Another update, so soon, enjoy it. I am obviously the queen of dragging things out - 14 chapters in and almost fifty thousand words and we haven't even scratched the surface, I promise, things will get interesting in the next couple of chapters. Fingers crossed.

"You are a shitty bodyguard." Grace snapped, Firepemi rolled his eyes in answer, twisting the Rubik's Cube in his hands. Grace wanted to snatch it out of his hands and toss it into the puddle of rain water. She hastened her steps, ducking her head and stepping into the half full lecture hall - fortunately, the lecturer was absent or else she'd spend the class outside, pleading with him to grant her entry. It was all Firepemi's fault, he walked too slowly and sometimes his eyes would wander to a conversation or bright banner on campus, she was more like the bodyguard he was supposed to be.

Grace regretted that she had accepted Amina's offer of a bodyguard, she should have just let Kendrick tail her instead - he had offered and she had rejected his offer because he had a class of his own to attend - and maybe she wouldn't be in this situation. As her eyes scanned the lecture hall, searching for a unoccupied back seat, Firepemi tapped her shoulder, she turned to him, impatient to hear what he wanted to say, but he was toying with the Rubik's Cube in his hands.

With a huff, she snatched it from his palm and was in the motion of crushing it under her muddy shoes when she caught the warning glare he sent her, she had never thought of Firepemi as a dangerous person but the glare he sent her made her hesitate and remember why he was one of Joshua Phillip's friends.

"Give that back." He snapped, she let him have it, waiting for his outburst, instead, he took in a deep breath and the anger was gone. "I was diagnosed with ADD when I was seven, trust me, this toy is the only thing helping me from spacing out completely."

Grace felt bad at once, not because he had ADD but because she had been mean to him because of it.

"You should have said so, then I wouldn't have asked for your bodyguard services." She said sharply.

Firepemi glanced at her with a slight smile.

"That is where you are wrong, Gracey, I make an excellent bodyguard, I've got the hot body." He ticked off each finger, tucking the Rubik's Cube under his armpit. "I give off mysterious vibes - that girl over there seems to think so by the glances she's throwing my way." He pointed at one of Grace's course mates, a girl who was quick to give a smirk when she noticed Firepemi's gaze on her. Firepemi returned it, winking unnecessarily.

"And most of all, I notice the shit you don't." He said, puffing his chest in the way that reminded Grace of a child who had done all his chores and expected a pat on the back.

"Like what?" Grace crossed her arms, not ready to let him off the hook so soon.

"You have the hots for Kendrick." Fire made a disgusted face and laughed loud, a sound punctuated with snorts when Grace flinched back.

"I do not." She rebuked, she swiped at his arm.

"You want to feel those skinny biceps, maybe tie him down and do all wicked things to him." Fire said, flicking her nose. "You girls think your feelings are so well hidden, he would probably see it if he weren't so blind." He said it like it was a bad thing, frowning at the end.

"I don't like Kendrick." Grace snapped, it was a shout that drew the attention of half of the class, she stomped her foot and pushed Fire, he didn't budge, standing still like a rock. "Get out, guy, before you embarrass me any further."

"You did all the work yourself, little cous -" Firepemi paused as if he had let a secret spill unintentionally. "I'll be outside."

The class was still watching them, most likely wondering how Grace knew the famous captain or more certainly wondering what a loser like her was doing with someone like him. It made Grace's chest tighten in anxiety and she could hear the words in the air, or maybe it was her delusion.

"Yeah, go, whatever." She murmured bitterly, smiling stiffly when she caught Dayo waving at her from the back seats. When she looked back at Firepemi who was still standing, she saw that he was frowning at his phone.

"How fa?" She asked, worry seeping into her tone. Grace wasn't sure she could handle any more bad news, she still didn't know anything about ORION or the so called mission that had been assigned to her. Yesterday, she had come across that picture, the one with the woman who looked so much like she did and the date scrawled at the back of the photograph had her head spinning. She wanted to chalk it up as a prank or Photoshop but she wasn't so sure about anything any more.

"It's nothing, just something I need to handle, I'll be back before your class is over." Firepemi told her, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder. He withdrew it to tuck the Rubik's Cube into the pocket of his sweatpants, only Firepemi could wear sweatpants to school and still make girls drool over him.

"Oh, and Joshua will be meeting the three of you - you, Amina and Kendrick - after this class, so if you've got anything planned, cancel it." Fire warned.

Grace scowled, this time her usual image of punching Phillips in the face wasn't doing anything to calm her anger down, she wanted to hit him for real.

"Why? I thought his majesty has better things to do, like ruin lives or stalk unsuspecting people." She said sarcastically.

Firepemi did not look amused by her words, he was looking at directly in the eye and while she had always known she was tall for a girl, she was still surprised that Fire was only a inch or two taller than her. Grace looked over shoulder to see the lecturer was walking the corridor, he maneuvered past the crowd of students.

"Joshua isn't funny, none of this funny, I guess he wants to speak to you about what happened this morning." Fire shrugged.

"Wait, he knows who did it?"

Fire averted her gaze, making her think he knew too.

"You'll find out." He answered the question on the tip of her tongue. He made for the door the moment the lecturer stepped through - it was Dr. Ireti and for the first time, Grace wasn't really bothered by his presence, she was more bothered by the fact that he was the father of Firepemi and they never acted like they knew each other, as they walked past each other, they didn't even acknowledge each other. She was also bothered by whatever Joshua wanted to say to them.

"Alright, settle down." Dr. Ireti called out in his booming voice, the class scurried to their seats, Grace did so too, on autopilot, sitting besides Dayo and not surprised when Tope burst into the lecture theatre minutes later, with an apology on her lips - mumbling thanks when Dr. Ireti waved her in, out of character for him and resumed his lecture on Adapted Physical Education - she was certain that her best friend was keeping something from her.

That everyone, one way or the other, were lying to her.

***

"Your reading begins from page hundred to one fifty, from these pages, the test will be set." Professor Wisdom announced loudly, he was a tall skinny man with a head full of white hair and when he bent down to pick his briefcase, Kendrick could have sworn that he heard the man's bones creak.

"HOC, please take the attendance and bring it to my office, and trust me, I've done a head count, if I see more checks than the number I counted, then you will all be very sorry." He said, straitening his tie, he gave a curt nod and walked out the lecture hall, the latecomers outside the gates were straight on his heels pleading for forgiveness.

Inside the hall, it erupted with noise, aimless chatter filling the air and despite the shouts of the head of class pleading with them to calm down, they ignored him. Kendrick had noticed that this seemed to be the normal pattern of things, they screamed for a while, then quieted when they noticed the HOC making his way out of the hall. Kendrick clicked his pen and hissed at the noise, he scanned the hall, searching for Amina's red hijab but she was gone, he was half wondering how she could have slipped out without him noticing when a tap on his shoulder almost made him jump in fright. She was not smiling when he turned to face her.

"I trust that Grace filled you on on things," She said.

Kendrick nodded.

"We're supposed to meet with you?" He asked.

Amina shook her head. "Change of plan, Joshua wants to see us, there's been. . . a situation."

Worry made his eye brows furrow.

"Is it serious?" He asked, mostly in concern for himself, was this concerning the men he had seen this morning?

She cracked a small smile at his words but it was nothing amused.

"Maybe, I just don't want to let anything slip," She said. "We will walk together."

Kendrick raised a teasing eyebrow.

"What? No reckless car ride this time?"

This time when she smiled, it was genuine, the kind that spread to the corners of her cheeks and showed teeth.

"The walk will do wonders for my fat ass," She said, when she threw in a wink, he knew he was in trouble. "And you can stare at it when I walk."

Kendrick felt himself blush all the way to his neck and by her explosive laugh, she could see it. He was still half grinning when they were in Dr. Ireti's office with Joshua, Firepemi and Grace with the latter casting him glances that told him he was being too obvious. He tried to force it down but Joshua's next words wiped it off clean.

"Ever heard of the society?" The ORION boss asked, he was seated at the head seat in the office, Grace was seated on the single office chair before him, Kendrick was sitting on the arm on the sofa besides the fridge in the corner of the office. Amina had a thing for walls and was leaning against it next to Joshua and Firepemi was still pacing the floor, never still and Kendrick knew very well why.

He still didn't know what to feel about Firepemi, who he had thought was a friend until he found out he was a major player with ORION. The worst part was being unsure of their friendship, at least with Joshua and Amina, he knew where he stood with them - with Fire, he didn't know if the former was only convinced him to transfer because ORION told him to.

"No," He said in answer to Joshua's question at the same time Grace said; "Yes."

Joshua leaned back, toying with the stapler on the desk, snapping the mouth open and close before setting it back down on the desk, it was hard to guess what he might be thinking because his face was completely blank of emotions.

"I wouldn't expect you to know, Yong." Joshua said. "You're a newbie to the campus and all its disasters."

"The society is a cult," Grace told him.

"So like ORION?" Kendrick asked hesitantly.

Amina was quick to bite back. "The society are nothing like us, they are a caricature, a mockery."

Kendrick raised a hand in surrender. "That wasn't jab at you guys, I was just curious." If any of them noticed how he had excluded himself from ORION, they didn't act like they did.

"There are three types of people on campus," Fire began, ignoring the change of expression on Kendrick's face. "The people who admire us." He said that with a pointed glance in Kendrick's and Grace's direction, basically saying; you are one of us, like it or not.

"There are the ones who are mostly suspicious, this kind have all kind of conspiracy theories about us and there's the kind - the kind who want to be us, so bad that they start their organization." Fire said.

"Your point?" Kendrick asked, tone sizzling with irritation when Fire resumed his pacing.

"The society or more accurately, The MEDUSA Society are a caricature of what we are, they prance around in the daylight and flaunt the power of bored rich kids, they often like to think they are big enough to interfere in our matters - like now." Joshua resumed where Fire had stopped. "A year ago, there was a snitch, who thought he could play back both teams, the bastard sold out a whole lot of information about us to MEDUSA."

"It's why they know an awful lot about us." Amina explained. Kendrick shared a glance with Grace, wondering if she was as confused as he was. He wondered how many other copycats organisations were running around campus.

He nodded.

"MEDUSA likes to hire assassins to help, hence the men the three of you saw today." Joshua said.

"It still doesn't explain why they went after Grace and I." Kendrick said.

"They know we are after something big, especially since we have newbies like the both of you assigned." Joshua told them, tapping a steady beat on the wood table.

"And what do we do about them?" Grace asked, clearly uncomfortable with the situation as she shifted on her seat.

"We?" Joshua scoffed. "There is no we, Firepemi and I will see to it, the rest of you, focus on getting things done, I want this mission settled before the week ends."

Kendrick caught Amina's eye, the file they had been given hadn't really said much about what they would be doing, except for briefly mentioning something called Project Eden. It had also said they should be dressed formally for tomorrow, if he hadn't been wiser, Kendrick might have thought they were simply attending a party but he knew by now that there was nothing simple about Joshua Phillips or the company he kept.

"Crystal clear, captain," Amina saluted lazily, snapping the elastic bracelets on her left wrist, they were the only thing that felt out of place in her obviously expensive outfit, Kendrick thought.

When Joshua Phillips smiled in return, it was nothing amused, that smile that was all teeth made him look like the predator he was. It made Kendrick wonder what sorts of twisted things ran through his mind as he sat.

***

Jamal Popola was nothing like Joshua Phillips, in fact, except for their initials, and the fact that they were both kings in their own right, there was nothing else they had in common. Jamal was a joke and there was nothing more Joshua despised than people who took power as a joke.

Jamal was more like Simon the sorcerer in the Bible who had wanted to trade money for the Holy Spirit. People like Jamal liked to think they could buy power and the slightest hint of it made him go gaga. It was why MEDUSA was obsessed with The ORION Project.

Joshua could barely keep his lips from lifting in disgust at the sight of him. Sooner or later, Joshua had known Jamal would show his face, he knew very well that ORION was on to something big, something Jamal could only dream of, and since his threats hadn't seemed to shake them, he had sought Joshua out, surrounding by his thug looking boys who the staffs at the gate would have taken one look at their ripped jeans and pierced ears and have them thrown out the gates or worse; get sent to student jail.

Joshua cast one glance at his wristwatch and back at Jamal's smirking face and said; "You have two minutes."

He saw the look of irritation that flashed on Jamal's face - the poor sod hated being embarrassed in front of his followers and Joshua derived joy from making him suffer.

"Listen, Phillips. I'm going to be straight with you." He began, that same smirk peeled away into a slight grin that showed off his front gold tooth - another thing Joshua hated, spending money on foolish things.

"You got a big deal coming, you could use some help and we right over here." Jamal boasted, his boys nodded, murmuring their agreement, although all six of them looked high, red eyes that didn't seem to be focused on anything in particular. Joshua knew this because he had people who dealt drugs to MEDUSA, it was funny doing so, and even funnier once he let Jamal know.

Joshua snorted a harsh laugh, unsure which was amusing, Jamal's stupidity or his pathetic attempt at sounding hood. Joshua took another glance at his wristwatch and swore softly under his breath, he was almost late.

"Listen, Jamal -" He said sharply. "I don't have time for your antics and trust me, the next time you threaten my crew. . ." Joshua trailed off deliberately.

Jamal seethed quietly, a sneer forming on his face.

"Forget it, you'll find out when you try that shit again." Joshua said softly. "Now if you'll excuse me, some of us have class to get to, instead of buying grades like others." He knew where to hit Jamal the most, the boy was obsessed with being everything like Joshua, except that he wasn't, he wasn't even a good copy, just a cheap knockoff and letting him know was better than delivering a blow or bullet to his gut.

He didn't wait for a retort, spinning on his heels, slipping into charismatic Joshua, the one the campus knew and loved, he nodded his greetings at passing law students, smiling at the ladies as he walked briskly.

Joshua thought he had gotten rid of Jamal, he was wrong - the latter stood for a while, watching the golden boy interact with his loyal subjects.

"The new girl," Jamal spoke to his gang. "We have to get the girl, she is the one important in all of this, Emmanuel told us as much. I will not let this slip from my hand, not this time."