In the Stars ✅

Prologue



              THE PROLOGUE

                  The Sambisa Forest Reserve,            
                                     Northeast Nigeria.

2300 hours
Zayn.
March 2020.

It was dark. Eerie and silent. The full moon appeared to hide between the mighty trees of the Sambisa Forest Reserve, northeast of Nigeria, my dear country. This land of mine was unfortunately plagued by a group of unintellectual individuals who have fed themselves with the not-so-plausible doctrines that, western education shouldn't be imposed on our students.
Boko Haram__ that's how they call themselves. They are an epidemic plague that's slowly spreading across the western part of Africa. It's a wonder that they've still not been eradicated.
They believe that the entire federation and beyond, should be governed by the shari'a laws of the Islamic religion. Whereas, thwarting the fact that Nigeria is a culturally and religiously diverse country. Those people kidnap students (mostly females) from their schools and hold them captive away from the Western implementation.
Most of them carry heavy ammunition and even abuse the students. It has always been a thing to celebrate when they get back home safely after being abducted.

The rest of the ranting, I'll leave it to the politicians and diplomats.
I've spent years of my life, nurturing and training to put an end to anyone who tries to wreak havoc in my country.

That was what I'd been ordered to do. I always do it to perfection.
I'm Zayn-Ashraf Malik. Second son of the Emir of Kano, and a Captain of the Nigerian Armed Forces, holding onto a shoot-at-sight order from the Chief of Defense Staff, on an operation to rescue forty-three female students from the University of Ibadan who had been captured two weeks ago. It took a lot of strategizing and effort to get me and my team here, and we have no intention of messing it up. They've done too much damage to be spared.

For two solid weeks, news about the abducted girls was all over the media. We are here to end that, God willing. Only God knows what they've done to the girls.

We sought cover behind the huge mahogany trees in the forest as we waited for the perfect time to strike.

I was just about to command an order to get out of hiding when I heard footsteps drawing close to us.
Once again, I thanked nature for the shield.
There were three of them, walking and chatting as they passed by us. One of them had a rifle slinging off his shoulder. What a waste of effort! Those men who looked younger than thirty could have done something better with their lives if they were to be in school.
M16__ how quickly I had recognized it.
Each one of us held our breaths, not wanting to blow away our cover, even in the least way possible.
I nearly cussed when I heard a commotion right behind me. I watched as the three men halted in their tracks.

Veering my head to where the commotion came from, I glared at Fahad who had lost his balance from squatting for a long time. I'm sure his eyes have adjusted in the dark enough for him to see the look I threw at him.
That first lieutenant of mine needed to back up on his stamina, and I'll make sure of that when we get back to the barracks.
The three young men who had halted in their tracks turned around, scanning the area with their eyes to see if they would find the source of the ruckus. Having found none, they shared a look amongst themselves and took onto their heels. The unseen enemy was scarier.

The corner of my lips tilted up a bit, knowing our path was clear.
At that moment, my radio piece crackled, drawing my attention to it. I adjusted it with my ear, ready to receive any signal.