The Mystery of Yamashita's Map

Chapter Twenty-one

‘Mr. Joe?’

Kono’s deep voice boomed through Joe’s skull, which was already throbbing from the force of… what, exactly? Suddenly coming to his senses, Joe sat up, narrowly avoiding bashing his head into the Japanese gangster’s arm.

‘Are you OK?’

Hearing Kono worry about his welfare was still a little strange to Joe; after all, it wasn’t that long ago they were having a near-fatal stand-off in the jungle. Even stranger than that, however, was the current situation they found themselves in.

‘Ask me again in a few minutes.’ Joe looked around him, trying to clear his head enough to take in his surroundings. At first, he’d thought they were in a small, dark room, like a sort of mausoleum maybe — a cheery thought. However, as his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he realised they were in the bell-like structure under the monastery.

Memories of the last few minutes started resurfacing then, and the relief that washed over him when he realised where he was almost made him laugh out loud. ‘Lisa?’ He stood up — carefully, he was still a bit wobbly — and made his way out of the bell and into the chamber.

Joe stopped abruptly, only vaguely aware that Kono had also stood up and had proceeded to walk straight into the back of him.

There were no huge black flags adorning the walls, and Lisa and the professor were nowhere to be seen.

They weren’t in the chamber.

Joe took another step, looking around the room — which had no discerning features or pieces of furniture, nothing in fact, except for the bell — before settling his gaze on Kono. ‘What the hell just happened? This isn’t the secret room under the monastery!’

Kono was also looking around him, frowning.

Joe sighed. If he didn’t know what was going on, how could he expect Kono to know what was going on? Kono didn’t seem to be aware of where he was or what he was doing half the time anyway.

‘Maybe… maybe we hit our heads or something.’ That wouldn’t be such a surprising fact considering they were both unconscious on the floor a minute ago. ‘Maybe this is the monastery, maybe Lisa and the professor are just… waiting for us, somewhere else.’ Joe was hoping that the words that came out his mouth would make at least some sort of sense, but he really was stumped. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Although, that wasn’t totally true, was it? The spirit boy? Meeting his father? Maybe this was just another dream, another vision… he pinched himself, hard. It hurt. No dream.

Kono was just staring at him.

Joe shook his head. It seemed to be up to him to figure out just what on earth was going on here. It was time to take charge. He eyed up the solid black door, the only thing in the room other than the strange bell — like structure they’d just come out of. ‘I say we go case this joint.’ He started walking towards the door and then stopped, turning briefly to face Kono. ‘We should probably be quiet, you know, stealthy, until we know what we’ve got ourselves into.’

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 skinnier 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.

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.

It was the name Winthrope had given to the monster that terrorised his village, swooping in at night and attacking pregnant women. Joe had seen the after effects for himself, and the story of Manananggal hadn’t sat well on his shoulders. Now he knew why — but it wasn’t for the reason he imagined. He would never have imagined that Winthrope was actually some hideous lizard-like alien, sucking the unborn babies from their mother’s womb himself. Joe shuddered.

‘We’ll be in contact soon.’ The sound of suited man number 2 brought Joe back to the present, and again he looked down at his watch as the two men exited the room. They walked past him and Kono without a word, carrying the remains of Winthrope’s lizard skin in their arm. The pungent smell followed them down the corridor.

Joe sighed in relief before turning back to the door and looking in at the room. Winthrope was getting into the bell and turning to face a panel, one that Joe hadn’t noticed before. It must be how the bell was activated.

Without really thinking, Joe grabbed Kono’s arm and dragged him into the room. He barely registered the look of shock on Winthrope’s face as he hurtled towards the bell, throwing himself into the structure with Kono hot on his heels.

‘You!’ Winthrope gaped at them as the bell started moving, the low hum getting louder and louder as Joe’s headache came back with a vengeance.

He closed his eyes, trying to steady himself while the bell rotated around them. The feeling of nausea was strong, and the last thing he wanted to do was puke on an alien. Unless that would somehow help.

A sharp pain suddenly pierced his skull, and opening his eyes, Joe saw that Winthrope was right in front of him, having just hit him over the head.

Joe got into his fight stance — legs slightly apart, arms held to his chest — but before he could retaliate, Kono swung a punch at Winthrope, missing his head but getting him pretty good in his right ear.

Joe thought of the two lab attendants they’d overpowered — how easy it had been. Winthrope was not a young man, and Kono was tough. Really tough. His nausea started to subside.

It came back just a second later, however, when Winthrope turned to face Kono and hit him square on the head, knocking him to the floor.

Kono moaned in pain, and Joe took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Winthrope wasn’t a young man, no — he wasn’t a man at all. He was an alien, and he apparently had superhuman strength.

This wasn’t good.

Joe tried to focus as the bell rushed around them. He could no longer see the structure, just whirling shades of red and black, offering the idea of movement but giving no secrets away as to how it was moving or where.

Trying to think back to all the fights he had ever been in, Joe looked back at Winthrope, who was smiling at him smugly.

Without another thought, he lifted his hand as if he was going to punch the old lizard man, and when Winthrope lifted his own arms in self-defence, Joe kicked his leg out with as much force as he could muster, knocking Winthrope’s legs out from under him. He watched in triumph as the alien fell on the ground, ass first.

Joe laughed — slightly hysterically, it has to be said — and jumped on top of Winthrope while Kono slowly got to his feet.

Winthrope struggled under Joe’s weight as Joe pummelled him with every punch in the book trying to render the grey haired man unconscious. For good measure Kono finished him off with a size ten boot to the face causing Winthrope’s head to jolt sideways and his body to flop limply at their feet.

Amazed that he’d won, Joe turned to look at Kono, he did not see Winthrope’s twitching body, the mouth start to open wide, the claws beginning to protrude from the fingers. Joe spotted the look of pure fear on the gangster’s face just a few seconds too late.

He suddenly felt a sharp pain all along his arm, and looking down, he was horrified to see that not only was his white coat in tatters, but there was already blood seeping through the fabric from what felt like huge scratches in his skin.

Although focused on his arm, he suddenly realised that the body beneath him had changed, shifted, and looking down at Winthrope, he saw the alien lizard, his sharp claws dripping with his own blood.

He thought back to the disgusting shedding of the skin he’d seen earlier. Perhaps that was just for show — something to do to intimidate the humans. Then again, wasn’t this normal practice for reptiles?

His thoughts were interrupted by the alien, who let out an unearthly wail and lunged forward to scratch at Joe’s face.

Joe managed to lean back just in time, but this meant he lost his balance and toppled onto the floor, freeing the lizard creature.

The alien that was Winthrope sprang up, snarling, glancing from Joe to Kono. Joe wasn’t sure, but it seemed like it was smiling.

With the world — if it even was their world anymore — rushing around outside the bell, the three started to fight.

Even with it being two against one — and even with Kono’s considerable bulk — the alien had the upper hand, or the upper claws, Joe thought. Those things could scratch your eyes right out, and they were no match for two humans with no weapons and no knowledge of this thing that was currently standing in front of them.

After a couple of minutes of dodging and throwing punches, the fight escalated into a full-on brawl, with the three of them scrambling in a group, trying to get whatever punch or kick in that they could. At one point, Joe grabbed hold of the lizard’s tail and bit into it, stopping just seconds later when that awful animal smell came seeping out of it.

Amidst the chaotic fight scenes and the swirling flashing lights of the bell spiralling through time and space, for a split second, Joe saw himself in the tunnel in the Philippines, trying to get his flashlight working. He remembered that moment. He remembered seeing the dark shadows that seemed to dance on the tunnel walls. Was he about to meet himself? He felt he was in the tunnel but how could he be two places at the one time? Was this another vision? Moments later, the walls of the tunnel started to spin and he realised that he was, in fact, still in the bell with Kono and the thing that used to be Winthrope.

The whole thing knocked him off balance, but after finding himself in the tunnel, Joe was now more aware of the strange movements of the bell, and of the things and places that were rushing around them. Were they moving through time or space? Different dimensions? None of those things would surprise him anymore.

The sound of Kono wailing dragged Joe out of his thoughts, and he looked over to see that he had huge, deep scratches all over his face. The front of his white coat had been almost completely scratched away, and a small pool of blood was appearing on the floor of the bell. He was on his knees, trying to balance.

Rage surged through Joe then, and he turned on the alien, putting all of his anger and confusion and fear into his attack. Jumping on the lizard creature, he knocked him to the ground. The lizard landed with a thump with his left claw crashing against a panel causing flashes of electricity or whatever it was that powered this machine. It immediately gave out a blood curdling wail as it felt the pain shoot through its arm. Seeing an opportunity, Joe quickly clambered on top of it, his fear was gone, and he was purely running on adrenalin. With Joe on top, he had the momentum he needed, and he quickly grabbed the injured hand of the creature and dug its own claws into its chest, where he assumed its heart was.

The alien started to struggle then, but Joe had the control, and the razor sharp edges of the claws — so life-threatening to him and Kono — were now being used on their owner, piercing its heart and making it scream out in agony. Joe thought he could see some humanity in the alien’s eyes, maybe there was still a way to discuss this situation, nobody needed to die. After all, they were all civilized. As Joe held the razor sharp claws deep into the alien’s chest he wished time would move a bit quicker.

Die, damn you! Die, how ironic, here he was in a situation where he doesn’t know how long he can hang on, wishing he had control of time. A sharp pain penetrated Joe’s side and he realized that the alien had plunged the claws of his other hand into him. ‘How stupid could he be?’ he thought, ‘of course the alien has two hands.’

The alien and Joe both lay beside each other, wondering which one of them would die first. For Joe, the pain was unbearable, he looked into the alien’s eyes again and thought he saw sadness, maybe even respect.

Joe felt the pain from his side receding, he believed this was the first sign of him about to pass out. He felt sorry that he had failed. Failed Lisa, failed the world.

Suddenly he heard a guttural voice telling him to hang on. It was Kono, speaking through the blood flowing from his throat. He had pulled the alien’s claws out of Joe’s side and was hanging on to the alien’s arm with all of his remaining strength, not allowing the alien to plunge the razors back into Joe’s blood soaked side.

A feeling of nausea crept over Kono as he tried with all his might to hold, that which was Winthrope’s, claws from stabbing Joe. The bloody sharp bones were just inches from Joe’s side, one slip and it would be all over. He could see Joe lying beside the alien pressing the aliens other claws into its chest, pushing as hard as he could, as if his life depended on it, and it did. Who could hold on the longest?

Kono felt his arm muscles ache, just like they did when he played arm wrestling with his friends in Japan. He remembered the farm he was brought up on, where he always got the hardest jobs to do because he was the biggest and strongest. His mind drifted and he thought of the beautiful sunsets that lit up the farm and bathed the fields in a reddish glow, always stopping what he was doing and taking a moment to absorb nature’s chakras. He wasn’t an educated man, but he had the sensitivity to appreciate the wonders of the natural world. His eyes flickered as he watched the sun going down for one final time, a feeling of peace and tranquillity overwhelmed him; his grip in the real world remained steadfast, but the call for his soul to return to the farm was too strong.

The green blood from the lizard’s chest had mingled with Joe’s blood, creating mosaic patterns on the floor of the bell, still swirling through time and space. His lab coat was now totally shredded as if someone had deliberately cut it with scissors as a naughty prank. He continued to push the lizard’s claws into its own chest, afraid to let up in case the reptile recovered enough to — Joe didn’t want to contemplate this — he could feel his strength ebbing from his body. He hadn’t noticed before, but the alien was cold. Was the creature dead or was it because reptiles are cold blooded? He didn’t want to take the chance and held on, pushing the claws as deep as he could, for as long as his stamina would allow. Joe stayed like that for a minute longer, and when he saw the life drain out of Winthrope’s eyes, he stumbled off the creature, suddenly repulsed both by what it was and what he had done.

He didn’t have to look upon the dead lizard body for long, however, as a few seconds later, there was a flash of green light, an impression of the body moving upwards, and then nothing. It was gone. It was as if some sort of vortex had appeared to swallow the hideous body right up. All that was left on the floor was blood and slime, bits of skin, both human and reptile. Joe grimaced as he felt the ache on his side, his arm, he couldn’t tell which was which, and it was as if one side of his body had seized up in pain. He sat for a moment, looking at the blood on his hands, and at the unearthly spinning of the bell. ‘Is this how it’s all going to end?’ he whispered to himself as he wiped his bloody hands on what was left of his lab coat. He quickly brushed aside those negative thoughts, he preferred to think of Lisa, ‘Will I ever see her again?’ The pain seemed to subside and was replaced with a dull throbbing, not enough to stop him from standing up. ‘Wow. I gotta say, there was a moment there when I thought…’ Joe trailed off as he remembered how Kono had fallen to the ground, bleeding out, and he turned round slowly, afraid of what he would see.

He knew in an instant that his friend — because, in the end, that’s what he had been — was dead. Joe hadn’t realised before, but as well as his face being butchered, the lizard claws had also ripped open his throat. He hadn’t had a chance.

Covered in blood himself, Joe leaned over the man, closing the lids over Kono’s eyes, which were already starting to look glassy and lifeless.

By the time he stood up again, the swirling colours that were moving around the bell had ceased, the bell now motionless.

Taking a deep breath, he stumbled out of the bell, finding himself in an underground chamber.

It wasn’t, however, the chamber under the monastery, and Joe groaned, thinking of Lisa and how he’d give anything to have her in his arms at that moment. Where was she? Was she OK? He looked back at Kono, thought of Winthrope. What if Lisa was dead too? Anything could have happened to her.

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.

His heart pounding and his head throbbing again, he gave into the darkness.

Joe and Fraser woke — slowly — to the sounds of voices.

‘Wake up!’

‘Joe, are you OK? Can you hear me?’

It took Joe a few more seconds to come around, but when he realised he could hear Lisa’s voice, he sat up quickly, his head spinning at the sudden movement. Everything was blurry, like he was underwater or looking through a thick mist.

‘Lisa?’ He was still in the bell, next to Fraser and Kono’s body, and for a few seconds, that’s all he could see. Then, as his vision cleared, he stood up, leaving the jewels and gold bars on the floor.

Turning, he exited the bell as he saw Lisa and her uncle, sprawled out on the floor, a few feet away. Running over to them, he knelt down beside Lisa, taking her hand in his. ‘What happened to you two?’

‘I could ask you the same question.’ She was smiling up at him — something that made Joe just about shiver in relief, after all his terrible thoughts about what could have happened to her — but she was obviously weak.

‘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 Fraser 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, ‘Probably.’

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.