The Mystery of Yamashita's Map

Chapter Eleven

The professor was having a hard time navigating the rocks; every other one he slipped on or caught his foot so that he lurched forward; he cursed and puffed his way through the rock pools that led to the open clearing of the jungle, the place that would begin their journey. Fraser had shaken most of the salt water from his ears and walked along in the sunlight studying the horizon for any sign of a plane or a boat. Joe lagged behind, puffing and wheezing, resting on the rocks as he took a few faltering steps forward. ‘Look,’ he said, sweating profusely. ‘Can we stop a moment, I mean, I’m not meant for walking this far.’

‘We’ve only gone a few hundred yards,’ Lisa said with a laugh.

‘Boy, I could do with a drink,’ Joe said.

‘There must be a stream around here somewhere we can drink from,’ the professor answered.

‘Unless it’s a whiskey stream I’m not interested,’ Joe said, and bent down to scoop up some of the water from a rock pool and splashed it on his face.

Lisa was beginning to like this island and the thought that there might be a radio on it somewhere that could get them off it pleased her even more. She craned her neck and heard all kinds of different sounds she had not heard before, sounds that she assumed were animals rather than spirits.

‘What did Anderson say about the aswang again, uncle?’

‘He said they were best left alone.’

‘What do you know of them, professor?’ Fraser asked.

‘The locals of these islands believe in them fiercely. It’s rumoured they live in the villages and can change shape to look just like you or me. Some are good, some are — well, most Filipinos think of them as a type of vampire that will stop at nothing to get you, if they so desire. They could be watching us right now.’

Fraser suddenly felt cold. He drew his damp coat about his shoulders and gazed into the jungle. It looked dark and mysterious. He didn’t know quite what he was doing here anyway and the last thing he wanted was to hear about the spirits that were after him. Ever since they had started on this walk he had had the strange feeling that he was being stared at. Every time he looked around to see who it was he saw nothing but, somehow, he knew that in the jungle eyes were on him.

He whistled a little but his lips were so dry he could make no noise. Behind him the professor had stopped. ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘I see fascinating strata here, untouched, undisturbed for millions of years. I’m sure I could dig up some seashells to prove that these islands were born from the sea. To a geologist it is a blank book waiting to be written.’

‘Can we keep moving, uncle? We want to find a camp before we go any further really.’

‘How come you know all this stuff about open air living, you a girl guide or something?’ Joe asked.

Lisa turned. ‘Yes, actually I was, but really it’s just common sense, something that may pass you by,’ she said with a giggle. Joe knelt down in a pool and felt the cool water seep into the legs of his trousers.

Miles away, in the capital, Manila, Kono and Tanaka were making the last arrangements for their flight. They checked their luggage and made sure that the tracking device was still working. The red light flashed a constant pulse and a tiny beep was emitted from a speaker. Tanaka handed over a wad of dollars to the guard at the airport and whispered in his ear; this was going to be an easy trip, he had decided. Once they were on the island, the usual rules did not apply. There were no police who would come sniffing round, no university authorities getting in the way, and all he had to do was follow the professor to the gold and pluck it out of his hands. In a way this was almost better than stealing the map. If he had done that he would have had to find the tunnels, dig them out, pay for local workers to carry the gold to the plane and fly it home. Now all he had to do was find them, follow them and steal from them. The airport guard waved him through the terminus where he climbed aboard a pontoon plane. Beside him, Kono squeezed his bulky frame into the spare seat. ‘Do you have to sit so close?’ Tanaka said. ‘I’ll shove over a bit,’ Kono replied, moving his sizeable buttocks a fraction of an inch to the left. Tanaka pushed him so that he was flush up against the window. ‘Just stay there, will you, you fool.’

‘Sorry, boss.’

‘Just keep to your own side. Ah, why couldn’t I have got a decent right hand man?’

‘Sorry, boss.’

‘Just stay there.’

Tanaka did up his seat belt and tapped the pilot on the shoulder.

‘There it is!’ Lisa said. ‘There’s the exact spot where we should build our temporary camp.’ She raced through the last few pools of water to the clearing by the edge of the jungle and threw herself on the ground. ‘It’s got overhanging trees, not too shady though. It’s big enough, clear enough. There are no ants. This is feeling like home already.’ Joe wearily made his way to where she lay. ‘You sure have an imagination,’ he said, and slumped down on the ground. The professor and Fraser joined them.

‘Yes, yes, I think you are right, Lisa. I think this will make a perfect camp site, if only for tonight,’ the professor said.

‘Shall I make a start finding materials?’ Lisa said, and made her way into the undergrowth.

‘I’ll help,’ said Fraser and ran behind her, kicking at her heels. Joe and the professor stared out over the ocean.

‘You really think we’ll find anything, professor?’

‘Sure,’ the professor answered. ‘What, though, I don’t know.’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘Well, these are mysterious islands, Joe. I have been reading about nothing else lately, thinking about nothing else. They have overtaken my thoughts. There are physical things in the tunnels, actual dangers: gas, cave-ins, disease, rats — and then there are the things we don’t know about or can’t explain.’

‘Aswang?’

‘Yes, aswang, but also others. Has it not occurred to you that none of this was an accident?’

‘What you mean?’

‘Getting the map, finding you, finding the way here, the plane crashing. Has it not occurred to you that it could all be part of their plan?’

‘Who are they, professor?’ The professor looked about nervously. ‘Them,’ he said, and nodded into the jungle. ‘The spirits in there. The things in our dreams, Joe, the things that brought us here.’ Joe was silent for a while. The waves lapped slowly up on the beach and caused a ripple of sound to pass through the air. ‘Perhaps you’re right, professor. We’re here for the same reasons, you and me.’

Joe put his hands behind his head and lay back in the sand, staring up at the sky. There were wisps of white cloud floating over him which seemed to take forever to pass. He closed his eyes and felt the sun on his face and for the first time in years felt free and at peace. Here, on this island, there was no one who wanted him dead, no one who wanted to skin him alive and, more importantly, no bars that would take his money and leave him feeling like death. He crossed his legs.

‘You know,’ he said. ‘I could get used to this.’ He stared along the line of the shore and sighed. Suddenly his eye was caught by something glinting. ‘What was that?’

The professor snapped out of his doze and looked around. ‘What? What’s happening?’

‘I saw something,’ Joe said. ‘Glinting, over there.’ He pointed to a dense patch of foliage that lay on the outskirts of the jungle. ‘I swear it was metal.’

‘Probably a rockpool, Joe, they take on quite a metallic sheen if the sun hits them in the right spot.’

‘It was no rockpool. I swear it was metal or glass — real shiny, you know?’

Joe got to his feet. He strained his eyes towards the thicket but could see nothing. He sat back down again. ‘Jeez, just as I was getting a little relaxed I make myself all jumpy again.’

‘You want to forget about things for a while, Joe, take it easy.’

Joe sighed. ‘I have been running ever since I was born, professor. It’s a little hard to stop now.’

Behind them, Lisa and Fraser returned with armfuls of green vegetation. ‘How’s this?’ Lisa said smiling. ‘I think we could make a whole apartment block out of this.’ She dumped the leaves on the sand. ‘And these huge leaves to wrap ourselves in to sleep.’

Ordering everyone else about, Lisa set to making the shelter; she and Fraser cleared a space where the sand met the damp earth of the jungle floor and the professor and Joe began to make the frame of the shelter out of branches and fronds that had fallen or could be easily pulled free.

By the time they had finished it was nearing evening. The sat in their shelter examining the inside for leaks.

‘There are a million holes in this thing,’ Fraser said as he pushed his finger through the leaves.

‘It will do for tonight,’ Lisa said. ‘Tomorrow we’ll be off.’

‘I’ve heard it gets freezing cold, here,’ Fraser said. ‘I hope we don’t freeze to death, after all this.’

‘We won’t if we huddle,’ replied Lisa and comically cuddled into Fraser’s side. Fraser gulped and placed his arm around her.

‘I think, if we leave early tomorrow,’ the professor said, ‘We might be able to traverse the jungle, looking for these landmarks. This might not be a bad situation after all.’

He placed the map on the floor of the shelter. ‘These high hills, you see, and this river, should be easily located.’

‘If we find the river,’ Joe said, ‘We only have to follow it. It will lead us right into the heart of the tunnels.’

‘But where is the river?’

‘That is for tomorrow,’ the professor said.

That night, the stars were brighter than Joe had ever thought possible. He lay on his back outside the shelter looking up at them, trying to count each one. Lisa came to join him.

‘You keep staring,’ she said.

‘Have you ever seen them looking so beautiful?’ Joe asked. ‘As if each one were made from cut glass.’

Lisa laughed. ‘I have seen the stars before.’

‘I’ve only ever seen them through the haze of the city fog or against the lights of Hong Kong. I have never seen them like this, not even when I’ve been flying.’

‘You’ve lived in Hong Kong all your life?’

‘Yes, most of it.’

‘You’ve never been to the country at all?’

‘Well, my grandmother lived about a hundred miles out of the city but we hardly ever saw her. She was sick a lot and died when I was five. Wow, look at that one there, it’s so beautiful.’

Lisa looked. ‘There’s a shooting star,’ she said excitedly. ‘Look, two of them.’

Joe looked into the black sky. ‘That isn’t a shooting star,’ he said. ‘That’s the lights of a damn plane.’

He stood up to get a better view and, sure enough, against the black of the sky two small white lights made their way to the other side of the island and disappeared.

‘Who do you suppose that was?’ Lisa asked.

Joe scratched his head. ‘I don’t know. A doctor, perhaps. It’s possible they were going to another island, they are so close round here it’s difficult to tell which one is being visited. It looked like a pontoon plane.’

‘A pontoon plane?’

‘Yeah, you know, one that can land on water. Perhaps they were treasure hunters too.’

Lisa laughed. ‘Well, they won’t have a map, will they?’

Joe thought for a moment. ‘Who were those guys in Hong Kong, the ones we saw at the hangar? I mean the ones who weren’t after me.’

‘They were the ones who broke into my uncle’s apartment… Joe, you don’t think…?’

‘We’d better be careful is all I am saying, just… we’d better keep our eyes open.’

Lisa yawned. ‘That’s easier said than done, although I think I might have nightmares now.’ Joe touched her tenderly on the shoulder. ‘I’m here now,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about a thing.’

The door was closed as usual but somehow he knew he had to get behind it. He put a shoulder to it and pushed with every muscle and sinew in his body; the more he pushed the harder it got until, like a giant wave of release, it fell open and he stumbled inside. It was a dark room, smelling of damp and vegetation. He felt about with his hands but found nothing. Suddenly a match was struck and the face of a young boy was illuminated. ‘I have been waiting for you,’ he said, in a soft gentle tone. The boy took his hand and led him to a corner where, covered by a fallen mound of earth, a Golden Buddha sat. The boy leaned forward and pulled at its head. Slowly, he removed it to reveal its hollow body full of emeralds and rubies, diamonds and sapphires, gold coins and all manner of riches, trinkets and chains. ‘This belongs to the temple,’ the boy said. ‘The temple.’

Kono woke in a sweat and reached across to his water jug. He splashed some water on his face and poured the rest down his throat. He had been having these dreams for some time now and could make nothing of them. At first he had assumed that they were nothing, just like every other dream he had had in his lifetime but these were different; these demanded more attention — like the niggling pain that never goes away and means something serious.

The next morning, the professor was the first up. As the others awoke he marched into the clearing. ‘I have found the river,’ he said. ‘Well, its mouth. All we need do is follow it. Breakfast?’

He placed a heap of firewood on the ground and began lighting a fire with a box of matches that he had secreted in his jacket. ‘They must be dry by now,’ he said and struck one. After a few tries it burst into flame and he lit the dry wood on the ground.

‘You know,’ he said to no one. ‘I think the ocean may be teeming with fish.’

Joe rubbed his eyes. ‘It’s a bit early for the boy scout stuff, isn’t it?’ He rolled over and closed his eyes again.

The professor stood and crossed over to the shelter. He kicked the main vine that held it to the tree and the whole thing fell, in a flurry of branches, leaves and vines on top of Joe, Lisa and Fraser.

‘Now,’ he said. ‘Fishing?’

At the water’s edge, Joe, Lisa and Fraser were still blurry-eyed and sleepy.

‘How the hell do we catch fish with no line?’

Fraser thought for a moment. ‘I heard that if you tickle fish they go into a trance. We just need to find their sweet spot.’

‘Their sweet spot?’ Joe said. ‘Do you know where a fish’s sweet spot is? Do you know, Lisa? You don’t! There’s a surprise. I say we go into the jungle, find a big stick and hit them over the head.’

Lisa baulked at this idea. ‘That sounds a bit cruel.’

‘A bit cruel? You’re about to kill them, gut them, cook them and then eat them. You think hitting them is cruel?’

Lisa grabbed her stomach. ‘I need something to eat soon, though, I’m starving.’

Joe pointed at her legs. ‘Are those tights you have on?’

Lisa looked down. ‘American tan,’ she said. ‘I know but, hey, I left my others in the suitcase.’

‘Take them off,’ Joe said. ‘We can use them as a net.’

Lisa was not convinced.

‘Why not?’ Joe said. ‘Look.’ He looked around. ‘We make a net out of… this stick here… and we just scoop them into it. Take them off, take them off.’

‘This is the least romantic proposition I have ever had,’ Lisa said.

As she took her tights off, Joe fashioned a loop out of the wet branch and strung the tights over it. He held it out in front of him and smiled.

‘There, this has to work.’

An hour later it hadn’t worked.

‘Perhaps it’s the colour?’ Fraser offered, with a grin.

‘Every time we get near and I try to scoop, they get away,’ Joe said. ‘I can’t understand it, I was sure it would work. I was sure it would.’

‘I’m so hungry,’ Lisa began, ‘that I’m hallucinating smelling chicken.’ She held her stomach. ‘Does that mean I’m going mad?’

Fraser looked around him and pointed at the professor. ‘It’s coming from the fire,’ he said.

They ran up to the fire and the professor, who was busily roasting what looked like a chicken over its roaring flame.

‘Where did you get that?’ Lisa asked.

‘It’s a manok,’ the professor replied.

‘What?’

‘Chicken, or cockerel really. There must be a village somewhere near here. They raise them for sport, fighting, then when they get too old, like this poor chap, they are just left to roam.’

Joe sat by the fire. ‘What an end. Makes you feel kind of sorry for him.’

‘Yeah, I will feel sorry for him as I am biting on his leg,’ Lisa said and plopped down on the floor.

They ate hungrily, throwing the bones over their shoulders and wiping their mouths with the backs of their hands.

‘So, where’s the river, uncle?’ Lisa asked.

‘It’s about a mile away. When you get nearer to it you can hear it — very faintly, but you can hear it. I suggest we follow it until we come to the hills on the map.’

‘I must say, professor,’ Fraser said, with his mouth full. ‘This is the best chicken I think I’ve ever tasted. We should save some for later really.’

The professor pointed. ‘The jungle will provide,’ he said, and threw another bone into it.

After they had eaten, the group stamped out their fire, broke up their shelter and scattered it. They gathered up what few possessions they had and made their way into the jungle, following the professor. They tramped for what seemed like hours, although in reality it was merely minutes, through dense undergrowth which was spotted and freckled with sunlight and damp. The professor walked at a quick pace that meant the others found it difficult to keep up, especially Joe, who was beginning to feel as though he would trade all of the beauty and the magnificence for a single shot of dry bourbon whiskey. As his feet tramped on the ground, they seemed to get heavier and heavier; his breath also laboured under the weight of his rapidly increasing detox.

He stopped by a tree. ‘Wait, wait!’ he shouted. ‘Do me a favour, would you? Just kill me here.’

‘Come on,’ the professor said. ‘Come on, no time to stop. Must get to the river.’

The others forged ahead while Joe lagged behind. Feeling he could not go on, he slumped to the ground. As he sat, out of the corner of his eye he saw something move; it was black and quick as lightening. It darted from his view into a thicket of dense foliage. Joe followed it on his hands and knees.

‘Here chicky chicky,’ he said. ‘Come to Joey, come on, come on.’ He crawled under the hanging branches and the low dangling vines. ‘I know you don’t want to be eaten but we all do what we have to. We’ve all got our place in the world, we all…’ He stopped as his hand hit something hard. He felt around and recognised the shape of an army boot. Slowly, his eyes followed the boot upwards until it turned into the grey-green colours of the Japanese Imperial army. His eyes continued until they hit the gaze of a gun barrel and then the staring face of the man who held it. It was pointed at the insignia on Joe’s US air force cap.

For a moment neither said anything. There was silence in the jungle. Even the screaming birds had stopped for a second in anticipation of what was about to come. Joe smiled and gave a faint laugh and the soldier cocked his rifle. Swiftly, Joe brought his hand squarely between the legs of the soldier, who doubled up in pain; Joe got to his knees and then up and ran for all he was worth. He crashed through the jungle with his arms flailing, shouting at the top of his voice. All around him creatures darted this way and that trying to get out of his way. He tripped over the root of a tree but automatically got up and began running again until he caught up with the group. Without stopping he crashed past them and along the trail made by the professor that morning.

Suddenly his feet gave way and he found himself in a trench, waving wildly in the mud and foliage. Lisa was close behind him.

‘What the hell’s got into you? What kind of racket are you making?’ Joe could barely speak. ‘S-s-s-s-someone back there, with a gun,’ he said. ‘Aiming it… at… me… my… head.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘I saw someone with a gun, aiming it at me back there. Jeez, he looked mad. Right at my head.’

Fraser and the professor caught up. ‘What’s up?’ Fraser asked.

‘Joe said he saw someone with a gun,’ Lisa said. ‘We’d better have a look. Uncle, stay here and make sure he’s all right. Fraser, come with me, and Joe, keep quiet.’

Lisa and Fraser stepped quietly through the trail they had just made and made their way back to the spot where Joe had met the soldier, but there was no sign of him. As they searched in the bush a bird flew out and roosted in the branches above them.

‘What do you think?’ Lisa asked Fraser

‘I think perhaps he needs a drink.’

‘You think he made it up?’

‘I think he needs booze and it’s affecting his eyesight, or his mind. Whichever, there’s no one here.’

‘But we saw a plane last night. It could be them.’

‘Well, they’re not here now and never were if you ask me. Come on, we need to crack on.’

They turned to make their way back to the group. As they walked off, Corporal Yashida checked the bullets in his rifle. He had been waiting for this moment for sixty years and was not going to give up easily. He had been put in charge of this island and that is what he was going to do but he must wait, wait and see if there were others as they said, wait and see who owned the plane that he had seen the night before. For so long he had waited for this moment, he could wait a few more days. He smiled at the thought of the praise of his beloved General Yamashita and at the thought of his Emperor when they learned of his bravery and tenacity. These Americans and their cohorts would regret landing on his island.