Chapter 22: Patient work
"Don’t mention it," Xavier said. "What’s the Project update."
She blinked at the subject change then pulled out her tablet. "Marcus showed up twice this week. Diana finalised the research section. We’re ahead of schedule."
"Good."
"Femi hasn’t contacted me since," she said. Not looking up.
"He won’t."
She looked up at that. Read his face for a moment. Then looked back down without another word.
"Still having mixed feelings," she said quietly.
"Still..?" Xavier asked.
"Getting less mixed." She turned a page.
He checked the gauge.
Amira — 58%
Still climbing, he noted. The $50,000 is still moving her needle days later. Interesting how long a single act of real help echoes.
He was crossing the courtyard at lunch when he saw Femi.
Femi saw him at the same time.
Thirty feet apart. Open courtyard. Students moving through the space between them like they had no idea what was sitting underneath the air.
Femi’s two regular friends were with him. He’d added a third one Xavier hadn’t seen before. Bigger. Standing slightly differently from the others. Weight distributed differently.
Security, Xavier noted. He brought muscle to campus. Which means the phone call shook him more than he showed.
Femi looked at him with the expression of someone who had made a decision and was committed to it.
Xavier looked back.
He didn’t stop walking. Didn’t speed up. Same pace, same direction, same energy he’d been carrying before he spotted them. He covered the thirty feet of open courtyard without breaking stride or dropping eye contact.
Femi didn’t move.
Nobody moved.
Xavier walked past and kept going.
A man who has real power doesn’t need to react to a look, he thought. That’s how you show them the gap. Not with words. Not with threats. Just by making it obvious that they don’t register as a problem worth changing your pace for.
He went to the cafeteria and ordered lunch.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $9 — Campus Cafeteria
Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x
Total Return: $18
[ Net Balance: $178,145.00 → $178,163.00 ]
He was halfway through his food when his phone lit up.
Instagram notification.
@sarah.torres.official posted a new story.
He opened it.
She was in a rehearsal space somewhere off campus. Piano visible in the background. Sitting cross legged on the floor surrounded by handwritten notes, phone pointed at herself. The expression on her face was the particular frustration of someone whose work wasn’t cooperating and knew exactly why but couldn’t fix it.
The caption said: three weeks and this piece is not cooperating. someone pray for me.
Xavier looked at it for a moment.
Struggling with the showcase material, he thought. Three weeks out and the piece isn’t landing.
He put the phone face down and finished his food.
Interesting.
He spent the afternoon cycling through the rest of his cap spending around campus. Printing shop. Equipment rental. Photography studio booking. Routine by now. Clean and automatic.
But his mind stayed on Sarah’s story the whole time.
What does a serious artist need when the work isn’t cooperating, he thought. Not compliments. She gets enough of those. Not encouragement either. That’s just noise.
She needs the right environment. The kind that makes the work feel real enough to finish.
He pulled up his phone and searched. Recording studios in Kenvale. Professional spaces with proper acoustic setups, grand pianos, isolation booths. The kind of place serious people used when the work actually mattered.
He found one. Ardmore Recording. Private studio. Full day booking. The price was the kind that separated people who were serious from people who were pretending.
He booked it anonymously under a holding name.
Then opened a secondary account he’d created weeks ago. No profile picture. No followers. No connection to him anywhere.
He typed the DM carefully.
Studio booked for you. Ardmore Recording, Saturday 10AM. Anonymous. No strings. Consider it from someone who wants the showcase to be worth attending.
Sent.
He closed the app and leaned back.
She’ll use it, he thought. Because she needs it and she knows it and whoever sent it asked for nothing. That’s the only kind of gift a person like Sarah Torres accepts. He looked at the ceiling. And when the piece finally comes together in that studio she’ll carry that feeling into the performance.
And I’ll be in the front row watching.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $1,200 — Studio Booking
Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x
Total Return: $2,400
[ Net Balance: $176,963.00 → $179,363.00 ]
[ HIDDEN TASK COMPLETE ]
First Anonymous Investment in Target
Reward: +600 EXP
[ EXP: 9,350/50,000 ]
Favorability doesn’t move until she knows it’s me, he noted. But the system counted it.
Patient work still counts.
He packed his bag and stood up.
The campus was winding down for the evening. Students heading out through the gates, the courtyard quieter than it had been at lunch. The usual end of day energy.
Xavier was halfway to the east gate when his phone buzzed.
Bzzzt!
Not Instagram. Not WhatsApp.
The encrypted app he used for the security contact.
He opened it.
One message. Four lines.
Phase 2 complete. Report attached. You need to read this before you make any more moves regarding The Cardinal Circle. The man above Femi is not what you were expecting. Suggest a call before you proceed.
Xavier stopped walking.
He stood at the edge of the courtyard in the fading light and looked at the message for a long moment.
Not what I was expecting.
He thought about the phase 1 report. Femi’s finances. The leased car. The shared flat. The $50,000 that wasn’t his to lend.
If Femi is small, Xavier thought slowly, and the man above him is not what I was expecting.
He opened the attached file.
Read the first line.
Stopped.
Read it again.
Interesting, he thought. The word felt different now than it had at lunch.
He closed the file and pocketed his phone.
Three weeks to the showcase, he thought. Everything is moving.
But not all of it in the direction I planned.
He walked through the east gate into the evening and didn’t look back.
P.S Thanks for giving this novel a shot it only gets interesting from here..