The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 18

1993, December,

The hardest thing to keep after a secret is a lie. To keep up with a lie is to completely change a narrative and twist it into one that suits a purpose. To keep a lie is harder than keeping a secret and many times, a lie becomes a secret.

This journal is a lie, is a secret and who ever finds it needs to keep that in mind that many many things I will mention will be half truths, some of them will be cold lies, some of them will be truths but many of them will be secrets - remember to read between the lines and keep a wide eye or else you will fall prey to my lies.

I'll start this journal with three lies and a truth -

1. Remilekun Phillips is a liar.
2. I am secretly married to Tolu Kingston.
3. Project Eden is not dangerous.
4. I enjoy working for the orion project, no, I enjoy the power it brings me.

I will rise from this seat in a few minutes, and in a few minutes Remilekun Phillips will come looking for me, and when he does, he will not find me, but he will find a copy of this entry.

He will not look for the truth and the lie, he will be looking for a password. He won't find it, even though it is looking at him in the face.

***

"Sanmi!"

Grace found her brother seated by the dining table, there was a file and most of its content spilled on the glass table and it surprised her how much she was surprised, she knew her brother would rather shoot himself in the foot than read anything. She covered a snort and attempted to look over his shoulders but he was quick to shove what he was reading into the ugly yellow file.

He turned his neck to glare at her.

"Don't disturb me," he said, but he did not snap at her. In fact, it was the first time in a long while that he looked clear eyed.

"What are you reading?" Grace asked as he began to gather every piece of paper and shoved them into the file, she didn't even bother to sneak another glance at them. Sanmi kept his secrets, she knew that and knew that pushing him to tell them would only push him away.

"Nothing important," he said but it seemed to her that he was trying hard not to look her in the eye.

Grace frowned, noting that he had been unusually quiet since yesterday. They had both arrived home at the same time, her still reeling from the night she had, Amina had made a stop at the HQ where she changed back into her regular clothes, waving a hand away when she was told to keep the clothes, she meant it when she said she wanted nothing from The ORION Project.

Sanmi had looked exhausted and apart from the good morning greeting he had muttered this morning, he hadn't spoken any word to her.

"Looks important, you never read anything." She pointed out, she wondered why she bothered with him. The brother that she used to joke with was long gone and in his place was someone else, someone she didn't understand.

"It's some dumb statistics, a job for ORION." He finally said, the words easing out uncomfortably because it was the first time he had openly acknowledged that they were both members of the most exclusive and most dangerous cult on campus.