Chapter Ten

Audrey is missing when I return to room forty-six. Heart racing, I tear the room apart—not there's much to tear apart—searching for anything she may have left behind. A letter, a note, even a t-shirt, but all traces of her have vanished. She's gone, and it's my fault.

I don't sleep all night. I feel sick, and guilty, and anxious about whatever Jeanine has planned for me. It is the first time in initiation that I miss my house; I miss the calm, if not monotonous, regularity of my life prior to this week. I thought about what Liam had said to justify his betrayal: she threatened me with the safety of my family. Was my family in danger? Had I gotten Caleb involved in this? Was he in danger?

Liam had walked to my room with me and said quietly before I'd entered it, "She'll contact you soon." I assumed he was referring to Jeanine. I didn't want to do anything against my faction, or any faction, but if my family or Caleb were at risk . . .

"Where's Audrey?" Katie asks me when I slide into a chair across from her at breakfast.

"I'm not sure," I tell her, then quickly add, "I'msureshe'sfine," at her look of concern.

"Mr. Eaton?" A girl sitting with Katie, Sarah and I, whom I recalled switching from Candor, says to Marcus as he passes our table. "Susan's roommate is missing."

He pauses, turning to us and plastering a smile on his face. "Everything is fine, Tessa. Thank you for your concern."

With that, he exits the room, the glass door swinging shut behind him. A gray-clothed initiate, maybe that boy from breakfast yesterday, slides a steaming, Abnegation-gray bowl of oatmeal in front of me. I am hungry, but the oatmeal is nauseating.

And I want to know what happened to Audrey; I need to know if she is okay, and why Marcus Eaton lied. Or did he lie? How much did he know? I am not going to get any answers, I realize, by sitting around with the initiates. Knowing I won't be missed, I stand up and follow Marcus's path out of the room.

I have no idea where he's gone, but in the mildew-infested hallway I can hear voices drifting faintly from a room farther into the building, away from the front door and cafeteria-style room and stairs that lead to the dorms. Quietly, I make my way down the hall that leads to the voices, and they grow progressively louder.

" . . . not giving her back." Andrew Prior.

"What do you mean?"Marcus Eaton.

"She was a spy, Marcus."

"You don't know that."

"Jeanine Matthews confirmed it. Do you think I didn't assume she took one of our initiates?"

"If she was a spy, she never really was one of our initiates."

"Look, Marcus." Andrew was angry; his voice was raised. He had to be stressed out right now, with both of his children transferring to different factions. And to Erudite, no less. I hoped, for Beatrice's sake, that Dauntless initiation wasn't as violent as the rumors suggested. At least they got cake, I'd heard. "We can't trust anyone anymore."

"Everyone isn't a spy. But I don't trust that Liam kid. Or Susan Black."

My heart leaped into my throat; I didn't know where the voices were coming from specifically, but I knew they were emanating from one of the dozen or so wooden doors lining the hall. I prayed that I wouldn't have to find out.

"The Blacks are good friends of ours, Marcus. Good friends of my children."

I nearly choked.

"She's Audrey's roommate!" Marcus protested, furious. "And she's been hanging around Liam. What do we know about him?"

"Not everyone from Erudite are monsters," Mr. Prior said firmly.

"Not everyone in Abnegation are good," Marcus countered.

"Jeanine is planning something."

"I know."

"What can we do?"

"Nothing, unless we can get some information about her plans."

"How do we do that?"

A brief moment of silence.

"You're not saying . . ."

"We need to employ spies."

"No one in Abnegation will be willing to do that, I assure you."

"Then we'll recruit initiates."

"This goes against everything—"

"This is war." Marcus's voice was cold. "This is no time for fair play, Andrew."

"Who?"

Thoughtful moment of silence.

"Susan Black."

I felt lightheaded.

"Are you sure?"

"You want to prove I can trust her? I'll trust her if she accomplishes this for our faction. For her faction."

"It's too dangerous."

"No, Dauntless initiation is dangerous. This . . ." he trailed off. "I'm sorry, Andrew."

"It's all right." Mr. Prior sounded broken, and my chest swelled with sympathy. I have been taught to feel others' emotions as, if not more deeply than, my own, and I feel every bit of his loss.

"I will talk to Susan later. And we'll formulate a plan at the meeting later."

Mr. Prior agreed, and I bolted back down the hall and started up the stairs, but realized I had to eat something. It would be six hours before lunch. And if I wasn't in the room with the others it would look suspicious.

Though compared to what I apparently would inevitably have to accomplish soon, that was nothing.