The entrance led down to another door that opened out to a dry, culvert-like passage with a rounded roof, and that finally led out to a huge underground network of passageways.
"How did this place come to be?" Paul Blankson asked with shock and profound amazement.
"I think we're directly underground in the old railways," Effe said with admiration. "This is the substation that ran from Eden Central to Ladwate Town, abandoned several years ago because of the dangerous Zabi waterfalls that was drawing closer to the rail lines."
"I'll be damned," Paul said in a stunned voice. "So, he built the house over the old railways, and opened out an escape route right through here!"
Eventually, they came out to a dark platform with old rutted railway lines branching off in about six directions. Rats and insects scurried underground, making Effe squeal with sudden fright; she had a great phobia of rodents, and her squeamish behaviour made the taciturn Carl Acquah smile in the darkness.
Soon, other armed men and police personnel came on to the platform. They also had six attack dogs growling ominously and straining at their leashes, excited by the sight of so many rodents.
"Which direction now, Effe?" Carl asked as he directed the beam of his powerful flashlight at the six passages spreading out around them.
Effe looked at her device where the blue dot was blinking ahead of them. She licked her lips slowly.
"He's near, up there," she said, pointing. "But I don't know which of these passageways will take us there. His location seems to be just on top of all of them."
"Alright, you guys, listen up!" Carl bellowed. "Break up into five sets. Each set takes a dog and one passageway. Effe and I will take the right passageway. Each group takes another. Let's spread out, and keep the radio lines open and active. Any group sights him, call the rest of us!"
"Now wait a minute!" Effe said as she shook her head numbly. "That passage might be crawling with rodents, or worse, venomous snakes. I'm not dressed for that!"
Carl looked at her with grim determination.
"You're with me," he said in a confident voice. "I'll protect you. nothing will harm you. Just stay close behind me."
"No," Effe said, shaking her head. "Too dangerous, no!"
He put a hand on her arm suddenly, and he exuded total confidence as he stood over her, huge and solid.
"Trust me, Effe," he said softly. "I won't let anything harm you. That man out there is a killer and a murderer. Worse, he wants to assassinate our king and usurp the peace we enjoy in Eden. We must put him down."
Effe looked at him for a moment, and then she took a deep breath and nodded.
"Okay, let's do this."
"Right," Carl said and turned towards the men. "Move out, Teams. And remember, take no hostage! Shoot to kill! Our target is armed and dangerous!"
They moved off in six groups.
Effe stayed behind Carl and was glad to see that the old tunnel was big and considerably free of crawling and skittering rodents. They walked briskly with Carl in front.
Effe switched on the flashlight strapped around her forehead and followed him, keeping an eye on the beeping blue dot on her screen.
"You married, Effe?" Carl asked suddenly.
"No," she said. "Why?"
"Just curious. You know how to use a gun?"
"Yes," she replied.
"Holding one?"
"No," she said.
He promptly unclipped his pistol and proffered it to her.
Effe scowled.
"I've never shot at a human target!" she cried with alarm.
Carl stopped and looked at her intently.
"We're not hunting a human being, Effe," he said coldly. "This man is a beast, a filthy animal who will shoot you on sight without any qualms. He's dangerous, and he's good. You see him, you shoot him or you will die. Do you understand?"
Effe was breathing hard.
"Maybe we should have come with one of the dogs," she said unsteadily.
"I don't need a bloody dog to deal with that savage!" he hissed. "Now, take the gun, Effe. Your life might depend on it!"
Trembling, Effe took the gun.
As they moved along, the sound of the waterfall drew nearer, and the signal became stronger.
"He's just ahead of us!" Effe said breathlessly.
Carl lifted his Uzi sub-machinegun and cocked it. He held it out in front of him as they moved around a bend, and suddenly they found themselves in a heavily-wooded area!
The train tracks came to an end, and just in front of them was the violent and turbulent Zabi river dropping off the cliff into a deadly waterfall below them.
"He's here, he's here!" Effe said desperately as she spun around, and suddenly the signal on her device went off, and the screen became dark. "No, no, no! The damn thing went off! Damn it! We need to call it in, Carl! We need backup!"
Carl Acquah was peering around him with a deadly face as she swung his gun in circles.
"I don't need a backup for a skunk like Prodigal!" he hissed furiously. "Stay behind me, Effe. Out of the line of fire!"
Carl Acquah crept forward stealthily; his hands tight on his gun.
Effe pushed the dead locator into her pocket and held the gun in both hands as they moved through the bushes, getting dangerously close to the waterfall.
"We lost his location, Carl, and the waterfall is just ahead of us!" Effe said desperately. "The currents are strong! If we fall into the river it will carry us straight to our deaths! Let's call it in!"
"Hush, Effe!" Carl said coldly. "I can sense him! I'll deal with him!"
And then the cold voice came to them from the darkness.
"Watch the holes."
It was a calm, deep, pleasant voice, but indifferent in a way, self-assured, and holding a mild touch of disdain!
Chris Bawa!
Prodigal!
***
Effe gasped and came to a stop.
Carl swung around, aiming his gun towards the sound of the voice, and then he suddenly gave a startled cry as the huge body of Chris Baw reared up behind him.
"He's behind you!" Effe shouted the warning.
Carl began to turn but Chris smashed a hand into his face, and then he snatched the Uzi submachine gun from Carl's hand and hurled it into the darkness.
Carl Acquah grunted and delivered a savage right hook from the hip, arcing it towards Chris' jaw, but Prodigal swung his head back, and as the blow missed his chin, he struck out with his right foot straight into Carl's stomach.
The agent uttered a strangled cry as the kick drove him backwards and the ground gave beneath him suddenly and he tumbled down into a deep hole in the ground, his flashlight spiralling desperately out of his hand as he desperately wrapped his arms around the stem of a stout little tree on the edge of the hole.
Chris Bawa – huge, dark, devilish – stepped towards the hanging Carl.
"Shoot him!" Carl shouted as he desperately tried to draw himself up. "Shoot him, Effe! Shoot him!"
"Don't worry about that," Chris said lazily, almost calmly. "What you should worry about is how deep the hole is, and if it contains water. Hope you can float, bastard."
Chris Bawa drew back his foot and kicked Carl Acquah savagely in the face! Effe gasped at such brutality!
Carl let the branch go as he tumbled limply into the hole with a wail of pain.
Chris Bawa looked at Effe.
"Told him to watch the holes," he said. "They're water-break trenches built to defend the train lines, but have now become deep holes all around here."
Effe was shivering!
She had never been around such a dangerous man, and as he came towards her, she raised the gun to his chest.
"Stop, please," she said in a dry, unsteady voice. "Stop or I'll kill you!"
"Safety catch is still on," he said calmly.
Effe raised the gun to his face, and she noticed that he was also wearing night-vision glasses like the SPF agents.
"What?" she asked, her voice a tiny croak.
"Your gun's safety is on," he said calmly. "You wanna shoot me, it gotta be off."
He was very near now, and as Effe hesitated, she did not see him moving until he snatched the pistol from her hand.
"I lied," he said calmly. "Safety's off. Just had to squeeze the trigger."
Effe had never felt so helpless in her life.
She could have shot him, but his lazy, calm, confident assurance had made him seem like a devil, and of course, she had believed him about the safety catch! But all he had wanted was to get near enough to disarm her.
"You bastard!" she said, almost weeping. "You damn bastard!"
"Been called worse," he said calmly. "I'll kill you if you lie to me."
"What?" she asked, extremely confused.
"Who are you?" he asked.
And now it made sense to her.
He was going to ask her questions and would kill her if she lied to him.
And she believed him, yes.
Such a devil!
The savage way he had kicked Carl came back to her mind, and she shuddered helplessly as she looked at him.
"I'm Effe Kedem," she said in a low voice. "New to the SPF. Recruited today."
"Forensics," he said calmly. "You found me."
"Yes!" Effe hissed and stared defiantly at him. "I found you, Prodigal! I'm very good at what I do, and unless you kill me here, I'll keep finding you wherever you are until you lie dead, you filthy bastard! You damn murderer!"
"Sounds personal," he said.
"It is personal!" she almost screamed. "You killed my brother, you bastard!"
"Then he deserved to die," he said.
Overcome by a fury she could not control, Effe stepped towards him and smashed his face with a hard fist, or she thought she had until her hand flew into the empty air, and he was no longer standing there!
How had he moved so fast? Who was this man?
A moment later, he kicked her legs from under her, and she sprawled rather heavily on her backside on the ground. Almost sobbing with fury, she made to get to her feet.
"I'll kill you if you stand up," he said.
Effe tensed, and then she slowly sat on the cold ground again.
"Bastard!" she hissed with impotent rage, and she knew then that she hated Chris Bawa with all her heart. "You killed my brother! Jeff Kedem!"
"Don't know that name," he said.
"My brother, you bloody murderer!" she said and broke into tears. "He was a scientist! A young, brilliant, scientist on his way home from work! He took the subway train Five-Five-Nine that day, and you planted a damn bomb that killed him and one hundred and seventy other innocent people! We could not even get his whole body and watched them buried in a mass grave! Chris Eden Bawa, may God have mercy on your soul! You will die like a wretch, you evil man!"
"Okay," he said.
Effe wept bitterly as she clutched the soft earth with furious hands.
"Okay? Is that all you can say? Okay? Okay? You damn monster! Okay?" she wailed.
She tried to get to her feet, but he dropped suddenly on one knee and put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back on the ground.
"I don't kill innocent people, Effe," he said calmly. "You keep following me, you will end up dead. Friendly advice."
"Then kill me now!" she hissed furiously at him as the image of Jeff came to mind, and she felt her tears bubbling. "Kill me, Chris Bawa, because that's the only way you can keep me away from hunting you down like the damn ferret you are, like the skunk you are!"
He looked at her face for a moment, and then he pulled the night-vision glasses off his face.
"A feisty one," he said softly, and suddenly his hand shot out and grabbed the back of her neck. "I like them feisty. Alright, what about this. Are you ready?"
Effe tried to struggle and felt a sharp pain arcing into her neck, and she stopped struggling immediately. His teeth gleamed briefly in the darkness.
"You're hurting me!" she moaned. "Please, let me go."
"You felt pain because you struggled," he said calmly. "I call it the Sharp Grip. If you struggle or bite me, I'll snap your neck clean, and you will die right here."
"But you?" she growled at him. "Why the hell should I bit you, Prodigal?"
"You're beautiful," he said calmly. "I don't know if I've seen a more beautiful operative in the SPF. Haven't had a woman in five years, Effe, and your body looks so appetizing right now."
Effe gasped with sudden horror!
She struggled, and again sheer pain lanced agonizingly through her neck, and she stopped struggling instantly.
"Please," she whispered with fear. "Please, don't! Don't rape me, please."
Again his teeth gleamed in the darkness as he began to push her forward, and suddenly her face was very close to his, and once again she made out the incredibly handsome planes of his face and could smell fresh aftershave and mint on his breath.
"You got irresistible lips, Effe," he said calmly.
"Don't, please, I beg you," she whispered. "I'm a married woman, please. Don't dishonour me!"
"Married women should be in bed at this hour," he said gently. "Not chasing jailbirds through the marshes."
And then, incredibly, unbelievable, shockingly, his lips dropped on hers.
Effe gasped with stunned disbelief and clamped her teeth tightly on his lower lip, and instantly the excruciating pain lanced through her neck.
"I see you remember that biting remark I made," he said softly, and once again his lips fell on hers.
Effe did not struggle and tried to clamp her teeth shut, but his tongue prodded them apart, and then he kissed her.
She gasped as her lips opened under his prodding. He was not rough or cruel, just a passionate kiss that filled her with revulsion at first, and then simply made her go soft in his hand. She could not struggle, just remained pliant as he kissed her, and then his other hand fell around her waist, and he drew her closer to him.
Effe was pressed to his body now, and she felt the strength in him, the hardness of his frame, the irresistible allure of his charm. She hated him, but a primal response that was borne outside her will suddenly took over, filling her brain and making her body respond in a way she hated.
Her breath was hot around his lips, and her heart thudded with the sheer alien power of wanton craving that soared through her, and in that darkness, she shuddered and realized that she had never felt this way before… ever!
No kiss had ever been like this!
His lips moved from hers, making her shudder, then they moved along the delicate line of her throat, up the side, and then he nibbled at her earlobe and the hollow beneath them.
She shuddered desperately as her hand fell on his shoulder.
"Please," she whispered. "Please, don't!"
And, in response to that, his lips fell on hers again, gentle, probing, his tongue curling around hers, drawing the response from her as his hand moved along her left thigh, up the side of her body, and then passed along the swell of her left breasts. Effe gasped and bucked against him, feeling the sudden heat of her soul transmitted to the hardened tingle of her nipple.
Then his hands left her and his lips left hers, and he dropped her on the ground.
She lay, dazed, and heard his voice faintly.
"You don't even know how to kiss."
She shut her eyes and lay still, and then she opened her eyes slowly as her breath came in bursts.
But he was gone.
He had melted into the darkness like a ghost, without any sound!
"Effe!" Carl's voice reached her from deep within the hole he was in. "Effe! Are you there? Are you okay?"
She crawled to the edge of the hole.
"I'm here, Carl," she said and switched on her flashlight with muddied fingers. "Hold on a second. I'll call in our location!"
"And Prodigal?" Carl called out. "Did he hurt you? Is he there?"
"He's gone," Effe said weakly.
You don't even know how to kiss…
"I'll find you, bastard!" she whispered to herself.
You don't even know how to kiss…
She could still feel his lips, his passion, the power of his touch!
Lord, not even Tony had ever kissed her this way, touched her that way, reduced her to such a pliant, helpless, craving, confused hulk!
For a moment back there, she had forgotten who he was, and where she was! For a moment back there, she had revelled under his spell, swelled under his allure, melted under his kiss!
What sort of man was this?
A man that would kiss a woman he was meeting the first time with such fervour? A man who seemed to know, with one single touch, how to pull down her iron bars?
What kind of man was he?
Only a devil was capable of that!
Yes, he was, a devil!
"I'll get you, you bastard!" she whispered desperately.
You don't even know how to kiss…