The headquarters of the Special Palace Force was located at Palace Island, a high-security city within the Kingdom of Eden. The island had the gigantic and majestic palace of the royal family, and space for all other essential service establishments.
In a way, Palace Island was in itself a country of its own.
Palace Island was at the head of the vast and prosperous Kingdom of Eden.
The SPF headquarters was an incredible flat edifice about ten kilometres from the palace. It had a twelve-foot transparent and bulletproof circular glass wall around it.
The ground had artificial and natural glass, trees and water bodies set with incredible landscaping magic. The flat buildings were architectural triumphs, and it had its own harbour that opened out to the sea.
Effe had been taken to the Central Police station where, shortly afterwards, Paul Blankson and Carl Acquah had arrived and taken her to the seafront. Then, they had gone on the amazing SPF special speedboat that had brought them to the headquarters.
She had been taken to her office, about three times the space she had occupied at BKI, with furnishing and ultra-modern equipment that had almost made her jaw fall.
She had then received her credentials which consisted of an SPF senior badge, an official gun, a golden pass to the areas of Palace City, including the palace itself, and of course a 'new senior arrival' paycheque.
Everything was almost surreal for her, an incredible experience that made her heart finally settle as she felt this was a recognition she had lacked throughout her career.
Shortly afterwards, Paul had taken her to a huge conference room where almost all the SPF desk staff were gathered, and she had been introduced and welcomed.
Then, she had been taken to the office of Sir Lancelot Agyei.
The kind elderly man, in his proverbial classy black suit and white shirt, welcomed her warmly and commiserated with her for the experience she had had with Chris.
"What I don't understand is why he chose you, specifically," he said with raised eyebrows. "I hope he did not cause you physical pain."
Effe shuddered again as the sound of the bomb exploding in the air came to memory.
"Apart from a bomb threat, he was pretty composed," she said with an uneasy laugh. "He wanted to know when and how I joined SPF, and he wanted his folder, which he left behind anyway."
"He did?" Sir Lance asked with a scowl. "Why?"
They were all looking at her, and she shrugged.
"Under normal circumstances, your briefing would have been done with a lie detector, Effe," Carl said coldly. "That's the standard procedure."
Effe looked at him with shock.
"A lie detector?" she repeated, rudely surprised. "But why? I wouldn't lie to you!"
"It's not about you lying, Effe," Sir Lance broke in with a kind smile and took her arm. "Carl, let me handle this, would you?"
The huge agent looked at them grimly, and then he nodded.
"Yes, sir," he said.
"Good," Sir Lance said as he looked at him with cold eyes, and then he turned to Effe. "You see, Chris was trying to cause a lot of confusion somewhere along the line, and unfortunately we think he was able to convince some other people of his brain-washed notions, especially women."
"Chris Bawa will never – I repeat, never – be able to convince me of any notion, good or bad!" Effe said, her furious eyes burning into the cold face of Carl Acquah again. "That murderer killed my brother, and I'll only breathe freely if he's behind bars!"
Her passionate outburst made them all quiet for a while, and then Sir Lance nodded and took her arms.
"We know that, Effe, and we trust you," he said calmly. "That's why I forbade the use of the lie detector for now. Now, back to our conversation. Why did Chris leave the folder if he demanded it?"
Effe sighed and screwed up her face with a wry smile.
"I guess I blew it, a bit," she said calmly. "I could not detach my emotions from my professional stance because his attitude just made me furious. So, as it turned out when he asked me to walk away, I lost my cool and asked him if he would walk away if he saw his brother's murderers on the street. Well, apparently and unbelievably, he did not know about the death of Roland Bawa."
"I see," Sir Lance said and scratched his forehead. "I'm beginning to get it now. That must have hit him hard."
"It did, very badly," Effe said as he remembered the emotional breakdown of Chris Bawa in the back of her car. "He lost all traction on his emotions. But I don't understand, sir. How come he did not know?"
"Security reasons, Effe," Sir Lance said with a disarming smile. "We could not afford a criminal like Prodigal to have access to information, so he was not allowed any bit of information in jail."
Effe scowled, a little disappointed.
"But, sir, surely that is guaranteed to all prisoners," she said quietly. "Personal information about family should never be withheld. That's enshrined in law."
"Effe, look here –" Carl began belligerently.
"Shut up, Carl!" Sir Lance snapped, in as much the same way as he had snapped at Susan Biko, his voice cold and so sinister that Carl clamped up immediately, and only his jaw worked savagely.
Sir Lance picked up a bottle of water and sipped, then he threw up his hands in the air.
"Effe, Chris Bawa would have been killed immediately if it had not been the express wish of the queen and princess to keep him behind bars. We could not risk him having information of any sort. Some criminal minds have been known to operate and coordinate their operations even from prison."
"I understand, sir," Effe said softly. "Of course, some pertinent information could be kept from him, but the death of a brother he loves so much should not have been kept from him, that's all I'm saying. And I'm shocked his surviving family members didn't give him that information."
There was silence again, and then Sir Lance sighed.
"Effe, we could not take any chances with Prodigal," he said with a sad smile. "Quite regrettable, considering how he was such a prized possession for the SPF. But, we couldn't. Knowing Roland had been shot and killed would've spurred Chris on to break out of prison no matter what. Secondly, his family could not give him that information because he was not allowed any visitors."
Effe was appalled suddenly.
"His parents and siblings? His son? And his… girlfriend?"
Sir Lance held out his hands.
"No visitors, Effe," he said blandly. "None."
Effe nodded slowly.
"Now I understand his behaviour," she said, fighting hard to keep the disappointment from her voice. "Well, in that disoriented state of his, he took out the policeman and left without taking the folder."
"And that's all?" Sir Lance asked with raised eyebrows. "Nothing else?"
"That's basically it," Effe said as she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Except a peculiar question he asked me, you know, about something called Taipan."
She watched them carefully, very carefully, but none of them gave any indication of being familiar with the word. If anything, they all looked puzzled for a moment.
"Taipan?" Sir Lance asked with a slight shake of his head. "That's a type of snake, isn't it?"
"A large and extremely venomous Australian snake, yes," Effe said. "And that's exactly what I told him, and then he asked for the folder."
"Paul, Carl, does this Taipan mean anything to you two?" Sir Lance asked.
"Don't mean crap to me," Carl said.
"First time hearing of it," Paul answered.
"Open a trace on it then," Sir Lance said grimly. "I want to know if it picks up a trail. Well, Effe, welcome to the SPF. We're headed to the palace to brief the King and other security capos about this unfortunate prison escape and assure him that he need not fear any threat to his life. You will be coming with us."
"Yes, sir," Effe replied. "I'm ready, sir."