The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (41 page)

Joe closed his eyes again, trying to get his thoughts under control. He wouldn’t find out what happened to Lisa by just standing around here, and when he opened his eyes again, he strode somewhat painfully towards the chamber exit.

The stone walls of the chamber turned into the muddy earth of tunnel walls, that familiar smell, and with a jolt Joe realised he was back in the tunnel in the Philippines. He thought back to Winthrope pressing something on that panel – he must have set the controls to return here before Joe and Kono ran into the bell.

Trying not to think about all the terrible things that could have happened to Lisa, he made his way slowly through the tunnel, creeping along cautiously in case anyone – or anything – was after him here, as well.

He briefly thought of checking the secret chamber – the one he’d found the golden Buddha in. The last time he’d been in there, there’d been entire crates of jewels and gold, and as far as he knew, they were still there, waiting for someone to retrieve them.

Gold and jewels, however, wouldn’t be much help to him now.

As he walked, he tried to come up with a plan. Pushing thoughts of aliens and tiny human hybrids and experiments to the back of his mind, he tried to think logically. The village wasn’t too far away – not when compared to Hong Kong, anyway – and there was someone there he needed to see.

He hated to admit it, but he needed Fraser’s help, and he needed it badly.

Joe walked on, his heart leaping as he got to the end of the tunnel – it was still daylight.

Mustering up his remaining energy, he began his trek, hoping that he was going in the right direction and that he wouldn’t end up back at the tunnel entrance. It was all too easy to start going round in circles in this jungle.

It was just starting to get dark when he stumbled upon the village, but his relief was soon replaced with concern.

What had happened here?

What Joe had first taken to be smoke from fires that the women had lit for cooking, was actually coming from the huts themselves – around half of the dwellings were smouldering, their crumbling remains burning away.

The village looked like a bomb had hit it. No, several bombs.

As Joe ran farther in, he started to see bodies lying on the ground – girls young and old were spread out as if sleeping, but Joe knew that they weren’t just having a nap.

Blood and dirt and debris covered everything, the devastation made all the more eerie by the absolute silence, apart from the squawking of chickens, fighting over crumbs, that had descended over this once lively and thriving place.

The thought of all these dead women was too much to bare, and Joe started to feel the nausea coming back, even though he was no longer spinning around in the bell device.

He ran his hands through his sweat-clogged hair, and he was just trying to decide what to do next when he heard a low moan coming from somewhere over by one of the half-destroyed huts. It was a deep moan, a male moan.

‘Fraser!’ Joe ran over to his treasure hunting companion, leaning over him and shoving what remained of a bamboo hut off his legs. ‘Are you OK? Can you move?’

Fraser didn’t look good. His face was covered in black ash, apart from where a deep cut in his cheek was leaking blood, and his clothes were filthy, stinking of smoke. He moaned again, then found Joe’s face. ‘Joe?’

He nodded and helped Fraser sit up, slowly in case of any serious injury. After a quick inspection, it looked like his main problems were the cut in his cheek and a deep scrape down his right leg. He hobbled a little bit, but he could walk.

When Joe had Fraser sitting down in the middle of the village clearing, he fetched him some water to drink and found a first aid kit in one of the demolished huts. They cleaned each other’s wounds as much as they could, both trying to hide the pain as if it would somehow make them look like wimps if they flinched. After the macho posturing was over Joe did a quick search of the place, looking for any survivors. There were none.

When he got back to Fraser, he was looking much better, the water seemingly having revived him. ‘How did you get here, Joe? Where are the others?’

Joe frowned, not sure what to say. ‘Kono’s dead. I don’t know about Lisa or the professor… we got separated. As to how I got here… let’s just say it’s a long story.’ Joe gestured at their surroundings. ‘What happened here?’

Fraser shrugged, staring at the ground. ‘I don’t know. First, Winthrope came into my hut. He was angry. He had been arguing with a woman who was about to give birth to twins. Everybody in the village had heard them shouting at each other, then the shouting changed to screaming…that’s when,’ Fraser paused to take another sip of water, ‘That’s when I heard the villagers outside my hut. They were like an angry mob baying for Winthrope’s head. I tried to calm them down, but they kept on shouting. Manananggal, Manananggal in unison. Someone hit me from behind and as I passed out I could hear explosions, screams, children crying. I woke to find this carnage. Is there anyone left?’ He looked up at Joe, his face hopeful.

Joe just shook his head.

Fraser nodded, looked back at the ground.

Joe sat next to him, unsure how to tell Fraser what happened to him with the bell. ‘Look, Fraser… Winthrope… he’s dead, too. And there’s something you should know about him.’

Fraser shrugged, not looking up, not seeming surprised anymore. ‘Go ahead.’

Joe sighed. Fully expecting to be laughed out of the village by its one remaining inhabitant, he launched into his story, telling Fraser everything – how they took the gold to the monks, the bell, the base in New Mexico, Winthrope and the human babies used for experiments, how he was really the Manananggal, and how both Winthrope and Kono had died in the bell.

When he finished his tale, Fraser didn’t say anything for a good couple of minutes. Then, he sat up straight, drank some more water, and nodded. ‘I think we’d better get back to Hong Kong.’

Joe watched, open-mouthed, as Fraser stood up, gathered some more water, and started walking towards the jungle.

When he was on the outskirts of the village, he turned back and shouted – as much as he could – at Joe. ‘We’d better go now if we don’t want to be travelling in darkness the entire way!’

Joe stood up, running to catch up with Fraser as he disappeared into the jungle. ‘Are you saying you believe me? Just like that?’

Fraser stopped, turning briefly to face Joe. ‘Look, all I care about is getting back home, away from this place. I want to know that Lisa is OK. I want to get back to my house, back to my bed, and then I want to sleep for a week.’ He coughed a few times, took a sip of water. ‘As for your story… let’s just say I’ve seen and heard things in this jungle that I can’t explain, and your tale doesn’t sound quite as far-fetched as it would have done before we came here.’ He shrugged and continued on into the jungle, even though he was clearly exhausted.

Thankful that Fraser was at least trying to believe him, Joe walked to catch up and took the water off Fraser, freeing up both of his hands. ‘You OK?’

Fraser glanced at him briefly. ‘I’m OK.’

The trek through the jungle was slower than when Joe had been on his own, but he didn’t mind. Fraser was clearly in pain, but he didn’t complain once. He just kept plodding on, occasionally asking Joe to verify parts of his story or expand on things he didn’t understand. At the description of the ‘bell’, his face twitched, as if he knew something about it. When Joe asked, he just said that he’d heard about an old German experiment, but didn’t go into any detail. It was clear that most of his energy was being spent on just putting one foot in front of the other.

By the time they arrived back at the tunnel, Joe was beginning to like Fraser. Well, perhaps ‘like’ was a bit of a strong word, but he did respect the man now, at least.

Joe entered the tunnel first, turning round every so often to make sure Fraser was still behind him and still able to walk.

As they got towards the chamber, Joe thought of the remaining treasure again. For all he knew (and hoped), this was the last time he’d ever be here, and it didn’t seem right to keep the secret to himself any longer. Those jewels should be taken back to the monastery as well, not just left here to get old in the darkness.

With only a few words of explanation, Joe led Fraser to the secret chamber, watching in amusement as the man’s eyes lit up. Despite all he had been through, treasure like this still made him smile in awe. Joe supposed it would have that effect on most people.

‘What do you say, Fraser? See how much we can take with us?’

Fraser was already leaning over the crates, filling his pockets with jewels, and grabbing as many gold bars as he could carry. Joe did the same, then motioned for Fraser to follow him to where the bell was.

Fraser nearly dropped his gold when he saw the huge black bell in front of him, but as it wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened to him over the last few hours, he soon got over his shock and walked towards the bell, standing over Kono’s body.

‘What about him?’

‘We’ll take him with us – I can’t leave his body here. He needs to be given a proper burial.’

Fraser didn’t look entirely convinced, but he said nothing as he stood inside the bell, next to Kono’s body. Joe followed, being careful not to tread on Kono’s arm or leg in the process.

When he was in position, he stared at the panel, at the strange buttons and dials, and wished he’d paid more attention to what Winthrope had done back in New Mexico. ‘Now, I don’t want to worry you, Fraser, but there’s a chance we might not end up back in Hong Kong.’

Fraser raised his eyebrows. ‘Where might we end up?’

Joe shrugged. ‘Honestly? Anywhere.’ He plastered a fake grin onto his face, hoping he looked encouraging enough. ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

Fraser stared at him, a solemn look on his face, and nodded.

Joe dropped the act and nodded back at him. They both knew there was a risk here, and they were both willing to go ahead with it, because what other choice did they have? It was either this or spend the rest of their lives together in the jungle, trying not to get on each other’s nerves and never speaking to anyone else, probably ever again.

No, they had to do this. They had to at least try.

Taking a deep breath, Joe focused on the panel, using his free hand (the one not holding bars of gold to his chest) to press a symbol – one in the shape of an arrow – until the tiny screen next to it stated ‘Destination Three.’ It had already been set to Destination Two, which was obviously here, in the jungle, and something in his gut told him that the base in New Mexico would be ‘One’. He didn’t know how many destinations were programmed into this thing – if he looked and found hundreds, then the idea of living in the jungle with Fraser might start to seem like the better option, and he simply couldn’t let that happen. So, he left it at three and hoped he’d end up somewhere at least vaguely recognisable. Somewhere vaguely civilised.

He glanced briefly at Fraser again and then turned back to the panel, pressing the large green symbol that he assumed meant ‘go.’

The bell did nothing for a few seconds, and he was just about to try another button when the hum started.

‘What is that?’

Joe turned to face Fraser. ‘It’s fine, this is what it did last time. I should warn you, though, it gets a little… rough.’

Fraser laughed. ‘Rough? Like plane turbulence?’

Joe watched as the familiar red and black swirls of light started appearing around the outside of the bell. ‘Something like that.’

The humming got louder, the swirls got faster, and then they were off, racing through… well, whatever it was that this thing travelled through. Joe still didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

He didn’t feel as nauseous this time, which was a relief, and he supposed it helped that he wasn’t in the bell with a homicidal alien lizard.

He nearly laughed at that, but one thought of Lisa stifled any giggles that would have otherwise escaped his lips.

The bell lurched then, causing Joe and Fraser to stumble. A couple of jewels fell onto the floor, one of them landing in the pool of Kono’s blood.

Another lurch, some more dropped treasure.

Joe watched in fear as Fraser sank to his knees, placing the gold bars on the ground before putting his hands up to his ears, as if that would somehow help.

Joe was just about to ask Fraser if he was OK when he felt his own legs give out beneath him, forcing him to the ground.