The Waiting Game

prologue

Prologue

“You’ve got a hot date?”

Victor raised his head from where he was bent behind the desk, shoving files where they belonged. He flinched, hitting his hip against the hard edge of the desk. He winced and willed himself to remain calm, nobody knew.

Amina Khalid was standing in front of him, at 5’7 and hands on her hips like a stern mother, except the smirk on her red lips gave her away. Victor was taken aback by her presence, nobody had seen Amina in weeks, she’d been sent on some secret mission by Joshua Phillips who was the leader of The Orion Project – of course, they all knew she would be back just in time for the semester resumption but it was still a shock seeing her here.

Here was the lobby of the first floor of the Senate Building of the Lagos State University, it was past eight pm, technically, Victor wasn’t supposed to be here but Orion practically ran the whole university and had keys to everywhere important on campus. Victor glanced at Amina, giving her a sweeping gaze. She was hearing pointed red heels, how the hell had he not heard her enter the building?

He knew that of all people, he should know that Amina Khalid wasn’t known as The Mancracker for nothing; she was extremely stealthy and knew how to enter and exit a place, without getting noticed. But sometimes, Victor struggled with aligning reality with the world of secrecy he dwelled in. Amina was twenty one; normal twenty one year olds couldn’t do the things that she did. Hell, recently, he saw Orion less as a powerful organization and more as an anomaly.

They shouldn’t exist. The thought made a shiver run down his spine, he raised his eyes to meet Amina’s, afraid that she would see something on his face and report back to Joshua.

She however appeared oblivious and was striking a pose with her lips pouted.

“Do I look hot?” She asked. Victor blinked and realized she thought he’d been checking her out. This time, he did, noting her plaid skirt that did little to hide the curves of her hips and the nondescript black shirt she was wearing. She was wearing a hijab that matched the black of her shirt.

She did look hot.

“Sure, baby,” He told her. She beamed at him but Victor knew better than to think she cared what he thought about her body. Amina didn’t care about other people’s opinion of her, she didn’t need the reassurance but she still liked to ask.

She leaned forward and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “I know you missed me.” She said, walking behind the lobby desk where he stood, she hitched one thigh on the desk and faced him, her smile gone.

“Why are you here this late, Victor?” She asked.

He wanted to retort and ask why she was here too, she’d just returned from Joshua’s secret mission, why wasn’t she with him, reporting back? Then again, she might have already, for all he knew, Amina had been back for a whole week but had merely kept out of sight.

“Joshua sent me here to grab something from his uncle’s office.” Victor answered. Joshua’s uncle was the vice counselor of the university and his term would be ending in a month’s time. It was a big relief for the university, when Remilekun Phillips had been exposed two years ago, everyone related to him had been soiled with his bad reputation and suddenly, Lagos State University was dropping on the global rankings of best universities, they were getting less funding from the government – to put it lightly, they’d become the plague. Now, the counselor that had brought them shame through his association to the dead president was leaving, it was great news.

It wasn’t for The Orion Project though, they’d operated easier when one of their own was in power, and they wouldn’t have that backing once he was gone. Victor knew that one of the things that took Joshua’s attention in the past few months was rallying that the state government chose a candidate that would favor Orion or else, the organization would become what Joshua feared the most – a has been.