the door to the busy University restaurant, the eyes revealed themselves to belong to Kono, one of Tanaka’s men. He slowly and silently travelled up the stairs and made sure Lisa and the professor were out of sight before making his way along the corridor to the door that he had just seen them exiting from.
Anderson opened the door. ‘Have you forgotten it all already?’ he said, thinking that it was the professor at the door but his words were cut short by a hand to the throat that nearly lifted him off the ground. Kono barged his way in to the small room, knocking the small Saki bottle from the table.
Chapter Six
Fraser was standing in the professor’s office. He flicked through some of the books on the table – they were filled with black and white pictures of rock formations, crystalline diagrams and long-dead geologists. A clock ticked sonorously in the background and seemed to thicken the air with its gentle swaying rhythm. Fraser had been on his way home from the bank and had decided to call in on the professor. It had been a few days since he had heard from him or Lisa and he wondered how the story with the book was going. Slowly, he walked around the desk. Every now and then he would pick up a scrap of paper, read it, consider its meaning and place it exactly as he had found it on the desk. He hated the word snooping – what he was doing was reconnoitring. Glancing over his shoulder at the door, he opened the drawer and inside found a notebook with the words ‘Japanese Military’ written, he assumed, in the professor’s hand. He opened the book and read. It was just a series of names, but he recognised one of them, Yamashita. He had heard of Yamashita’s gold before, the secret network of underground tunnels which housed the spoils of war.
He read on but most of the writing seemed to be in some kind of code created by the professor – either that or his handwriting was so bad Fraser could not decipher it. He knew enough about the workings of the professor’s mind to understand that it would be privileged information indeed if he had gone to the extent of inventing a code to keep people from reading it. Fraser assumed that that professor had always known more about the book that he had been given than he was letting on. He thought to himself: ‘So that was the significance of the map, but the old fool doesn’t believe that, does he? He doesn’t believe in such fairy stories?’ He thought that it would be as well to keep the professor as close as possible. Suddenly, behind him he heard the professor and Lisa walking down the hallway. They talked excitedly about someone called Anderson and what they were going to do next. As the door burst open Fraser had just enough time to close the notebook and throw it in the drawer before banging it shut.
The professor and Lisa walked in. ‘Fraser!’ the professor started excitedly. ‘How good of you to come. We have exciting news concerning our map.’
‘Really?’ Fraser said, trying not to sound too interested. ‘I just dropped by, I was on my way home.’
‘It’s a good day for just walking,’ the professor replied. ‘Come, sit by the window and I will tell you everything. Lisa, go and get a coffee for Fraser, would you?’
Lisa looked offended. She was fine with being treated as her uncle’s unpaid servant but it was quite another thing to be asked to run around after others. She pursed her lips and stood still.
After about a minute of being ignored she turned and headed out of the door, thinking to herself that she really needed to assert herself in these situations as she made her way to the coffee machine in the canteen.
The professor told Fraser what they had learned that day, about Anderson and his knowledge of the map, about Amichi and Yamashita, about his talk with Lisa and about how they were considering finding the tunnels once and for all.
‘It’s odd, Fraser,’ the
Anderson opened the door. ‘Have you forgotten it all already?’ he said, thinking that it was the professor at the door but his words were cut short by a hand to the throat that nearly lifted him off the ground. Kono barged his way in to the small room, knocking the small Saki bottle from the table.
Chapter Six
Fraser was standing in the professor’s office. He flicked through some of the books on the table – they were filled with black and white pictures of rock formations, crystalline diagrams and long-dead geologists. A clock ticked sonorously in the background and seemed to thicken the air with its gentle swaying rhythm. Fraser had been on his way home from the bank and had decided to call in on the professor. It had been a few days since he had heard from him or Lisa and he wondered how the story with the book was going. Slowly, he walked around the desk. Every now and then he would pick up a scrap of paper, read it, consider its meaning and place it exactly as he had found it on the desk. He hated the word snooping – what he was doing was reconnoitring. Glancing over his shoulder at the door, he opened the drawer and inside found a notebook with the words ‘Japanese Military’ written, he assumed, in the professor’s hand. He opened the book and read. It was just a series of names, but he recognised one of them, Yamashita. He had heard of Yamashita’s gold before, the secret network of underground tunnels which housed the spoils of war.
He read on but most of the writing seemed to be in some kind of code created by the professor – either that or his handwriting was so bad Fraser could not decipher it. He knew enough about the workings of the professor’s mind to understand that it would be privileged information indeed if he had gone to the extent of inventing a code to keep people from reading it. Fraser assumed that that professor had always known more about the book that he had been given than he was letting on. He thought to himself: ‘So that was the significance of the map, but the old fool doesn’t believe that, does he? He doesn’t believe in such fairy stories?’ He thought that it would be as well to keep the professor as close as possible. Suddenly, behind him he heard the professor and Lisa walking down the hallway. They talked excitedly about someone called Anderson and what they were going to do next. As the door burst open Fraser had just enough time to close the notebook and throw it in the drawer before banging it shut.
The professor and Lisa walked in. ‘Fraser!’ the professor started excitedly. ‘How good of you to come. We have exciting news concerning our map.’
‘Really?’ Fraser said, trying not to sound too interested. ‘I just dropped by, I was on my way home.’
‘It’s a good day for just walking,’ the professor replied. ‘Come, sit by the window and I will tell you everything. Lisa, go and get a coffee for Fraser, would you?’
Lisa looked offended. She was fine with being treated as her uncle’s unpaid servant but it was quite another thing to be asked to run around after others. She pursed her lips and stood still.
After about a minute of being ignored she turned and headed out of the door, thinking to herself that she really needed to assert herself in these situations as she made her way to the coffee machine in the canteen.
The professor told Fraser what they had learned that day, about Anderson and his knowledge of the map, about Amichi and Yamashita, about his talk with Lisa and about how they were considering finding the tunnels once and for all.
‘It’s odd, Fraser,’ the
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