Jeanine was in the lab when it happened. It was so quick. The stakes were raised faster than you could say "Oh shit."
James and another scientist were pleased about the progress they'd made on plans for the Abnegation attack, a loop that Jeanine was still fighting to be let into, she blamed Lexa and her assumptions about Tris for that, and turned their attention to how to hunt out divergents in Erudite. It seemed so childish to Jeanine, they didn't understand divergents and so they were scared of them. How very human. And how very not-Erudite to want to victimise them instead of study them. They required some to use as examples apparently, to somehow justify their terrible beliefs about the danger divergents posed. It was this that they were discussing when James handed the other his tablet.
His suit jacket was nice, quite expensive and made of very fine material. It was cornflower blue with a contrast stitching on the hems that matched perfectly with his pair of navy Erudite cufflinks. Only the cufflinks themselves weren't perfect. In a different situation, Jeanine might have openly bemoaned their cheap construction. With James' movement, the left one came undone and clattered to the floor, releasing the grip the sleeve had on his wrist and causing it to hike up his arm.
His colleague didn't take the tablet. He wasn't even looking at the screen. He was looking at the edge of a navy capital M that had just been revealed on James' forearm.
"We'll use the tattoos"
Jeanine managed to withhold her gasp but quickly excused herself with a white lie about being late for tuition and set off storming through the building.
Beatrice was returning to sim practice after lunch. It had been less than a week since they began phase 2 and she was already growing tired of the nonstop simulations. She was alone but walking alongside crowds of fellow Erudites returning to work from their break, some walking in her direction and others towards her. She unconsciously tugged the neck of her jumper up to her chin as she passed them.
Turning the corner, she was presented with a sight that almost made her trip over her own feet. Jeanine. She'd hardly seen her since the end of phase 1 and it was painful to miss their lunchtime interactions. She was walking towards Beatrice, everyone giving her a wide birth so she looked to be surrounded by a halo of white light in the sea of blue uniforms between them. Her hair was perfectly settled on top of her shoulders and her stance was authoritative as she glided down the hall at serious speed. Beatrice tried to act natural but was so distracted that she forgot to swerve out of the way and they ended up face to face. Jeanine spotted her instantly but did nothing to stop their impending collision either, appearing to be in a sort of trance up until the last second.
"Tris! Just the woman I was looking for!" her faction leader hissed just before they were about to bash into each other and then jumped back to open up a respectable distance between them once more. She looked around at her faction members and then nodded for Beatrice to follow her.
She was led back in the direction that she'd come and then into an empty computer lab. The door slammed behind them and Beatrice noticed her soulmate flinch at the noise. After the lights buzzed on, Jeanine pulled her to sit on one of the chairs, perching herself on the desk in front so that they were close enough to whisper. She looked unusually frantic and her voice was so fast when she spoke that it took Beatrice a while to unscramble the sounds into words.
"We need to act now."
Beatrice raised her eyebrows and Jeanine hurriedly explained the happening in the lab just before.
"What you need to understand is that it's not in an Erudite's nature to be sentimental. With some false propaganda and a bit of pressure from me," she cocked her head to one side and inhaled sharply and Beatrice understood that was something she wouldn't be able to get out of doing, "most would be willing to show their tattoo. Especially if they're convinced that it's for the greater good. And that's on top of the ones who've already found their soulmate so display them freely anyway." She threw her hands from her lap in exasperation and raked them through her hair before setting them down to tap unknown rhythms on her knees again.
"But how will this help them find divergents? Why would the people with silver tattoos come forward if they know what it means?"
"Some don't. And... some would willingly give up their loved ones for the cause." She added the last bit in an even quieter whisper and Beatrice's eyes shot open wide.
"Erudites would do that?" She tried to imagine anyone in Abnegation willingly handing someone over that they loved. Sure, they never acted selfishly but there is a hierarchy within those they serve and loved ones definitely sit above everyone else. Are Erudites so heartless?
"I can't believe you like it here Jeanine."
Jeanine rolled her eyes but she was right. At this moment, she didn't like it here. They were going to check her first. She knew they were. That's why she was so panicked. She couldn't think of any other logical reason for the utter terror that had gripped her body and walked her into this computer lab. She was worried that they'd capture Beatrice, and worried that she was currently their best method of doing so. The control she usually held over her emotions had vanished the moment she processed the likelihood of her faction members demanding to see her tattoo.
To carry out an operation like this they had to be sure they could trust their team and that included Jeanine. Even she wouldn't be above suspicion. Her rabbit-like heart rate was making her feel sick again, she was no good at dealing with situations that she couldn't control and she cursed herself for it.
"Beatrice, there really is no time to waste."
She saw Tris look away, regret clouding her chocolate-brown eyes.
"Jeanine- I really need to get to class." She could see lunch was over by the time on her soulmate's watch that was clinging to the wrist of her trembling right hand. She took it in hers and tried not to notice the seconds ticking by, making her later than she already was.
"Can I come round afterwards?"
Jeanine removed her hand and nodded though she didn't make eye contact as she cleared her throat and forced a small smile. She was fighting to regain her composure.
Beatrice hesitated at the door, she wanted to stay but she couldn't risk missing any more of the afternoon session. They don't take things like that very lightly at Erudite and her new tutor was a little less lax with her than Jeanine.
She ran to her classroom and snuck in as the class were being briefed, thankfully making it just in time for her tardiness to go unnoticed. Today, they were working on their disaster response.
The Erudite compound had been infiltrated and she was put in charge of allocating personnel after her superior was caught in the crossfire. The problem presented to her was how to save the people trapped on the higher floors of the tower. She employed a standard defensive formation that she'd seen in a textbook to prevent the intruders from accessing certain routes up and had just ordered an evacuation of floors 23-28 via alternate exit stairs when she was yanked from the augmented reality, a thin sweat covering her skin. Looking at the other initiates' faces she could tell that they were shaken by the scenario too. It was much more thinly veiled than their previous ones had been which could only mean someone was getting careless.
The sim was followed up by a lecture on astronomy which seemed random when they considered the sim's scenario but the initiates weren't in a position to question it. Beatrice fidgeted in her chair as her professor explained how to spot Ursa Minor in poor weather conditions and she wished it was Jeanine stood in front of her. If she tried hard, she could imagine it was. After a while, she found herself too focused on imagining Jeanine to listen to the information, she thought about how she might have her hair, what she'd be wearing.
Her mind drifted off and began to ponder their predicament. Jeanine was desperate, way more than she'd ever seen her before. If she was this worried then they were seriously in trouble. But what could they do to stop them using the tattoos?
Her professor moved on to discussing telescope mechanics and Beatrice followed suit and switched tact with her train of thought. Their immediate actions could be decided by their end goal, Jeanine always said the end is the best place to start when making a plan. So what's their end goal? She wanted these people prosecuted, that meant they needed to put them on trial. It would be hard to make a case against them without incriminating Jeanine so Beatrice would have to lead the legal proceedings whilst also keeping a close eye on the rest of the accused. They could easily conspire to pin it all on Jeanine and people might believe their combined word over hers, that meant they needed truth serum in the trials and that meant they needed to hold them at Candor.
"Christ" She muttered under her breath, earning her a few confused glances from her classmates but she didn't notice. Getting Jack Kang to agree to a meeting would be hard enough, never mind persuading him to let her use their serum. It was usually reserved for Candor initiations and only occasionally used in court. How on earth was she going to convince him? She was snapped back to reality by the sound of chairs shuffling.
They were supposed to be getting into groups for a seminar, she hadn't heard what the task was but headed to her assigned table in hopes of finding out when she got there. As she got closer she could hear that they were already chatting about something. "What? You're telling me you never ate a burger before you came to Erudite?" "No. My mum thinks they're gross. Plus I was Abnegation remember?"
Beatrice stopped dead, shoes screeching on the polished floor.
She didn't finish her approach to the group at that moment. Nor did she ever ask about the task, she was still oblivious to what it was when the seminar finished.
Muscle memory led her to the stairwell and up to Jeanine's penthouse and her lungs were seemingly immune to the strain as she took the stairs two at a time. She was so fast in fact that she arrived too early and was greeted only by a locked door and the potted tree that lived on the landing. She sat on the floor and leant up against the ceramic pot, tapping her feet on the ground as she waited.
Jeanine arrived soon after, almost dropping her things when she saw Beatrice and quickly sank to the floor to sit by her when she found she couldn't stop her ideas bursting out of her head. They stayed there and she knew Jeanine's skirt would be ruined but she couldn't think about moving until she'd finished explaining her plan.
"And to pull it all off we're first going to need to speak to my parents."
It was so brilliant that Jeanine didn't know what to say. Her mouth just opened and closed like it was simply an air vent. She pulled Beatrice into a tight hug and planted a half-kiss half-grin on her lips before standing up and letting them both in so they could begin finalising details of the plan.
The end is getting close now! I've got most of it written already but the 'meeting the parents' scene is killlling me so it'll be back to the usual slower updates after this chapter whilst I work out how that scene is going to happen. This whole thing could probably do with a re-write at some point in the future to fix the jumpy timeline but hopefully the pacing isn't too haywire for now (I'm trying my best haha). -x