‘Can you sit up?’
‘Not without help.’
Leaning down, Joe put all his strength into lifting Lisa into a sitting position, ignoring the pain in his injured arm. When she was vaguely upright, he pulled her into a hug, pulling back only when he heard her gasp.
She was staring at the bell, her eyes wide. ‘Fraser? And Kono… what… is that blood?’
Fraser walked over to them, smiling and hugging Lisa tightly before helping the professor up.
Joe nodded. ‘I’ve got a lot to tell you. I’m afraid Kono didn’t make it. Neither did Winthrope, but that’s a good thing, believe me.’
‘Winthrope? I…’ her eyes closed, her head drooping forwards.
‘Lisa!’ Joe shook her a little harder than intended, and she opened her eyes again, smiling at him vaguely. Scared, Joe turned to her uncle. ‘What’s going on here? Were you two attacked?’
The professor shook his head. ‘Radiation…I think…from Die Glocke…’ His gaze wandered over to the bell.
‘We all need to get out of here.’
Nodding at Fraser, Joe picked up Lisa while Fraser helped the professor out of the room, back into the chamber with the golden Buddha. On seeing the treasure, Joe and Fraser propped Lisa and her uncle up against the wall before going and getting the rest of the jewels and gold bars from the bell. They did it quickly, mindful of what the professor had said about radiation, and placed them next to the Buddha.
‘We’d better get out of here and find the abbot,’ Joe announced to the others. When no one made any objections, he leaned down and picked up Lisa, cradling her to his chest as he walked back into the tunnel.
Fraser stared at the professor. The professor stared at Fraser.
Fraser laughed. ‘No chance.’
The professor rolled his eyes and put his arm around Fraser, using him as a kind of crutch while the two of them hobbled after Joe.
As Joe carried Lisa he forgot about the pain in his side, in his arm, he was mesmerised by her beauty. Her soft skin, her lips that he wanted to kiss, her beautiful brown eyes that melted his heart every time she looked at him. He never wanted to be separated from her ever again.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
Joe smiled down at her, ‘I guess I missed you’
‘For two minutes?’
‘Is that how long I was gone? It felt longer.’
A few minutes later, all four of them were standing in front of the monastery. The car was where they’d left it, but most of the gardening monks had vanished.
Joe put Lisa down carefully on one of the steps and yelled at no one in particular. ‘Hey, we need to get the abbot out here!’
A few seconds later, he appeared at the entrance to the monastery, his eyes widening as he took in the dishevelled look of his four visitors, and only vaguely noting that one of them had changed from a huge gangster into a smaller, bookish-looking man.
He rushed over to them, staring at the blood on Joe’s arm, the pale look on Lisa’s face. ‘What happened?’
Joe didn’t know whether to be angry or relieved that they’d got back here in one piece – Kono aside, of course. ‘Your bell thing happened!’ He roared, louder and harsher than he’d intended.
The abbot stepped back a little, clearly shocked – but whether this was at his words or his tone, Joe couldn’t tell. ‘Well, I’m sorry but it’s not my bell. And I did warn you that it was… delicate.’
Joe stared at the abbot for a long time, his focus broken when a moan escaped from Lisa’s mouth. ‘Look, we’ve all been through a lot and we need to sort ourselves out. Do you have medicine here? Bandages?’ Even a long drink of water would be a hell of a help now, Joe thought, especially for Lisa, who was looking paler than ever.
‘Yes, of course,’ the abbot replied, gesturing to the monastery entrance. ‘Please, follow me.’
Joe picked up Lisa again and followed the abbot into the monastery, through large, airy rooms and past other monks, who looked at them in surprise but didn’t say anything.
Soon, they were in what was clearly the kitchen, and the abbot started opening cupboards and drawers, taking out bottles and glasses and making a little collection on the large wooden table in the middle of the room.
‘Please, sit.’
The four guests sat down while the abbot each poured them a large glass of water. It was the sweetest thing any of them had ever tasted.
‘Now, you could all do with some of this.’ He took some kind of plant out of a large pot and started grinding it in a bowl, into which he added several dried herbs – or at least, that’s what they looked like – and a couple of different liquids from the bottles he’d taken from the cupboards.
Soon the mixture was the consistency of a thick paste, and spreading it equally onto four thin wafers, the monk handed them round. ‘This will revive you, and take away your aches and pains.’
Joe stared at the wafer and the mush on top. ‘You don’t have any normal pain killers or anything, I’m guessing?’
The abbot stared at him. ‘No. We don’t need to. We grow our own medicines here.’
The professor started speaking before Joe could respond. ‘Just eat it, Joe. Chinese medicine has a lot going for it.’ He rolled his eyes and smiled at the abbot, clearly getting back to his old self.
Shrugging, Joe chomped down on the wafer. The ‘medicine’ tasted of old cheese and gone off vegetables, but he didn’t say anything.
The others followed his lead, and when the abbot was satisfied, he placed bowls of water, a small bottle of liquid, cloths and strips of fabric on the table. ‘For your wounds. The contents of that bottle are antiseptic.’
While they patched each other up, Joe told them all the whole story, with Fraser piping in with bits of information about the village attack and their trip back to the tunnel. The abbot listened carefully while he prepared a basic meal for them all, and by the time Joe had finished, everyone was full of food and full of wonder at the tale that had just been recounted.
‘I know it’s a crazy story, but hey, I’ve got the scars to prove it.’ Joe gestured at his arm, and pointed at his side. It was all bandaged up now but everyone had seen that his skin was ripped to shreds.
Lisa came and stood next to him. Joe was glad to see that the colour was back in her cheeks, the spring back in her step. Even after everything she’d just been through, she’d never looked so beautiful to Joe. She smiled at him. ‘I believe you.’
The professor nodded. ‘So do I. There’s just no way you have enough imagination to make all that up.’ He laughed. ‘Plus, I saw you disappear in Die Glocke, and I saw you reappear.’ He shrugged, actually lost for words. There was a first for everything.
‘So what now?’ Joe aimed this question at the abbot, who had been extremely quiet throughout the whole storytelling. ‘What about the bell… I mean, Die Glocke?’
The abbot stood up, his chair scraping on the floor as he pushed it backwards. ‘Well, if what you say is true, we should bring back the body of your friend.’
Joe nodded solemnly, thinking of Kono. He may have done awful things in the past, but when you go through something as crazy as this with someone, you inevitably form a bond. Joe wished he’d been quick enough to kill Winthrope before Winthrope killed Kono, and he could feel the anger starting to bubble away inside him again. ‘I’ll go get him now, but I’ll need help.’
Everyone stood without a word and walked out of the kitchen, with Joe and Lisa trailing behind them, holding hands.
When they got to the chamber door, Fraser stopped abruptly. ‘Should we really be going in there? With the whole radiation thing?’
The professor answered for everyone. ‘As long as Die Glocke isn’t actually in use, we’ll be fine. Plus… I feel better now. If it was radiation. We weren’t burned so it may have been some other kind of energy, electromagnetic waves or subatomic particles, anyway, I don’t think it was serious, or permanent.’ With that, he walked around Frase
r and entered the chamber, the others following after him.
When the abbot saw the addition to the treasures, he went over to inspect them, while Joe led the others into the next chamber, to the chamber of Die Glocke.
But there was no Die Glocke. There were no flags. There was no sign of the Black Eagle Trust whatsoever. The room was empty, their footsteps echoing around them as they paced the floor.
The abbot appeared at the doorway and Joe turned to him. ‘Where is it? Where’s Kono?’
The abbot stared at the room, shrugging. He didn’t seem that perturbed, it had to be said. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know. I’m sorry about your friend, though.’
Joe shook his head in disbelief, looking again at the empty room. ‘I guess the cleaners have done a thorough job, am I right?’ He stared at the abbot, who just smiled and turned away, walking back into the other chamber and the tunnel beyond.
No one said another word as they followed the abbot out of the room and back to the monastery. No one knew what to say.
‘Please can we get in the car now?’ Lisa was clearly starting to flag again, and Joe put his arm around her shoulders as they headed to their vehicle. It seemed like days had passed since they’d arrived here, the boot full of treasure and the monks full of joy at the discovery of Yamashita’s gold. To think that they’d only been away for a few hours was almost laughable.
The professor rifled through his rucksack and pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to the abbot.
‘This is for you.’
The abbot accepted the parchment and bowed his head in appreciation.
‘Yamashita’s map has helped us to recover your golden Buddha. I think there is a lot more information on it, if only we could decipher it properly.’
The abbot, as inscrutable as ever smiled, ‘Perhaps there is.’
Just as Joe was about to open the door for Lisa, another car drove up the driveway to the monastery – it was a black Mercedes, and it was going fast.
It came to a screeching halt just behind their blue Nissan, blocking them in.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’ Joe said, mainly to himself.
Two men got out of the car and strode purposefully toward him. They were glaring at Joe, so it clearly wasn’t a social visit.
He expected Lisa to get in the car, out of sight of these lunatics, but she just tightened her grip around his waist and looked pointedly at the men. This girl had guts. And she wasn’t the only one. In just a few seconds, the four of them and the two newcomers were surrounded by at least twenty monks, all of whom smiled sweetly at the two men, in a completely innocent and yet somehow threatening way.
The two man backed up slightly but held their ground. ‘We want what’s ours,’ one of them said, pointing at Joe.
Joe cracked a smile. ‘Don’t worry, guys. I’ll pay up.’ With that, he pulled a small bag out of his pocket and handed it to one of the goons. ‘I think you’ll find that will cover any debt I have with you.’
Curious now, the guy with the bag opened it, tipping the contents onto the palm of his hand. A large diamond sparkled in the sun, and a huge smile broke out on both their faces as they examined the stone in the light. ‘I think this’ll do.’
The two men walked back to their car, got in, and sped off without another word.
Joe sighed in relief as the monks said goodbye and went back to their work. The abbot lingered a little longer, as if he wanted to say something else to them, but then made an excuse and went back inside. Joe stared after him, smirking.
‘So what now?’ Lisa was smiling at him, clearly feeling the same relief that Joe was feeling.
‘What do you say about going back to yours?’
Lisa laughed while Fraser groaned in disgust.
‘I’m afraid I don’t have a home to go back to. My landlord kicked me out because I couldn’t pay the rent.’
Lisa grabbed Joe’s hand. ‘That’s OK, we’ll be homeless together then.’
Joe pulled another small bag out of his pocket and held it up dangling it in front of Lisa’s face and smiled.
‘Maybe I’ll just buy one of my own. Hell, maybe I’ll buy us all a new home. ’
‘The professor said nothing and got in the car, tired now of the adventure and wanting nothing more than to get back to his little home and his familiar bed.
The four of them got in the car, their minds on a million and one things. A hot shower, a cup of something strong and alcoholic, Kono, Die Glocke, Winthrope, the base in New Mexico…
Joe took the wheel, driving them out of the monastery, the huge Buddha statue getting smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror.
It would take a while to process everything that had happened to them over the last few days, but once they had – once they’d got it all straight in their minds, if that was even possible – then they’d have to make a decision.
Forget everything they’d done? Everything they’d seen? Everything they’d learned? Or find out more about it? Do something about it?
It would be a hard choice, but one way or the other, it needed to be made. Joe thought back to Dulce Base, the men in black suits, the doctors, the human-alien hybrid babies, the experiments.
He thought of the way Winthrope had transformed from and into that horrific reptilian alien, and how it killed Kono in just one stroke of its long, sharp claws.
He thought of the look on Winthrope’s face when he’d spoken of the hybrids making ‘the planet their own’. That look of mischief, of malice, of madness.
His mind raced. ‘How did the Nazis acquire futuristic technology?’
‘What was the Black Eagle Trust fund? Did the American government use ’Die Glocke’ to spirit away much of Yamashita’s gold. Who was Ram and what was his connection to the golden Buddha?’
He felt Lisa’s warm hand on his knee, and turned to see her smiling at him. One thing he was certain about; he didn’t want to lose the most valuable treasure he had found on this adventure.
He didn’t know about the others, but Joe knew which choice he’d make. Taking a deep breath, he slammed his foot once again on the accelerator pedal of the blue Nissan and headed back to the city, where for the first time in years, he felt glad to be back.
The professor looked out of the window of the speeding car, the countryside seemed so peaceful, everybody going about their business unaware of the threat to their planet. ‘Probably best they don’t know.’ he thought to himself. He hadn’t noticed before but Hong Kong looked magnificent in the sunshine with its scenic islands, rolling hills and tranquil seascapes. He thought of the natural beauty of the Philippines, the lush jungles and the white sandy beaches, the warm and friendly Filipinos he met in the village. In some ways he could understand why aliens would covet Earth. He had a story to tell, but who would believe him? In fact it might be dangerous for him to even mention it.
Slumping comfortably into the back seat he noticed that Fraser had already fallen asleep. ‘If only I had a camera’ he laughed to himself as Fraser snored with his mouth wide open. Although professor Okada was a logical man, he was also a spiritual man and he truly believed that whatever power it was that helped them recover the golden Buddha and uncover a government conspiracy, would also protect humanity. With that last thought the professor drifted off to sleep, the drone of the car’s engine ensuring that he slipped deeper and deeper until he was totally unaware of his surroundings, his head resting on Fraser’s shoulder, the only movement was from his eyes. Joe looked through the rear view mirror and saw that the professor was experiencing, rapid eye movement, an indication that he was probably dreaming about something. Joe turned to Lisa with a big grin on his face.
‘Let’s hope your uncle is having pleasant dreams this time. I’ve had enough adventure to last me a lifetime.’ Lisa laughed, it was the first time Joe had seen her really laugh since he met her.
‘He’s probably dreaming about the good time he had in the Philippine village’ Lisa joked. Joe smiled, ‘Probab
ly.’
As Joe drove over the impressive Tsing Ma Bridge, leaving Lantau Island and entering into Kowloon, he felt, for once, complete. He had met his father, found the girl of his dreams and had some money to spend. There was no-one chasing him and for the first time he thought life was good.
About The Author
James McKenzie was brought up and educated in Aberdeen, Scotland. He has had a long career in the cinema industry as a scriptwriter, part-time cameramen and actor. His inspiration for this book came when he was working in the Philippines and first learned of the legend of Yamashita’s gold. The book was featured on History Channel’s ‘Myth Hunters’ Series 3 in 2015
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