Eli: Leeann's cousin

Jude: Eli's girlfriend

Abilyn: (mentioned) Roommate of Hana's

Angie: (Mentioned) Roommate of Hana's (workes in the Dauntless Kitchen)

Rob: (Mentioned) Member of Hana's initiation class and Angie's boyfriend

Jazz: (Mentioned) One of Hana's initiation instructors.

Rais: Jazz's husband

Tyson: (Mentioned) Member of Hana's initation class. Leeann tried to set them up. The date was a disaster.

Leeann: Hana's best friend

Sultana: Control Room supervisor

Carly: Hana's friend and co-worker in the control room.

Nick: Leeann's brother

Bekah: Roommate of Hana's (Nurse)

Thank you (of course) to Bahrfamily for all her work on this chapter, especially for coming up with the name when I was stuck!

Chapter 21 New Strategy

Everyone looks to be asleep when I get home, so I grab the tablet, shove it in my bag along with my pajamas, and head to the bathroom. I check to see if I have any messages from Natalie. There aren't any, which is a bit of a relief.

I quickly tap out a message to her. "They've already discovered the glitches. Eli was working on figuring it out tonight. So far he's stumped."

I listen to decide if I hear anyone stirring, but the apartment sounds empty. I stuff the tablet back in the bag, change into my pajamas, and head back to the bedroom. All I need to do is get the tablet back in the drawer and get in bed without anyone waking up.

Piece of cake.

I hope.

I'm a little worried as we head off to breakfast. Surely Eli is smart enough, after I told him that Jude hates me, that he won't mention anything about having cake with me after work yesterday. I'm hoping he doesn't even mention working on my computer.

I grab my tray and go through the breakfast line. It never has made sense to me that we have to go through a line for breakfast, when they put lunch and dinner on the tables for us to pass around. My only guess is that breakfast seems to be a smaller crowd, but it goes on longer, whereas people seem to arrive for lunch and dinner more or less at the same time. That, along with the fact that I could see a fist fight breaking out at breakfast if someone grabbed the last chocolate muffin from the table.

Eli and Jude are already seated at the table. As usual, I try to pick my seat as far away from Jude as I can. Unfortunately, today we seem to be a smaller group. Abilyn and Tori are sitting with some friends from Factionless Patrol this morning. Angie is making breakfast this morning, so Rob will sit somewhere else. Rais and Jazz are just missing. I have no idea where they are. So, I'm not nearly as far away from Jude as I would like to be.

Jude must have just gotten in from patrol. Her blue eyes blink often, and sometimes have problems staying open. She rests her head on Eli's shoulder as she picks at her muffin, delivering bites to her mouth.

"So," Leeann sets her tray down and starts a conversation with her cousin. "Where were you last night? We were supposed to have a family dinner. Your mom isn't too happy with you."

Eli groans. "I know. I've already seen her to apologize. I pulled a 16 hour shift yesterday."

Jude lifts her head. "What was so important that you had to work that long?"

"I was half way through my day when I was given what I thought it was a software problem." He looks at her, not at me. He yawns. "Might a hardware problem. I never did solve it yesterday. I've got to look further into it today."

Jude puts her head back down on his shoulder.

He looks down and sees her eyes closed. He looks over at me and winks. I smile back.

It works out that after breakfast, everyone from my room is at work except me. Perfect. I check the tablet, not expecting to hear from Natalie so soon, but after what happened last night, I can't keep myself from checking.

To my surprise she has already responded.

"Eli's working on it?! Meet me at the chasm after work. I'll find you. Let me know if you get this."

Meet her at the Chasm? It seems like an odd request to meet her at the Chasm, but I can do it easily enough.

"See you at the Chasm." I respond.

I look around the control room. Eli is nowhere to be seen. I sigh with relief. I hope that means he's given up on the glitches, at least from a software end.

I walk up to a flustered looking Sultana. "Can I use my computer tonight?"

Sultana looks up at me puzzled. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Eli was working on my computer last night."

"Oh, oh, yes, that's right. Well," she looks around her computer, picking things up and putting them back down like she's searching for something. "Yes, you can."

"Who do I have today?"

Sultana uncharacteristically fumbles around. "Where is that sheet?" She looks frantically around her desk. "I know I printed it off when I got here." She moves her keyboard, but it's not under there. She looks everywhere except where she normally keeps it. If Sultana is one thing, she's a creature of habit. Every shift she keeps her duty roster on the clipboard that hangs by her computer. I'm about to mention this to her when she suddenly seems to remember that. She consults the clipboard. "Candor."

I nod and head back to my computer. I mess with the screen just like normal. It's nice to have my own computer back. I didn't realize that I was so attached to my spot, one computer away from the wall, until they took it away from me for a night.

We're about halfway through the shift when a man with dark hair and a receding hairline pops his head in. "Sultana!" His voice is loud in the room.

Her head pops up. "How is she?"

"She's fine, but it's almost time."

Sultana jumps up from her seat like our Faction History teacher did the time someone put a rubber snake in her drawer. Her eyes even dart around the room like the teacher's did, although the teacher was trying to figure out who did it. I'm not sure what or who Sultana is looking for.

"Carly!"

Carly pulls the headphones completely off her head. "Yes?"

"You're in charge. I've got to go." She grabs a bag from behind the counter. "I'm about to become a grandma!"

With that, Sultana hurries out of the room.

The Chasm is still pretty full when I get out of work. A couple weeks from now, when I go to the overnight shift it will be fairly empty, but right now it's prime dating hours and there are a lot of couples around. I try not to look at the couples by the Chasm. I don't know how you can stand there in front of everyone kissing. The problem is, I don't see any sign of Natalie so I don't know how long I'm going to be here. My eyes scan the room. I'm also not sure what I'm supposed to look at.

I suddenly know exactly where I don't want to look. Near the spot where Tyson tried to kiss me, I see Eli and Jude. My stomach flips uncomfortably. That isn't something I wanted to see.

I look back towards the Pit. Natalie better show up soon, or I'm going to have to leave. Jude seeing me hang out here would probably not be a good thing. I wonder if I went over to the tattoo parlor and hung out with Tori, if Natalie would find me there, but I guess that's not a good idea. Tori won't know her, but I don't know if Bud does or not.

"Hana!" A bright voice calls my name. I look over and smile. Natalie is dressed in black. Her blonde hair is pulled into a braid. It looks like one section of the hair is green. I wonder how she did that.

I follow her away from the Chasm to the other side of the Pit. She leads me to the doors that I first walked through as Dauntless, so I assume she's taking me to the net, but it turns out there is another door. She pulls a key out of her pocket. "The key I gave you earlier will work here," she assures me.

The door closes behind us. There are no lights, so it is darker than night in here. Natalie flips on two flashlights that shine blue and hands one to me. "Here, I didn't think to give you this before." She leads me down a corridor. Our flashlights are the only illumination.

When we get to a flight of stairs, she points hers down. "The steps are a little steep, so be careful." We slowly navigate the stairs, stopping at the door at the bottom of them. "This next part is the trickiest. Most people don't notice this, but we are going to be visible for a short period of time."

She opens the door and we are in the Chasm. "Wow!" I exclaim involuntarily.

Natalie smiles. "I know. Impressive, isn't it?"

I nod absently. Impressive doesn't even begin to describe it. I look up and see the people in the Pit. They are just small black forms from down here. Even knowing that Jude and Eli are up there and one of the black forms by the railing, there is no way I would ever be able to pick them out. I realize I have never stood at the railing and looked straight down before. I'll have to do that the next time I get a chance.

There is a path worn into the rock that would carry us up and across the wall, but that isn't the direction Natalie leads me. She leads me over the rocks, where there is no path. "Be careful. If you slip…" I look at the short space of calm water that leads to rocks that the water bounces off of. You wouldn't have long to get out of the water if you fell in here.

I watch where she puts her feet and try to place mine in the same place. There is a crevice between two rocks. It is just wide enough for each of us to fit through sideways. "It's not long," Natalie assures me as she slips in.

I take a deep breath and then follow her in. She's right; I'm in a large room almost as soon as I am in the crevice.

"Here's another place we can meet," Natalie informs me.

I nod. Unless someone sees me crossing the Chasm, I can't imagine anyone finding this place.

"So, they have Eli working on the glitches?"

I nod again.

Natalie pinches the bridge of her nose. "I didn't need to hear that."

"I shouldn't have told you?" I'm confused.

"No! You needed to tell me, I just never dreamed they'd find it so fast, or put Eli on it from the beginning."

I'm sure I look as confused as I feel.

"Eli's about the best in Tech Support when it comes to trouble shooting. If they have Eli on it, they're pretty serious."

"So what do we do now?"

Natalie sighs. "Now, we lay off the recording glitches for a while. It's going to mean more work and the two of us having to meet more often, which will be more dangerous, but I don't think we have another choice right now. Here," Natalie hands me anther drive. "You'll have Erudite tomorrow. Plug this in at nine PM. Leave it in until you are ready to leave. It's just going to show a blank loop from the time you put it in until you pull it out. It will cover my movements."

I nod and put the drive in my pocket.

"We'll have to meet every time I need to go somewhere for now. If I know I'll be somewhere ahead of time, I may be able to give you a couple at a time, but I wouldn't count on that. The drives each have a letter on them, A for Abnegation, C for Candor, D for Dauntless, E for Erudite, M for Amity. They also have a number on them. Keep them in case we can reuse one. I'll refer to them by letter and number."

"Sounds good."

"Normally, I'll meet you somewhere here at Dauntless. I can do Dauntless disguises easier than you can do Abnegation."

I want to laugh. Of course Natalie can do a better Dauntless disguise than I can do Abnegation. Put some color in her hair and she'll look at least a little different. There is nothing I could do with Abnegation clothes that would make me look different than the day before my Choosing Ceremony!

"Think you can find your way back?"

"Yes. But do I need the key on this side of the door? I didn't bring mine."

"No," Natalie smiles at me. "They only lock the door at the top to keep anyone from finding their way down here. They figure maintenance staff are the only people who can get down here, and they want them to be able to find their way back up."

"I'll be fine, then."

"Great. I'll see you later, then." Natalie turns and heads to a door further into the room. She puts her key in and unlocks the door. "You don't have a key for this door." She opens it and starts to slip through it. "No one in Dauntless does." She closes the door behind herself.

Rais shows up the next morning, beaming. "It's official!" he tells us. "I'm a dad!"

"Congratulations!" Nick is the first to speak up. "How's Jazz?"

"She's great. Tired, but great."

"Must have been a busy night," I remark.

"Not particularly," Bekah pipes up. "Why do you say that?"

"Sultana left work early because she was about to become a grandma."

All the Dauntless-born look at me for a second, then laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Sultana's my mother," Rais answers kindly.

"Oh!" I feel a little embarrassed now. "I didn't know that."

"How were you supposed to know?" Eli speaks up. "You transferred."

Jude looks from him to me. Great. Just what I needed.

Eli suddenly seems to remember what I had said about Jude hating me, and he quickly changes the focus of the conversation back to Rais. "So, what's his name?"

I'm awful aren't I? Here's the deal: most of the babies born in "Dauntless Gray" end up being named characters in one of the Divergent books. It could be from any of them: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, or even The Four Collection. So leave me a review and let me know who you think Jazz and Rais are the parents of. The answer will be in the next chapter.