The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 4

I've been dropping crumbs of clues since the beginning of this story, if you notice the details, you'll find out a lot of secrets ;-)

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Under the glow of the pink club neon lights, it was hard to tell what Joshua Phillips was thinking, his head was cocked to the side in consideration and his lips almost twisted in disdain. The watch on his wrist glittered under the light, silver and diamonds. Kendrick shoved his new discovery into the back of his mind -- Joshua Phillips clearly liked to flaunt his wealth, he liked people looking at him, he was like a pandering peacock or rather the alpha of a wolf pack.

Nina, the girl in the sheer dress had her eyes on Joshua and she seemed to be assessing him predatorily and Kendrick was sure there was no love lost between them despite the fact that they seemed to be an item. Fire looked bored and kept jiggling a bunch of keys in his right hand, he didn't look the slightest bit remorseful, his constant jiggling and the low classical music only seemed to emphasize the tension in the cool room.

However, the other girl -- Amina -- He discovered, was watching him keenly, a smirk tugged at her naturally red lips. She made a subtle motion of winking at him, something told Kendrick that there was nothing flirty about that action, it was purely predatory. Amina appeared like the kind of girl that ate people like him and drank their blood with a grin on her face. Even the way she stood spelt danger, she leaned casually against the bar in the VIP room and toyed with an half empty champagne flute.

It occurred to Kendrick that he was dealing with dangerous people, people who could ruin him with a snap of their finger, again he sneaked a glance at Fire, surprised to find his friend already staring. Something like a warning flashed in Firepemi's eyes.

"You found me," was all Joshua Phillips said. The contemplative look was long gone and now he just looked amused, a smile danced at the edge of his lips. "I wonder why, usually we do the seeking, the pursuing and the asking. This is a first, I'm almost flattered."

Joshua was full on grinning now, Kendrick noticed he had a gap tooth grin, it was almost easy to miss and for someone like Joshua Phillips who hated flaws and craved and crooned perfection it was hard for Kendrick to understand why he didn't have it corrected. He averted his gaze, before he was caught staring.

His bravado was long fading and the weariness was seeping through him.

"I'm sure you are." Kendrick said wryly, forcing amusement into his voice, ORION didn't tolerate weaklings, if these people sensed any weakness in him, they would tear him apart like starving hyenas. "Let's say I was very curious. What exactly is the ORION Project?"

"Here I was, thinking you'd be curious about the death of your best friend? Sad, isn't it?" Amina cut in, they were baiting him now, waiting for him to slip. Kendrick almost revealed his grimace, the mention of Emmanuel's death still slapped.

"I'm more concerned about what he had told me, mere weeks before his death. About the ORION Project." Kendrick lied through straight white teeth. Emmanuel had never let a word slip about ORION, he only knew about the secret organization because he had snooped his best friend's belongings. Kendrick had grown suspicious when Emmanuel began to hide things from him, he had suddenly put passwords on his phone and laptop and returned at odd hours. So one day, he tailed Emmanuel and witnessed his murder.

Kendrick still had nightmares about that night, Emmanuel had walked into his death knowing he was never going to return. Nobody knew Kendrick had seen his best friend's murderer, and he never spoke about it to the authorities, not when he might be risking his own death too. Emmanuel's murderers had left something behind -- A flash drive that contained information on ORION as an organization but nothing on their secrets.