I've had a couple of requests for specific characters. I'm not opposed to trying, but I make no promises. If a character doesn't "speak" to me, I can't write it. That said please realize I have 3 versions of "Random Voices" going. One for each of the three books. (I can't decide if I'm going to do one off of The Four Collection, but's it's shorter than the rest so... it would be shorter even if I started them all at the same time.) If you are interested in finding a particular character make sure you are looking in a book they are in. (For example you won't ever see Amar in Random Voices- Divergent,(since the first reference to him is in Allegiant or Will in Random Voices - Allegiant since he dies in Divergent)
Also, Veronica Roth(still) hasn't offered to sell me the rights. They belong to her.
From Divergent Chapter 28
He stands between me and the door that leads inside. He starts to crack his knuckles. Other than that, he is completely still.
I shudder involuntarily.
The faint pop of his knuckle-cracking is all I hear apart from my own breaths, which grow faster by the second. When he is finished, Eric laces his fingers together in front of him.
"Welcome back, Tris."
Eric POV
I wasn't expecting at hear from anyone, let alone Jeanine. Since we had spoken recently. I had given her the updates after Stage Two. Let her know about my suspicion. There's really only one. Tris. I just can't decide yet if she's foolish enough not to be scared, or if she is one of them. One of the Divergent. Her times in the simulations are enough to cause me to wonder, but the fact that one of her sessions wasn't even recorded. Is more than just a little suspicious. Four claims it was water damage. It might be, but...it might not be.
Jeanine's voice was hard over the line. "Eric, I'm sending Beatrice Prior back to you."
"What?" My mind chews on that statement. How can she be sending Tris back to me? She was gone? No one had told me she was gone. How did she get to Erudite headquarters? I've been caught off guard. That's not good. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on her.
"Beatrice Prior came by to see her brother today." I can picture Jeanine's smile over the line. "I had an interesting conversation with her."
"Oh?"
"Yes, she is fascinating, this little initiate of yours."
"I've noticed."
"We had a nice chat. She says she agrees with the reports we've been releasing."
"Really?" I can't keep the astonishment out of my voice.
Jeanine's laugh tinkles across the distance. "You don't believe her any more than I do."
"Not really." There is a pause while I decide if I should push Jeanine for more information or not. "So, what did she want to talk to her brother about?"
"That's the next thing I'm going to find out." I hear a faint knock. "Hold on a second."
I hear Jeanine's voice telling the person to come in than the sounds become muffled, like she has placed her hand over the receiver. I can't make out the words, but I can hear a voice talking to her.
Jeanine is still close enough I can make out response. "Give me two minutes and show him in." There is a short pause "No, make it 10." She becomes clear again. She must have removed her hand. "Her brother is here. I'm going to let him wait a few minutes. Put some fear into him. I'll know what she talked to him about soon."
"I think we need to keep an eye on her." I respond.
"Oh, defiantly. She could most assuredly be one of them." There is short pause, "But, Eric, We have already discussed you keeping an eye on her. You need to be keeping a better eye on her." The connection goes dead.
Knowing Jeanine she called me as soon as they left the Erudite Headquarters with Tris. I have plenty of time to get into position, but I leave immediately for the spot I know the Erudite will drop her off. I want there to be no possible way she can get past me when she returns.
I didn't bother to tell Max, or any of the other leaders about Jeanine's call, so I am the only one waiting by the front door when the Erudite drop her off. I should be thankful they caught her and delivered her back. Otherwise she could have returned on a train. I might never have known she left the compound. She seems to be Four's pet. So if he knows she is gone, I can't trust him to turn her in. I'm not quite sure enough of what is going on between them to go after her, yet. I've decided give them enough rope to hang themselves, and then Four will be out of my way, forever. If that takes out another Stiff with him. So much the better.
She thanks, actually thanks the driver for bringing her back to us. Dumb girl. She should have pleaded to be dropped off somewhere else and tried to sneak back in. I am right there as the door opens grabbing her arm and squeezing as tight as I can so she remembers who is in charge here.
I stop between the car and the doors. Positioning myself so she knows she'll have to go through me to get inside. I've seen her fight. There's no way she can go through me. I know it, she knows it, we both know it. I start to slowly and deliberately pop each knuckle. I have noticed that this gesture makes people nervous, so I have developed it, cultivated it, made it my own. I let the silence hang between us. Let her sweat it out a little longer. Finally I am finished. I lace my hands in front of me.
"Welcome back, Tris."
"Eric." Her voice is surprisingly steady.
I walk towards her. Carefully placing one foot in front of the other like I am walking a tight rope between sanity and madness. I know I'm not. I'm just as balanced as the next man. Maybe even more so, but she doesn't know or believe that.
"What…" I start quietly, threateningly. "Exactly," I raise my voice, "were you thinking?" I know the answer already. This girl is no Erudite. Never could be. She runs too much on emotion. She wasn't thinking.
"I…" her voice trails off, she stares at my pierced lips not at my eyes. "I don't know."
I work to keep my voice even, controlled. That is when I am at my most menacing, and something tells me I need to put a touch more fear into this little girl. "I am tempted to call you a traitor, Tris, Have you never heard the phrase 'faction before blood'?"
I let the silence stretch to see how she will fill it. She doesn't. She's too afraid to speak. Good. "Were you unsatisfied with the life you have found here? Do you perhaps regret your choice?" I lift my eyebrows knowing the effect of my piercings parting is evil. "I would like to hear an explanation for why you betrayed Dauntless, yourself, and me…"I tap my chest to emphasize that I take it personally. "…by venturing into another faction's headquarters."
"I…" She takes a deep breath.
I curl my hands into fists to emphasize my power. "If you cannot explain," I continue keep my voice soft, controlled, "I may be forced to reconsider your rank." Then inspiration strikes me. A little test for Jeanine's theory on her. "Or because you seem to be so attached to your previous faction…" I go in for the kill. "Perhaps I will be forced to reconsider your friends' ranks. Perhaps the little Abnegation girl inside of you would take that more seriously." I think it works. Her pupils grow wider.
I don't know if Max would really let me go that far, but I know Jeanine would. I also know who is the puppet and who is the puppeteer. I know I if I have to go through with my threat Jeanine, and therefore Max, will allow me to.
"I…" She has nothing to say, and no breath with which to say it, good. Now we're getting somewhere.
The door behind me opens. And of all people, Four, walks in.
"What are you doing?" He asks me calmly like he has every right to question me, a Dauntless leader. Rage boils through me.
"Leave the room." I shout at him. Why is it he makes me lose my cool so quickly? What is it about him, him a born stiff of all people, that causes me to explode? He's a nobody. He works in the control room! He may have ranked first, but I am the one who is a Dauntless leader. I am the one with the power. Why does he, and only he, make me feel like my hold on my power isn't a strong as I would like.
"No," Ahh, He's standing up for her. I'm right. She does mean something to him. I can use this. "She's just a foolish girl." Four continues. "There's no need to drag her here and interrogate her."
"Just a foolish girl?" I scoff. "If she were just a foolish girl, she wouldn't be ranked first, now would she?" I wondered earlier if he had messed with her scores. No one, not even him, the great and mighty Four, gets out of simulations that quickly.
"I…" She tries speaking again, but she is still getting no where that single word, single letter trails off again. This time though she is finally brave and finishes it. "I was just embarrassed and didn't know what to do." She stuffs her hands in her pockets, her eyes fill with tears and she sniffs. "I tried to… and…" She shakes her head, but she is making no sense.
"You tried what?" I'm getting tired of this game. I should just mark all of her friends down two spots, that should do it, and then we can...
"Kiss me." Tobias voice interrupts my thoughts. He sounds board. "And I rejected her, and she went running off like a five-year-old. There's really nothing to blame her for but stupidity."
I roll that over in my mind. She likes him, not the other way around. I'm disappointed. He's been watching her to keep his distance. Mentally I roll my eyes and laugh at him. He is still such a Stiff. If I was the instructor I'd take advantage of that. Who cares if she's still built like a child? I could still make her think that I would help her rank. I would still have fun with her. I look at the two of them to decide if Four told the truth. I picture that little Stiff standing on her tip toes trying to kiss him, and Four pushing her away, then I laugh and I laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Knowing as I do that my laugh isn't a laugh that puts people at ease. In fact if does just the reverse. "Isn't he a little too old for you, Tris?" I smile. Physically she should be looking at 12 year olds.
She wipes away a tear. "Can I go now?"
There is no longer anything to gain by this. "Fine," I really wish it had been the other way. That Four had made a pass at her. Then I could work on making him Factionless. "but you are not allowed to leave the compound without supervision again, you hear me?" I turn and set my gaze on Four next. "And you… had better make sure none of the other transfers leave this compound again." I go in for the kill. "And that none of the others try to kiss you."
Four rolls his eyes at me. We both know he only dates when Zeke makes him, and that the dates usually end with him being abandoned early in the evening. "Fine."
I watch her leave the room. Suddenly I'm not sure if I just won, or lost. Jeanine is right. I had better keep an better eye on her, and him.
