Joshua Phillips was leading her into a limo, sleek black and parked right across the Faculty of Education building. Grace cast him a final frantic look before she was shoved into the back. The interior was cool and brightly lit with pretty lights that were shaped like stars, Joshua followed in after her,  taking the plush black seats on the left and as she settled on the right, he raised a mocking eyebrow.

He leaned slightly to knock at the black screen separating them from the driver and a moment later, the car began to move.

"Want anything?" He asked, nodding curtly at the small bar above her seat. Anger welled up in her and spilled over like a dam.

"What I want is answers," Grace hissed. "Where are you taking me to?"

Joshua ignored her, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them, there was exhaustion in them that surprised her.

"Have you got any phone with you?"

When she remained stubbornly quiet, he sighed. "Whatever device you have with you won't work in here, this limo is built like the dome, just giving you a fair warning."

"Fuck you, Joshua." She spat.

"I'd take you up on that offer, but I have a girlfriend." He said, wearing a cruel smirk. "You can try and make trouble all you want, but you are stuck with me for the next few hours."

Her heart sank as she stared at the tinted windows.

"Now, I won't ask you again, would you like anything to eat or drink?"

"Why are you so hell bent on making my life hell?" Grace asked instead, hating the tremor in her voice. "My life was peachy before you and your band of crazed warriors came into it."

Joshua hummed a laugh. "This isn't about making your life miserable, Grace, this isn't even about you at all. I wish you were that important."

The words struck her in the chest as he had intended them to do.

"Yet I'm the center of everything." She said, forcing herself to sound nonchalant.

"A game of chess, it doesn't matter whose queen is whose, those are just pieces, the game is between two people." He told her breezily, leaning forward to tap twice at the screen again and this time it switched on, the sudden images filling the screen made Grace flinch back in surprise.

Of course, nothing was ever ordinary with The ORION project, they had a flair for the dramatic. When she looked back at the TV, she couldn't tamp down the laughter that escaped her lips, it was Remilekun Phillips on it, while two newscasters debated his latest scandal.

"You see, conspiracy theories pop up on the internet every time, but this one is backed by evidence, whatever it means, we know now that the late Senator Abayomi's death was less than ordinary." The female one said, a razor sharp smile playing on her lips.

The male parted his lips to speak, shifting slightly and that was when Joshua reached again to tap and the screen went blank.

Grace giggled. "I was watching that."

She looked up at Joshua and regretted it, flinching back at the cold look on his features. His lips were pursed tightly and his eyes narrowed at her. Grace bit her lip and hoped he thought she was merely mocking him and not that she orchestrated this disaster.

The limo gave a sudden lurch that told Grace that the driver had taken the turn that would lead down to the main gates, when the car paused for a few moments then resumed its normal speech, she assumed that they were well out of the university already.

"You wanted the truth?" Joshua said suddenly, the cold look was gone, in place was a self satifsied smile. "Well you are going to get it."

Grace's heart thudded beneath the white chiffon blouse she wore and she tried to hold Joshua's gaze, praying that his version of the truth wasn't what she thought it was.

"It just had to take a scandal for me to get it, didn't it?" She forced herself to scoff, even as she rolled her palms into fists.

"I thought you'd be excited, grateful, or is there something that scares you, Grace?" He said, murmuring the words softly.

"I guess you learn to love the darkness after living in it for so long." There was a touch of wistfulness in her voice as she spoke, letting herself lean back on the soft leather seats.

"We caught the orchestrators," He deadpanned. Once again, Grace's heart rose in a new beat and her breathing suddenly became hollow.

Come on, breathe, she told herself as Joshua crossed one leg over the other, there was no smile on his face, there was only a curiosity that made her heart sink as he stared at her.

"Normally, I'd leave it to someone else to break the news to you, but we're trying a different new approach, we want your trust and it should be earned." He said, pausing for a beat too long that Grace was so sure he could hear the thudding of her chest. "The ARTEMIS Project."

"Ever heard of them?"

It took a moment for his words to sink and when they did, she deflated so quickly that he narrowed his eyes, then she perked up again, patting her chest but making no move to justify her reaction, it would only make her sound even more guilty. Joshua Phillips already suspected her, she just had to be careful not to give him more reasons.

"Never, tell me, how many copycats of The ORION Project run around campus?" Grace asked swiftly, ignoring the look he shot her. She was genuinely curious, there were right about ten similar 'cults' with the same name as ORION, crumbling all the university's efforts on destorying student unionism. There was The MEDUSA Society, The ZEUS Project, The APHRODITE Project too, although the latter was just merely a group of slay queens.

"Many, we stopped counting after we discovered they could be used as a cover for us. But ARTEMIS is a big deal, it was formed alongside us as a sister project."

Grace glanced down at the backpack in her laps, thinking that now would be a good time to record their conversation. But there was no getting the phone out without Joshua noticing.

"When was The ORION Project formed?"

"1959, one year before ARTEMIS." He told her. "We split from them over a few. . . differences."

The way he hesitated made Grace think that it was more than a few differences, especially now if he thought it was ARTEMIS who caused the scandal.

"Now they've taken their first bite, actually, second — they first attacked with the breach, now this." He spoke nonchalantly as if Remilekun Phillips wasn't basically a murder suspect now, it was a wonder that the police weren't looking into it yet, then again, it really wasn't, the law always played for the most powerful and Remilekun Phillips was almost the law.

Grace paused, remembering the brief blackout at the Dome, already she was thinking, if ARTEMIS were big enough to rattle Remilekun Phillips then wasn't it best she and Kendrick found way to ally with them. There was only so much the both of them could do without any help. What they had done was reckless and they were lucky ORION wasn't prying eyes of suspicion at them.

"They seem like a bunch of cowards, hiding in the shadows and striking from there." Grace said, she found herself feeling pleased when Joshua lit up with a smile. Then she recoiled, thinking how easy it was to covet his approval.

"They are, but they aren't exactly hiding in the shadows, we know their gang leader." said Joshua. He brushed away an invisible speck of dust on his lapel and smirked at whatever he was thinking.

When he raised his head, there was mischief in his eyes.

"Toluwanimi Kingston, ARTEMIS boss and thorn in our side."

Grace forced a gasp too soon, a gasp too hollow to be real.

***

"Time up!"

The lecturer in question could have blown a damn whistle and it wouldn't make a difference, his boom of a voice was already a whistle and as he beckoned the head of class forward, Kendrick bent his head to scrawl his name and matriculation number on the paper in front of him. The HOC moved down the rows to collect the test papers and Kendrick bit on the tip of his pen.

Just a matter of months in Lagos State University and he was used to almost anything, on his first day he had been sent back home because he was wearing crocs, it hadn't even mattered that he was a new transfer student. He was used to the cancelled classes, used to the impromptu arrival of popular brands that rolled in with their fancy trucks and stages to advertise their products and draw the attention of students, he was used to LASU students dancing publicly to win a notebook and pen or some other superficial gift.

Hell, he was even used to the surprises that The ORION Project threw his way. But he had never encountered a surprise test and this one he was certainly going to fail.

Kendrick had spent more than half the time searching for Amina in the wide lecture hall, and had even been rebuked harshly by the chubby boy sitting behind him, thinking that Kendrick had been turning his head to copy his work. And then he had spent less than thirty minutes struggling to answer three calculations that should have been easy for him, if only he had dedicated his free time towards reading instead of making ORION pay.

He rubbed a hand down his face and sighed, watching the HOC brushed past him, snatching up his half empty paper to add to her growing pile. She shot him a coy smile and Kendrick couldn't help the irritation that stabbed through him. Two months and he still wasn't exempted from the flirtatious looks.

His love life was a mess, and he didn't want to think about how he might have feelings for Grace. It had taken two nights ago for him to realize it, his feelings for Grace wasn't like whatever wild crush he'd had on Amina, this was slow and had probably been brewing for a while. He liked how Grace listened to him, he liked that she was the smartest person he knew, she wasn't perfect and he wasn't either.

He just liked her, it was simple, it was also fucking complicated. He had wanted to kiss her two nights ago when she had smiled and joked but he wasn't stupid to act on it, he wasn't ready for a relationship and Grace had her own shit to sort out.

Talk about the worst time to fall in love.

He slid his phone out of his pocket as the lecturer muttered a farewell and marched out of the hall, HOC trailing after him.

There was no new text from her, he had sent her one right before the test; surprise test, fuck, wish me luck?

It was either she hadn't seen it yet or something had happened that was keeping her from replying. They had texted all morning and he knew she was a speed texter, he hated that his mind automatically went to something bad.

And there was also the matter of Amina missing class. ORION was up to something, and for the first time since Kendrick had clicked on that 'tweet' icon, he felt fear course through him.

So he stood, nodding a greeting to the guys that called his name in greeting. He hadn't had the time to make friends either, but he had spoken to a few of them in passing, there was a Japanese Nigerian girl in his class and she had made several attempts to get him to hang out with her, but he hadn't taken her on her offer.

There was just too much at stake.

Kendrick headed out and in a matter of seven minutes, he was crossing the street over to the Faculty of Education. He didn't even know where to look, just that he had to find her.

He was striding into the main building when someone called his name. He paused and looked ahead in time to see Grace's brother, heading towards him with the most furious look Kendrick had ever seen on anybody, Tope was right behind him and there was a dishevelled look to her.

She looked like she had run her hands through her bob weave on several times and Sanmi was the exact opposite, there was cold fury in his eyes. Kendrick halted in his steps, torn between running and facing that fury.

Sanmi stopped right in front of Kendrick, uncaring that they were standing right in front of the door and blocking others from entry.

"You better get ready to splurge money, you bastard." Sanmi spat, one glance at his clenched fists told Kendrick that he was holding back.

Kendrick carefully took a step to the right and swallowed.

"Where's Grace?" He asked, although he had a pretty good guess, when Sanmi remained silent, fuming, he added, "Where is she, Tope?"

"She's not here, Kendrick " Tope said slowly, there was guilt in her eyes and as realization dawned on Kendrick, he swore under his breath, knowing that Tope was somehow involved in everything, whatever he knew, it was little compared to what he knew.

Now there was just the matter of who she worked with.

"Joshua fucking Phillips is carting her off to Abuja as we speak, they're going to use her to distract Remilekun's scandal, and they'll do it to draw her father out." Sanmi finally said, running a hand through hair that flopped down to his face, they were standing at the corner of the hallway and it was dark enough but Kendrick thought he saw tears glimmer in the older boy's eyes. "I've called him to warn him, but they've taken my sister and brother too."

His voice broke off, Kendrick flinched at the desperation in it.

"They've taken them as bait, a trap." He finished. "We're going after them. Now."

***

Grace had never been to an airport, had never had cause to visit one but when Joshua forced her out and began to lead her into the crowded space of Murtala Muhammad Airport, she found that every bit of anxiety was pouring back into her chest.

The airport was like a whole new environment, as if nothing else existed outside it, it was like a portal into a new world and she was going into it blindfolded. There was a static in the atmosphere that was almost contagious but it did nothing to soothe her, she stumbled for a second and would have tripped and bruised her knees on the asphalt if Joshua hadn't reached for her in that moment.

Grace shot on glance at the receding Limo, wishing she had never let herself be led out of it. She glanced up at the afternoon sun and bit back a whimper as Joshua's hand tightened on her arm.

"We have a terminal for the private jet, just a little walk and we'll be there." Joshua told her.

"Where are you taking me?"

He looked at her and smiled thinly. Malice glittered in his eyes, and unwittingly, Grace glanced around ready to scream for help if it came to it.

"We're going to Abuja, darling, and then you'll answer how long you've known the truth about your real heritage."

Grace did stumble again but this time, Joshua let her fall and at the last moment, she put her hands forward to brace for the fall.

He sneered down at her and shook his head.

"God, you people don't know how to keep a secret. I saw the footage, Grace, you bawling your eyes out after Kendrick tells you something and then running away from Sanmi who I presume also knows the truth."

He made a clucking sound with his tongue. "You make it too easy to know, I'll admit it was a hunch at first but God, watching you fake your surprise when I mentioned Toluwanimi Kingston was almost too funny to watch."

"You idiot girl, that name should have meant nothing to you when I mentioned it, unless you had heard it before."

"Now, get up." He snapped, Grace bent her head, determined not to let him see the fear in her eyes.

But he had other tricks up his sleeve, all she could think of was that at least he didn't know, he didn't know it was Kendrick that had caused the mess he was trying to fix, he didn't know what she was capable of.

"Get up, the rest of your family are waiting. It's a glorious day for family reunions."

***

Damn, we do love Joshua's cunning-ness, or is it just me?

And Kendrick's grades are suffering, do we see carry overs in his future? Somebody needs a lesson is balancing being a hero with normal life.

The next chapter will be out next week as usual, but maybe you can expect a double update, because The ORION Project clocks one year on the 27th! Expect a grand speech next week, see y'all!