The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (39 page)

Kono was nodding, peering into the closest jar.

Joe leaned in a little closer, not wanting to get too near, but needing to see what it was, to figure out if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

The object in the jar did look like a tiny human. It had the same proportions as a person, just in miniature form. Joe thought he could see hair on its head and eyelashes on its closed lids, but he didn’t want to get any closer to find out for sure. All around them there were pods and capsules of all sizes, each with its own grotesque inhabitants.

At that moment, the sound of voices floated over to them. They were muffled, as if coming from behind a door.

Not missing a beat, Joe grabbed Kono’s arm and pulled him deeper into the room, down one of the dark areas created by the huge shelves. Kneeling down, he peered through a gap in the shelving – trying to ignore what was in the jars right in front of him – and watched as the door leading to the corridor opened.

Three men entered, all of them wearing similar white coats and ID badges to the ones Joe and Kono now owned. These men were older than the ones they’d stolen the uniforms from, however, and somehow they had an air of authority around them. One of the men had a clipboard, and was referring to it while he spoke to the others.

‘Now, as you can see, this one was unsuccessful; the micro human only lasted several minutes under the conditions before expiring.’

Joe glanced at Kono, mouthing, ‘Micro humans?’

The doctor – if that was is what he was – carried on. ‘Now, the alien-human hybrids fared much better.’ He handed the clipboard to one of his associates and walked over to a computer screen in the corner of the room. ‘Our ‘friends’ should soon be able to survive in this atmosphere without too much terra forming’

Joe hadn’t even noticed it among all the weird and wonderful jars on the many shelves. He tried not to think of the words “alien-human hybrids” as he watched the doctor type something into the keyboard.

‘Now, you can see the results here. It won’t be long before we begin the trials for the Human-Hybrid Integration program.’

‘How much longer?’ queried one of the men.

‘Not long now. This quantum computer our tech guys built by decrypting our alien ‘visitors’ codes will soon have the answers. I’ll email them to you later on. I just wanted to show you our progress before our next meeting.’ He pointed at the screen, eliciting nods and murmurs of agreement from his two colleagues.

After a couple of minutes, the main doctor looked at his watch. ‘We’d better get moving, gentlemen.’

With that, the three of them walked over to the door and went out into the corridor, shutting it behind them.

Joe couldn’t move. He was worried that if he stood up, he might faint, or come face to face with one of those strange humans, or something.

Kono could move, however, and he pulled Joe up next to him. ‘Did those men say something about aliens?’

Joe took a deep breath, focusing on Kono instead of the jars around them. ‘That he did, Kono that he did.’

Now alert, Joe pushed past Kono and went over to the computer. The monitor was blank except for a small box and the words ‘enter your password’. Joe sighed. ‘Damn. Damn!’

‘You OK, Joe?’

He turned to face Kono, and was half glad to see that the gangster looked just as pale as he assumed he was. ‘No, not really. We’ve somehow been transported to New Mexico, which in itself…’ he trailed off, taking a deep breath. ‘And now there are aliens in the mix? What kind of place is this? What do we do?’ His usual calm and jokey exterior was slipping, his real feelings showing through: he was terrified. He had no idea where he was or what would happen if they were found. He looked up at Kono again. ‘We have to get out of here.’

Kono nodded eagerly. ‘The elevator?’

Joe thought for a few seconds. ‘No… we risk running into too many people that way. I say we go back to the bell and try and figure out how it works. It could be our only shot of getting back to Hong Kong.’

Without waiting for Kono’s answer – which would probably just have been, ‘Got it, boss’ or something similar – Joe walked over to the door, peeking out and looking up and down the corridor. ‘All clear.’

The two of them slipped into the corridor and started walking in the direction of the elevators. Joe just hoped that no one would appear from the elevator before they got to the room, but at least they had their lab attendant disguises on if anyone did.

They were about halfway towards the bell room when they started to become aware of a low humming sound, and Joe immediately knew it was coming from the bell. Two seconds after that, a huge flash of light lit up the corridor, momentarily blinding them both.

The flash had come from the bell room, and as Joe looked, he saw that the door was slightly ajar.

Gesturing to Kono to keep quiet, Joe walked slowly over to the room, standing close to the wall but peering through the crack in the door.

His first thought was that he’d gone mad – that he must be hallucinating this whole thing, because what he was looking at didn’t make any sense, not in his world. But the more he looked, the more he believed that what he was seeing was real. Surely no hallucination would be this detailed? Where would his brain even come up with this stuff? There was just no way.

Standing in the middle of the room, next to the bell, was a hideous, lizard-like creature, somehow both unearthly and yet neither male nor female. It was the size of a man, but moved quickly, in short, reptilian bursts of action. Its skin was a pale green, its features pointed, and it had a long, thick tail protruding from its lower back, the end of it trailing along the floor. Just about visible were the tops of two scaly wings, now folded into its shoulders. Its eyes darted from side to side, taking in the other people in the room, of which there were quite a few.

The three doctors from before were there, as well as two more lab attendants – these ones still had their uniforms and ID badges intact. Joe wondered if the other two were meant to be at this little meeting, wondered if their presence would be missed. The two suited men were also there, their glasses still on, staring intently at their guest.

Joe focused back on the hideous lizard.

He hadn’t noticed before, but the lizard creature was holding something – two things, actually. Joe leaned forwards a little more to get a better look, and he could feel Kono do the same thing behind him. The lizard being was holding out two human babies, which two of the doctors took, carefully, as if they might break.

They were so tiny, they looked as if they could be new-borns.

Joe stood, transfixed, wondering what was going to come next. He heard one of the doctors muttering something about prepping another two for surgery.

What came next was something that made his eyes widen and his jaw hang open, as if he was some stupid cartoon character.

The lizard creature stood back from the others, creating some space in the small room. It then stood up straight and closed its eyes, as if trying to concentrate or meditate. The others in the room stood in silence, watching.

Joe held his breath; he could feel the tension and anticipation emanating out of the room, and he felt a small tingle run up his spine as he waited to see what the lizard would do.

Whatever he’d been expecting, it wasn’t that.

The lizard creature opened its mouth, wide – wider than Joe ever would have thought possible – and a strange cracking sound floated over from the middle of the room. It was followed by a weird crunching noise, and Joe watched in horror as the lizard person started to morph into a human, its legs and arms and wings flailing about as it somehow balanced on its thick tail.

The lizard’s mouth opened even more, and Joe felt sick to his stomach as a tuft of white hair started coming out of the hole. Due to the mouth opening wider and wider, the head of the lizard was now torn apart so much that its face was bent backwards, falling apart as the new head – the head with the white hair – got bigger and bigger.

Kono groaned behind him and Joe instinctively kicked out at his leg to shut him up. He didn’t turn to face him, but he could imagine the look of complete horror that would be plastered across Kono’s features. He could feel it plastered over his own.

This was all just too much.

The situation, however, was about to get much, much worse.

The human head that had seemingly appeared from within the lizard creature was soon followed by a human body, ripping apart the pale green flesh of the reptile as the full size of the man came into being.

A pungent smell hit Joe’s nostrils then, making him reel back and gag. It was the fetid smell of an animal that had just died – which wasn’t really that far from the truth, he supposed – and it filled the room before filtering out into the corridor.

The men in the room didn’t flinch. They must have been used to it.

The man who had just burst out of the lizard’s skin was wearing an old white tee shirt with beige coloured knee length shorts, in stark contrast to the sharply dressed men in front of him.     He was much older than them, however, and as he flicked a speck of lizard skin off his shoulder and looked up, Joe realised who it was.

This time it was his turn to make a surprised moaning kind of sound, and it was Kono’s turn to kick him in the back of the leg.

The man standing in the middle of the room – the man who had just morphed from a lizard creature into a human being – was Winthrope.

Joe was sweating now; he could feel it trickling down his back like it had done in the jungle – in the jungle where he’d met this man in front of him. He’d always felt there was something off about him, and it looked like he was right. Something was off. Something was way off.

Without warning, the doctors nodded at Winthrope and filed out of the room, followed by the lab attendants.

Joe instinctively stepped back and looked down, as if searching for his watch to find the time. Kono followed suit, looking down to try and hide his face.

The main doctor gave them a cursory glance, said, ‘You missed the meeting,’ and then carried on down the corridor with the others in tow.

The two suited men hadn’t left, and after a few seconds, Joe tentatively moved forward and looked again through the open door.

Winthrope was now addressing the men in black, as if what just happened was the most natural thing in the world. ‘How are the experiments going?’

Suited man number 1 stepped forward. ‘They are going well. Doctor Pope is narrowing down the successful candidates. Soon we’ll know the exact qualities needed for the alien hybrid to live in this environment.’

Joe froze, unable to move, unable to breathe.

Winthrope smiled, a gleeful grin that made his entire face contort with madness. ‘Excellent news! It’s what I needed to hear today, it really was. I’m getting tired of living with humans, if only we didn’t need them.’

The man in black tilted his head downwards and looked over the top of his dark glasses as if to make his point more clear. ‘We are also tired of living underground, never being able to see the sun, the sky. That is why you must continue to supply us with their new-borns to experiment on. If these stupid natives believe that a creature called the Manananggal is stealing their children, then so be it. As long as they never suspect that you are the Manananggal our secret is safe.’

Winthrope’s facial expression became more serious. ‘The mother of those two new-borns saw me change back into this disgusting human form so I had to kill everyone to stop the story from spreading.’  

‘Then you’ll have to start all over again.’ the man in black said authoritatively. Joe was no genius, but he was beginning to understand why Winthrope was so eager to populate his village. He began to think they were all aliens, maybe they had some sort of class system and the men in black were superior.

Winthrope’s face brightened up again. ‘That will be no problem.’ He stared into the distance, his smile slipping slightly. ‘Our home planet doesn’t have much time left. The sun in our system will soon become a red giant, and all life will be gone in an instant – burnt to a crisp. These alien hybrids are our last hope. One day, we will be able to live in this world; we’ll be able to make this planet our own.’ His smile was back now, and Joe got the impression that the phrase ‘make this planet our own’ was more sinister than it sounded.

That wasn’t the only thing currently cramming its way into Joe’s brain, however. The suited man had referred to Winthrope as Manananggal, and although a lot had happened since Joe’s time in the Philippines, he remembered that name well.