He slung his carbine and followed. He figured the place had been rigged and trip-wired to the hilt—Reuben must have revealed how to enter and avoid any booby traps. The tunnel led to a larger cavern. The rays of their flashlights bounced off walls, revealing angles and crags and hollows that the darkness washed away again like sand under surf, but when their lights combined, they made matters clear enough. The space was reinforced with concrete. Lett saw the remains of a steel wall or door. Beyond he saw rifles, pistols, a radio set, and empty ration boxes all strewn about, the requisite samurai sword, and three skeletons in Japanese uniforms. They wore telltale Japanese rubber-soled shoes with a separated big toe.

The sight had steeled the team, and made them slap one another’s backs, and Lett could taste the metallic tang of men on a mission.

Lansdale eyed Lett, smiling. Lett looked away.

Lansdale led them on, the engineers whispering, sharing their findings. A few wooden boxes stood along the way, about the size of milk crates. One of the engineers was marking these with a wax pencil. Farther along, the cavern had partially collapsed, leaving mounds of rubble—Lett guessed this was how the stench had slowly released. Among the rocky debris was the wreckage of tracks and a handcar like miners used, and wiring and cage lights hung along the walls. Other tunnels branched off the cavern, Lett saw. Slabs were built into the floor here and there, some concrete, some steel, and he figured this was what they had been studying out in the entrance tunnel—another slab to break through, but one disguised to look like the earthen and rocky floor.

One of the shafts branching off looked man-made, or at least neatly carved out. This was more like a chamber. The team shined their lights on what had to be hundreds of rectangular wooden boxes, all stacked like ammo in a depot—or gold ingots in a vault, Lett thought. He immediately drove the thought from his mind.

More chambers appeared. The Japanese must have run out of boxes because now Lett saw platinum and gold bars in perfect rows. The flashlight beams on them ignited flashes and sparkles that made Lett shield his eyes. Then he saw large urns holding gems and jewels and glistening nuggets. These loomed phosphorescent in the darkness when the light beams moved onward. Lansdale approached each find and touched it and spoke to it like a general visiting a field hospital; the engineers stood back like doctors and nurses ready for any urgency.