Transcripts from interrogation of Bamidele Matthews as of 27th of March, 1994.

The identity of the interrogator has been hidden to protect  the anonymousness of The Orion Project and will be subsequently referred to as 'The Bat'

BM: You have no right to detain me, I know my rights.

TB: You are in no position to demand for your rights, not when you and I know the truth. We've reached out to you in the past few months, asked you nicely, offered money all to get you to cease this foolish investigation but you are one SOB.

BM: The country deserves to know the truth, the lies your organization speaks — puppeteering the government itself. I repeat, you have no right to detain me, I have a whole team of journalists who will notice my absence.

TB: I'm afraid I cannot let you leave.

BM: . . .

TB: Tonight, the building of The Nigerian Post will go up in flames, every single piece of information burned to the ground, the same thing will happen to your home.

BM: (visibly upset) you have no right —

TB: You have a beautiful family, by the way.

BM: If you touch them, — just please, don't. I'll do whatever you want.

TB: I'm afraid it's too late now, you had your chance, but I do have one question for you.

BM: I will answer whatever you want, just as long you let them live, please.

TB: We'll see what your information is worth, who was the snitch? Who is your informant?

BM: we never met, at least not in person.

TB: I am going to need a name, tick, tock.

BM: I don't even know if my informant was female or male, our conversations were never long, they left information for me to pick up at specific locations. I swear to god, I didn't know their identity.

TB: I need a name.

BM: They claimed to be part of an organization called Rising Sun.

***

Kendrick had never been more glad to gaze up at the night sky, they had barely made it out in time and the climb down the dark stairways had been the longest time of his life. He heaved a breath and inhaled fresh air tinged with the sharp smell of smoke. The night was lit up with bright blue and red siren colours, the screams made him feel like he was lost.

Part of DisaSTAR was already lit up in flames and one glance at the fire told him that it had began from the beginning of the street, not the club itself and from the looks of the several fire trucks arriving, it was safe to say that things weren't all bad.

He was quick to take back that sentiment when he spotted a few ambulance cars and the paramedics rushing towards the burning building.

"My club is in flames!" It was almost comical how Jamal knelt on the sand, sobbing into his palms while his assistant stood over him, an exasperated look on her face. He cried aloud how his daddy was going to kill him.

Kendrick took Grace's hand, shaking her slightly when he noted the dazed look on her face.

"We almost died," she said quietly, he had to strain to hear her words above the whirling siren calls. It was only when he drew her close did he notice that she was shaking like a leaf.

"It's my fault." Kendrick admitted, the relief was giving away to guilt and the anger he had been feeling in Jamal's office. They hadn't found anything that would help them take down ORION, only a bunch of revelations that made Kendrick question his own motives. He had no reason to target ORION now, not when Emmanuel had willingly played their games.

"It kind of is." Grace said, pulling away from him, she didn't look angry, she didn't look anything and one look at her told Kendrick that she was retreating, hiding away under her usual masks. "I left my purse back in there, with my phone."

This time, she looked at him sharply.

"I will get you a new one," Kendrick announced vehemently. "If you'll let me."

"Fuck you, Kendrick!" Her outburst was expected, but it still made him flinch away. "This is your fault, I told you it was a bad idea, fighting a battle for someone long dead, and you've dragged me into your shit — worse, I'm sure The ORION Project know very well we went against their orders and sought out their enemies."

"I can't afford to play this game, count me out, I'm done." She ended her tirade with a weary sigh, rubbing her eyes with her fisted hands. She let them fall and dangle at her sides.

Against better judgement, he reached out to grab her arm when she moved away. "At least, let me get you home."

Grace looked like she wanted to say more but she perked up, looking over his shoulder. He let her hand drop when she dashed a few feet to fall into the embrace of a tall boy with ruffled black hair. There was a girl standing besides them, and when Kendrick met her gaze, he was surprised to see hostility in them.

He had met her once, with Grace, she had introduced herself as Grace's best friend. She had been smiling then, now her lips were pressed in a thin line and she looked anywhere but at him, Kendrick wasn't sure what he had done to warrant such treatment.

"Tope, right?" He asked awkwardly. Thinking that he should offer a handshake then deciding that it would be stupid to do so.

She nodded stiffly, then averted her gaze back to the embracing duo who soon pulled apart.

"I'm going to kill you myself when we get the fuck out of here." The tall boy told Grace, shaking her shoulders slightly. "I'm not sure I want to know what the hell you are doing here."

"I'm fine," she said, although it sounded like she was trying to reassure them both. The longer Kendrick looked at the tall boy, the longer he was sure he had seen him before.

It was only then the boy turned his gaze on Kendrick, narrowing his eyes to slits.

"I've seen you before." He said, straightening in a manner that was confrontational. Kendrick hadn't met a lot of people taller than him, but this boy was a good two or three inches taller than he was. He also had the muscles Kendrick's skinny frame was lacking.

"I've never seen you before." Kendrick said tartly, he wasn't exactly sure he was telling the truth.

"Are you dating Grace?" He asked flatly. Grace made a loud gurgling sound as if she was choking.

"I'm not dating Kendrick, Sanmi," She snapped, she nodded stiffly at Kendrick. "Sanmi's my brother and we'll be leaving now."

"You got out in one piece?" Sanmi asked her, ignoring the plea in her words. "Are you sure you don't need to see one of those?" He gestured with a nod at the ambulance vehicles and the line of people in front of them.

Kendrick caught a glance at the arrival of a news crew and thought that the press would have a field day with the disaster, he only hoped that everyone got out of the club in one piece, even though the sight of the paramedic with their stretchers told him that it was unlikely. It appeared that it hadn't been just a case of possible arson, it seemed to Kendrick like a well timed bomb blast.

Grace was shaking her head adamantly when he turned back to look at her.

"I'm fine, Kendrick and I got out easy, I'm more concerned why the two of you showed up together — I didn't even know you two knew each other." Her voice sounded accusing.

"It's a long story," Tope sighed, looking distracted for a moment when a sudden cry rose up high above the sirens, the screamer trudged behind a paramedic rolling up a body onto a stretcher and into the back of the vehicle.

The air seemed to turn somber, Kendrick was in the process of excusing himself since Grace was clearly in safe hands — the noise was too much for him, he wanted to be in a quiet space to process his thoughts and ask himself the question he had been dodging, what next? — when he felt a vibration in his pocket, he took out his phone and a shiver ran down his spine at the name on the screen.

It was a text message from Amina, it read; where are you? We're here.

"The entourage's here," he told Grace, hoping she understood his words, then handing his phone over to her when her face remained blank.

She cast a look at Sanmi, then Tope. "I need to speak to Kendrick, alone. The two of you call an uber or something."

Kendrick was surprised when her brother took Tope by arm, sending one pointed look at both of them, it was then Kendrick knew, that Sanmi was with ORION too.

"We'll be at the bus stop, meet us there." Sanmi said, shooting one final distrustful glance at Kendrick before walking off.

Grace frowned after them as they disappeared among the growing crowd.

"I don't like this one bit," She told him, at first he thought she was talking about The ORION Project but then she sighed. "I don't trust Sanmi around any girls, most especially with my friends."

"He seemed like a decent guy." Kendrick offered uselessly, he didn't really think that, but he couldn't exactly form an opinion on someone he had just met a few minutes ago.  Grace knew this too, because she shot him a wry look.

"You don't know anything about my family." He waited, expecting her to say more but instead she handed him his phone and gave a nod.

"Call her, tell them we're in front of the club."

***

Amina Khalid was furious, her eyes took in every burning building and every time she had push through the gathering crowd — some of them standing helplessly and watching everything burn, others taking videos of the sight — her anger only grew, bubbling to surface. This was nothing more than foolish chaos, to her, this disaster could have been avoided.

"I hope you are happy," She snapped, uncaring that he thought it rude that she talked back at him. Amina had gotten used to be second best, she had put aside her blatant dislike for Joshua Phillips for the longest time and went along with his every decision, even though she never agreed with them, this time he hadn't even been bothered to tell her.

"This wasn't my intention, you know that."

"Well it happened anyway, do you have any idea how many people we'll be bribing to keep certain details away from public knowledge." Amina quipped, pushing past a man who shouted slurs after her. She angled her head slightly to throw her middle finger in salutation, feeling the slightest hint of satisfaction when his mouth hung open.

"I'm not a child." Joshua sneered, she didn't spare him a look, choosing to look at her phone when it pinged, it was Kendrick telling her to meet him at the front of the burning club.

She didn't tell Joshua this, instead she continued walking, relishing his presence behind her, good, let him follow for once, she thought. It was a small price to pay for halting her party and then insisting she tagged along, even though she was half pissed and tired. Her thighs were sore from dancing all evening and her head only pounded harder, the noise making it worse.

The the crowd was noticeably thicker as they moved closer, and she turned her head away when she caught the charred bodies lined before the ambulance vehicles. This time, she caught Joshua's eye, telling him silently that was this fault.

But he didn't look ashamed, just disgusted, his lips twisted like he had tasted something sour. Death was not new to him, neither was it new to her, but there was no victory in the killings of innocents.

Sometimes, she just wanted out but there was no door.

"I see them," Amina began to say, pointing at a frazzled Kendrick who stuck out like a sore thumb, and not just because he was tall. The Grace girl was sticking to his side and they seemed to be talking in hushed tones. Joshua was looking elsewhere, at Jamal Popola who was standing next to a paramedic and looked to be complaining to the woman.

"Don't," Amina advised. "You already burned the guy's club, you're lucky he got out alive or we'd be in bigger shit."

Joshua shrugged off her hand, he moved away from her, striding purposefully towards the unsuspecting boy, although he turned around in time to see Joshua approach. The two seemed to exchange a few words, and to anybody watching them, it seemed like a friendly interaction and when Joshua patted Jamal's shoulder twice, it might have appeared as a brotherly action, that was until Jamal blanched visibly, stumbling back a few steps — fortunately for him, an ambulance vehicle was right behind him or else he would have toppled to the ground.

He didn't wait for Joshua to leave before scurrying away like a fox on fire. Joshua returned to her with a smile playing on his lips.

"You don't listen, do you?" Amina said flatly.

"Luckily, he does, Jamal Popola won't be a problem anymore." Joshua said smugly.

Amina crossed her arms. "He'll never be truly gone, maybe for now, but you know he'll be back."

Joshua narrowed his eyes. "I don't need him gone forever, I need him gone for now. So I gently asked him to step down as leader of MEDUSA, unless he'll be witnessing more fires in the future."

Amina had to hand it to Joshua, he did know how to turn the worst situations into an avenue to get rid of a pest. Without Jamal as leader of MEDUSA, he couldn't poke his nose into their businesses. He was nothing without the resources of his cult in his hold.

"Now I need to find out what those two idiots might have found out from Jamal's loud mouth." Joshua jerked his head at where Kendrick and Grace stood.

"Why not ask Jamal?" Amina asked, it was hard to understood what ran through Joshua's head most of the time, sometimes she saw him as predictable, other times he went for the option no one else expected of him. She was starting to think Joshua Phillips had planned the events of the whole night down to the T.

Joshua cast her a glance that insinuated her question was foolish. Then he placed a condescending hand on her shoulder, if was partly reminding her of her position, and daring her mockingly to shrug it off like he had did to her.

"Jamal's words are punctuated with lies, you can never be sure what part of them are truths — hence why I will make sure he steps down this very night, already this catastrophe," He gestured to the burning buildings that the firefighters still battled. " —Will speak against him, the seed of doubt is a fucking tree now, I bet you his own crew will be voting him out as we speak. Now you expect me to ask Jamal what the hell he told Yong and the girl."

"He'll never tell the truth, but these two are pathetic liars, separate them and you'll find out that their stories don't match." Joshua said. "Take Kendrick to the side, ask to speak to him alone, I'll speak to Ilori alone."

***

Grace spotted Joshua Phillips at once, and as usual, Amina Khalid was besides him. Truth be told, she had spotted them the moment they had arrived and she had seen Joshua talking with Jamal, had seen Jamal run off after the conversation.

Something was wrong, she knew it, felt it, saw it in Phillips's razor sharp smile as he drew nearer to them, Amina's own face was an emotionless mask. Grace gripped Kendrick's arms with urgency.

He startled, blinking in succession. "What's wrong with you?"

"I see Joshua and Amina, we need a cover story, because I think they know why we sought out Jamal." She told him.

"Shit," He swore, snatching free from her hold to run a hand through his ruffled hair. "Tell them a half truth, that we sought out answers about your recruitment."

She nodded, knowing he was right, there wasn't any lie they could tell that would justify their presence except a truth and that was what scared her the most about The ORION Project, the fact that they knew everything about them, about her. They knew that it was impossible that she spent a free night partying at a club, even more impossible that she'd want to spend time any close to Jamal Popola.

"Fine, but I'm more worried about Jamal snitching." She said just as Joshua and Amina came to a stop in front of them. The latter flicked her gaze up and down, noting their dirt stained clothes and wild looks.

"You two look worse for wear." Joshua said, breaking the silence among the four of them. He seemed to communicate a message with a single glance to Amina who gave him a slight nod.

"Can I talk to you, alone?" She spoke to Kendrick, who seemed to jolt from his thoughts, blinking at her like he had never seen her before, maybe he hadn't, because what Jamal had shown them both back in his office exposed them to a whole version of Amina, Grace had never thought of her as a saint but those pictures showed a risqué version of her.

Kendrick met Grace's probing gaze, as if he was asking permission. He only nodded when Grace gave a nonchalant shrug, it pleased her secretly that now he wasn't looking at Amina like someone he wanted to worship.

It was only when the both of them walked a few feet away did Grace notice that she was now left alone with Joshua fucking Phillips. Never mind that they were both surrounded by hundreds of people.

She gulped when she met his smirking face — the same slanted smile that girls in school deemed his panty dropping smile but there was nothing kind in that smile.

Her heart dropped, his own eyes twinkled.

"Now tell me, Grace, what is a good girl like you doing in a place so bad?"

She remained quiet, her heart beating wildly. His smile turned stony then faded completely.

"What did Jamal tell you, Grace?"