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 s
kinnier 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.
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.
The Mystery of Yamashita's Map Page 29
