Life during a war
Chapter 6: Plans
"I can't believe you didn't tell us." Lynn says, shaking her head. She sits across from me at the table, her arms crossed and one of her legs propped up.
"Oh, don't get all huffy about it." Zeke says. Him and Tori arrived a little while ago. "I wasn't even supposed to tell Shauna and Uriah. And it sort of defeats the purpose of being a spy if you tell everyone that's what you are."
Christina, Will, Uriah, Lynn, Shauna, Marlene, Zeke and I are sitting in a room in Candor headquarters called the gathering place.
"Yeah, but we've been insulting you since the simulation attack and now I feel like a jerk about it." Lynn says.
"You are a jerk, Lynn. It's part of your charm." Zeke says as he puts an arm around Shauna.
Lynn launches a plastic cup at him, which he deflects. Water sprays over the table, hitting him in the eye.
"Anyways, as I was saying, I was mostly working on getting the Erudite defectors out safely. That's why there's a big group of them here, and a small group at Amity headquarters. But Tori… I have no idea what she was doing. She kept sneaking away for hours at a time, and whenever she was around, it was like she was about to explode. It's no wonder she gave us away." Zeke says.
"How'd you get the job? You're not that special." Lynn says.
"It was more because of where I was after the attack simulation. Smack-dab in a pack of Dauntless traitors. I decided to go with it. Not sure about Tori, though." Zeke says.
"She transferred from Erudite." I say.
"Oh, how do you know that?" Zeke asks.
"Well, all the faction transfers have a secret club. We meet every third Thursday." I say. Zeke snorts.
"Where's Four? Should we start without him?" Uriah asks.
"We can't, he's getting The Info." Zeke says.
Uriah nods like it means something. Then he pauses and says. "What info, again?"
"The info about Kang's little peacemaking meeting with Jeanine, obviously." Zeke answers.
That's when I feel like I'm going to throw up. I get up and rush to the trash can by the door of the room and puke into it. I feel a warm hand on my back, rubbing circles on it. When I'm done I look up to find Christina holding a glass of water out to me. I take it and drink some. "Thank you." I say.
"No problem. Are you done?" She asks.
"Yeah." I say. We walk back to the table and Zeke looks at me, worried. I haven't told him about the baby yet, neither has Tobias.
"Are you all right, Tris?" Zeke asks me.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I say.
"She's more than fine." Uriah says with a huge smile on his face. "She's pregnant." He adds and Zeke looks at me, shocked.
"Is-is it Four's?" Zeke asks.
"Yeah." I say.
Zeke gets up and embraces me. "I'm going to be an uncle!" He yells excitedly.
"No you're not Zeke. You would, however, be an uncle if Uriah got someone pregnant." Lynn says.
"Shut up Lynn. You know that Four and I are like brothers. He even told me his real name." Zeke says.
"Everyone knows his real name now." Lynn says.
"Yeah, but I knew it before any of you did." Zeke says.
Not long later Tobias arrives. He sits next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.
"Congratulations daddy!" Zeke yells.
"Thank you, Zeke. Anyway, Kang is going to meet with a representative of Jeanine at seven in the morning." Tobias says.
"A representative? She's not going by herself?" Zeke asks.
"Yeah, and stand out in the open where a bunch of angry people with guns can take aim?" Uriah smirks. "I'd like to see her try. No, really, I would."
"Is Kang the Brilliant taking a Dauntless escort, at least?" Lynn asks.
"Yes, some of the older members volunteered. Bud said he would keep his ears open and report back." Tobias answers.
"So I guess the real question is, if you were Erudite, what would you say at this meeting?" Zeke asks.
They all look at me, expectantly.
"What? Why not look at Will instead? He's full Erudite." I say.
"You're Divergent." Zeke says.
"So is Tobias." I state.
"Yeah, but he doesn't have aptitude for Erudite, you do."
"And how do you know I do?"
Zeke lifts his shoulder. "Seems likely. Doesn't it seem likely?"
Uriah and Lynn nod along with Christina and Will.
"You all have functional brains, last time I checked." I say. "You can think like the Erudite, too, if you tried."
"But we don't have special Divergent brains!" Marlene says. "Come on, do your magic."
"There's no such thing as Divergent magic, Mar." Lynn says.
"And if there is, we shouldn't be consulting it." Shauna says.
"Shauna-" Zeke starts.
"Don't Shauna me." She says. "Don't you think someone with the aptitude for multiple factions might have a loyalty problem? If she's got aptitude for Erudite, how can we be sure she's not working for Erudite?" Shauna says.
"Don't be ridiculous." Tobias says.
"I am not being ridiculous. I know I belong in Dauntless because everything I did in that aptitude test told me so. I'm loyal to my faction for that reason-because there's nowhere else I could possibly be. But her? And you? I have no idea who you're loyal to. And I'm not going to pretend like everything's okay." She gets up and leaves.
"Sorry about that." Zeke says.
"Don't worry." I say. "It's fine."
"It's not fine; she shouldn't have spoken to you like that. Especially when you're pregnant during a war. You need as many friends as you can get." Zeke says.
"I'm fine, Zeke. Honest. Anyway, it's not magic. You just have to ask yourself what the most logical response to a particular situation is."
I am greeted with blank stares, from everyone but Will.
"Seriously, if I were in this situation, staring at a group of Dauntless guards and Jack Kang, I probably wouldn't resort to violence, right?" I ask.
"Well, you might, if you had your own Dauntless guards. And then all it takes is one shot-bam, he's dead, and Erudite's better off." Zeke says.
"Whoever they send to talk to Kang isn't going to be some random Erudite kid; it's going to be someone important. It would be a stupid move to fire on Jack Kang and risk losing whoever they send as Jeanine's representative." I say.
"See? This is why we need you to analyse the situation. If it was me, I would kill him; it would be worth the risk." Zeke says.
"Fine." I say as I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"I think that Jeanine Matthews will manipulate him. And that he will do anything to protect his faction, even if it means sacrificing the Divergent." I pause. "Or sacrificing the Dauntless. So we need to hear what they say in that meeting." I say.
They all smile.
"So let's listen in." Lynn says.
"Except from you obviously. I don't want anything happening to you or the baby." Tobias says.
"None of us do." Christina says.
"Okay. I'll probably be too tired to do anything anyway. So after you could all meet me in the place where we sleep, by my bunk." I say.
"Okay, that's a plan." Will says.
"Just be careful. I don't want any of you to get hurt." I say.
"We'll be fine. We're Dauntless." Zeke says.
We sit there for hours talking and laughing about random things. Like what we're going to do when this whole war ends. We talk about the baby. We talk about anything and everything.
The entire time I think about how great it is to have these people as friends, how much I don't want to lose them, I can't lose them.
I hope this war ends soon.
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