The Song of Mawu. Jeff Edwards

small tape recorder sat in the middle of the conference table with The Fund’s directors seated around having listened in to the full conversation between John Thorpe and Sam Tait.

      ‘Wonderfully clear. I imagined it would be much more distorted than that,’ said Brian Reynolds.

      ‘With the pick-up so close to the phone itself we can have it as clear as if they were seated right here with us,’ smiled Teddy.

      ‘And they had no idea they were being overheard?’ asked Toby Brown.

      ‘As far as Sam and Thorpe were concerned they believe that they couldn’t be understood even if the phone was bugged. Bree was using an electronic sweep even as the conversation was taking place.’

      ‘They’re going to be very upset when they find out,’ said Nori Akuba.

      ‘We’re going to have to pick the right time to break the news to them,’ said Justine.

      ‘What about the contents of the call?’ asked Teddy.

      Brian looked over at Toby, ‘That’s what we expected, isn’t it?’

      Toby nodded, ‘We couldn’t have scripted it any better ourselves.’

      ‘So you won’t mind them snooping around the building?’ asked Teddy as Head of Security.

      ‘Not in the least!’ replied Brian, ‘We’ll rely on you and your men to make sure they don’t get into too much trouble. If they arouse the suspicions of other members of staff I’m sure you’ll be able to allay those fears. We’ll let them do their thing.’

      Teddy didn’t like the idea of trained security agents snooping all through a building that was his personal responsiblility, but knew the board members to be a very clever group. If they wanted the agents to snoop, then they had their reasons. ‘Oh! By the way!’ he added, ‘That wasn’t all that the tape recorded.’

      ‘What else was there?’ asked Eliza.

      ‘Well, it’s of a more personal nature.’

      The women around the table instantly became more alert. ‘You’ve got our interest. Play it,’ said Suzie gleefully.

      ‘Now hang on!’ said Toby, ‘We found out what we wanted to know. Anything else is strictly between the two of them. Besides, we already know that they’ve been sleeping together in Singapore. It’s why my devious wife made sure they were booked into an apartment out there and not a hotel.’

      ‘Well it seems it’s more than that,’ explained Teddy, ‘They were discussing Thorpe’s order to move down to Walton Village and they’ve decided to move in together down here too.’

      ‘And?’ asked an eager Suzie.

      ‘Well, it seems that after deciding to move in together, Sam asked Bree if she wanted to make it a permanent arrangement.’

      ‘Don’t tell me he finally proposed!’ yelled an excited Lana.

      Teddy nodded.

      ‘She accepted didn’t she?’ asked a beaming Suzie, ‘She’s been in love with him forever.’

      ‘Well yes she did.’

      ‘Then what?’ demanded Lana.

      Teddy blushed, ‘Then it became really personal.’

      Brian laughed, ‘I think you’d better erase the tape right now before these women embarrass us all by demanding to listen to it.’

      ***

      In his office, John Thorpe opened the thick file which Inland Security had amassed over the years, not only on Jade Green, but also on The Fund and the members of it’s board.

      He dialled his deputy and began reading the file from the beginning while he waited for the man’s arrival.

      As a junior agent straight out of university, Thorpe had been assigned the task of locating the legendary recordings Jade Green had made of her clients at The Garden of Eros. Despite his best efforts Green had refused to co-operate and over the intervening years additional attempts had also proved fruitless. His inability to close the case and his unshakable belief that the videos had existed rankled with him for his entire career and he was more determined than ever to solve the case before retirement overtook him. He was encouraged in this by the sudden appearance of one of the famous videos. It had been transferred to a DVD and featured a prominent judge. The Prime Minister himself was also determined that these elusive videos be found. He had become more than a little interested when his brother, a church minister, was featured on one of these videos that was splashed across the internet. As a result, the unfortunate man had been forced into exile in Hong Kong.

      Entering Thorpe’s office, his deputy saw the file spread in front of his superior and sighed inwardly. Not again! He thought.

      ‘How many people do we have inside The Fund?’ Thorpe asked without looking up from the file.

      Taking a seat opposite Thorpe his deputy replied, ‘Besides Sam Tait and Bree Lake we have three. They’re only junior agents, straight out of the academy, but we had to go with juniors so that they would fit in with the rest of the staff at the charity. Tait and Lake don’t know anything about them.’

      Thorpe flipped through file and came to the last few pages. ‘I see they reported the appearance of Jade Green’s Rolls Royce a week ago.’

      ‘Did they? I haven’t studied that file for some time.’

      ‘You don’t consider the appearance of the car to be significant then?’

      The deputy shrugged his shoulders, ‘Should I?’

      Thorpe looked over at the man, thinking: ‘And you want me to recommend you to be my replacement? Moron!’ He spoke slowly to his deputy, ‘If you had studied the file as closely as you should, you will see that the Rolls Royce was garaged in the same storage facility that Green used to hide her videos. The videos and the car disappeared at the same time. The car has now reappeared. Can’t you understand that if the car has reappeared then the videos may also have reappeared? Certainly Tait and Lake did when they contacted me last night.’

      ‘Well, yes, I suppose it could be a possibility.’

      ‘Thank you for agreeing with me,’ said Thorpe sarcastically. ‘I think something is about to happen and I want to know what it is and when. Contact all the agents we have down there including Lake and Tait. I want to know everything that’s happening in Walton Village, particularly if it seems to be out of the ordinary.’

      The deputy nodded, ‘I’ll get right on to it.’

      ‘How many other agents do we have that we can use to infiltrate the charity?’

      ‘Not many I’m afraid.’

      ‘Get as many of them in there as you can. This is important,’ demanded Thorpe. He was determined to gain the upper hand on The Fund this time.

      12

      The board of The Fund was once again in session and with the normal business completed the topic of discussion returned to Namola as they all knew it would.

      ‘I’m finished with the tapes. I want to go back. They need me out there,’ said Eliza defiantly.

      ‘Eliza,’ sighed Brian, ‘I know how much your project and the people out there mean to you but there’s no point in you returning right now. You’ll only be bashing your head against a brick wall. So far we’ve been able to redirect our monies to the other charities working in the camps. We’ve been able to make sure that the people get as much food and medicine as they need.’

      ‘It’s not enough!’ insisted Eliza. ‘They need more than food and medicine.’

      ‘Yes. We know,’ soothed Brian, ‘But we need to devise a new plan of action. Joseph Lattua would love for us to invest in more infrastructure works. It saves him the cost of doing the work