The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (38 page)

Kono was also looking around him, frowning.

Joe sighed. If he didn’t know what was going on, how could he expect Kono to know what was going on? Kono didn’t seem to be aware of where he was or what he was doing half the time anyway.

‘Maybe… maybe we hit our heads or something.’ That wouldn’t be such a surprising fact considering they were both unconscious on the floor a minute ago. ‘Maybe this is the monastery, maybe Lisa and the professor are just… waiting for us, somewhere else.’ Joe was hoping that the words that came out his mouth would make at least some sort of sense, but he really was stumped. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Although, that wasn’t totally true, was it? The spirit boy? Meeting his father? Maybe this was just another dream, another vision… he pinched himself, hard. It hurt. No dream.

Kono was just staring at him.

Joe shook his head. It seemed to be up to him to figure out just what on earth was going on here. It was time to take charge. He eyed up the solid black door, the only thing in the room other than the strange bell – like structure they’d just come out of. ‘I say we go case this joint.’ He started walking towards the door and then stopped, turning briefly to face Kono. ‘We should probably be quiet, you know, stealthy, until we know what we’ve got ourselves into.’

Kono nodded solemnly, his huge bulk shaking as he did so. ‘I can be stealthy.’

Joe stared at the man in front of him, thought about making a sarcastic comment, then decided against it. All that mattered right at that moment was to find out where they were and, more importantly, to find Lisa.

‘OK. Let’s go. Stay behind me and don’t say a word.’

Kono nodded, like some child being given an instruction by their parents. Despite the way Joe and his friends met this man, there was just something about him that was kind of… likeable. Joe smiled and headed towards the door again.

It was an ominous door, if doors could be ominous. Pitch black in colour, it had no windows, no signs, and even the handle was painted black, scaring Joe for a second into thinking there was no way out.

Once he’d located the handle, he pushed down on it carefully, mindful not to make a single sound. Pulling it open, he peered outside.

They definitely weren’t at the monastery anymore.

Before Joe could even begin to get his head around that confusing fact, something else caught his eye.

Well, the first thing his brain registered was that they were in a modern building – the corridor he now found himself in looked new and clean. To his right was an elevator, a shiny metallic silver, clearly brand new and very expensive. To his left, the corridor stretched away from him, and Joe could just about make out several doors lining the hallway at equal distances apart. They were all solid black like the one he was standing next to now, directly in contrast to the sparkling white walls, ceilings and floors.

There was no one around, and Joe didn’t know if this was a good thing, or a very bad thing.

All of this, however, wasn’t what caused his brain to throb and his heart to skip a beat. Shuffling to the side to let Kono see, Joe stared at the sign next to the elevator. Like the rest of its surroundings, it was clearly new, with a black background and bright white lettering, which read: ‘Floor -05, Dulce Base.’

Joe looked at it for a few seconds, trying to take it all in. The Floor -05 part was bad enough – they were five floors below ground? That didn’t bode well – but it was the Dulce Base part that really floored him. Being half American himself, Joe had spent ages as a child studying maps of the US, his inquisitive nature about pilots and flying and destinations meaning that he found geography fascinating. He knew for a fact that there was a place called ‘Dulce’, and he also knew for a fact that it was nowhere near Hong Kong.

It was, in fact, in New Mexico.

‘We’re in the States?’

Before Kono could even grunt in reply, Joe heard the sound of the elevator whirring into action and he pulled back instinctively, shutting him and Kono back in the room, but leaving the door slightly ajar.

Moving so he could see through the tiny crack, he stared at the sliver of the elevator doors that were just about visible, hoping that the occupants of the elevator wouldn’t see his eye staring out into the corridor.

The elevator doors opened then, and Joe watched as two men walked out. They were the most suspicious-looking men Joe had ever seen, and he’d seen a lot of suspicious-looking men in his time. They were almost like clones of each other, wearing identical crisp, black suits and identical dark glasses, so dark that Joe couldn’t even see a hint of an eye behind the shades. With their pale faces and dark hair, there was definitely something not-quite-right about them.

They didn’t speak to each other or look at each other as they walked off down the corridor – each of their steps in perfect time with the other – and as soon as they were far enough away, Joe pulled the door open again and slipped out, motioning for Kono to do the same. ‘Let’s follow them,’ he whispered, hoping his voice wouldn’t carry.

The men didn’t turn round.

Kono looked longingly at the elevator for a couple of seconds then nodded in agreement, walking next to Joe as they followed in the footsteps of the strange suited men.

They were still in sight ahead of them, but were clearly too far away to hear them creeping up behind.

Joe looked down the seemingly endless corridor and shook his head. Just how big was this place, whatever it was? To think that this whole floor was underground was mind-boggling.

Just as he had that thought, one of the suited men stopped abruptly ahead, in the middle of the corridor, and just before he turned round to face the two would-be spies, Joe grabbed Kono and opened the nearest door, shoving him inside and closing it gently.

His heart was pounding. ‘Do you think they saw us?’

Kono didn’t respond. He was too busy staring at the room they were in.

Joe’s eyes widened as he stepped away from the door, thoughts of the two men temporarily forgotten as he took in the room in front of him.

There was a room within a room. The inner room was made of steel with huge windows that Joe guessed were made from unbreakable glass. The metal door had a digital keypad and some kind of security retina scanner. The red flashing light above indicated to Joe that the door was most definitely locked. Through the glass he witnessed a site he was getting used to seeing. It was full of gold.

About the size of a normal family kitchen, the whole room dazzled and glinted, the lights bouncing off the gold bars which covered the entire floor space.

Joe moved forward, bent down, his face pressed against the glass to get a closer look at a pile of the bars. ‘These markings… don’t they remind you of something?’ He looked up at Kono, who just shrugged in response. ‘They look like the gold bars we took to the monastery, they have the same markings! The ones from the Philippines…’

He thought back to the weird bell that had seemingly transported them here, and to all the gold that was still left in the secret chamber in the tunnel on the island. ‘Yamashita’s treasure could have been brought here the same way we were.’

Kono raised his eyebrows.

‘The machine we were trapped in!’ He thought back to the rumours that had been circulating about the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos finding most of the treasure. ‘So Marcos clearly didn’t get all of Yamashita’s gold.’ He stared at the gold bar in front of him. ‘It would have been convenient for him to get the blame, though, to hide what was really going on.’

Kono was still staring at him like he was mad. Joe didn’t blame him – the whole thing was a little mad. ‘But why?’

Joe sighed. ‘I don’t know, I really don’t.’ His mind flashed to the professor, to all four of them studying the flags and the bell under the monastery. The professor’s guess that the Black Eagle Trust was using the gold to fund “off the books” clandestine activities seemed to make sense, at least.

‘So what now?’ Kono was staring at him, waiting expectantly for an answer, as if Joe had the power to conjure up an amazing plan in just a couple of seconds. ‘Do we try and get out of here?’

Joe stood up again, stretching his arms up above his head. He still felt pretty stiff after his journey – or whatever you called it – in the bell. ‘And then what? Even if we make it to the elevator and up to ground level, we’d be stuck in the middle of New Mexico with no answers and no way of getting home.’

Kono looked startled at the ‘New Mexico’ comment but didn’t say anything. He obviously didn’t know his US geography like Joe did.

Not knowing what else to do, Joe walked back over to the door and slowly opened it, peeking out. Nothing to his right, but to his left there were two people, walking in the direction of the elevator. Not the two suits from before – these men were wearing long, white coats and blue trousers, like scrubs. They looked like doctors, or lab attendants of some kind. One was tall and slim, the other smaller and plumper.

Pulling back from the door, Joe looked over at Kono, at his stocky, rotund body compared to his own lean one. ‘OK, I’ve got a plan, but we’ve got to be quick. There are two men out there, heading for the elevators. We need to attack them, and get their uniforms. You take the larger guy, I’ll go for the skinnier one.’ He looked at Kono, at the strange smile that was currently spreading across his face. ‘We leave them unconscious but alive, got it?’

Kono nodded. ‘Got it, boss.’

Joe laughed, nearly told Kono to drop the ‘boss’ thing, decided against it.

Turning to face the door again, he peered out, checking both ways. They were still the only people out there, and they were nearly at the elevators.

‘Now!’ Joe opened the door fully and went out, power walking towards the two men, trying to get there quickly but quietly. Kono made more noise, but by the time the lab attendants heard them and had swung round to face them, they were upon them.

Joe heard Kono punch the larger man and cringed at the pathetic wail that escaped his lips as he fell towards the floor.

The skinnier white coat man glanced at his colleague, looked up at Joe, and opened his mouth – whether to beg for mercy or scream, Joe wasn’t sure.

He didn’t wait to find out. Pulling his right arm back, Joe put all his strength into the punch, whispering a quiet ‘sorry’ as the man crumpled to the ground. Kono had punched the larger guy again, but Joe didn’t need to – the thin man was out cold.

Without any further thought, Joe pulled the man into the nearest room, checking there was no one in there first, then motioning for Kono to do the same with his guy. Once they were both inside the room – which was pretty basic, with a desk, a chair, some filing cabinets and not much else – they started pulling off the men’s coats, trousers, shirts and ID badges, and after putting them on, both Kono and Joe looked like they belonged there, wherever ‘there’ was.

Joe looked down at his new ID badge, which was attached to the pocket of his plain white coat. ‘From now on, I am Roger Jones.’

Kono stared at him for a few moments before catching on, looking down at his own badge. ‘Oliver Johnson.’

Joe looked around the room, his gaze landing on another thick, black door. It could be a cupboard, but it was the same pitch black wood as the doors into the corridor, and he walked over to it, suddenly intrigued. ‘Well, Oliver, what do you say we do some snooping?’

Kono walked over to the filing cabinets and tried to open them. Locked. He tried the desk drawers. Locked. Turning to look at Joe, he shrugged and joined him over at the door.

Slowly, Joe pushed the door open, a little at a time, peeking through to see if anyone was in there.

The next room smelled of disinfectant and seemed to be some sort of lab, and while there was a lot to look at, there weren’t any people in there. He gestured for Kono to follow and then walked in, staring at the wide array of objects on display. This room was much bigger than the last, although it seemed more cramped due to the many shelves that were dotted throughout the room, creating small corridors of semi-darkness.

‘What…?’

Joe turned to look at what Kono was staring at on one of the nearest shelves. There were several large glass bottles lined up, some empty, some full of colourful liquid, and others… others…

‘What the hell?’ The words were out of Joe’s mouth before he even realised he’d spoken.

Some of the jars weren’t empty, not at all. Some of them had… things… in them. Some looked like organs, floating in a thick, yellowish liquid. Others looked like… well, ‘They look like tiny humans.’ Joe’s voice came out in a rasp.