. The same stench of putrid air that had greeted them in the Buddha’s chamber. As they stood in the dimly lit chamber, their eyes began to adjust to the surroundings. 

‘What are these flags?’ They were draped over every wall, and Lisa was peering up at them, an expression of wonder on her face.

The professor walked over to one of them, taking in the black eagle emblem emblazoned across the material. ‘How extraordinary. This reminds me of the eagle in Hitler’s Reich bank in Berlin.’