The alarm clock buzzes at the usual time. Four fifty in the morning. I groan and clamp my pillow over my head, only for it to be snatched away.
"You have some work to do, blanket snatcher," Eric says to me. Yes, I snatch the blankets when we're in bed, but he does too.
"Don't forget, you snatch the blankets too," I say, leaving the bed with rumpled blankets and make my way to the dresser, getting my clothes and security vest out.
"But not as much as you do," says Eric.
I pull open one of the drawers and throw a piece of clothing at him.
"Shut up," I groan. He just chuckles in reply.
I take what I need and head into the bathroom which contains a shower, sink, and toilet. I leave the door halfway open so that I won't feel closed in. It's not long before Eric joins me. If we both start working in the morning, we take showers together to save time.
Coffee doesn't wake me up. Showers do.
"There you are," says David as I enter Matthew's office, where he will give me the disc. "Having a good morning?"
"Yes," I say. "Got the video files ready?"
"Yes, it's just finishing transferring to the disc," says Matthew.
"Is there a particular reason why you would want to show Tris the footage?" asks David.
"Just to show her that things happened behind the scenes that she didn't know about," I say. "And to let her know that what her brother did was not out of malice, but was merely naïve and misguided."
"Looks like you and Tris are like the opposite sides of the same coin," says David. Perhaps we are.
Matthew hands me a disc with the words Caleb Prior – Erudite headquarters.
"Thank you," I say.
"Since your brother is here, you're free to take the morning off and do some catching up," says David.
I want to see my brother but I have work to do.
"I would love to, but, I have to do a security round outside the building this morning," I say.
"I'll let Violet take care of it," he says.
Just then, the door opens and in walks Tris and Zoe. Tris looks intently at the disc as I carefully place it in my pocket. I sparked her curiosity. Good. She'll be curious to see what is in that disc. If she thinks it incriminates her brother further, she's in for quite a surprise.
"Hello, Tris," he greets as I walk out of the room. Good thing that it gave me the excuse to leave the room, because somehow David just makes my skin crawl.
I don't know what it is, but my gut tells me that I'm not paranoid.
In the break room, the box of donuts from yesterday is still on the table. On further examination, it's empty. What is it with some members of the support staff not discarding the donut boxes?
I put the box in the trash and go to the coffee maker to make coffee for the other employees. When you make coffee here, there is a log of who made it last. I write the date, time, and name before doing so.
The morning light streams into the compound as I make my way to the hotel. Someone just entered the ballroom with breakfast and coffee so they must be up. I open the doors to the dormitory.
Everybody just got up by the looks of it, with Cara inching her way towards the coffee pot, though Christina looks chipper while Peter is still rubbing his eyes as he makes his way to the breakfast table.
It doesn't take me long to spot Theodore.
"There you are," I say, hugging him. "How is it so far?"
"Different," he says smiling.
"You'll get used to it," I say. "It didn't take Eric and me long to get adjusted. Come on, get some food in you."
We pass through the line at the breakfast table and I sit down with him at his bed, with Uriah and Christina joining us. Tris, holding a tablet, sits next to Tobias and from across the room, Tori fixes her a dirty look before going to the table to get breakfast.
"So, you and Eric left almost two weeks ago," says Christina. "Did you two know what was out there?"
"No, but we did know that we were in some type of experiment," I say, picking a piece of my blueberry muffin. "We didn't know about the Bureau but Eric was right about people possibly observing us."
"What do you and Eric do here?" asks Uriah.
"We're part of the security team," I say. "Right now he's in the second control room."
"Sounds like something Four should be doing," says Uriah.
"So, anyway, I was supposed to work this morning but David gave me the morning off," I say.
"Think you could get us working in the security team?" asks Christina.
I bite my lip. You have to be a GP and GN for that.
"You wouldn't like the process," I say.
Before she could answer, the door opens and in walks George. I look to see Tori drop her paper plate. Her eyes look as if they might pop from her sockets as the color drains from her face. She has the appearance of someone who has seen a ghost.
There is a pin drop in the room as Tori takes hesitant steps towards her brother who she thought was dead. At one moment she pinches herself before looking up.
"This must be some cruel joke," she says, her voice breaking.
"This is no dream, Tori," says George, spreading out his arms.
Tori looks at him before running towards him. She cries into his shoulder before glancing at him. "How is this even…I thought Jeanine…You were dead! They pulled your body from the chasm!"
"I'll explain it to you," says George.
Tori tears her glance away from her brother and just glances at Tris, her eyes wide.
"Tris, I…" she begins before saying. "I just need a moment by myself."
She runs from the room.
When Tori saw Amar, she should have thought that her brother was alive as well. I guess that she didn't want to get her hopes up. And now she is trying to find ways to take back the words she said to Tris. I'm sure the words 'war criminal' and 'traitor' stabbed Tris like a knife.
Who did she pin her brother's supposed death on besides Aunt Jeanine? It couldn't be Eric. He was still in Erudite at the time, a dependent. Did she blame Max? The former initiate instructor before Amar?
George came here before Aunt Jeanine was leader, yet I could see why she would blame her. When Norton's health was failing, he had Aunt Jeanine, his assistant at the time who majored in science during initiation, go into the Dauntless compound for him to view the simulations.
He was the one that started the Erudite/Dauntless connection. But it was Aunt Jeanine who began planting Erudite-borns in Dauntless.
It's not long when I see Matthew coming into the room. He extends his hand to Tobias, who shakes it before he and Tris follow him from the room.
"Where are they going?" asks Uriah.
"Most likely to get their genes tested," I say.
"Does it hurt?" Theodore asks.
"Not much," I say. I look at Caleb, to see him throw his paper bowl and plastic spoon in the trash.
"You know, I'll be right back," I say as Caleb leaves the room. "I got to check something."
I lift myself from the cot and leave the room.
"Caleb!" I shout. He turns and glances at me as I run towards him in the hotel corridor. "How are you?"
"Mentally under the weather," he says. I know what he means. He needs some distraction and I know what it will be.
"Come on," I say. "Let me show you something which will take your mind off of your sister's ignorance."
He warily follows me through the compound, through the sea of workers until I reach the records room door. I open the door and flicker on the light before stepping in. I see that Caleb is looking at the room with wide eyes.
The aptitude test did not lie to him. He is truly Erudite.
"This is the records room. Eric and I spent some time here when we first arrived. This contains records of the experiment," I say. "They have some on your city."
I lead him to one of the shelves containing the information on the Chicago Experiment.
"Shouldn't they keep these files on computers?" he asks.
I nod to the miniature computer lab. "These books contain records when the Chicago Experiment first took off, when their system wasn't secure. The three computers in the adjoining room contain fairly recent files."
I pull out the first thick book and place it on the table. "This was when the experiment first took off."
He looks at me quizzically.
"When did my aunt tell you that your father was Erudite?" I ask curiously.
"During the fourth day of Erudite initiation," he says.
"I thought so," I say, running my fingertips against the dusty tabletop. "Did you want to form your own opinion of her?"
"I wanted to prove my father wrong about her," says Caleb. "I didn't want to base my opinions of people merely on what others said about them. I want to form my own opinion on people. I didn't think she was bad at first. I asked others about her and most of them said good things about her."
"That was the problem about her. She would come out as harmless," I say. "Otherwise I wish your sister had that mentality: deciding to make your own opinion and listening to others thoughts. I don't hate her but she has the bad habit of basing her opinions on other people because one person hates their guts."
Most likely she based her opinion of Eric because of one conversation between him and Tobias, and Tobias's thoughts on him. I practically knew Eric before I entered Dauntless.
"I wish Tris is as understanding as you are," he says. "I wouldn't have a troubled sleep."
Does it bother him that much?
"Um, I'll give you your space," I say quietly before leaving the room.
When I return to the ballroom, I see that Uriah, Christina, and Theodore are deep in conversation until they spot me.
"Can you tell me why you ditched us for Tris's traitor brother?" asks Christina.
"I was just showing him something," I say as I sit down next to my brother and across from Christina and Uriah.
"Well, it better not give him ideas," says Christina.
"Not if he is surrounded by books," I say.
"Now, Theodore, what was that about crossword puzzles?" asks Uriah, trying to cut away the tension.
I go to the break room for coffee and after a quick coffee break; I walk down one of the corridors to find Matthew about what the genetic results were for Tris and Tobias when Tobias bumps into my shoulder, looking anguished.
"Can you at least tell me what happened?" I ask.
"I don't want to talk about it," he says.
I know what happened. He learned that he was not Divergent. That he was only aware that he was in simulations.
"You're not what you thought you were," I deduced.
"Where's Eric?" he asks.
"If you're just asking that so that you can punch him, then no, I will not tell you," I say.
"He hunted down Divergents while he was one himself," says Tobias through gritted teeth.
"How did Matthew tell you?" I demand
"He didn't say it outright," says Tobias. "Tris asked Matthew if he tested yours and Eric's genes when you arrived. He said that you were a particular anomaly known as a genetic neutral. As for Eric, he said, 'He fits the genetic definition of a Divergent'."
"So even though Amar is alive you're still going to blame Eric?" I ask.
"If he didn't give Amar that look and if he didn't threaten him, Amar wouldn't have felt the need to fake his own death," says Tobias.
"Eric didn't threaten him," I argue. "He only pretended to just to warn him that he wasn't safe."
"Is that what Eric fed you?" says Tobias bitterly. "You weren't there when it happened. I know what I heard. He told Amar, 'I know what you are. You better watch yourself' and that coming from Eric, that is a threat, not a warning."
"You think I'm that stupid?" I demand. "If Eric wanted the Divergent dead, he would have prevented Amar from escaping. Uriah would have been toast during stage two and Tris would have been found in the chasm the day after knife throwing practice. And what I know about Eric is that he can be cryptic with words."
"That doesn't –" begins Tobias before I cut him off.
"You know what I think? That when Amar faked his death, you only thought that Eric had a hand in his false death was because you wanted it to be him, because you had no beef with the other leaders. It could have easily been Max or the other three leaders, but no, it had to be Eric."
"That's not true," he says.
"Yes it is. You hate his guts," I say. "Just think about it."
With that I turn my heel and walk away from him.
If Tobias wanted to punch Eric, I have to make sure that there is no mob with pitchforks and torches after him.
Not that they will carry torches and pitchforks but you get the idea.
Zoe was escorting the group that came here to an airplane ride over the city. George took the time off to join his sister. I declined the offer because I didn't know if I was going to take being in the air while two weeks pregnant.
I asked Matthew if he was going to do a genetic test on my brother, only to learn that David asked him to check the genes of those that arrived.
"Standard protocol when someone from a city experiment arrives here," says Matthew. "Just a way to double check to see if they are Divergent or not. That way we can give them a list of jobs they can choose from."
It's pitiful that those with healed or neutral genes get more job opportunities than those with damaged genes.
Right now, it's lunchtime in the cafeteria, and Eric and I are sitting at a table with Amar.
"I was doing a security round in the corridor by the labs when I thought I heard you shouting at Four," says Amar.
"I was calling him out on something," I say. "Told him that he held Eric accountable for your fake death because he wanted it to be Eric."
"I'm not surprised," says Eric. "He hates my guts. The feeling is mutual though."
"I wasn't surprised either," says Amar. "But I didn't think it warranted a punch in the eye after my false funeral."
"Tobias punched you in the face?" I ask Eric.
"I knew he was going to blow up on me," says Eric. "During the funeral he kept glaring at me while Max was talking about how brave Amar was. When we dispersed from the Pit, he accused me of having a hand in his death."
"What did you do?" I ask him.
"Did the usual. Told him 'I didn't realize you could be that thick, Four. Like you have any brains.'. He said 'I'm not an idiot' and I replied 'For your information, I didn't kill Amar' and that was when he punched me," says Eric.
"Did he get into trouble?" I ask.
"No, because our rivalry was common knowledge among the Dauntless," says Eric. "To try to appease him they gave him my alibi. Bud was tattooing both my forearms at the time. He, Tori, and others at the tattoo parlor backed it up. Four didn't buy it, but didn't make it obvious."
"When did they say that Amar supposedly jumped, because you saw him go," I point out.
"He stowed away into a cargo truck at nine thirty in the morning," says Eric. "At eleven twenty a woman said that she just saw him jump."
"I suppose Tobias didn't know that," I say.
"My guess is that he thought I killed him in the morning, and paid someone to say that he just jumped," says Eric.
Boy, Tobias was leaning for the obvious.
That afternoon before dinner, I am working in the security checkpoint, running the monitors when I see people scurrying towards the control room, muttering anxiously. Something has happened in the city.
"Chuck, can you take over for a little bit?" I ask another member of the security team who was standing by the alarms. He nods as I run towards the control room.
When I reach the control room, I push through the crowd of people and find myself standing between Eric and Amar as someone turns on the volume. On the prominent screens are Evelyn and Marcus, standing in Aunt Jeanine's old office, with Evelyn looking at Marcus like a judge looking over a defendant but her bitter expression suggests that this is personal.
"You took your time," Marcus says, sneering. "Savoring the moment?"
At the other side of the crowd, Tobias, who is standing next to Nita, stiffens. This is probably the Marcus he knows. I look back to the Erudite report written two days before Choosing Day. Did Tobias read it? If he did, how did he think about it? If your abusive father was a faction leader, I'm sure it will cause you to doubt your faction's virtue.
"Of course not, Marcus," says Evelyn. "You have served this city well with for many years. This is not a decision I or any of my advisors have taken lightly."
I snort. He served the city well alright. Deceiving the Abnegation into thinking that he was selfless like they were. What is selfless about beating your child with a belt?
"I and the former representatives of the factions have had a lot to consider. Your years of service, the loyalty you have inspired among your faction members, my lingering feelings for you as my former husband…"
I hear Tobias snort.
"I am still your husband," says Marcus. "The Abnegation do not allow divorce."
"They do in cases of spousal abuse," says Evelyn.
"Ooh, burn," says Eric, smirking. "There's no doubt that he's toast."
I see Tobias glare at him before he turns back to the screen. He mouths something but I don't hear it.
Evelyn lists his charges which are: deceit, his refusal to follow the rules of Tori Wu and herself, betraying his peers, and for releasing the Edith Prior video. His punishment: exile from the city, beyond the Amity compound.
There's a pin drop in the room and I see Tobias slipping away from the crowd. Maybe this was too much for him.
"Theodore, I know you like to sit with your sister but she is sitting with the guy who made me hang over the chasm for five minutes during the second day of Dauntless initiation," says Christina.
Theodore wanted to sit next to me at dinner. Christina and Uriah followed him, though Christina didn't like the fact that I was sitting next to Eric, but they sat down at our table anyway because Christina didn't want to give Theodore the wrong idea it they refused.
Sitting further down the table is Caleb and Peter, both facing each other and sitting at the next table over are Tobias, Amar, George, and Tori. Tobias's back is facing us but I'm surprised he hasn't turned to look at Eric just to scowl.
"Who's genes got checked today?" I ask, taking a bite from my spaghetti.
"I don't understand this whole genetic neutrality thing," says Uriah. "Two days ago, they only mentioned genetically damaged and genetically pure. They didn't mention anything about having a mixture of the two."
"Probably because it would be too complicated to explain," says Eric. "Isobel is simulation aware but she can't manipulate the simulation and she has an even mix of damaged and healed genes."
"Matthew said it differs with the amount of damaged genes or healed genes," says Theodore. "If you have an even blend of the two, you're more likely to show empathy."
"Did they give you new ID cards with your genetic status on them?" asks Christina. "Because they are giving us new ones tomorrow and if we get hurt, we have to present them before entering the hospital."
"What?" I demand. I shouted loud enough that it attracted half of the room.
"Exactly, I don't understand why you would need to present your ID if you're injured," says Christina.
I do. Because they are willing to give medical care to those with pure and neutral genes first.
"Um, I need to go to the bathroom," I say, standing up and I leave the cafeteria. The bathroom is five miles from the cafeteria, but I just need to stand and think for a moment.
When I reach the drinking fountain I hear Tobias say, "Isobel."
I turn to see him leaning against the wall.
"Are you stalking me or something?" I ask, resting my hands on both of my hips.
"I just wanted to say that I thought about what you told me, that I thought Eric was guilty of killing Amar because I wanted it to be him, and…" says Tobias, taking a deep breath, "…you were right. I did want it to be him, because I had no else to point the finger at. You're right. It could have been Max or the other leaders, but I wanted to point my finger at the obvious suspect."
"When you hate someone with a passion and something bad happens when they just happen to be around, it makes it easier to accuse them because you have no one else to blame," I say. "You ignore all possible suspects because you are leaning towards the obvious."
"That just sums it up," says Tobias. "Even after they gave me Eric's alibi, I was still certain."
"He had those tattoos on his forearms," I point out.
"Right now I'm trying to think of ways to apologize to him without him taunting me," he says.
"When the time comes for you to apologize, just make sure that either I or Amar are around," I say.