The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 26

TRANSCRIPTS FROM INTERROGATION OF TAMIKA AFOLABI KINGSTON, SEPTEMBER 1997.

INTERROGATOR WAS NAFISAT KHALID, BUT WILL BE REFERRED TO AS THE BAT.

TB: Hello, Tamika. You know the drill already, I ask the questions, you give the answers.

TA: Nafisat, I know you've been dying for a chance to get a peek into my head. Now I might not know why I am here, in this stupid white room but I do know that I have done nothing to warrant being here. If this is one of Remilekun's tricks, I'll remind both you and him that I have been absolutely loyal to ORION, and I have served for many years. Even going as far as recruiting my boyfriend for this organization.

TB: Yes, yes, we all know about your loyalty.

TA: Being sarcastic again? Remember how I used to tell you that you'd never get a husband that way? Back when we were friends? I guess I was wrong, I heard about the wedding and you've got a gorgeous ring. Congratulations.

TB: I suppose congratulations are in order for you too, odd really, both of us getting married in the span of a week.

TA: Strange that we once dreamed it would be so, now look at us.

TB: I'm not here so we can take a trip down memory lane, Tamika.

TA: Funny, you seem almost eager to get to it, Nafisat.

TB: What is you affiliation with Rising Sun?

TA: I don't know what you're talking about, as you know, I've been out of the country for a while, Seychelles is a lovely place by the way — in case you were thinking of a honeymoon destination.

TB: Don't play stupid, Tamika, it doesn't suit you. You know, you could have at least been a little discreet with your betrayal.

TA: I suppose so.

TB: Now you aren't denying it?

TA: What's the point?

TB: (visibly frustrated) Swahili, your mother is half Kenyan and she named you Tamika. Remember what that means, what your own name means?

TA: Flower of the rising sun.

TB: (begins pacing) Rising Sun, the same organization that has been leaking information about us to the press. You stupid, stupid woman.

TA: Yes, I did leak information about us to the press. Remember what The ORION Project started out as? For someone who claims to be so dedicated to the cause, you have surely forgotten the original statement, the first one, not the one Remilekun Phillips fucking wrote to his will.

TB: That is not your place to say.

TA: our mission statement fucking says that nobody in TOP is allowed to run for government, ORION is supposed to have a balance, to be content with making the rules behind the scenes like it was founded to be, to handle the funds that the government cannot. To protect! To serve! Remember that?

TB: I'm afraid your actions have consequences, Tamika.

TA: No, it won't, because no matter how this organization tries to shrug it off, I am in charge of writing the damn program that Phillips needs and I'm far too deep to get rid of now. So here's what you'll do, I'll get a fucking slap on the wrist, I have no parents you can kill or blackmail and I know better than to expose my business.

TB: Tamika, shut the hell up!

TA: No, you might try to go after Tolu, but there's only how far you can go before he snaps and stops caring if you take another hammer to his father's business, because you and I know that Phillips needs all the support he can get.