The samurai cipher 8, p.20
The Samurai Cipher 8, page 20
“Be careful with that,” he said. “One wrong move, and that little piece of paper will fall apart.”
He had no way of knowing that since he didn’t truly know how old the document was, but Tommy always erred on the side of caution when it came to historic evidence.
She ignored him and unrolled the parchment, only being mildly cautious as she did so. Holding it at both ends, Keiko examined the surface of the sheet with curious and confused eyes. After a few minutes of failing to comprehend what she was looking at, she turned the scroll toward the two Americans and held it up for them to see.
“What is this?” she asked.
Two of her men stepped to the side to give them a better view.
“Looks like a map,” Sean said.
“I know it’s a map, idiot. But a map of what?”
“If I had to guess,” Tommy jumped in, “I’d say it looks like a treasure map.”
Keiko’s eyes roared. She turned to the man closest to Sean and nodded. The gangster immediately raised his pistol and pointed it at Tommy’s head.
“Jeez, you are impatient,” Sean said. “Take it easy.” He held both hands out in front of him. “If I had to guess, I’d say it looks like a cave map. Wouldn’t you say that’s about right, Tommy?”
Tommy responded with a slow nod. “Yep. Definitely looks like a subterranean drawing of some kind.”
“How do you know that?” she demanded.
Tommy swallowed before answering. He pointed at the sheet. “You can tell because it isn’t a two-dimensional drawing. The lines are in two dimensions, but there are up and down directions indicated by these dots. Of course that’s just an assumption, but I’d say that means whoever made this was trying to tell whoever found it that this path isn’t just two directions. You have to go down, up, left, and right. In our experience, that’s usually a cave.”
“And believe me,” Sean added, “we’ve seen our share of caves. I’m kind of getting tired of them to be honest.”
“Shut up,” Keiko ordered. She turned her attention back to Tommy. “Where is this cave?”
Tommy leaned forward to get a better look at the parchment. His head went back and forth. “I have no idea. That’s Japanese there on the side. You tell us what it says.”
“It’s a riddle,” she answered. “It says, ‘To the sky you have risen, and to the earth you descend.’”
“Sounds like a cave to me.”
Sean’s eyebrows furrowed. “It doesn’t give a name of a cave, a tunnel, a mountain, any sort of location? Nothing?”
“No. It’s just another riddle.”
“Well, without knowing where to go next, I’d say that map is pretty much useless,” Tommy said. He jabbed an irritated finger at the scroll. “There’s only a few thousand caves here in Japan, and all kinds of treasure hunters from all over the world have scoured them in search of the Masamune. So good luck with that.”
Hideo didn’t need a signal from his boss. He raised his pistol and aimed it straight at Tommy’s face. When he spoke, his tone was cold and matter-of-fact. “Then we have no further use for either of you.”
Sean eased one foot in front of the other and stood between his friend and the barrel. He remained cool on the outside, even though his heart pounded deep in his chest. “You guys need to settle down with all the threats. That’s, like, six times you all have pointed those guns at us in the last five minutes, not counting when we were inside the pagoda there. If you want to shoot us, go ahead and shoot us, but if you do, you won’t find what you’re looking for.”
Keiko’s eyes narrowed again. “So you know where this cave is?”
“I didn’t say that. I’m not saying that.”
“What are you saying?”
Hideo answered for Sean. “He’s wasting our time, like a dog begging for one more treat, he’s trying to stall to get in a few last breaths of life. This American doesn’t know anything.”
“Like a dog?” Sean tilted his head to the right. “Now see, that’s just insulting and quite frankly unnecessary.”
“Shut up! All of you!” Keiko raged. “Enough games, Sean. Tell me where the cave is. Now.”
Sean didn’t say anything at first. He just stared back at the entryway of the pagoda. It was a hunch, really. He didn’t know for sure if the cave entrance was there. But it was in keeping with the riddle and some of the other signs he’d noticed when they were inside: the dry air but musty smell, the hollow thud when his boots hit the floorboards as he dropped from above, and then the clue, “to the earth you descend.” If the clue were talking about rising to the sky and descending to the earth, why would those two things have to happen in separate places? Sean saw a flicker of movement in the trees off to his left. Had anyone else noticed it? From their lack of reaction, the answer was a clear no. He shook his head slowly back and forth, signaling to whoever was out there. He had an idea who it might be, but there was no way to be sure. Sean found himself in an odd place, hoping it was Aoki’s man hiding in the trees.
It took Keiko a moment before she realized what Sean was insinuating. When it hit her, she turned her head to follow the line of his gaze back into the dark interior of the pagoda.
Tommy glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eye. Part of him hoped Sean was right. Part of him didn’t care if all of them went out in a blaze of glory right now with fists and bullets flying.
Hideo looked in the direction Keiko and Sean were looking, and more than a few of the other men did the same.
“If I had to guess,” he said, “I’d say we were just standing right on top of it.”
28
Mount Haguro
The floorboards inside the pagoda didn’t come up easily despite being held in place by very old wooden pegs. Finally, Sean had the idea of breaking through the boards instead of pulling them up. He and Tommy cringed at the idea of wrecking a historic national monument, but from the looks of it not many people went inside. And when the next monk finally did come for a visit, he’d likely think the floor rotted away.
Sean stared at the floor. “We need a big rock. As big a rock as three or four of your men can carry.”
Keiko gave the order, and four of her men disappeared into the woods. Several minutes later they returned with a huge stone that probably weighed 150 pounds. It was covered in mud and snow.
Tommy wondered how they’d dug it out of the ground, but it was a pointless question to ask.
“They’ll need to take it inside. If I were to guess, I’d say dropping it dead center would be best. It should be the weakest point, and that rock will go right through.”
“You hope,” Tommy said.
“Well, it’s not perfect. Might take a couple of tries. But I’m pretty sure there’s an empty space under that floor.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
Sean shrugged and smiled at his friend. “It’s been a good one.”
Tommy sighed. “I wish I could be so laid back about it.”
Sean glanced over at his friend with a smug expression. “The cave is there. What you need to be thinking about is how we’re going to get out of this mess once we find whatever’s down there.”
“Isn’t that usually your department?”
“I’ll be pondering it too. Just keep your eyes open.”
Keiko’s men set the stone down on the floor just outside the doorway. Two of them squatted behind it and shoved the rock, moving it back and forth to work it over the threshold. Once it was far enough through, the same two men crawled inside while a third continued to push from the outside. After another few seconds of work, he joined the other two on the inside, and the three men hefted the heavy object off the ground once more. They heaved and grunted, raising it up to about chest level, and then when one gave the signal they simultaneously released the rock.
The thing crashed through the floor, splintering the aged boards as if it were made of toothpicks. Keiko’s three men all jumped back to avoid the debris. A massive cloud of dust erupted from the damaged floor and rolled out of the reliquary’s entrance.
Hideo and Keiko both took several steps back to avoid inhaling the dirty air or being covered in dust. All eyes focused on the darkened doorway until the dust settled a few minutes later.
After a dramatically long wait that seemed to last an eternity, one of the men inside shouted. His words came out in a frantic rush. Sean and Tommy didn’t know exactly what he was saying, but from his excitement they figured there was something of interest under the pagoda’s floor.
Keiko turned to the two Americans with a slightly impressed look on her face. “It would seem you were correct. There’s a hole in the floor that drops down into the mountain. He says it’s not man-made.”
Sean’s know-it-all expression beamed. “You should know better than to doubt me.”
Keiko’s eyes closed slowly and reopened. “Perhaps. But if there is nothing down there and this proves to be a waste of time, you will suffer.”
“Way ahead of you, sister,” Tommy chimed in.
Sean made an offer he knew wouldn’t work. “Tell you what. Let us go down there and check it out. If everything is safe and there’s something worth seeing, we’ll come back and get you.”
She laughed in his face. “My man says there are grooves cut into the rock; a ladder of sorts. We’ll all go down there together. I suggest you don’t try anything foolish.”
“Foolish? That doesn’t sound like us.”
Keiko turned and started snapping out orders to her men. The three inside the reliquary took phones out of their coat pockets and turned on the LED lights. Two stood near the hole while the third hovered over the opening. He lowered himself through the shattered boards and disappeared into the cave as the other two watched. A moment later, the man in the hole shouted something back up to the others.
“He says there’s a tunnel,” Keiko translated. She ordered the other two men into the cave and then turned back to the Americans. “You’re going in next.”
Back inside the reliquary, Sean and Tommy stared into the cavity at their feet. The cave definitely was a natural occurrence, about six feet in diameter with jagged edges of rock jutting toward the middle from every side. The first three men to enter waited below, their phones shining a bright corona of light onto the ladder cut into the stone. The steps were cut about four to five inches deep, and nearly that high, to make climbing up or down easier. This time of year, the air was much drier than normal, so getting up and down wouldn’t be a problem. However, in the wetter seasons, Sean had experienced his own problems with caves that had vertical entrances.
As he climbed down the steps, Sean noted the raised bump along the edge of each step. Whoever had carved the rock ladder had possessed the foresight to include a lip to make gripping with fingers easier. Smart.
He stepped off the ladder and eased his way toward the three men standing in the dark with their lights and guns pointed at him. His hands remained palms out by his sides to make sure they didn’t think he was going to try anything. Even so, the three took a collective step backward just to be safe.
Tommy made his way quickly down the ladder and stood next to Sean, staring at the three men. “What do you think? We take them right now?”
The three guys looked at them suspiciously. They obviously didn’t speak English, which Tommy assumed to be the case.
Sean snorted. “Yeah, if we had a diversion, absolutely. As it is, pretty sure we’d be dead.”
“I dunno. They don’t look so tough to me.” Tommy eyed them with disdain.
“Step back,” Keiko’s voice came from behind on the stairs.
Sean looked over his shoulder at her and complied, moving forward two steps to keep out of her way. Hideo came down next, and after a few minutes all but two of the Yakuza had joined them in the cave tunnel. Sean didn’t need to ask where the other two were or why they weren’t coming down. He assumed Keiko had left them up in the reliquary to keep watch in case someone else showed up. He hoped if someone did, that it wasn’t a pilgrim showing up to worship. Then Sean’s mind snapped back to the person in the trees. If it was Aoki’s guy, he might be able to overpower the two guards above. Of course, the young Yakuza hadn’t been difficult for Sean to overpower, so maybe he was stretching his hopes a bit.
Keiko cut off his thoughts. “Move, gentlemen. I’d prefer to get out of here before it gets dark.”
The three in front went ahead, shining their lights into the darkness. Sean and Tommy didn’t dare make a move for their phones. They knew better. Doing something like that would look suspicious and they’d been in enough sticky situations to know what actions to avoid.
“Another cave,” Sean muttered to his friend.
“Most of the lost relics and artifacts in the world are found in caves. They make for great hiding places.”
The tunnel bent to the left and then back to the right, descending down at a gentle slope. The walls were wet, and the rock floor was slick from water trickling down from the ceiling. At first, the corridor was narrow, only four or five feet wide. As the group continued, though, they found that it opened wider. More and more natural cave formations began appearing. Stalactites and stalagmites dripped from the ceiling or grew from the floor next to the walls in their seemingly infinite journey to the opposite.
The passageway suddenly opened up into a large room, full of the calcified formations. And for the first time upon entering the cave, a problem presented itself to the gangsters. There were two new tunnels imbedded in the far wall.
“So,” Sean piped up, “which way should we go?” He unzipped his coat and stretched his neck to the left and right.
One thing he’d learned a long time ago was that the temperature in caves was much more consistent than above ground. Sure, it was cool, usually in the high 50s Fahrenheit, but in this case it was much warmer than where they’d been.
Keiko pulled the scroll out of her coat pocket and examined it. Uncertain about what to think, she passed it to Tommy, all the while keeping her gun pointed at him. “Tell me. Which way do we go?”
Sean could tell his friend wanted to tell her where to shove that map, but he resisted, instead taking it reluctantly from her fingers and prying it open. He was much more careful with the document than she’d been. The respect and care for a historic document was imbedded in him.
He and Sean eyed the sheet. Sean traced a finger along the drawing from where he assumed they’d begun and then stopped where two lines forked out away from the first.
With a huge layer of sarcasm, he spoke up. “Well, looks to me like this tunnel goes in two directions from here.”
Tommy couldn’t hold back the snort of laughter as his friend overstated the obvious.
“Before you go pointing that gun at me again,” Sean stopped her, “I’d guess we have to make a difficult decision at this point.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. Her eyes were slits, concealing the irritation behind them.
“Well, you see,” Sean pointed at the line to the right, “this one represents what I think will be a difficult journey. That is illustrated by the jagged drawing. Usually in history when a line is jagged, say, on a cave drawing or an ancient scroll of some kind, it means there are tough times ahead. Whereas this line is smoother, but it appears that taking it will cost us quite a bit more time.” He pointed at the other one that was smoother but looked like it went up and down with dots and circled around to where the lines joined again.
She drew in a breath and sighed, pondering the options.
“Which will it be, boss lady?” Tommy asked. “Short and tough or slow and easy?”
Keiko looked up after a long moment of silent thought. “You decide.” She aimed her weapon at his forehead. “Which way would you go?”
“I like things to be nice and easy, usually,” he answered. “Although most of my paths in life seem to be fairly difficult. It depends on what the trouble might be if we take the shortcut. There could be any number of dangers, even traps of some kind.”
“But?”
He shrugged. “But in the interest of saving time, it might be the best thing to do. You said you want to get back up to top level before it gets dark. Time goes by pretty fast down here, so saving as much as we can is probably for the best.”
He could tell she was assessing his answer.
“For the record,” Sean chimed in again, “I agree with him. We should take the shortcut.”
His reason for the comment was less about saving time and more about hoping they could find a way to use whatever danger the path provided, against the Yakuza.
“Very well. We will go that way.” She nodded at the three men who’d been leading the way, and they took off toward the tunnel on the right. She peered at the Americans through wary eyes. “But if you’re thinking of leading us into some kind of trap—”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna pay. We get it,” Sean finished her sentence, which only served to irritate her further. Without saying anything else, she spun around and motioned for them to go ahead of her.
The tunnel narrowed considerably just a few feet beyond the entrance. And the ground was much wetter, with pockets of mud and silt here and there. They were fortunate to be wearing boots suitable for snow; otherwise normal shoes would be completely ruined in the filth. The passage cut to the left, then right, down, and then back up until the group reached a wall about five minutes into their journey. A piece of the ceiling had collapsed in front of it and provided a step up to a shelf atop the barrier. The first three men clambered up and over the edge. Two of them went ahead while the third waited for the Americans, shining a light on the surface so they could see. He also made sure to keep his gun trained on them.
Sean hopped up onto the landing and then pulled himself up to where the gangster was waiting. The man cautiously took a step back as Sean joined him. Tommy followed immediately and waited atop the plateau for further instructions.
Keiko said some words to the man watching the two Americans. Whatever it was, he relayed it to the others who’d already gone over the other side. For a moment there was no answer. Sean and Tommy glanced at each other with curious expressions.
