Marin was not with the group by the time everyone went out. The assumption was she was still in the infirmary, as it should have been. I know better. Amar may have as well. It was no secret with the leaders about the push to filter out the Divergent. I have a theory many of the factionless are, but living as scraps of human existence make them almost controllable. Abnegation filling a void for them as it is a virtue of their role in society, does make it tougher to divide and conquer. The factionless wont bite the hand that feeds them, so the best thing is to topple the source and see the ripple effect play out on it's own. What's worse for a mother, watching her kids starve or getting a bullet through the kids head, its a choice, and I may have to make it for her. For those that think the leadership title is about shift rotation and keeping order, little do they think of how it stays in order, how things appear.
Jeanine will finish the missing piece that will restore order. A tool for Dauntless, I saw as an intern with all its prospects, its ability to thwart an uprising, to shift masses of soldiers without delay. Restore order, enhance protection. Sure, some can interpret it as pushing to boundaries of the Dauntless creed. But you can say that about almost every advancement of medicine as well; does curing disease go against nature? Disease is a fault of nature, we are eradicating a disease of human nature; rebellion and lawlessness.
We head to Erudite headquarters, Max and I took off early. Amar has my group with his for conditioning, Jen jumped in to help with volume. They should still be exhausted from what was thrown at them the day before, making them easier to control. I expect a few will be missing when we get back, as this day does flush out some of the weak. And the idea of skipping a 10 mile run is almost making me giddy.
Riding a train car with only one other person makes for awkward silence, Max deep in thought with whatever he dealing with, I'm lost in my own thoughts of a conversation heavy with questions I was never ready to answer, of things just excepted without thought. Growing old in Dauntless is never part of the plan, its something no one ever asks about. I've never thought about after, just now, maybe a year from now, but never any further. I never thought about how I would die, if I lived to choose it, would it be dignified. Would I be mourned, would my parents outlive me? Would it be painless?
"Wait any longer and I'll be scrapping you off the wall, snap out of it!"
I almost miss the window, Max leads off, his long coat catches the wind, gliding in flight, landing in a slide with a perfect step off. I still can never make it look as effortless. I look fledgling, as a flightless bird. I am suddenly aware of the many Erudite eyes watching us walk into the tower, the white walls and bright lights in stark contrast the Pit. Its almost painful. I look down and see the fraying in the knees in my pants, new cuts in my knuckles I must have gotten numb to getting. The white walls, a world I never could have been a part of. We are supposed to shed the name the minute we cross over, but every now and again the idea of being elsewhere, wearing different clothes, living a different life, I could have never seen myself elsewhere except Dauntless.
"Today, both of you can test out the new enhancements that were changed." She saves time without the niceties, the formality of introductions. Her assistants stand at a distance to escape her quick movements. The lab can be dangerous on its own, Jeanine in a fury, even more so. A subject behind glass, strapped to a vertical table, awake, seemingly aware, but a blank stare tells me otherwise. "This is with a stronger serum with tags, it delivers a pulse that disturbs the waves center of the brain that deciphers personal choice as well as a hypnotic response and control message. It bypasses a need to constantly need reinjections, the tags are in constant contact with the main hub."
"We had the problem with response, they still need to be fully trained to know how to follow through?" I cut off her sales pitch, getting right down to the reason we were forced to make the trip.
"Yes, predetermined skill and training is the underlying basis, I can't ask a farmer to perform surgery with suggestion. That was never the flaw."
"I want to see it," Max stares through the glass, with as much anticipation as me. "If Eric and Amar can train this next batch on schedule, we may have a test class, once it is determined it is ready to go."
Jeanine hits a few commends into the central terminal, guards enter the glass room, unstrap the boy. He is thin, but clean, his hair shaggy. His gaunt face has more than a few scars, burns are where tattoos would be on his arms. I could tell he was rounded up from the factionless, but I could have pegged him for a Dauntless trainee.
"This one is already engaged, he will respond to a programmed sequence," she gestures to guards who force an elderly factionless man into the glass room. He is bound at the wrists, barefoot, clothes thin and patched. His beard salt and peppered, made his eyes stand out, and those seemed to have given up on living long ago. He stays in a heap the guards threw him in. He makes eye contact with me, I can't look away.
"You are all heathens, soulless murderers." He looks to the boy, raises up to his knees, and tips his head down. He knows what's coming, not how, but that he will never see another day. I don't feel sorry for him. The boy finally moves, swiftly goes for head and with a twist, the old man is back into a heap, his eyes without light. The boy still stands at attention, waiting for another command.
"First, there is no rejection of command. He can stay engaged for up to 2 days, we haven't pushed into 72 hours without rest, but I feel longer deployments can be established." She is satisfied, sends the guards in to retrieve the body, the boy remains emotionless. "Second, we are seeing more and more defense skills amongst the factionless."
"I see that as well. I can tell someone is training the same as Dauntless hand to hand combat. That was not learned in alley squabbles. They must be organizing."
"You are right Eric, when Abnegation took away control of the factionless, I had suspected this would happen. I never thought them to be helpless. This shows training, layers of skills. They must have someone who defected," Jeanine looks deep into the glass room, I can tell this isn't a triumph, but a needed answer to a much larger puzzle.
"Interrogate him, truth serum.." Max gets interrupted.
"He fought it, no matter what we did. I didn't want to kill him. You needed to see his skills, he has many."
"Hand to hand, knife, evasion," I could list more.
She looks hard at me, "Yes". We all pause.
"Someone is building an rebellion" Max looks my way, shocked by the words that came out of my mouth.
"This doesn't mean we start a war with gunless street rats. We need to infiltrate first, find the source, put the flame out," Max telling Jeanine, she looks to not like being ordered.
"I agree, I want to have our defense ready if it escalates. I want 5 of your trained initiate class, when they are ready. I will let you choose Eric, who they are. You can program further skills and responses as you see fit, for the testing group."
"Yes Jeanine, I will have them ready."
"I will to add patrols, don't tell Abnegation. They are eluding surveillance." Wheels were turning in his head, I can see him chipping away at layers, and this one boy behind the glass was luck to find him.
"I believe the Abnegation knows more than they let on. I want them dismantled, publically. We need to gain control..."
"Time, Jeanine. This will take time." Max cuts her off, she changes her stance, almost defensive. She pauses, gathering her thoughts, not expecting him to control the conversation.
"You are right. Three things have to happen. Abnegation needs to loose control of the government, we need to find who is behind this factionless training, and for what they are training for, and Eric, you need to ready your class in response to this." She turns away not allowing Max to add to her manifesto, back to the terminal. "There is a flaw, if you could call it one, it will not work on Divergents, but I see it as a cleansing mechanism." She turns to me with a renewed look of confidence. "I'm working on something different for them. Keep sending them my way."
"I had no other plans, Jeanine".
"We need to go." Max turns and begins to leave, expecting me to follow. I simply nod, and she in return. As we leave the lab I hear screaming from the glass room, the boy now in his own mind, realizing what he did. Back on the train I watch kids of the factionless play in the empty rivers, without fear, one could say carefree. I see them now so differently, in one train ride. Instead of outcasts, insurgents following an iconoclast faceless leader, devising and corrupting in the shadows. A toxic wave I need to stop.
"Eric, has Amar been helping you with fear simulations? I had a report he logged in to view Marin's stream. I found it odd he would be interested." Alone on the train again, better for private conversation, especially ones likes these.
"No, just Jen. He was pissed during spars when I paired her with Tifft. I pegged her out for Jeanine, she hit 3 of the 5 traits and closed her fears extremely fast. I have no clue how she didn't get marked on the aptitude test."
"Is he becoming a sympathizer?"
"I'll watch him. It will be easier when he starts his group in the fear simulations." I already have my suspicions.
"Keep what we saw today to ourselves. I'm getting pressure from inside as well about changes to Dauntless. They don't see it as progress," Max turns away, looking deep into the horizon, the fence always constant in view.
"To many holding onto the way things were, before Dauntless lost control over the factionless,"
"They are forgetting what it meant to have it. No one knows about what we saw today, the idea factionless are being trained. That will lead to too many questions."
"I know what I need to do."