The ORION Project | ✔

prologue

Senator Abayomi gazed aimlessly out the floor to ceiling length window, the night was beautiful and at the same time frightening. Sometimes, beauty hit one right in the face, ethereal to the point of fear and reverence. This particular night made the gazer want to sink to his knees and worship the heavenly bodies.

However, the senator's eyes weren't admiring the beauty, he wasn't at all focused on the full moon either, no, something else nagged at him. He had just received news of a conspiracy against him, politics was dirty business, one he played like a violin and he was well aware of that but this was the fifth direct threat  on his life from the same strange organization in the past month. One was a mistake, two was a coincidence, three was a pattern and five meant serious business.

He had received threats in his mail, at his front door, in his office and every where he seemed to go. There was no place these people could not get into. And all they sought was two words, two words he refused to give, two words that could do and undo.

The senator looked away from the sky and his gaze roamed the luxurious lounge room. Decorated by one of the most expensive interior decorating companies in the city, the perfect blend of the colors gray and white.

Every piece of furniture cost millions, yet nobody ever used the lounge room for its purpose, the senator's wife was rarely ever in the country and his children were away at boarding school. Once, the senator had looked at this room and hoped for family unity, instead he had the opposite of what he had planned. He lived in a beautiful house alone, with several servants.

Now, the room itself was a decoration itself, along with the rest of the mansion. Bare of any memento or family pictures. He felt the glass table in the centre of the room and his fingers came away dusty, he made a mental note to scold the house help when he next saw her, Senator Abayomi did not know that there would be no tomorrow for him.

He did not notice the shadow or the figure hiding in the shadows wielding death.

The phone rang suddenly and the senator jumped slightly, then scolded himself. He walked over to the landline on the table and picked up the phone.

"Senator Abayomi speaking," He muttered absentmindedly into the receiving end.

A frantic voice spoke from the end. "Sir, there's been an accident!" He recognized the voice, his personal assistant.

Abayomi almost dropped the phone, his hands shook as they tried to hold on. "What happened?"

"Your office building sir, there was a fire. The police have been alerted and suspect arson. You must get here as fast as you can Sir." His PA, Yemi spoke, he choked out the words Abayomi dreaded to hear. "We suspect it was an attempt on your life." An attempt because he was supposed to be in that office, swiveling in his seat as he pored through now fading documents of a woman that once was.

"I will be there as soon as I can, check in with my children's school Yemi, and tell my wife to stay and not return until I say so." Senator Abayomi bellowed. He did not wait for Yemi to hang up as he dropped the phone to the table carelessly.

He had to leave now.

The senator patted his pocket for his keys and halted in his sudden steps as he heard the unmistakable sound of a tap on glass.

A chill ran down his spine as he turned, gulping to face a hooded female stranger standing by the window with a detached expression and a kitchen knife in hand. The knife glistened sharp.

"Who are you?" He trembled.

"Wrong question senator," She said quietly, he had to strain his ears to hear her.

He backed away for the doors and made to open the doors, when he heard the quick whoosh of an object flying towards him. He blinked, and the next moment, a knife was buried into his hand, holding him to the door.

He let out a scream as pain and fear slammed into him like a wrecking ball out of nowhere. The stranger laughed silently.

"I have the servants in the house and my guards, they will hear me when I scream." He gritted out, sweat breaking out on his face in fear despite the cool air from the air conditioner.

"I put them all to sleep." She smiled wickedly. She was a tall, curvy woman with her face half hidden in the shadows, Senator Abayomi regretted not turning on the lights in the room, he wanted to look his killer in the eyes before he died.

The last person he had ever assumed would kill him was a woman.

"Who are you?" He asked again, as blood dripped down the knife, he itched to pull it out but he feared passing out.

The woman slithered around like a snake playing hide and seek with it's prey. She lounged on the sofa, watching him with a bored expression. She toyed with an expensive looking pendant on her neck.

"The question is, who do I work for? I think you know that already."

He was crying now, fat tears dripping down his cheeks like a baby, if this woman was who he suspected she was then he was in big trouble.

"I work for TOP." She said. "My organization has been contacting you for weeks now senator, we have bribed, coerced and threatened but you are one stubborn man."

She made a tsking sound of disappointment, yet he heard the tint of glee in her lilt voice.

"I have dealt with men like you, been with men like you. Where I work, they call me the mancracker. I think I'll enjoy cracking the words we want to hear from your lips." She said, then she moved closer to him until he could smell the mint and chocolate on her breath.

His killer had a sweet tooth, the worst ones did.

"Are you going to talk?" She asked.

"I am expected somewhere, someone will notice my absent and look for me, you cannot hold me for long. I will not talk." He bluffed.

His answer was definitely what the mancracker wanted to hear as she grinned, exposing straight white teeth.

She didn't blink as she pulled out the knife, she didn't blink as the senator let out a bloodcurdling scream and she definitely did not blink as he screamed over and over again and blood flowed, as she devised new means to carve the senator with his own knife from his own kitchen.

He shouted the names of deities and Christian heroes, she savoured his pain and reveled in it. She carved her own name down his body, for every curse spat at her, she began again until the terror was a part of him and he could not imagine a moment of peace.

The mancracker remained bored, peering down at him from hooded eyes. Blood splattered on her dark shirt and blood running down her fingers, the panting senator would not be surprised if she raised those fingers to her sensuous black-painted mouth and sucked on them.

A man could only take so much pain, soon he was begging and screaming over and over the name she wanted to hear.

Mika Afolabi-Kingston.