Jeanine holds up a syringe full of purple liquid. "This is how I will neutralize the Divergent," she says, tapping the glass with her fingernail. "Ms. Prior showed me the way – she's been under the simulation for three days now, with no sign that she will ever be able to escape from it."
Jeanine nods to the guards behind me and steps closer. "Now I just need to verify it will work on another Divergent – you, obviously, Mr. Eaton."
She's not laughing now. "Mr. Prior, if you please, explain to Mr. Eaton why we need to test the serum on him, too"
"It's good science," he mumbles keeping his eyes on the floor between us. "We have to make sure the results of a clinical trial are repeatable."
"Put him there," Jeanine orders the Dauntless, pointing to a metal chair with leather straps on the arms and legs. Wires are draped over the collar on the headrest.
I try to stall some more.
"What will you do with us, once you know if it works?"
Jeanine shrugs. "We will execute you, of course. You knew that." She looks at the guards, her eyes sliding over them, as though they are not worth the time it would take to look at them directly. "Are you having trouble understanding my orders?" she says flatly. "Put him in the chair now."
"Lady," says my jailer, "we're Dauntless, and we don't take orders from anyone."
The knife in his hand appears so quickly I don't even see where it came from, and he grabs Jeanine. He is not a tall man – in fact, Jeanine is nearly his height. But he is broad-shouldered and powerfully built and easily twists her arms behind her with one hand, holding the blade to her throat with the other. The other guards aim their guns at the Erudite, yelling at them to lie face down on the floor.
With the gun now in my hand, I rush closer to the metal table and lean over Tris. The heartbeat I can hear is hers, amplified by a cable taped to her chest.
"Release me this instance!" Jeanine shrieks. "This is not what we agreed to!"
"No it's not," my guard agrees smoothly, regarding her without emotion. "We agreed to help you save the factions and rule the city. We never agreed to put you in charge of everything, including who lives and who dies."
"Really? Leo, isn't it? Jeanine says shrewdly, now deadly calm. "You didn't seem to mind so much when it meant killing Abnegation, did you, Leo? Or when Max put you in charge of turning your own faction into mindless assassins?"
"Not, mind you," Jeanine snorts, "that you were ever much more than that in the first place."
I look up at the man who now has a name, Leo, startled that he might have been more than just another guard. He is a little older than the other traitors, with a tan face and wary eyes, a little gray showing in the tight curls at his temple. He looks grimly at me, and I'm not sure if I see regret or an apology shadowed in his face, but I can definitely see blood oozing from under the knife blade and his knuckles are white.
"Leo," I say quietly, resting one hand on Tris's forehead, the other pointing the gun at Jeanine's head. "We need Jeanine's vocal chords to be intact - we're going to want to make her talk, at some point." I nod at her throat.
He looks down at the blood running into her silk blue blouse in surprise and relaxes his hand a little.
"But we sure don't need her to talk right now - I suggest you gag her and get these people out of here."
He nods back at me briskly.
"You can't save her!" Jeanine shouts at me before Leo can find a cloth to stuff into her mouth.
"Always wanted to shut her up," he mutters, with a half smile at me.
