"Let's get started then," Evelyn says, literally turning her back on Marcus. "Thank you all for coming. It is time to discuss how we will reconcile and rebuild."
"And who put you in charge?" Jack Kang demands.
"I am in charge. Without my people, Erudite would have enslaved yours and all of your factions would have submitted to Jeanine's rule or suffered the fate of Abnegation. And you did nothing to stop any of it." Evelyn pauses for a moment, but Kang is uncharacteristically silent. "Plus, we outnumber all of you put together, and we have confiscated the weapons of the Erudite Alliance. So yes, I am in charge." She pauses again to let it all sink in.
"Shall we talk terms?" She inquires politely.
"Terms?" Tori asks, outraged. "What do you mean terms? We're allies!"
"You were complicit in this oppressive faction system long before you were an ally," Evelyn says smoothly. "But you get extra credit for doing the right thing at the last minute."
"Abnegation always did the right thing," Marcus chastises her. Evelyn's eyes spark.
"Not always," Tris says before Evelyn can yell at Marcus again. Everyone turns and stares at her. "It was Abnegation leaders who started it all," she continues as though in a trance, eyes unfocused. "25 years ago, they told the other faction leaders that Divergence was a threat to society. Before that, it was rare for anyone to be Factionless. Almost everyone was placed in the faction they tested into or chose."
The room is utterly still for a few, very long seconds. Tris is frowning, still with a distant look on her face. Suddenly, she realizes everyone is staring at her and she flushes violently, her mouth dropping open. She looks at me in confusion and astonishment - which is probably the look on my face, too.
The room erupts into accusations, denials, and disbelief.
"No!" Marcus roars, slapping his palms down on the table. "There's no way you could know that, Beatrice!"
She shrinks against me.
"Are you actually taking this girl seriously?" Evelyn says in disbelief. "She obviously just wants attention! Anything to get my son to notice her!" She gestures dramatically at me.
"Son?" Tori says, looking at me in shock. "She's your mother?"
Marcus says nothing. He just glowers at Tris, his lips pressed in a thin line.
"She is telling the truth," says a quavering voice. It's the older Erudite, Linus. He's looking intently at Tris, but with curiosity rather than hostility.
She nods at him. "I recognized you," she says. "You figured out the faction test."
"Indeed. I was a brain researcher like Cara here when I was young and I diagnosed what I later knew to be Divergence." He crosses his arms and seems to be talking only to Tris. "It is a fascinating neurological phenomenon. Those with the facility have a suite of characteristics, the most common of which is the ability to see patterns and connections - they tend to be inveterate problem solvers." He chuckles. "And less usefully, they are often quite restless." I stop tapping my fingers against the table.
"It's highly genetic. The child of one Divergent has a 30 percent or more chance of being Divergent. A child of two Divergents - greater than 50 percent. It's extremely rare for a trait to propagate that quickly, so I was able to determine that it was becoming increasingly common across all factions." The thought chills me - if Tris and I were ever to have children... I shake off the thought. We wouldn't want to have children in the world we live in right now. And given my personal experience with parenting, probably not a good idea, anyway.
"When I went to my Faction chief with my discovery," Linus continues, as everyone watches him, "he forced me to destroy my research. He told me the Abnegation leaders had shared information about the dangers of the so-called Divergent." He pauses, looking down. "He made me his top advisor, and I helped him develop a test that could detect Divergence. Jeanine Matthews was my research assistant." He sighs. "Once I realized how they were using the test, I retired to run the clinics. But I helped Divergent Erudite whenever I could." He looks up again at Tris. "But how, my dear," he says to her kindly, "is it possible that you know?"
Tris presses into me, shaking her head frantically. "I...I don't know," she stutters. "I read it somewhere, i think," she says uncertainly.
Cara has been watching her intently, too, and when Tris says the part about reading it, Cara's eyes suddenly widen. She walks over to Leo and whispers in his ear. He just looks at her for a moment and then they head for the door. Leo meets my eyes and mouths, "Be right back."
"Well," Evelyn says briskly, "just one more reason to set things right."
