Life during a war
Chapter 7: Meeting
I wake up to someone shaking me. I blink my eyes a few times to get used to the light in the room and find Tobias looking down at me, smiling. "Hey." I say.
I sit up and I see the rest of the gang gathered around our beds, even Shauna.
"Hey, we overheard the meeting between Jack Kang and Max." Tobias says.
"Max, as in Dauntless leader Max?" I ask.
"Yes. We found a recorder thingy and recorded it for you so you could hear it." He says as he takes what I'm guessing is the recorder out of his pocket.
"Let's hear it then." I say.
He presses play and I listen to the conversation carefully.
"Max, where's Jeanine? I thought she would have at least some courtesy to show up herself." Jack says.
"Jeanine and I divide our responsibilities according to our strengths. That means I make all military decisions. I believe that includes what we are doing today." Max says. I frown. I haven't heard Max speak much, but something about the words he's using, and their rhythm sounds… off.
"Fine, I came to-"
"I should inform you that this will not be a negotiation. In order to negotiate, you have to be on even footing, and you, Jack, are not."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you are the only disposable faction. Candor does not provide us with protection, sustenance, or technological innovation. Therefore you are expendable to us. And you have not done much to win favour of your Dauntless guests, so you are completely vulnerable and completely useless. I recommend, therefore that you do exactly as I say."
"You piece of scum. How dare-"
"Now let's not get testy." Max says, cutting his off again.
Something is wrong here. I know something is wrong.
No self-respecting Dauntless man would use the word 'testy'. Nor would he react so calmly to an insult.
He's speaking like someone else.
He's speaking like Jeanine.
Max had and earpiece. Meaning Jeanine was, at the most, a quarter of a mile away from him. Meaning she was in Candor.
"I have three requirements. First, that you return the Dauntless leader you currently hold in captivity unharmed. Second, that you allow your compound to be searched by our soldiers so that we can extract the Divergent; and third, that you provide us with the names of those who were not injected with the simulation serum."
"Why? What are you searching for? And why do you need those names? What do you intend to do with them?" Jack asks.
"The purpose of our search would be to locate and remove any Divergent from the premises. And as for the names, that is none of your concern."
"None of my concern!" Jack yells.
"Release me. Or I will order my guards to fire." Max says.
I frown. If Jeanine was speaking through Max she would have had to see him to know that he was grabbed. She must have been in one of the buildings near the area.
I hear a gunshot and a gasp and the recording finishes.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Lynn shot Max and we legged it." Tobias says.
"What are your thoughts on what you heard, Tris?" Christina asks.
"Jeanine was there, in a building near the marsh. Max had an earpiece in and Jeanine was telling him what to say. Jeanine was near because if she wasn't she wouldn't be able to tell Max what to say, and she wouldn't have known that Max was grabbed. I also think Jeanine was there because of what he was saying, he wouldn't have said testy and he wouldn't have acted calm to being insulted if Jeanine wasn't telling him what to say." I say.
"Where do you think she is now?" Marlene asks.
"She probably escaped when Max got shot." Will says.
"Yeah, she wouldn't have wanted to hang around any longer. She would have left and gone back to Erudite. She may have thought people were going to go after her or something. She wouldn't be here now." I say.
"Do you think Jack's going to do those three things?" Zeke asks.
"I don't know. She did insult his faction and make him feel weak, and cut him off a couple of times. I think he's going to do them, or at least try to do them so she doesn't insult him and his faction again. Though, someone could stop him. We get gather the loyal Dauntless together and discuss with them what we're going to do." I say.
"That's a good plan." Uriah says, the others nod.
"Okay." I say.
The others leave to go the various places, except from Tobias, and Shauna. Shauna walks over to Tobias and I.
"Tris, I'm sorry about yesterday. I'm just a little wary around Divergents." She says.
"It's okay, Shauna, I just hope you know that I'm loyal to Dauntless. I'm not going to do anything that will show you otherwise." I say.
"Okay. I'll see you guys later." She says.
"See you later." I say and she leaves us.
"How are you feeling?" Tobias asks me.
"Fine. A little nauseous, but I'll be fine." I say.
"Do you want to go and get something to eat?" He asks.
"Yeah, please." I say.
"Okay. I'll go and get you something." He says before kissing me and leaving the room.
…
After I had eaten I decided to get ready and go and see Tori. She told me some stuff about what she saw in Erudite and I told her about what Max told Jack. I also told her about the baby and she seemed happy for me and Tobias. She said she would call a meeting between the Dauntless.
So here we are.
The Dauntless gathered in the space between the rows of beds and the door, which is held shut by a tightly wrapped bed sheet. I have no doubt that Kang will agree to Jeanine's demands. We aren't safe here anymore.
"What were the terms?" Tori asks. She sits in a chair between a few beds, her wounded leg stuck out in front of her. She asks Tobias but he's too distracted to answer. He sits on our beds, next to me, his arm wrapped around me.
"There were three. Return Eric to Erudite, unharmed. Report the names of the people who didn't get shot with the needles last time. And deliver the Divergent to Erudite headquarters." I say.
I look at Marlene and she smiles at me, I smile back at her.
"If Jack Kang is making deals with the Erudite, we can't stay here. So where can we go?" Tori asks.
"Home." Tobias says. Everyone is listening. "We should take back what's ours. We can break the security cameras in Dauntless headquarters so the Erudite can't see us. We should go home." He says.
Someone assents with a shout, and someone else joins in. That is how things in Dauntless are decided: with nods and yells.
"But before we do that we need to decide what to do about Eric. To let him stay here with the Erudite, or to execute him." Bud says.
"Eric is Dauntless. That means we decide what happens to him. Not Candor." Lauren says.
"According to Dauntless law, only Dauntless leaders an perform an execution. All five of our leaders are Dauntless traitors. So I think it's time we pick new ones. The law says we need more than one, and we need an odd number. If you've got suggestions, you should shout them out now and we'll vote if we need to." Tori says.
"You!" Someone calls out.
"Okay, anyone else?" Tori asks.
"Tris!" Marlene calls out.
My heart pounds. Some people nod, including my friends and Tobias.
"Harrison!" Someone says.
"I'm going to nominate Four." Tori says.
No one disagrees.
"We only need three leaders. We'll have to vote." Tori says.
"No." I say. I clear my throat and say it louder. "No, you don't have to vote. I refuse my nomination."
"Are you sure Tris?" Tori asks me as she raises her eyebrows.
"Yes, I don't want it. I'm sure. Right now I think I'm just going to focus on making sure my baby is okay." I say.
And then, without argument and without ceremony, Tobias is elected to be a leader of Dauntless. And I am not. But I don't mind. I don't want to be busy making sure every other Dauntless member is okay when I should be taking care of myself and my baby. I also know Tobias would rather me look after myself then be a leader. So I'm okay with it.
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