The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (24 page)

He stopped and swigged a mouthful of steaming tea from the bowl. As he did so, streams of liquid ran down his chin. His tongue flicked at them and sucked them back into his mouth. ‘It’s not me that tells them the aswang killed the men folk. It’s not me that puts it into their pretty heads; it’s their culture to believe – to believe is to relinquish worry and responsibility.’

Lisa felt uncomfortable at this conversation but she was still confused. She had no idea who this man was or what he wanted with her. She thought it best to try and extract as much information as possible, if only to keep him talking so that she could think of a way out of the cage.

‘But what did happen to the men?’

Winthrope sighed. ‘Something much simpler I’m afraid – economics and microbiology. Most of the men were hired to accompany an expedition by a group of American treasure hunters. They were paid well, as well as could be expected, anyway. They all headed out into the jungle, a party of about fifty men and about five or six hunters from what I can remember. They trekked for a few days, but it travels fast out here. If you are not used to it you can succumb very easily indeed. One moment, you are fine, walking along; next moment, you’re down with it, coughing, spluttering, sneezing, eyes watering, chills, everything.’

Lisa was confused; she strained her ears to hear as Winthrope’s voice got quieter and quieter.

‘What travels fast here? The aswang?’

Winthrope smiled and leaned in. Lisa could smell the fumes from the tea that he held in his hand, she could see his pulse beat through the veins in his forehead, and smell the musky aroma of sweat on his skin.

‘Flu,’ he said. ‘Simple common or garden flu. The treasure hunters brought it in with them, in their lungs, in their bloodstream, and it was as effective and as deadly as any poison. They could not have known when they hired all the men from the village that they were really condemning them to death and also the womenfolk to a lifetime of celibacy. That was, of course, until I came along.’

‘And what did you have to do with this expedition?’

‘I was medical officer, wouldn’t you know? I had inoculated myself before I came out.’

Winthrope crossed his chest. ‘Not guilty,’ he said, and smiled.

‘But you’re leading these women to believe that they’re the victims of the jungle when all the time they’re victims of your germs.’

Winthrope looked hurt. ‘My dear, I am providing a vital natural resource: my genes for the preservation of an entire culture.’

Lisa was unconvinced. ‘In the meantime, you have as many wives as you like and are treated like a king by women who are too scared of the stories you’ve put into their heads.’

Winthrope grew angry. ‘What am I? An ogre? A despot? What is the aswang, do you know, Lisa, have you seen one? What really are these spirits of the jungle? What form do they take? What is the difference, Lisa, between the aswang and the germ? Tell me that.’

‘Flu germs exist, can you see that? Flu, colds, diseases can be treated, people need not die of them.’

‘Gods can be treated too, Lisa, with time and science.’

Lisa fell silent. She stared at the dry ground beneath her knees. ‘So what do you want with me?’ she asked, hardly wanting to hear the answer.

‘The others,’ Winthrope replied.

‘What others?’

‘The others you came with. I’m assuming you did not come here on your own, and I am also assuming that you did not come here with an all-female group of sisterly treasure hunters.’

‘What makes you assume I came here to hunt for the treasure?’

Winthrope laughed. ‘Why does anyone come here, Lisa?’

She looked about her. ‘Well, yes,’ she said. ‘There are others. I don’t know where they are though. I got lost. I was swimming in the river and the current took me. I ended up here.’

She could feel herself begin to cry. It was all getting too much. She had never felt more alone or more afraid than she did now. The flames from the fire glinted in her tears and turned everything a hazy orange.

Winthrope’s voice softened slightly. ‘We need to find the others, Lisa. I am an old man and I am only one man. We need to expand the programme.’

Lisa could not believe her ears. ‘The programme? Are you mad? These women are people, not cattle to be bred and made to produce.’

Winthrope was getting excited. ‘Think of it Lisa. A community, right here in the middle of the jungle, a whole new start for mankind and civilisation. We have both seen the big cities, the mess we have made of them, the mess we have made of each other. I have been planning it all out. I know exactly what to do. This could be the start of a whole new world, Lisa. Just imagine, an interdependent community right here in the middle of the jungle.’

Winthrope’s eyes flashed wildly as his arms flayed in the air drawing imaginary diagrams of plans and aspirations. ‘A community with shared genes, but genes from all over the world: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, American, English; everyone equal, everyone pulling together for the common good.’

Lisa started to worry – suddenly Winthrope’s face had changed. It took on the sheen of madness. She did not know how long he had been alone in the jungle but guessed it had been some time since he had seen the outside world. She moved further into her cage, for once glad that there were bars separating her from him. Winthrope continued to gesticulate wildly.

‘This is the ultimate dream of mankind, the only thing worth fighting for, worth dreaming about. Marx proposed it in Capital, Thomas More in Utopia, William Morris in News from Nowhere but we – we have the chance to do it, right here, to start again. To create an Eden here of our very own. But, Lisa, I can’t do it on my own, I need help. I am but one man. We need diversification, we need varied stock, varied genes. We need your party.’

Lisa was shocked; suddenly what he was proposing dawned on her. She giggled a bit at the thought of a whole village of Frasers and her uncles running around, examining rock formations and not being able to swim. Winthrope noticed this.

‘You find it funny, Lisa? You find the idea of a perfect society amusing?’

Lisa stopped. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I just had a thought that was all. So what do you want me for?’

‘I want you to find your companions and bring them to me. I want you to bring me stock, Lisa, bring me varied stock.’

Lisa realised the position she was in. If she found Joe and the others she would be leading them to this madman; if she didn’t, she would be stuck with him herself. Her head spun with the thoughts of what she should do. She felt torn in two, not knowing which way to turn or what to do.

Winthrope snapped his fingers and a middle-aged woman ran up to his side. He said something in her ear and the woman nodded and ran off.

‘Something to eat?’ he asked Lisa, who nodded doubtfully.

‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘You’re quite safe now. Nothing can harm you.’

In their clearing, the professor and Fraser had worn a strip of vegetation away with their pacing up and down. They had been waiting for news from Joe for hours now and had all but given him up for dead. ‘I still say we stay here,’ the professor said suddenly, breaking the silence for no apparent reason. He and Fraser had been debating the relative merits of going and staying for most of the day. On the one hand, they thought, going would allow them to feel as though they were contributing to things. On the other, it would mean that they relinquished their post and Lisa or Joe might come back to find them gone. ‘I think we should go,’ Fraser replied. ‘We can’t stay here forever and perhaps Joe or Lisa needs our help. Anyway, what can we do here? Nothing. All we can do is pace up and down, it’s utterly useless.’

The professor slumped down onto the floor. ‘I say we stay.’

Fraser turned suddenly. ‘What was that?’ he said. The professor looked up.

Fraser continued. ‘I heard a noise, nearby.’ The professor waved his arm. ‘The jungle is full of noise,’ he said. ‘Noise and trees.’ Fraser moved over to where it was coming from. ‘Hello?’ he called. ‘Anyone there? Anyone?’

There was a crashing of branches and a rending of foliage. Without knowing what was happening Fraser was confronted with a mass of tangled vines and flailing arms. He put his hands up to cover his face but it made no difference. Whatever it was, was coming straight for him. Fraser staggered backwards and fell on to the floor and whatever it was fell on top of him. The professor darted up and pulled the figure off Fraser and rolled it on the ground; it was only when they had done this that they realised the figure was Joe.

The professor dusted the dirt from the jungle off of Joe and steadied him on his feet. The three stood and watched each other for a moment, not knowing what to do or say.

Slowly, Joe spoke: ‘I’ve been walking for these last few hours. I got nowhere. I tried to find her. I walked and walked but couldn’t see her anywhere. I know she’s out there somewhere. We have to go and find her. She might be in serious trouble.’

Fraser tried to calm him down; he poured Joe a drink from the canteen and made him sit on a pile of leaves they had fashioned to one side of the clearing. The professor sat down in front of it.

‘You may be right, Joe, it’s been some time now. We need to go and find her, but we need to be careful – we don’t want to be getting lost ourselves.’

Fraser butted in. ‘We could leave a trail of stones behind us, like they did in the fairy tale.’

The professor nodded. ‘Yes, I think that might be a good idea. We need to find our way back here at least, if things should go wrong. But Joe, you need to rest first. You are tired. We shall make you something to eat.’

Joe shook his head. ‘No, we need to go now. We need to find her as soon as we can, otherwise I have no idea what might happen. Professor, I’m worried about her. Someone could walk for days and days in that jungle and not know where they are, not come to a clearing, or anything. You can go crazy in there.’

He looked at the thick, dense foliage and shuddered. ‘Sometimes, I thought I was going crazy.’

He felt the eyes on him, the eyes of the jungle that always seemed to be trained his way. He pulled his coat a little further round his neck and, for a moment, closed his eyes. The professor picked up the kettle.

‘I insist, Joe. First you must rest, stay here overnight and tomorrow we will look for her. The night is drawing in and soon it will be dark. Lisa is a bright girl. She’ll know to keep out of trouble and to try to find her way back.’

Joe felt his head bob and his eyes closing slowly. Somewhere in his mind, a light was being turned off and his body began to shut down; he let himself fall into unconsciousness.

He was surrounded by the tunnel again, everywhere he looked there were bodies, skin and bone, teeth, hair. The first thing he was aware of was the smell of blood and the awful oppressive heat. Joe tried to scramble his way backwards but it was no good – something, someone was pushing him forward. He heard the moans and the cries of those around him and he knew they were dying. Even in his dream he knew that something was not right, that the calming, uplifting dreams of the last few weeks were fading and the spirits of the jungle were trying to tell him something. They were trying to tell him that he must hurry, hurry or all would be lost.

He tried to push his way through the mass of bodies that surrounded him. Everywhere he placed his hand it would touch a soft, hot surface of flesh. Those around him were dying. He lit a match and held it up to one of the faces and nearly dropped it as he recognised the face of his mother. Her eyes were bloodshot and staring and the nails of her hands were ripped from their roots in the attempt to claw herself free. He moved the match and saw Lisa, with her hair torn from her head and blood dripping from her face. He lit another match and saw the professor, face pale and bloodless as a death mask, propped up against the wall of the tunnel. He couldn’t stand any more of this. He just wanted to wake up. He knew it was a dream and he knew why they were goading him to continue into the jungle. They did not want him side-tracked by Lisa. They – whoever they were – were jealous of his relationship with her. He knew he was here for a reason, he knew that something was spurring him on but now, now they were punishing him for ignoring them.

Suddenly everything was silent; the moaning and the crying stopped. All that could be heard was a breeze, blowing like those he remembered from when he had been a child on the streets of Hong Kong. A hard breeze, but one that blew old memories and fears away, a breeze that was somewhere forever blowing, that could lift your spirits and send you soaring if only you believed you were light enough. A breeze that carried you away.

He could feel his skin become raw from the wind that blew in the tunnel. Even in his dream he knew such things could never happen, knew that it was absurd – but he just stood, feeling it hit, feeling it washing away his worries and take away his fear. There was a shadow moving in the darkness, a slowly-moving black shadow that seemed to creak as it moved and could barely be distinguished from the darkness that surrounded it. Joe reached out a hand and it touched something cold. The shadow revealed itself as an old woman with deep brown eyes and white hair. She moved closer to Joe and placed her hand upon his chest. Joe felt as though he had been hit by a lightning bolt, the shock almost sending him backwards onto the pile of bodies behind him. ‘Look for me,’ the old woman said. ‘Look for me and I will be there.’