A/N: Sorry for taking so long with this update! I've been so so so busy! I will try to update more regularly, a few times a week. I like to write the next chapter as I'm publishing another one so I always have content to post, but I haven't had the time to sit down and write or post. If you have any suggestions, please write them in the reviews! Also, thanks so so SO much for following, favorite-ing, and writing those nice reviews. It means so much that someone actually sits down and reads my fanfics! Anyway, sorry for rambling on, and enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer- I do not own any of the content or characters. All rights go to Veronica Roth.
I walk into the control room; I've only been here a few times, to work for a hungover Zeke. The room is dimly lit, with several computers lined on several desks. The room is silent except for the humming of the computers and the clicks of the keyboards. I walk to Zeke's computer, in the far corner, away from everyone. He told me he sits here so he can snack and play games on his phone without getting caught. I put on his headset and log in using his account.
Username: Zeke_Pedrad69
Password: beeranddauntlesscake
I grin at the password as it signs in, and then I watch the security footage. A few seconds of one area of the compound then onto another area, in a constant cycle. I watch it for a while, not seeing anything out of the ordinary, fights in the pit, people spitting into the chasm, my initiates, Tobias, Christina, Will and Al, wandering around, trying to figure out where everything is.
After about a half hour of cycling and repeating footage, I decide to pick around with the systems files, uncover secrets only the brain-numbed control room workers know. From where I sit, no one can see what is on my screen unless they were right behind me, and if that happens I can just flick up the security footage again. I pick around for a good forty minutes, with nothing too special. I see a file called, "System control settings". I open it, to see at least a dozen of other files with complex names I hardly understand. One by one, I open them, revealing codes for resetting the system, deleting footage, creating new camera angles, and other seemingly boring stuff. Deep into the computers files, I notice an un-named folder, looking like it was created by accident. I click on it to delete it, but inside is five more blank files, and each of those files contain five more a bunch of other files, and so on. Something must be hidden within these files. I begin clicking like a mad woman. Trying every combination every which way, for god knows how long. After what feels like millions of files later, folder named, "ErDa6294". So, of course, I click on it. What reveals are documents named "InvAsion start times", "gun Blueprints", "Simulation serum iNformation", war plans, no all contain the Erudite symbol in the corner of the pages. Erudite? Why is Erudite planning a war? Why with Dauntless? War on whom? In confusion, I try to print off the files, but a window pops up: "YOU MUST TYPE IN PASSWORD BEFORE THIS ACTION CAN BE PROCESSED." And a blank text box appears below it. Think, think! If I get it wrong, someone will probably be alerted, but I need to understand what is in this file, it could save lives. I take a closer look at the file names, there in one capital letter in each of the names. A, B, N, T, G, I, E, A, N, O. If I unscramble the words, it just might work. I scan them over and over, there's something familiar about the pattern. Almost as if it's- ABNEGATION! THAT'S THE CODE! Wait, war on Abnegation? I cross my fingers and type it in, if it fails I'll be killed, if it works I can save lives. I close my eyes and press enter. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead. I hear the printer working. I open my eyes to "PASSWORD ACCEPTED" on the screen. I sigh heavily and I'm so relieved I might cry. I'll look at them in the privacy of my apartment later, too overwhelmed to make sense of it now.
I pull up the security footage and walk up to the printer to grab the papers, hopefully no one reads them before I get up there. I can never be that lucky though. Bronson, Zeke's boss, catches a glimpse of them before I grab them.
"Whatcha got there, Six?" He says. I internally curse myself, racking my brain for a believable lie.
"It's for Max." I say smoothly, hopefully it's convincible. "I told him I was working a shift for Zeke and he gave me some files to print off for him. Something about the fact that I'm not there often and I won't have time to snoop around in these files. He said, 'locate them, print them, then get out.'" I cross my fingers behind my back and hope he bought it. He has to buy it.
He looks at me critically for a few seconds then says, "Whatever, get back to work." Relief floods through me as I walk back to the computer with the papers. I can't believe I got away with that. Now I just have to figure out what it all means.