The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 42

The men lowered their guns as Remilekun answered the phone. Kendrick didn't fail to notice how Nafisat sat up quick, there was something about the woman that he didn't quite like, on the outside she appeared too juvenile for her age but it seemed like a mask, especially now as she sat still, listening to something none of them could hear. Of all of them in the room, it was her he was most afraid of, she looked like she could whip out her gun again and shoot without awaiting orders and with the way the Vice President had stood up to greet her, he knew that she answered to no one.

She could easily change her mind. That was most frightening.

"Oh, look, you can say your goodbyes after all, Miss Ilori." Remilekun piped, waving his phone so Grace could see the caller ID. It was Tolu Kingston.

He answered without waiting for Grace's reaction. Kendrick looked at the stoic men and thought of the action movies and how the heroes always easily got away by jumping down a balcony or breaking glass windows to jump from. That would not be the case here, not at all. He needed to think, to gather his wits about him because now that he'd been faced with death again, he suddenly realized that he was still very much scared of it.

He knew from the moment he'd made up his mind about revenge that it could cost him his life and he'd been too blinded with grief to care. All it took now was seeing Grace faced with her mother's sworn enemy, the man who intended to kill the both of them for him to realize that he did want to live.

"You're just in time," Remilekun greeted cheerily. A moment later, he fumbled with the phone and put it on loudspeaker and the sound of Toluwanimi Kingston cursing very loudly was startling. "She's alive, but you can still say goodbye."

"Don't think you've won, Phillips, that was the mistake you made nineteen years ago." Tolu hissed, his voice barely more than a furious whisper.

Remilekun did the last thing Kendrick expected, he let out a petulant snort. 

"Look at you, omode ni e, you have had years to master your game and you will still never beat me. Nineteen years ago, I won the battle, today, I have won the war," He taunted. "As I speak to you, I have Project Eden's secrets in my arsenal and I have your last link to your dead wife, your very daughter."

"I will kill her and you will listen."

A shiver snaked down Kendrick's spine. Remilekun Phillips was dead serious but Grace didn't look shaken, her eyes seemed far away and her fingers held his in a deathly grip.

"Just like I made you years ago," Remilekun added cruelly. The words seemed to be the last straw for Tolu Kingston and he hung up immediately, without a goodbye.

Kendrick saw the moment that realization sank into Grace's features, there was the slight trembling of her hand and with his other hand grazing the side of her neck, he felt her pulse leap. They were truly fucked. Remilekun saw their look and he threw back his head and laughed, his fila tumbled off his head to the floor but no one paid attention to it.

"So, who wants to go first?" He asked, once again, his men raised their weapons. They seemed to be waiting for something, for an order they were yet to receive.

Grace blinked, returning to the present. To the surprise of everybody, she moved with lightning speed and spat in the man's face. Kendrick's jaw dropped and he tried to push her behind him but she was having none of it.

"Go ahead, kill me," She said in a quiet voice.

Remilekun ground his teeth and just as his lips parted to speak, his phone beeped again. This time, he made a noise of irritation as he swiped at the screen. Kendrick waited for him to make another gloating sound, since everything seemed to be working in his favour so suddenly, then maybe he'd received news of money or his enemies' deaths but there was none.