“What is she doing here?”

Amina waved her fingers in a lazy salute. Grace Kingston didn’t look the least bit appeased, her pissed off expression grew and she clenched her jaw so tight that Amina could hear her teeth grinding. Granted, Grace had plenty reasons to despise Amina but still, Amina thought the other girl was being a tad too angry. Or maybe Amina was used to working frequently with her enemies and get over their betrayals. She worked with Joshua Phillips for heck’s sake, if she took into consideration all the things Joshua had done to sabotage her while they’d trained to join Orion then she might have murdered him a long while ago. She’d sucked up her feelings of anger and became his second in command.

All things considered, Grace needed to get over herself. So Amina wound down the rest of the car window and told her the same thing.

“Excuse me?” Grace hissed, she looked even more livid than before, a furious pulse beat above her left eyebrow. “You almost ruined my life.”

Amina sighed, she cast Tope a warning look, the both of them might have settled on a shaky truce but Amina wasn’t past being incredibly petty when it was necessary, for Grace’s sake, she had been willing to be cordial and polite but she wouldn’t if she was insulted.

Tope was wise to heed to the warning, she placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s an Artemis thing.”

Grace rolled her eyes and last minute caught the thin strap of her bag from sliding down her shoulder. “I don’t trust her.”

“Nobody asked you to, darling,” Amina quipped, she ignored the gasp of outrage. “I blame Joshua for letting you think you’re as important as you think you are. You are worth nothing to me, Kingston and my business is with Adebiyi.”

“Khalid!” Tope snapped and Amina shrugged unapologetically. To Grace she said, “I just need to take care of some business Artemis has with Orion.”

Grace shrugged like she didn’t care. Amina saw that she very much did, she wondered if Grace felt betrayed, if she wished her best friend would pick a side or maybe she didn’t because she clearly didn’t know how important Tope was to Artemis, how long she’d been a member. “Be careful.” She said grudgingly. Tope gave her a one armed hug and when they broke apart, Grace sent one final glare at Amina, she looked as if she was squinting, Amina wanted to laugh but then she was a little impatient to get on the road. She’d been waiting for Tope for more than an hour since she’d been in class.

When Grace was gone, Tope walked around to enter the front seat and wordlessly connected her iPhone to the car speakers, a second later, Fireboy was playing. Amina started the car and drove away from the Faculty of Education.

“You’re not going to chastise me for snapping at your friend?” Amina asked. Tope ceased her humming.

“I don’t care about your little exchange with Grace and can you blame her?” Tope answered.

“The whole ‘you ruined my life’ spiel comes off as dramatic.” Amina wanted to roll her eyes but she dutifully kept her eyes on the road.

Tope’s voice was cold when she spoke. “The Orion Project singlehandedly turned her life upside down, revealed that she was adopted and thrust her into a world she had no business being in. Her father bled to death in her arms. You might not have been involved in everything that happened but you’re far from innocent and if she wants to rant about you ruined her life then she has the right to.”

Amina’s grip on the steering tightened. This was particularly what she hated to think about when it came to working for Orion, Grace wasn’t the first person to lose their family because of Orion and she wouldn’t be the last. Amina was torn between a strange feeling of pity and anger because she’d had no choice either. All she did was follow orders.

“Don’t act like you’ve never ruined lives in Artemis’s name.” Was all she could retort.

Tope sighed, leaning back in her seat. The car gave a slight jolt as it climbed over a speed bump and she sat up again.

“And it’s why I’m not mad at any of you, not Joshua and not you. And at the same time, Grace gets to be mad if she wants.”

Amina didn’t know what to say to that so she honked unnecessarily loud when a University bus drove in front of her from a u-turn.

“She’s still not picking my calls,” Tope broke what would have become a very awkward silence and Amina was secretly grateful that the topic was strictly back to murder business. The both of them were supposed to meet Shalewa today, Tope had been trying to track the girl down since she found out about Jamal’s murder; the chances were if anyone could tell them who Jamal was possibly meeting then it would be Shalewa seeing that she’d been his second in command. Amina highly doubted it since no such information had been revealed to the police yet – she had inside men in the force who would have directly reported her. A few days ago, however, Tope finally got in touch with Shalewa and they’d arranged for a meeting on campus today – a meeting that should have been well over if Shalewa hadn’t ghosted her and now, she wasn’t picking up calls.

Tope was certain that something had happened and Amina didn’t want to tell her that she was probably worrying too much.

“You think I’m overreacting, don’t you?” Tope asked.

Amina sighed, “Yes. Luckily for you, Victoria is desperate for leads of any kind that she was too happy to help track down Shalewa’s phone.”

“We’re dealing with a serial killer, Amina,” Tope said as if Amina had miraculously forgotten that fact. “If Shalewa knew something…”

“But she doesn’t,” Amina snapped. “Check that compartment in front of you, there’s a file that details Shalewa’s very short interview with the police, she didn’t know anything.”

Tope obeyed, she jerked the compartment open and picked up the file. Less than a minute later, she closed it.

“She might know our mystery lady though.” Tope insisted. Another pending mystery on their list; the picture of the girl they’d found on Victor’s phone was yet to be identified. It hadn’t yielded one result on Google – which had been Victoria’s suggestion. Amina found it annoying that The Orion Project constituted of over three hundred university students from the Lagos State University and none of them could identify this girl.

“At least she’ll be good for one thing.” Amina said curtly.

Less than an hour later, they were right outside the gates of Shalewa’s house. According to the brief background check Amina had done on Shalewa, she knew that the girl was nothing like Jamal Popola, she was an orphan without the Grace Kingston fortune of having dead parents leave her an inheritance but yet she lived in a nice, gated neighborhood. Medusa must have paid her really well, if Amina wasn’t already rich, she might have quit working for Orion and joined Medusa.

Tope whistled. “Nice neighborhood.”

Amina scowled. “Second in command must pay well, except you’re Orion then you don’t get paid.”

Tope rolled her eyes. “Shut up, bitch. We get free fancy gadgets and nepotism the rest of our lives.”

“True, I can’t complain, nepotism babies forever.” Amina said easily.

The both of them stepped out of the car and walked to the red gate, Tope banged a fist on the metal twice. They waited two minutes.

“Do you think she lives here alone?” Tope asked. Amina didn’t answer, impatient from standing in the scorching afternoon, she’d only been under it for less than five minutes but beads of sweat formed in the back of her neck and slowly trickled into the back of her wine pullover.

She walked to the smaller gate and pushed it, to her surprise, it creaked and opened.

“She’s definitely home or her neighbors are, come on, let’s go.” Amina said, stepped into the compound.

“This is definitely breaking and entering.” She heard Tope mutter behind her.

Amina laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. Shalewa’s house was a bungalow and there was a bricked well in front, under a high palm tree. There were washed clothes hanging on a clothing line. Amina frowned, something wasn’t right.

She turned to tell Tope the same thing and saw that she’d already had a gun in her hand. Amina might fallen a little in love right there.

“Marry me, will you?” Amina gushed. She’d known Tope for a long time but they’d been on opposite sides for years. But the girl was smarter than Amina had ever imagined and they seemed to work so well together. Or maybe Amina was finally glad to be able to relate to somebody like her, Tope was Artemis’s version of Amina.

Tope grinned. “I have a boyfriend.”

Amina didn’t miss a beat, “I’ll have a word with him.” Tope smirked and gestured with her gun. Amina’s mind returned to the present, right, they were about to find a dead body. She marched up the short steps to the front door. She didn’t bother to knock.

The front door was open too and at this point, Amina already knew what she was going to find when she stepped past the threshold, still the sight surprised her. The curtains were drawn close, blocking light and putrid smell of blood and something else almost caused Amina to gag.

She opened the door wider, allowing Tope and sunlight to enter. She spotted a girl lying in a pool of dried blood on a now brown stained rug.

“Jesus,” Tope breathed out. Amina stood, saying nothing. She had a sudden flashback to escaping houses after she killed some important person Orion had sent her after. She never stayed long enough to see their blood dry; she’d always left that duty to some other unknown person who would no doubt end up scarred for the rest of their lives.

“She’s been dead for days.” Amina heard herself say distantly.

“Stay here, I’m going to see if there was another way into the house.” Tope was gone before Amina could ask why. It was clear Shalewa’s murderer had come in and leave through the front door, it was presumptuous but Amina had the distinct feeling that the same person who had murdered Ahmad, Victor and recently Jamal had decided to add Shalewa’s name to the list but not for the reasons the boys were dead. Shalewa must have known something.

Amina forced herself to take a step, then another. She walked to the curtains and drew them open and then regretted it, Shalewa’s eyes were open in death and lips parted slightly as if in permanent shock. Shock that she’d known her murderer?

She shook her head; she wasn’t Ire with his questions and theories. She didn’t need theories, what she needed was answers and she went in search for them. There was laptop on the coffee table but on a closer inspection, she saw that it had been smashed and that the screen was broken into shards. The battery was gone too.

Remembering that Victoria had been able to track Shalewa’s house through her phone number, Amina deduced that the phone must be in better condition than the laptop. Amina took out her phone and sent a text to Orion’s Chief of Security at the Dome; she needed him to leave an anonymous tip to the police. In Orion’s line of work, there were often dead bodies or uncovered crime and since Orion could mete out justice, they often left anonymous tips to the police to oversee. Amina took a picture of the dead body and attached it to the message.

Then she dialed Shalewa’s phone number. A loud ringing broke the still silence immediately and she followed the sound to the adjoining kitchen where it had been left on the counter. She picked it up and unlocked it, surprised that the device wasn’t passworded. She wondered why the laptop had been destroyed and the phone left unscathed.  A quick search didn’t answer any of her growing questions, the texts between Tope and Shalewa were there and a few exchanges between Shalewa and Jamal – the latest dated to a few days before Jamal was murdered.

The last texts were the both of them planning to throw a party for Medusa’s anniversary, in a series of texts, Amina saw how lazy and entitled Jamal was, he made outrageous requests – in one, he asked Shalewa to buy him a box of condoms. Amina cringed as she read them, if Joshua asked her something like that, she might kill him. It was clear to Amina that Shalewa was nothing more than Jamal’s glorified assistant, a sorry excuse for an equal. The very last one however was Jamal telling Shalewa in explicit detail how he was about to get the best sex of his life. That was a few hours before he died.

He had indeed been meeting a girl. Amina set the phone back down on the counter to massage her forehead. More questions, no answers.

“Where are you Khalid?” Tope’s voice came from the living room.

“I’m coming, I found her phone.” Amina said. She walked back to the room, Tope’s gun was gone and she was crouched before Shalewa’s body, the cockroaches scurried away at the movement.

Tope must have returned to the car because she was now wearing disposable gloves, Amina kept a packet of them in her car because laboratory work in school tended to involve wearing them. Carefully, Tope turned over the girl so she was facing up.

“Her throat was slit, she bled to death.” She announced, pointing at the deep cut at the dead girl’s throat.

“That is unlike our killer,” Amina said bitterly.

“We don’t even know if they did this. For all we know, some Medusa enemy we don’t know of went after her since they couldn’t get to Jamal first.” Tope said gingerly.

Amina didn’t say anything.

“We should call the police.” Tope suggested.

Amina raised her phone. “I already spoke to someone who will do that. I’m going to search through the house before they get here and see if there’s anything that could help us.”

“You seem distant,” Tope noted when they were back on the road, driving away from Shalewa’s place like guilty getaway drivers.

Amina’s answer was to honk angrily at the scanty highway.

“Because I know how to kill people, Rebekah, I don’t know how to catch a murderer.” The admittance caused a feeling of shame to burn in her chest. “If I could just think like they do.” Amina mused bitterly.

“It’s a lot more personal than what we do. But in the movies, serial killers always make a mistake, a slip up. Maybe killing Shalewa is one; they didn’t do it like the others which means that she wasn’t a planned target. They killed her because they must have known we were coming and this means we’re close to finding something.” Tope said, out of the corner of Amina’s eyes, she saw the other girl run a hand down her seat belt distractedly. She wasn’t the only one distracted about their lack of progress. “All we have to do it wait and follow whatever lead we have.”

“I hate waiting.” Amina hissed.

“Liar, how long have you been waiting to call Grace dramatic?” Tope mocked.

A slight smile curved her lips. “A long time.” She answered. Tope’s shoulders shook with silent laughter.

“You’ll be fine.” Tope said.

Then why did it feel like she was losing control? She didn’t say this though, she only honked harder.

*****

Joshua was taking all the news a little calmer than Amina expected. His flight arrived in Lagos less than an hour ago so he might be too tired to be angry, his bloodshot eyes – illuminated by the bright lights in the computer room -- said enough about his sleep in the past two days. Knowing Joshua, he’d probably stayed up awake in his family house, thinking of how the Dome would burn to the ground in absence, maybe it was why he didn’t look angry, he’d expected nothing else.

“Show me the picture.” He said quietly. Amina blinked, she’d just gone into gory details about Shalewa’s murder which was the country’s number one breaking news for the day. The media were reporting the murder as a cause of cultism in the university, of course they’d already identified Shalewa as a student of LASU and friends with Jamal Popola.

“Why do you want to see the dead body?” She asked. “Forensic is already on it and I expect we’ll get results on the autopsy before evening.”

The first hint of that Phillips sass shone through, he rolled his eyes hard that Amina caught a glimpse of the whites of them. “No, the topless girl.”

“Oh,” She echoed. Joshua didn’t look at her, he was busy on the computer in front of him, catching up on updates he’d missed. She opened the Hunter app on her tablet computer and brought up the picture for him to see. It had been her suggestion to try out Hunter’s new post feature by putting up the picture of the mystery girl for every of the app’s users to see.

She handed Joshua the tablet and he stared at the cropped picture for a long while, even exhausted it was still hard to get a read on his expressions. He’d walked into the Dome this morning with that look and it made Amina wonder if his trip had gone that badly, she knew for a fact that Joshua didn’t really get along with his family but usually, he was able to handle them.

She didn’t realize that she was staring intently at his face until his eyes met hers and he cleared his throat. She forced a smirk on her face and he hissed. Good, he thought she’d been trying to make him uncomfortable. She would rather see another dead body than let Joshua Phillips think she was concerned about him. As far as he knew, she hated him and she did a little bit but she’d worked with him for years to realize that try as much as he might to hide it, he was still very much human.

“I know her.” He said suddenly. It took a slow second for Amina to realize what he was talking about.

“You do?” She sounded disbelieving. She wanted to laugh, she’d been so worried about finding the identity of this girl and trying to keep it a secret from him these past few days that she’d forgotten that Joshua Phillips had the ability to be useful even when he was far away.

He grimaced. “Yes.”

“Who is she?” Amina asked excitedly. Joshua made a face.

“I don’t know her name but I know who does.” He began, Amina’s excitement was gone as quickly as it came, leaving disappointment, never mind Joshua Phillips was useless – “She is a friend of Ewatomi Ilori.”

“Ilori? The same Iloris that we know, like Grace Ilori turned Kingston?” Amina asked. How did the Iloris always find themselves in the middle of one conspiracy or the other?

“How do you know Ewatomi Ilori’s friends?” Amina asked suspiciously.

Joshua sighed wearily, “Because we used to date.”

Realization dawned on Amina, she was thinking of the time where she’d publicly threatened Grace Il—Kingston as her first Orion meeting, she’d mentioned details about Ewatomi that was supposed to let Grace know that Orion knew everything about her family but those details had been very personal, so much that Amina felt bad exposing things that Ewatomi must have wanted forever hidden, she hadn’t even questioned how Joshua knew those things, she thought he must have run background checks on the Ilori sister, but no, he’d dated her.

“She told you all those things about herself and you used them against her, against Grace.” Amina said, feeling disgust towards Joshua. Not that she was any better seeing as she’d said those things aloud.

“I did.” Joshua nodded. If he was remorseful, he didn’t show it. Amina wasn’t holding her breath anyways; she knew who Joshua Phillips was.

“On a scale of one to ten, how amicable was the breakup and how willing will she be to help us?”

“Negative zero.”