Once in the Dauntless compound, Eric, Tris, Four and Tori go straight to Christina's apartment. As Tris was about to knock, Peter opens the door.
"Dude, the fuck?" Eric starts as they all go into the apartment.
"We couldn't make it," Christina explains, "Freaking Max asked everyone to meet in the Pit to get enhancement injections. He was look for you guys."
"Did you guys get injected?" Four quickly asks.
"Yes. Everyone in Dauntless got injected, except for you guys." Peter says.
"Shit." Tris says.
"What? What's going on?" Christina frantically asks and Tori tells them what they've learned. Peter and Christina just stared at the floor, holding hands.
"We can't go to your meetings with you anymore." Peter finally speaks up.
"Why not?" Four asks.
"It might endanger the mission. Yes, they make you think that you're in a simulation but what if they also added a truth formula to it and start asking us questions? Max knows that Eric and I are close and that Eric is Tris' girlfriend. He also knows that Christina and Tris are best friends. We might be targets for the truth serum." Peter rationalizes.
"Caleb never said anything about truth serums. Where would you get that idea?" Four asks.
"We don't know who allied themselves with Jeanine, we're only sure about Max. Part of Candor initiation is to inject the candidates with a truth serum. Once you're under, you have no choice but to tell the truth because if you don't or try to hide something, you'll get a shooting pain throughout your body. You literally have no choice." Peter further explained.
"Things are moving faster than expected." Tris says, "What are we going to do? We're not prepared for this. If we wait too long, Jeanine will get the advantage but if we act now, she can force Dauntless to attack us. So what the hell do we do?"
"You need to contact your brother tonight, that's for sure." Eric tells her, "But I agree with the Stiff. We need to carefully plan our next move since she's gotten her army now."
The apartment became silent for a long time, everyone lost in their own thoughts. They went from having that feeling of ecstasy, of being on top, to being pushed right back to the very bottom. The fight was now staring right at them and no one knows what move to take next. What's worse was their allies knew nothing about this. Everything is now in jeopardy.
Tori quickly sends a message to Caleb informing him of the news.
"The fact that we were not there will make us look suspicious. We need to get injected." Eric finally breaks the silence.
"Eric, you can't do that!" Tris quickly intervenes, "They'll use you against us and…"
"He's right," Four interrupts her, "If we're the only ones not injected we'll be quick targets. It's logical. It won't affect Tris or I, but the rest of you will be under its influence."
"We better go to Max now. He'll be suspicious if he found out that I knew and didn't go to him right away."
So the foursome got up and went to Max's place. It only took two knocks to get Max to open up.
"Where the hell were you people?" Max asks.
"Had to sort some stuff out." Eric simply answered. "We bumped into Peter and he said something about an enhancement injection?"
"Yes. Jeanine developed a serum that will enhance a soldier physically and mentally. Also, if wounded, the soldier will heal faster." Max explains as he gets the syringes. He goes to Four first, then Tori, then Tris but stops at Eric.
"You're all dismissed," Max says, "Eric, I need to talk to you for a second." Everyone leaves safe Eric.
"What's up?" Eric asks.
"Not good news, Eric. Not good news. You want something to drink?" Max offers.
"No, I'm good. What happened?"
"Eric, it seems that we have Divergents in Dauntless."
"What? I thought that we got rid of them?"
"I did too but apparently we were wrong. And that's why I need your help. The serum that I just injected is more than an enhancement serum. It's a sim."
"I don't follow."
"When the time comes, when it's activated, it's going to put them in a simulation. There are two purposes for that. The first one is to identify the Divergents. The serum will not affect a Divergent so they can easily be identified, but once we identify them we're no longer going to kill them. We're going to give them to Jeanine. And two we have people plotting against the rest of the factions."
"Max, where are you getting your information? This sounds so farfetched!"
"My friend, I understand your skepticism but it's true. Abnegation is overstepping their boundary and is even protecting known Divergents. Divergents are putting our society at risk for chaos. It's like going back to the old days when the war began."
"So what do we do?" Eric asks, wanting to know more about the plan.
"This is why I didn't give you the serum. You need to be my eyes and ears. And I have some questions to ask you."
"What?"
"How loyal are you to your faction?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?"
Max slowly smiles at Eric and puts a hand on his shoulder, "I know you are, I just wanted to gage your reaction. But on a serious note, the thing between you and Tris, is it serious?"
"Yes, why?"
"Jeanine thinks that Abnegation is hiding some type of weapon that can help us eradicate Divergents. She thinks the Priors are hiding it. If push comes to shove, can I count on you?"
"My loyalty has always been to you, Dauntless and society. Tris' loyalty is to Dauntless and me. If push comes to shove, even if it's her parents, we'll be there."
"I knew I could count on you. This thing has been giving me a migraine since Jeanine told me. Oh which reminds me," Max stops, goes to his bedroom to quickly come back with a device, "Jeanine gave me this. It's a Divergent Detector. You point it at the person like this and click this button and it will show what faction they belong to. Now if they belong to more than two factions, they are Divergent."
"What are those numbers there?"
"That's the percentage. It tells you how much of a Divergent the person is. Remember: the older the person, the more Divergent. This is for you to take. Since you're a leader and trainer, figure out how to test them without raising suspicion."
"You said something earlier. We're not killing them but giving them to Jeanine. Why?"
"Remember the weapon I was telling you about? The one the Priors are hiding?"
"Yeah."
"Well only a Divergent can open it but this Divergent needs to be 100% Divergent, no less. So if we find a 100% Divergent, we bring them to Jeanine. The less than 100% ones are going to be experimented on."
"For what?"
"That I don't know."
"So when are going to find the weapon?"
"Jeanine wants to find that Divergent first. She said that a 100% Divergent is very rare."
"So she wants to get the key first. Makes sense."
"Anyway, that's what I wanted to tell you. Go back to your girl."
But as Eric was leaving, he took a long look at Max. Max has gotten old fast: it seems like he has more gray hairs than the previous week, and is now developing crow's feet. This was not the man that Eric knew and admired. Max was Eric's mentor, he looked up to him and Eric was the son that Max never had. Eric sensed that Max was carrying serious weight on his shoulders. "You okay, Max?"
"Just some stuff with the wife."
"Nothing that The Club can't fix."
"Amen to that, brother. I noticed that Tori and Four were holding hands when they entered the apartment. Are they together now?"
"No clue. I know that they've been spending a lot of time together, but officially a couple? I don't know."
"I hope not because I really need to fuck."
"I hear you. I miss fucking her, she was so good."
"How is that going for you? The one woman thing."
"It is hard as hell. I'm not going to lie, I miss The Club days."
"Nothing's stopping you. I'm going there tomorrow. It's too late for me tonight. I don't want the missus to ask questions."
"Smart."
"You should come by. I know the women miss you. I know one in particular who does."
"I'll think about it."
"Sounds good."
With that, Eric leaves carrying the Divergent Detector. As Eric is heading toward his apartment, he realizes that Lady Luck was back on their side.
* I'd like to apologize for not posting last week. The rainy season started and soon it will be hurricane season. The change in temperature and weather triggers my migraines and that's why I couldn't update. So if you don't see an update, it's because I'm in migraineville.
* Please leave a comment/review, they bring me such joy!