CHAPTER NINETEEN

TOBIAS POV

I walk into the tattoo parlour and see that Tori is free. I have a few minutes before I have to meet Zeke for dinner and I want to talk to her about doing some work on my bag. I only have light scarring on my back from where Marcus used his belt all those years ago. I hate to think what my back would look like if I hadn't been able to leave that house.

"Hi Tori," I say as I walk over to her station.

"Four, how are you?"

"Good," I say. But there isn't much conviction in my voice. It has been a long day and I still have a lot to think about.

"You don't sound it," she says. "Leadership training that good hey?"

I shrug my shoulders. I don't need the wrong person hearing me and you never know who is hiding within the tattoo parlour.

"What can I do for you?"

"I need a tattoo."

"Obviously, otherwise you wouldn't be here," she says.

I ignore her sarcasm. "You had a drawing in your apartment when we walked through a few weeks ago. It was of all the faction symbols together. Still have it?"

"You weren't supposed to see that," she says.

I know I wasn't supposed to see it, why that drawing isn't something she wants made public. It suggests leanings toward other factions instead of asserting Dauntless supremacy, like her tattoos are supposed to. But isn't that what the leaders are doing? Falling in line with whatever Jeanine and Erudite want.

"That's sort of the point," I say. "I want that tattoo."

If I am able to get through this training I want to be able to bring qualities of all five factions into my way of thinking.

Tori looks around, her eyes jumping up to the camera in the corner, one I noticed when I walked in. She is the type who notices cameras, too.

"It was just a stupid drawing," she says loudly. "Come on, you're clearly upset—we can talk about it, find something better for you to get."

She beckons me to the back of the parlour, through the storage room behind it, and into her apartment. We walk through the dilapidated kitchen to the living room, where her drawings are still stacked on the coffee table.

She sorts through the pages until she finds a drawing like the one I was talking about, the Dauntless flames being cupped by Abnegation hands, the Amity tree roots growing beneath an Erudite eye, which is balance under the Candor scales. All the faction symbols stacked on top of each other. She holds it up, and I nod.

"I can't do this in a place that people will see all the time," she says. "That'll make you a walking target. A suspected faction traitor."

"I want it on my back," I say.

"Four, what if you take your shirt off? How much off your back are we talking?"

I lift my shirt off and show her exactly why I want my back covered. It isn't that noticeable unless you are paying close attention to it. But of course Tori has a keen eye for details.

"Four let me design something for you. I will find a way to incorporate all the factions for you. A design that will hide your scars and still be able to be visible from a distance."

"Okay, thanks Tori."

"Whatever I come up with is going to take a long time. Several sessions. We'll have to do them in here, after hours because I'm not going to let the cameras catch it, even if it will be discreet."

"Fine," I say.

"Come by tomorrow morning before work. I should have something you approve of by then. We can get started then."

I am walking toward another day of leadership training. How long before Max decides to just give the position to Eric? The thought makes me sick. I just hope I can stick this out long enough for the leaders to decide that I am the better choice than Eric.

I went to see Tori this morning and she has come up with an amazing design for my back. I will have the Dauntless flames from the Dauntless symbol covering my back with extra flames to reach around my torso and to extend up to my hair line on my neck. Within the flames the five faction's symbols will be incorporated. The faction's symbols are only really noticeable if you study my back, except for the Abnegation and Dauntless symbols, which will be larger than the others, because they are the faction I chose and the faction I was born in.

I walk into the conference room and find that I am the last to arrive. I quickly take a seat and hope that I'm not late. I don't want to look at my watch as that will bring attention to Max of my tardiness this morning. I was busy talking to Tori about the tattoo, but I don't think that will be a good excuse for why I am last to arrive.

"Today I would like to hear your thoughts about how to improve Dauntless—the vision you have for our faction in the coming years," he says. "I'll be meeting with you in groups by age, the oldest first. The rest of you, think of something good to say."

He leaves with the three oldest candidates. Eric is right across from me, and I notice that he has even more metal in his face than the last time I say him—now there are rings through his eyebrows, soon he's going to look more like a pincushion than a human being. Maybe that's the point—strategy. No one looking at him now could ever mistake him for being Erudite.

I watch as the candidates file out as they're called. I wonder why everyone is still being interviewed if they have the number down to six. Are they hoping that we will just drop out? Naturally making it easier to give Jeanine what she wants. I'm sure Eric will want to be the last man standing. Eventually we are the only two left. Max makes his way down the hallway, then beckons for us from the door, without a word. We follow him back to his office, which I recognize from yesterday's footage of his meeting with Jeanine Matthews. I use my memory of that conversation to steel myself against what's coming next.

"Eric, let's begin with you," Max says. "Do you have ideas for what might be good for Dauntless, moving forward?"

"I do." Eric sits up. "I think we need to make some changes, and I think they should start during initiation."

"What kind of changes do you have in mind?"

"Dauntless has always embraced a spirit of competition," Eric says. "Competition makes us better: it brings out the best, strongest parts of us. I think initiation should foster that sense of competition more than it currently does, so that it produces the best initiates possible. Right now initiates are competing only against the system, striving for a particular score in order to move forward. I think they should be competing against each other for spots in Dauntless."

I can't help it; I turn and stare at him. A limited number of spots? In a faction? After just two weeks of initiation training?

"And if they don't get a spot?"

"They become factionless," Eric says. I swallow a derisive laugh. Eric continues, "If we believe that Dauntless truly is the superior faction to join, that its aims are more important than the aims of other factions, then becoming one of us should be an honour and a privilege, not a right."

"Are you kidding?" I say, unable to contain myself any longer. "People choose a faction because they're already proficient in what a faction teaches. You'd be kicking people out of Dauntless just for not being strong enough to jump on a train or win a fight. You would favour the big, strong, and reckless more than the small, smart, and brave—you wouldn't be improving Dauntless at all."

"I'm sure the small, smart ones would be better off in Erudite, or as little grey-clad Stiffs," Eric says with a wry smile. "And I don't think you're giving our potential new Dauntless members enough credit, Four. This system would favour only the most determined."

I glance at Max, I expect him to look unimpressed by Eric's plan, but he doesn't. He's leaning forward, focused on Eric's pierced face like something about it has inspired him.

"This is an interesting debate," Max says. "Four, how would you improve Dauntless, if not by making initiation more competitive?"

"We need to look a bit further down the track than just at initiation training. We have more deaths than any other faction, especially with the number of accidents that occur each year from members being reckless. If we limit the number of members we are not going to have enough people to fill the jobs they are no longer here to do. Initiation is only two weeks. It needs to be extended, we need to give the initiates time to adjust. We only give the top five the choice of job they will be doing." I say.

"Once the members pick their jobs, with how it stands now, they don't get any further training. We need them to be training all the time. How often do you think the cleaning crew practise their shooting skills? Not everyone is motivated to keep up their proficiencies in what they learnt when they went through initiation. How many people get the opportunity to advance into a better job after they have chosen what they want to do? If we were attacked tomorrow, how many people who work in the compound would actually be able to defend it."

"I think Eric is thinking on to small of a scale. Initiation is such a small part of life here in Dauntless. We need to focus on every member. We need to encourage our members to work together as one, not try to tear each other apart to get ahead. We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another. Isn't that what is in our manifesto? If we take what Eric wants on board than we may as well be tearing up the manifesto. Because it won't mean a damn thing."

I have so much else I would like to say but I know I have to be careful. I can't let Max know that I know about his meetings with Jeanine. As much as I would like to tell him that he has already started tearing up the manifesto with his behaviour, I know I need to give him the benefit of the doubt. He did ask mum and dad to encourage me to become leader and he did tell Jeanine he hates Eric. Or I am assuming he was talking about Eric. I can only hope that he isn't going to work with Jeanine, that if we can drive Eric out of leadership training that it will drive Jeanine back to Erudite and away from the manipulation our faction.

"Well I think you have both brought some very interesting ideas to the table," Max says. "I think these are ideas that warrant further discussion. I believe the other leaders will be interested not only what you have both said today but also what some of our other candidates have said. You will both be given the next few days off. I will be announcing on Friday who is to continue on with leadership training and for the ones who don't make the cut. Well we will need to find you other jobs around the compound. So start thinking of what job you may like to do. It doesn't mean either of you haven't made it to the next round but it will make my job simpler if you have an idea of what you would like."

"Now if you do make it to the next round you will find yourselves extremely busy. The candidates that are successful will be shadowing each leader for a number of weeks. It will give us a chance to see if your personalities fit within leadership. You will also need to go through a more exhaustive training regime than the one you just had in initiation. Our leaders need to be the best. The best fighters, the best shooters, the best at everything. No exception. I don't think either of you will have any trouble with being the best, you have both shown throughout initiation how competitive you are and at this stage that has you both at an advantage."

"Hopefully you will both see me on Friday. If not, I will have a list of available jobs given to you and I will need an answer by Monday. Use this time wisely," Max says.

Of course they will be watching us. To see how we use this down time. It will be good to be able to go to the training room, take my mind off everything that has been happening. Plus, if I am going to beat Eric to the leadership position, I know I am going to have to continue to become stronger physically. Just because I beat him in our one and only fight doesn't mean that will happen again. I know how much Eric hates to lose and I am sure he is just waiting for a chance to reverse the decision.

"So Friday is the day!" Shauna says.

"Yeah."

She and I are sitting next to the chasm with our feet over the edge. I rest my head against the bars of the metal barrier that's keeping us from falling to our deaths, and feel the spray of water against my ankles as one of the larger waves hits a wall. I told her about what has been happening in leadership training.

"So are you nervous?"

"Not really. I'm either in or I'm out. There is still so much to learn either way," I say.

"True," she says.

"Where's Zeke?"

"I don't know," she says. "I haven't wanted to hang out with him much recently.

I look sideways at her. "You could just tell him that you like him, you now. I honestly don't think he has a clue."

"That's obvious," she says, snorting. "But what if this is what he wants—to just bounce around from girl to girl for a while? I don't want to be one of those girls he bounces to."

"I seriously doubt you would be," I say, "but fair enough."

We sit quietly for a few seconds, both of us staring down at the raging water below.

"There you are," Zeke says from behind us. He's carrying a large bottle full of some kind of brown liquid, holding it by the neck, "Come on. I found something."

Shauna and I look at each other and shrug, then follow him to the doors on the other side of the Pit, the ones we first went through after jumping into the net. But instead of leading us toward the net, he takes us through another door—the lock is taped down with duct tape—and down a pitch-black corridor and a flight of stairs.

"Should be coming up—ouch!"

"Sorry, I didn't know you were stopping," Shauna says.

"Hold on, almost got it—"

He opens a door, letting faint light in so we can see where we are. We're on the other side of the chasm, several feet above the water. Above us, the Pit seems to go on forever, and the people milling around near the railing are small and dark, impossible to distinguish from this distance.

"How did you find this place?" Shauna asks with obvious wonder as she jumps down onto one of the lower rocks. Now that I'm here, I see a path that would carry us up and across the wall, if we wanted to walk to the other side of the chasm.

"That girl Maria," Zeke says. "Her mum works in chasm maintenance. I didn't know there was such a thing, but apparently there is."

"You still seeing her?" Shauna asks, trying to be casual.

"Nah," Zeke says. "Every time I was with her I just kept getting the itch to be with friends instead. That's not a good sign, right?"

"No," Shauna agrees, and she seems more cheerful than before.

I lower myself more carefully onto the rock Shauna is standing on. Zeke sits next to her, opening his bottle and passing it around. We sit here and share Zeke's bottle and talk about how our jobs are going. From what they are telling me it sounds like I have the most interesting of jobs, for the moment. Part of me can't wait for Friday but another part of me is dreading what will be decided. I am still undecided to whether I am leader material but I do think I am a better candidate than Eric will ever be.