ULAM. -- The Escaped Version

The folder should contain the clue to break the secret of the malu – the tattoo on Elle’s legs. The tattoo will lead them to their most valuable treasure – their freedom.

Elle looked at Raoul. Raoul nodded.

Elle touched the folder with trembling fingers, curious at what secret lays inside it. Slowly she opened it, almost squirming and squinting as if some hideous monsters will jump out from the folder and grab her and Raoul, eat them there and then.

Elle flipped the cover.

‘read from the end, and you’ll shy away from the fiction written on the magazine’

She flipped another page.

‘as the big ape fly, to the end of the beginning... and fallen to the light’

Elle almost whimpered. She took a deep breath, and flipped to the third page.

‘and shall the moon carry the light to convene at the beginning’

Raoul nodded. The words referred to him, and his role.

They already knew about the words on the first three pages. Elle knew it from her sensei. Raoul knew it from his contact. King Kong was the last to know.

***

The four pages after that confused them. They were profiles of four college students, each represented with a picture of goat.

Goats?

The last one looks like a goat, but without tail.

But why are the pages there?

Zip was in a queue to go through the passport control counter at Narita's airport when two men in black suddenly approached him.

His instinct told him to kick both men on the nuts and run away through the south wing. However, the situation did not allow him to do so.

“Puh-reese for-row uh-so,” one of the two men instructed, in thick Japanese accent.

“Huh, you want me to row something?” Zip tried to be sarcastic.

Zip didn’t see it coming. He only felt the sting. The hand of one of the men moved lightning fast towards Zip’s arm, and suddenly a needle pricked his skin.

“Ouww!” Zip cried out, startling everyone in the queue. The two men waved their hands to the onlookers, signaling them to ignore the scene as if nothing was going on.

Zip wanted to protest with a knuckle to the man’s chin, but suddenly he lost control over his own body.

“What the…?” was only echoed in his head, not uttered through his lips. The man who pricked his skin smiled - a wicked smile. Zip was somehow in a trance.

No, not a trance - he was somehow possessed!

The two men turned around and started to walk. Against Zip’s will, his feet followed them.

***

Raoul and Elle were looking at her malu now. There’s a meaning inside the pattern, encrypted inside the riddle.

They flipped another page.

‘Shy as we hold the secret. We are the map when left and right crossed.’

“I’m going to spank the wiseass who wrote this!” Raoul grumbled.

It was so lame. He could figure the meaning right away.

“We have to lay your tattoo on a flat surface,”

“Are you going to skin my leg???” Elle almost shouted. The vision from her dreams – nightmare – flashed in her eyes.

“Trace paper, silly”

The malu was printed on her thighs, and she has every right to worry.

“But why?” Elle asked.

“I’ll tell you why when you tell me what you did to Kong…” Raoul said, almost whispering.

Elle paled. How could he have known?

***

Kong opened his eyes.

“Is this heaven?” he knew he was not in heaven when he could feel the pain. He gripped his head, suddenly remembering the piercing sensation of the bullet through his skull. He should be dead. Is he dead?

“No, you’re not dead; therefore you’re not in heaven either. Neither you’re in hell though you are more than qualified to go there with all the stuff you’ve stolen. You’re under Ukima Park, Kong.”

I’m still in Tokyo? How did he…?

“You’re my experiment, Kong… my precious specimen,”

What…?

“Finally, after all these years… The serum works! Hahaha ”

Who the hell are you?

“Oh, how rude of me. I’m Professor Z…”