"Candor has chosen its liaisons," a deep-voiced older woman booms. "And we have also elected a new leader. I am Rowena." She introduces each of her representatives, and the only one I recognize is Lucy Kang, Jack Kang's sister, who will be the liaison to Erudite.
Everyone murmurs words of welcome.
"Amity, too, has a new leader," Johanna says. "Christopher will be our voice." The man next to her looks young – about my age, blond scruffy beard crawling across his chin. "I will be the delegate to Abnegation and to the Commission," she continues, "but I am here to assist Christopher with a smooth transition." More murmurs.
Once everyone has confirmed that they have chosen their leaders and introduced their representatives, Evelyn moves on.
She notes that Freedom is in the process of selecting a new headquarters, but that Abnegation has offered to host them in the meantime. "I myself," she adds, "will remain in Erudite headquarters with an armed guard." I look at Linus, expecting him to look grim, but he just smiles at Evelyn and gives her a cheery little wave.
"Divergent," she says, turning to us. "No one is particularly happy with your decision to pursue a mission outside the fence, but everyone recognizes the necessity of it. All factions will give you whatever support you require. When do you think you will be ready to go?" she asks pointedly.
"By the end of the week," Tris says firmly. I'm not so sure, but I nod.
"Good," she says. "We look forward to hearing your plan. Now, I believe Abnegation has something to discuss, related to your mission." I watch Evelyn as she turns toward Marcus, her face expressionless. I have a still-frame memory of her looking up at him like that, only her face is full of fear, and she's crouching in the corner of our kitchen. Evelyn catches me staring at her and meets my eyes. I don't know if she has any idea what I'm thinking; in fact, she's careful to keep her face blank. She gives me a very slight nod, though, and I return it. I will never forgive her and I can't love her, but I don't blame her.
"There is a reason Abnegation leaders decided it was time to show everyone the truth about why we are here," Marcus begins, in his most self-important voice. "You know that Amity raises your food, but did you ever stop to wonder who makes your clothes? Your computers? Your medical equipment? This city has some modest manufacturing capacity, but not much, and few skilled workers."
Marcus pauses, and I have to admit that he's effective. Even though I know he's a manipulative liar, I am caught up in what he's saying.
"Those things have been provided to us. For decades, someone kept our warehouses full, our electricity running, and our water flowing."
I feel a sense of dread as I realize what he's going to say. Evelyn is frowning, too, and Tris's palm is sweating against my own.
"Well, it all stopped. Whoever was taking care of us isn't taking care of us anymore. Our warehouses are almost empty - we haven't taken a new delivery of finished items in nearly a decade. Our water quality is down - nearly undrinkable. That is the reason Abnegation leaders decided it was time to share the Amanda Ritter file. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of showing it to Jeanine Matthews first."
"How is the power still on?" Linus asks.
"We don't know," Marcus admits. "The power plant is not on our maps. We don't know if someone is still running it, or if it's a particularly durable technology. But that's why we put the conservation rules in place."
"So, Tobias," Marcus says, staring at me, everyone else in the room turning to look. "I always knew you would have a mission, and that it was destined to be a hard one. Now you know, too. When you go outside the wall, you not only have to tell the people who put us here that despite our best efforts to sabotage their experiment, we have fulfilled our purpose and have a large Divergent population. But you will also have to find out if there's anyone left who cares or even knows that we're here. And if you can't figure that out, we may all be going outside the fence soon." I am on the verge of asking him if he always knew that Evelyn's mission was going to be a hard one, too, and that's why he beat us both, but the look of disgust and hatred on her face stops me, as she stares at Marcus. Both Tris and Leo are leaning into me, Tris clutching tightly at my hand, and I focus on my breathing. Then Rowena cuts through my turmoil with her cavernous voice.
"Now, Marcus," she chides, "that's a little dramatic, don't you think? We have food, we have solar power, we have water and the means to treat it - we can sustain ourselves."
"Hardly," Marcus sniffs, looking down his nose at her. "This area lacks many natural resources - if nothing else, we would have great difficulty heating our homes and cooking our food without outside help."
"And I am sorry to add that our crop yields are down overall," Johanna comments. "We are running low on some of the fertilizers and other inputs we had stockpiled. Erudite is attempting to synthesize them with raw materials we have available but hasn't fully succeeded yet. We can grow crops fine with the practices we have developed, but not with the abundance we are used to."
"Of course, we do have a rather large supply of scrap metal," Marcus breaks in, "and I understand the Dauntless have a working forge, so at least we'll still be able to make bullets to shoot each other with."
Marcus stops talking to allow the room to take in what he's said. If there's one thing Abnegation are good at, it's setting the stage for a meaningful hush, and no one is better than Marcus.
"I think we're going to need more than a week to get ready," I say into the silence. "So, if we're done here, we're going to go get started. Anyone who wants to help can come with us."