The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 41

The world was blur beneath his eye lids but as soon as he'd shut them, he was fluttering them open, alert at once. When Joshua Phillips was a child, he'd earned the nickname superman, back then at ten, he still had a little of his naivety, back then when he thought that being extra smart, being extra strong would make his father even prouder, so he'd stretched himself to the maximum, he did his homework, read ahead of his classes and rarely ever allowed himself play or sleep. In the end, he'd ended up in the hospital for exhaustion, his father had been extra displeased and his elder sister had teased him, calling him superman for days. Even now, the nickname still stuck, although he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his sisters.

Joshua spun on his chair and pretended to be reading something on his tablet computer as he heard footsteps. He made a point to keep the device close to him at almost always, even when he wasn't using it. At the last minute, he raised his head and his eyebrows followed, it was Firepemi in front of him, dishevelled and looking like he'd grabbed the first shirt he found which was a rumpled white dress shirt that was half tucked into trousers.

"Coming from a date?" Joshua asked, although he didn't really care. He was just trying to find out if Nina was back in Lagos.

Fire took the sofa and stretched his legs in front of him, running a hand down his knees. He was recovering from a recent football injury.

"No, Nina isn't back yet," He said.

Joshua waited for Firepemi to say something but Fire only juggled his knees, it wasn't a nervous action, he seemed jittery but it seemed fuelled by anger. Joshua was half tempted to wait and see how long Fire could endure the silence, but he was already exhausted himself and he was certain that something was wrong, very wrong and that it had to do with with Fire.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Joshua finally asked, he leaned forward and half wondered whether to play the angry route or pretend to be calm. He rarely ever had to deal with traitors within The ORION Project, especially not from someone so close to the legacy. A part of him wanted to believe that Fire wasn't capable of betrayal but that part of him was just sentimental. Sanmi had repeated Firepemi's name over and over again. Under the guise of the same Fire, Joshua's father had sent a text to Kendrick and Grace, a text they'd replied to. That was enough confirmation for him.

Joshua waited for Firepemi to fib, to be defensive, but instead, the other boy echoed back the same question to him.

"I should ask you that, Joshua, is there something you want to tell me?" Fire snapped.

Joshua wanted to laugh, so this was Fire's route, pretense. It was so different from what he'd expected, the anger in Fire's voice was so real that even Joshua was almost fooled. Or maybe he didn't even phantom that anybody might be on to him.

Fine, two could play that game. He leaned back and began to tap at a free space on his desk with a pen, he continued until the sound drove Fire mad and he was hurling himself from his seat with a furious set to his jaw.

"What is really going on here, Joshua?" Fire asked. He began pacing the wide space from the sofa to the bookshelf at the other end. Joshua just stared, there was something forced about his pacing, he was either really angry or he was a really shitty actor. In fact, Joshua was tempted to tell him.

"Nina returns from the country, she's with me for a couple of weeks and then your father is arriving from no where, taking control of the Dome and suddenly Nina's father is asking her to stay in Abuja. The last time I checked, you were ORION'S leader not Remilekun Phillips who now calls all the shots."

Joshua considered hurling the pen at Fire but instead, he forced himself to adopt an air of patience and set it down. He was really beginning to get angry at Firepemi's false concern and a part of him refuse to accept that even though he didn't have people he called friends, he'd thought of Fire as a confidant and because Fire had once briefly run ORION, he'd thought of him as a sort of mentor too. Fire should have been untouchable, a part of his life that would remain the same no matter what.