The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 31

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.