Joshua Phillips had three things on his to-do list that sunny morning. One, get rid of Kendrick Yong permanently, two, get breakfast and three, bump into Grace Ilori. The easiest task was one and three, as of now, food was not a priority but the other two were, if he let two dangerous people run wild around campus without keeping them in check then ORION would have a crisis on it's hands.

And while Joshua was certain Kendrick Yong knew more than he should about ORION, he still didn't know enough. It was still easy to get rid of him now while he still thought ORION was just a cult of bored rich kids even though it was so much more than that. Grace Ilori would be harder to trick. He took a sip of the beverage in the Styrofoam cup in his hands and shrugged.

Joshua rounded up the corner and stepped into the sidewalk and right into Grace, he let a little of the coffee in his hand spill into her clothes and watched with satisfaction as she jumped back.
He feigned a look of innocence as fury crept into her features, she'd be more pretty if she didn't wear a frown on her face always. He took a moment to observe her as she fumed, she had long dark hair that was braided into cornrows; she obviously didn't care much about her appearances and she wore an Adidas tracksuit that he was sure was a fake brand. Joshua wrinkled his nose in distaste at the sight.

A worn out tennis bag was slung over her shoulder, and for a moment, Joshua narrowed his gaze, the student he sent to spy on her had informed him just minutes ago about her game with Kendrick Yong. He wondered what they had spoken about, he wondered if they knew each other.

"Watch where you're going, mutt." Grace snapped, obviously thinking he wouldn't know the meaning of 'mutt'. There were three types of people in the university, the ones who knew Joshua and loved him, the ones who knew Joshua and envied him and the rare  ones who hated him. Grace clearly hated him and Joshua wondered if she had always hated him or if Kendrick Yong had let something slip about him.

Maybe I've underestimated this boy, Joshua mused quietly. He might have to keep Kendrick Yong closer than he wanted, the last time something like this had happened he had quickly gotten rid of that person that had posed as a threat to ORION but he couldn't simply get rid of Kendrick, not when he had a powerful and influential father, someone who wouldn't let the death of his only child lie unsolved. There was only one way to deal with Kendrick was to invite him but the thought alone made him grit his teeth in anger, Kendrick was really forcing his hand. Joshua hated losing control, more than anything else.

He pushed out thoughts of Yong from his head and focused on the seething girl before him.

"I assure you, I'm very much human, not a mutt." He said, letting himself smile. Grace scoffed but he saw her eyes lower with embarrassment. She made to brush past him but he stepped onto her path, almost touching his chest to hers. She took a hurried step back and almost slammed into a law student behind her.

The girl shot Grace a look of disdain before smiling nervously at Joshua as she walked past.

"I'm sorry, let me make it up to you." Joshua said.

"I don't need anything from you," She snapped. If Joshua had actually cared, he might have been offended. "Now, step out of my way."

"I said sorry, Grace." He let false irritation seep into his tone and almost smiled at the way her eyes widened in surprise.

"How do you know my name?" She said, unlike other people, she wasn't impressed or curious. Instead she looked suspicious.

"I know you like to read." He said with a nonchalant shrug. This time, she looked afraid and this time, Joshua let his smile show. Grace must have gotten the photograph, his smile was that of pity. There was so much she did not know, so much that made her important, and in the wrong hands, dangerous.

"Are you stalking me?" She asked, voice wobbling in anger.

Joshua raised his free hand in surrender. "No, no, not at all. Your sister told me that."

Her look of surprise returned. "How do you know Ewa?"

"We've been friends a while, she talks about you a lot." What Joshua said was true, he was friends with Ewatomi, even before he knew about Grace, it was then Ewatomi had stopped being a friend and had started becoming a means to an end.

"Who I am, what I do, is none of your business. Stay away from me, I don't need people like you meddling in my life." She said in a low tone, but her confidence slipped and he saw some emotion flash in her eyes. "Stay away from my sister too, don't think I don't know who you are and what people like you do."

It was Joshua's turn to be surprised, he hadn't expected such hostility from her. It was a lesson to him, to watch his back, he was slowly discovering that not everyone was his blind follower.

"I'm offended and I'm almost curious to see what you do to people who actually offend you," He replied. "Here I was thinking of offering you a spot in our elusive bookclub, Ewa says you read a lot. She has been worried about you."

Grace laughed harshly. "You bumped into me, you don't know me except for what you know from my sister and now you're offering your help. I'm beginning to think you deliberately spilled coffee into my shirt."

"Keep your fucking invitation to yourself, I don't need anything from The ORION Project," She spat. "And keep your distance, mutt."

This time when she brushed past him, almost pushing Joshua into a hedge of flowers, he didn't stop her. Instead he watched her walk briskly, she walked almost awkwardly, one foot barely ahead before taking the next foot forward. Grace Ilori was an enigma.

Joshua Phillips smiled, he loved puzzles. Challenge accepted, Grace, Joshua mused, I will have you, with or without your permission.

***

Grace walked briskly, well aware that Joshua Phillips' gaze was boring a hole into her back. Something about him had always left her suspicious, but now she had good reason to hate him, and good reason to be suspicion. She had been sure Joshua had been goading her, testing her and now her suspicions were reasonable, especially after seeing the watch on his wrist or more specifically, the symbol on the face of the watch -- a cupid. She had seen that same symbol somewhere else, on the calendar in Dr. Ireti's office.

One of the girls in that strange picture, the one that looked like Grace, she had a watch exactly like Joshua's. Something fishy was going on, and a chill ran down her spine at the thought. And what was with Joshua claiming Ewa was his friend and why was he trying to worm his way into her life?

On a normal day, someone like Joshua Phillips would never give a glance or the time of the day. He was a typical rich Nigerian child, son of the vice president of Nigerian and his mother was the third richest woman in Africa, Joshua was the last born of five children. He had been spoilt from the moment he was born, he had probably never gone hungry for a day.

Despite how he wormed his way into the student body, seemingly appearing friendly and the same time aloof, the whole university still knew who his friends were; Amina Khalid; daughter of an oil mogul, Firepemi Kingston; son of a popular politician, captain of the university's football team and it was rumoured that he was the son of a lecturer on campus. For heck sake, his girlfriend was the lovechild of a British supermodel and the Nigerian president, and she didn't even school in Nigeria.

People like Joshua played with people like a cat would do to mice and In spite of all his good deeds, there were rumours of rape that tainted his reputation. It had been in his first year of studying when the rumours arose, it had been swept under the rug swiftly but it ran around school like an old legend. Of course, his fangirls refused to believe it, even speaking of it was forbidden.

And now, Grace was in his sight. She'd be damned if she let him toy with her.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, distracting her and Grace paused on the sidewalk to answer. It was Tope.

"Hey, what's up?" Grace answered distractedly, she risked a glance backwards and saw that Joshua was gone, her body slacked in relief.

"Where the fuck are you?" Tope asked, her voice rushed and frantic, she was barely getting one word out before rushing to the next. It was unusual for Tope to be afraid of something, she was usually so calm and collected.

Perhaps Grace would have cared more if she wasn't lost in her own thoughts. "Jesus, calm down, babe. I'm on my way to the department, I'm coming from the tennis court and you'll never guess who ran into me."

She winced and drew the phone from her ear as Tope screamed something into it. She was still recovering from an ear infection, she'd be damned if she let Tope ruin her ears before they fully healed.

"What the hell is your problem this morning, Tope? The lecture is scheduled for 2pm, calm down, there's no way we'll be late." Grace snapped.

"Look, Grace," Tope said, much calmer but Grace could still hear the undertones of fear in her voice and she began to worry too, there was very little that could upset Tope and one of this things was Grace. Grace was sure she hadn't said anything to upset Tope in the past week. "There's a big problem, Dr. Ireti's office was broken into this morning."

"What?" Grace exclaimed rather loudly, earning her concerned glances from passersby. "You mean his office was robbed, who the hell would rob an office, Dr. Ireti doesn't keep anything of value in there."

"It doesn't matter why, the student security have been involved. Grace, they think you did it." Tope said.

It took a moment for Grace to process Tope's words and when it did, she almost dropped her battered android to the ground. Cold fear slithered down her spine.

"That's impossible." Grace spluttered. "I mean, I was at his office this morning, but I didn't break in, you can ask --" She paused, Tope didn't know Kendrick and even if Kendrick could vouch for her, where the hell would she find him? She didn't even have his phone number. Only Kendrick could reach her, and only when he wanted to return her borrowed racket. "You have to believe me, Tope and how the hell did they reach that conclusion?"

"Your student ID card was found on the floor of his office, Grace, you have to get here quick." Tope said and the urgency was back in her tone, slurring her words.

Somehow, in the span of minutes, her life had managed to collapse. If she was found guilty by the school, it wouldn't matter that she might have been framed, she would be rusticated and disgraced. Her family might disown her. Her life would be over.

"Grace, can you hear me?" Tope was still shouting over the speaker but Grace couldn't hear anything over the roaring in her ears and in the pressure in her chest. She didn't even try to fight the incoming panic attack.

She wasn't sure who screamed, but she swayed and fell into the shrubs of flowers on the sidewalk. Her head hit hard on the concrete and she lost all consciousness.

***

1st of August, 1992.

"The tribunal has decided to adjourn this meeting till the 20th of August." The chairman announced and Kingston slouched in partial relief, this adjournment would buy him time, time to find a way out of this disaster.

The makeshift courtroom was scanty, only the witnesses sat on the chairs and the tribunal sat on the chairs positioned on the dais. Among them all, only Mika was on his side, even though she was the last person he wanted to see. The rest of them, Including the tribunal were bribed by ORION to send him to his doom.

A small crowd of students loitered outside the lecture hall and raised their voices suddenly as Kingston brushed past them to escape the hall, he felt their eyes on him, waiting for him to break down, to cry at his fate, anything at all to fuel their sick glee. He refused to show any emotion, he would fight ORION to the end.

"Tolu! Wait," He heard Mika's voice above the crowd, he remembered he had once told her she had a voice like a booming speaker. She had smiled and flicked his nose.

He wasn't sure why he halted his steps but he did, waiting for to catch up with him. Mika touched a hand to his shoulder, he shrugged off and turned to face her.

"Get away from me," He said, voice low.

"You can't fight them forever, Tolu, don't give up your life and education because you want to be stubborn. You think you have nothing left to lose but ORION always finds something to take." She snapped, equally furious. If he thought she had followed him to beg, he was wrong.

Some days ago, He had been framed, accused of Examination malpractice. He had been in the lecture hall, taking a test when an invigilator had stopped at his seat and pulled a rough paper containing all the answers to the test from under his own answer script. Kingston could have sworn he hadn't put it there but somehow someone had slipped it in when he took a bathroom break a few minutes earlier. The punishment for that was rustication, and now he was getting a sham trial and being disgraced for a crime he had committed.

All because he had said no to ORION.

"Fuck off, Mika. I don't need you or your advice." He snapped, fury leaking from his voice. "This is all your fault, if you had stayed away from them like I told you to, then maybe I wouldn't be facing this!'

Hurt flashed in her eyes but she didn't back down. He used to admire that trait, now he hated it.

"You don't say no to ORION, I have said this a hundred times. You've wanted to be a medical doctor since you were seven, now you're in four hundred level, only a few more years and you're done, if you don't say yes to them, ORION will fuck up your life." Mika said firmly.

He was well aware they were getting stares now, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"I'm not going to join a dangerous cult that kills and maims, a cult that basically has this damn country in it's hands and uses it for violence, not even for my education." He whispered harshly.

Mika looked resigned, and she touched a scarred hand to her temple and Kingston was reminded how dangerous ORION were, the scars Mika bore were because of them. She was like a dog in a leash.

"They have your sister, they will use her to get to you." Mika pleaded. For the first time Kingston hesitated, to what extent would ORION go to persuade him. Would they torture his sister to get to him? "And don't think of going to your parents, Tolu, they might be wealthy but they are no match for ORION."

"You should listen to her," A familiar smug voice sung from behind him. Kingston turned slowly and almost slammed into Remilekun Phillips. The said boy had his muscled arms toned from basketball crossed over his chest, two other boys by his side.

He was twice the size of Kingston's lanky frame, twice as dark and a million times as wicked. His full lips were twisted into a smirk.

"You again," Kingston snarled. "Are you here to pay the fucking tribunal?"

"I don't need to pay the tribunal, it's a matter of power. All I had to do was ask, nicely." Remilekun said, he winked at Mika and it took everything in Kingston not to slam his fists in Remilekun's cocky face.

"Leave him to me, I'm trying to make him see reason." Mika cut in, she glared at him unabashedly but Remi still saw the fear in her face, it was still wounded from the beating he last gave her.

"My answer isn't going to change, I suggest you fuck off and wander back into your cave." Kingston sneered. He balled his hands into fists and kept them firmly at his side, stance tense and awaiting confrontation.

Remilekun's smirk did not waver. It widened.

"Oh trust me, it will change. If you think this is hell," Remilekun waved a hand around the corridor. "You are gravely mistaken, this is only a demo."

Kingston growled low and he would have charged forward if Mika did not place a hand in his chest, placing herself as a buffer before the two boys.

"You will say yes, Tolu, and I will enjoy drawing the word from your mouth." Remilekun said. He took a step back and whirled around, striding away. His burly boys followed after him.

"You need to stop provoking him, you have no idea what he is like." Mika warned him, pushing at his chest, surprised, Kingston stumbled back. "For every no you say, he takes it out on me." She pulled back her right sleeve and Kingston drew in a sharp breath, her arm was lined with fresh knife wounds.

"Decide, and see if your morals are worth sacrificing your loved ones over." Mika said and He wished she were shouting at him. She brushed past him and strode away.

Kingston felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Still, he meant what he said, he would fight them to the end, even though he wouldn't win.