Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Divergent. This is basically a version of no-war, after-initiation!Divergent that everyone loves oh so much. :)
David straightens up in his chair. All the members of the Council look to him as the head, waiting for his final approval of the proposal that has so long been discussed here. The members line up and down the wooden table; scattered papers and empty mugs litter before them. They've been here for hours; some tap the floor with impatient feet and others sigh.
"Is it then in the favor of the Council to introduce a different direction for Chicago?" David asks calmly.
Amar stands in a corner with Zoe, their legs crossed, their ears attentive. Zoe pushes stray dark hair out of her face and listens closely. The choice of David to continue with a different stage for Chicago could put their experiment into jeopardy or into success.
Scientists who speculated and collected data from the cameras hidden away throughout the city brought forward alarming news to the Council a few days ago: Their efforts to produce healed genes, their life's work, was being jeopardized by an Erudite woman named Jeanine Andrews. This ignorant scientist was issuing an order to inject the cruelest faction, Dauntless, with a dangerous serum that would make them into puppets, and for her purposes, war machines, against Abnegation, the faction containing the most Divergent. The Divergent: those with healed genes.
The Bureau had their many rules concerning their experiments: don't make themselves known, don't interfere with the experiments. But their usual rescue missions of one or two members of Chicago wouldn't hold a candle to the trouble they'd have to go to to collect dozens of Divergent from Chicago and disguise and destroy so many minds to get them out safely. This led to a flurry of days, of locked doors containing the Council, of scientists straining their eyes and losing sleep keeping an eye on Jeanine's formulating war plans. Many ideas and suggestions had been tossed around the Council room, and all the members of the Council just wanted a solution.
The verdict was about to be announced.
One raises a hand, "But the factions are doing so well!"
"Leo, one clever scientist is about to wipe out an entire faction and enslave another. It is safe to say that the faction system is not working out as well as we'd hope," a pudgy, respectful woman says. She wipes at her glasses.
The others stare down this one agitator who wants to continue swimming around this ocean of chaos instead of getting on a raft.
"Remember the water sculpture in the hall. That is what we are working for, right? Steady, small progress. One step closer to cleaner genes, to the end of the long, agonizing race," the opposer says.
"Leo," David says, addressing the opposer, "we will have one-fifth of our progress wiped out if this continues. Especially since Abnegation is the faction holding the most Divergent." Something in his voice makes Leo shut his mouth. David is a leader who is charming and persuading.
David smiles and says, "Our plan is simple. Seven generations have passed, and though that is not nearly enough time for all the genes to have become cleansed, healed, not damaged, anymore, there simply isn't enough time. We can stop this mass destruction of human lives, which we are trying to save. One small sacrifice for a bigger cause.
"After all," he says cheerfully, "having so few initiates transfer to other factions each year is incredibly slow. With this new phase, stronger genes can be produced much more quickly." He looks around the table. Two are nodding off, their heads against propped up fists. "Does everyone understand?" David asks.
Everyone nods.
"All in favor say 'aye'."
The shouts of 'aye!' are unanimous.
David smiles and levels all his papers and staples the top corner of them. "Amar," he says, offering them to the man. Amar takes them and David says, "Be careful. Don't be seen."
"Yes, sir," Amar says. He jerks his head toward the door and Zoe follows him. Down the halls they go, Zoe having to walk fast to keep up with Amar, having to tiptoe to look over his shoulder at the order they're carrying out.
"I'll get the car from the garage," Zoe says, drawing her security badge from beneath her GP-betraying T-shirt.
Amar touches her shoulder as her lab coat billows behind her. "I'll get the gun and syringes."
Zoe smiles. "Using her own discoveries against her," she says, pleased to be doing something to save their years of careful analyzation and planning.
Her heart thumps in guilt when she rushes past the sculpture glowing under glass windows. She ignores the constant drip of plain, ordinary water as she flies to the garage.
It's not yet winter, and yet the fall air flies with dead leaves and a bite of cold. Amar and Zoe close the windows and rush down the long, lonesome road towards Chicago. Either side is decorated with broken buildings, burnt ruins, shattered lives and long lost civilizations. Zoe shivers at the thought of ever living before the Bureau took control of the chaos reigning throughout the broken United States. How could anyone survive before the Bureau?
The Bureau have secret entrances into their fenced-in city; they proved helpful when rescuing Amar and George Wu, and in sneaking in Natalie Wright into Dauntless. The entire city is surrounded by a fence, but there are key points that are ignorantly thought of as not important by the Dauntless guards that circulate around the city. The Bureau uses this to their advantage.
Amar parks the car behind a bluff of trees and the two hurry; they've been on missions together for so long now not a word has to be spoken to the other. Zoe wordlessly lifts the fence out of place and Amar slips through. Once both are untangled from the bottom of the fence, they head on in, closing in on the Erudite sector of the city. Their disguises, typical bright and dark blue Erudite, save them questions from anyone noticing them; which no one did. They're sneaky, slipping around like shadows. Their dark coats hide their supplies and walkie talkies. Nobody suspects a couple of trekking Erudite; the lights have been on until the wee hours of the morning on the top of Erudite headquarters for some time. They must be doing important research.
Zoe kneels besides a vent outside the headquarters of Erudite. Unscrewing the cover, she tosses it aside and says, "Hope no one finds that."
"We'll be in and out before anyone can suspect a thing," Amar says cheerfully. He's always easy going about missions, despite understanding how deeply dangerous and secretive they have to remain.
Half an hour later, they drop down into an elevator through the top. Sweaty and covered in dust, Zoe pants and presses the top level button. She shows off a security key one of the GP scientists had made from copying the same technology of the Erudite.
The key works; they're taken to their destination.
They step off into gleaming white tiles and silence. Amar's hand presses against his loaded gun. He says into his walkie talkie, "She's in her office?"
"Yes; there are two scientists coming in from your left. Get the memory aerosol spray ready. Three more are with Jeanine in her office; Dauntless guards are coming up the next elevator; Jeanine's plans say it's only ten more minutes. You have that much time," Nita, a non-violent GD, says from her walkie talkie. She volunteered for this mission. Somehow she received an important job: being the voice piece of the entire Bureau.
"Copy that," Amar says. He drops his jacket corner and says, "Aerosol ready, Zoe."
"Got the letter?" Zoe asks.
"Yes," Amar says.
Zoe nods. "And I won't forget the alarm."
The two dash out as two pairs of feet plod down the left hallway. Zoe runs past them and latches her hands down on the lever on the wall; the two scientists exclaim and Amar jumps in front of them; Zoe yanks down the red lever, and a pounding alarms scream throughout the entire building.
"Fire! There's a fire!" Amar shouts as he sprays the can at the scientists.
They inhale the serum and their eyes turn blank, then scared; then one says, "Of course! We must exit the building!"
Amar nods hurriedly, pushing them towards the elevators, "Hurry! Tell others!" They hurry, their thoughts only consumed with getting out of this building.
Safely vacated, Amar looks around the empty hallway and nods to Zoe. She dashes behind him and they punch in the security code that overrides Jeanine's little mind puzzle. Maximum security indeed. Learning all the cheats from the unknowing scientist beforehand helps speed up a mission such as this.
Amar and Zoe enter without an error.
The alarm blares louder in here. Amar rushes in and Zoe peeks from behind a corner: Jeanine is surrounded by panels of blue. Some she is tapping and others she's ex-ing out. She tsks, "A fire alarm, really? So close to showtime as well. Impeccable timing." She turns off her computer and turns to face a white room with three bodies lying on the ground, two with broken noses, all with a dissipating mist disappearing from their faces.
Amar had already shot all the security cameras. Blood trickles from his nose; who knew an Erudite possessed willpower to get messy?
Zoe points a gun at Jeanine's head.
"What is this?" Jeanine says crisply, not reacting in any way as to betray fright, anger, or shock. "Who are you?"
"Pull up your program, Ms. Matthews," Amar says. pointing his gun at her head as well.
"Why on earth for? You are going to kill me whether or not I show you in the information, are you not? I'd rather keep information from falling into the wrong hands rather than use it for ill-wrought uses," Jeanine says.
"And your uses aren't, as you say, 'ill-wrought?'" Zoe asks through gritted teeth.
"My uses for my research are simply to protect this city," Jeanine says. She stares down the barrel of the gun, and she gulps, her chin wobbling slightly. Her hand tightens its hold on the desk next to her.
"Pull it up!" Amar says.
Jeanine shakes her head. "You think you can accomplish much by screaming demands ineloquently at persons of high rank? You are sadly perceiving if that is how you have been taught." She clears her throat. "Are you going to kill me?"
"Yes," Amar says, "just as you were planning to kill me."
Jeanine's eyes widen slightly. "You were the instructor from Dauntless, weren't you? How are you still alive?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Amar says, smiling. Withholding information from Erudite is considered a form of torture to them. Nothing is as satisfying as knowing a truth she doesn't know.
"Are you the only one who can access that computer?" Zoe asks calmly, remembering the object of the mission.
"I trust no one else with this valuable information," Jeanine says evenly, keeping her professional air.
Zoe shifts over to the laptop and opens it. "Password-protected."
"That means if she dies, no one will be able to access it," Amar says. The bullet slides into place. "Say goodbye, Jeanine."
Water from the sprinklers overhead washes away the blood of Jeanine Matthews as she drops to the ground, dead upon impact. The alarms overwhelmed the sound of the gunshot.
"Should we take the laptop?" Zoe wonders, getting soaked to the skin.
"Nah. That'll raise suspicions," Amar says. He pulls out the letter, all laminated against the water, and places it on top of Jeanine's laptop.
They blend in with the Erudite exiting the building. They bend their necks and keep their collars up; Zoe sneaks a look towards Dauntless as they desert the crowd and sees silence: no marching soldiers. No gunshots have been heard from Abnegation. She breathes easier as she and Amar sneak back to their car.
Mission accomplished.
The sun paints the sky a delicate orange as their long drive back to the Bureau winds down. The morning is sweet and calm.
So: PROLOGUE. Solemnly swear Tris and much friends will appear next chapter. I just needed to set a scene, get the plot rolling. :)
Thanks for reading!