CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
TOBIAS POV
"Zeke," I call out as I see him walking across the Pit.
"Four," Zeke says. "What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure. I need your help," I say.
"Anything you need, you know that," he says.
"Okay can you come with me?" I ask.
"Sure," he says.
Zeke follow me to my apartment. I scan my hand on the scanner and then press the buttons I need to be able to have Zeke use his hand print to enter my apartment. I make Zeke scan his hand then test it to make sure that it has worked.
"Dude, what is going on?" Zeke asks.
"Just wait a minute," I say.
We walk in the apartment and I go and grab some beers from the fridge and we sit on the lounges. "I need to ask a really huge favour," I say.
"Okay," Zeke says. He sounds worried. I can't blame him. I never invite people to my home and now I have given him full access to it.
"I have to take the initiates to Erudite on Monday," I say.
"What for?"
"Jeanine Matthews has invited them. She is up to something and I'm not sure what it is. So, Max has told me to take the group so that we may be able to find out what is going on," I say.
"Anyway I got an email from someone. I'm not sure what is going on exactly but I think Caleb is in trouble," I say.
"Caleb? As in Tris's brother?"
"Yes," I say.
"So what do you need?" he asks.
"I need you to be in Erudite when we are there. But you can't be seen by Eric or any of the initiates. I need you to try and find Caleb for me. If he is in trouble then I need you to smuggle him out of Erudite and bring him back here to my place," I say.
"How the hell am I supposed to find him?" Zeke asks.
"I think he will try to contact Tris while we are at Erudite. If he is in trouble then he will try and get a message to me," I say.
"I will give you some extra Dauntless clothes to take with you. Have him change clothes and follow you out. No one will take any notice because we have twenty initiates walking around," I say.
"That shouldn't be too hard then," he says.
"There is also something else I need you to do. Remember we had that device made so that we could click a button and it would disable the feed to the security cameras?"
"Yeah, I've always wanted to try it out while I was working," he says.
"Well here is your chance. I need you to use the device while you are in Erudite. I can't have any video footage of him talking to you or leaving the building. I have organised with Gus to have the cameras in the leaders wing serviced Monday afternoon. That way no one will see you coming here when you bring him back," I say.
"What if the message wasn't from Caleb?"
"Then if he tells you he is safe, leave him there. No one will know about it and we can go back to our normal lives," I say.
"How am I going to stay close enough that I don't get seen by someone I know?" he asks.
"Zeke you will be fine. If Caleb does try to contact Tris I will have a diversion set up so you can follow him. Now here is a picture of Caleb. Keep it with you. I don't need you trying to smuggle the wrong person out of there," I say.
Zeke starts laughing. "It would be pretty funny if I did. Lucky the cameras will be off while we are doing this, I would hate to think what the person would do if it was the wrong person."
I can't help but laugh with him. I could just imagine Zeke scaring the crap out of some poor Erudite guy who has no idea what is going on and can't understand why this Dauntless is trying to get him to change clothes and go with him.
"Now, one more thing, and if you tell anyone what I am about to say, well I will kill you," I say.
"Geez Four, that's a bit harsh," Zeke says.
"The only way I can think that Caleb will trust you is to tell him that Tobias sent you," I say.
"Who the hell is Tobias?" Zeke says looking totally confused.
I glare at Zeke and raise my eyebrow.
"Holy shit. That's you!," Zeke says. I nod. "I knew that. From the Choosing Ceremony. It caused a big stink when you chose Dauntless. Wow, I had forgotten all about all of that. Okay I will not breathe a word of this to anyone. I suppose I don't have to ask you what your name is when we play Candor or Dauntless anymore."
"That's good. Maybe I can keep my shirt on for a few more rounds from now on. But if anyone asks you the question," I say.
'Yeah, yeah I know. Bottom of the chasm for me. I suppose I will have to start wearing layers," he says.
"If you don't tell them you know then they won't ask you," I say.
"True. I didn't think of that."
I just shake my head. I hope this plan works.
We jump off the train and make our way into the Erudite building. It is so cold and sterile compared to Dauntless. Everything is white and there are bright lights everywhere. I suppose they don't want their members having any eye strain with all the study they are expected to do.
We are in the foyer and we are getting a lot of strange looks from the people in blue. It makes me remember when I went through initiation and Amar had the dare to come to Erudite. He ran through the building mooning the occupants, I was so shocked at his antics. Since then I have been to a lot of dare games, mainly thanks to Zeke hosting the dare parties and they make Amar's dare seem so tame now.
"Okay you lot quieten down a bit," I say.
"I will go and find Jeanine," Eric says.
I shouldn't let him leave the group. This is probably the reason we are here. It's not like Jeanine can just walk up to Eric in Dauntless without it looking suspicious. I wonder what they are up to.
"Beatrice," I hear someone shout.
I turn around to see Caleb coming towards Tris. He quickly gives her a hug. He is whispering something in her ear and Tris is now pulling something out of his pocket. It must have been Caleb who sent me the message. I look around and see if I can see Zeke, hopefully he can see me and will know that I am looking for him.
"Mr Prior, Miss Prior," Jeanine says. "Do you not remember what the phrase 'faction before blood' means?"
I see a look of panic flash in Caleb's eyes. What is going on here?
"Sorry, I will go," Caleb says. Moving away very quickly.
"Lynn," I call her over to me. "I need you to do something to distract everyone for me."
"Now?" Lynn asks.
"Now," I say.
"You bastard," Lynn yells and then she punches Peter in the nose. Blood is spurting out and everyone has turned and are now looking at Lynn and Peter.
"What was that for you bitch?" Peter yells as he lunges towards Lynn. I better break this up before we have a riot on our hands.
I step in front of Peter. Stopping him from actually trying to inflict any damage on Lynn. Although if he tried I'm sure he wouldn't just have a bloody nose he would probably end up uncouncious on the floor.
"Call a medic," Jeanine says. She is talking to her assistant.
"What the hell Lynn?" Eric says.
"He pinched by butt," Lynn says.
"I did not," says Peter. "Why would I want to pinch your butt?"
"I suppose now you're not in Candor Peter you can lie all you like," Lynn says. Lynn definitely wouldn't be Candor.
"I will get you for this," Peter says.
"Enough," I say. "You are just embarrassing yourself."
"Eric why don't you stay here with Peter and Jeanine can show the rest of us around Erudite," I say.
"Yes that might be a good idea," Jeanine says. "You seem to have your hands full with the Dauntless initiates, don't you Four?"
"They do keep us on our toes Jeanine," I say.
"Well let's get this tour started," Jeanine says. "I'm sure medical attention will be here shortly."
I start walking next to Tris and she hands me something. I look down to see that it is a thumb drive. This must be what Caleb gave her. "Caleb's in trouble, we need to get him out of here," Tris says.
"Already being done," I say.
"What?"
"I will explain it all to you when we get home," I tell her.
"How did you know?"
"I got an email a few days ago. I didn't know for sure if it was him. But the look on his face today told me it was. I already had a plan in place," I say.
We get back to the Dauntless compound and I have Tris follow me back to my apartment. I rang Max when I was leaving Erudite so hopefully he will be here soon.
"Are you going to tell me what is going on?" Tris asks.
"As soon as we are in my apartment," I say.
We reach my apartment and Max is standing there waiting for me. I put my fingers to my lips to tell him not to say anything. We might not have the cameras working but you don't know who could be around.
I open the door and quickly usher everyone in.
"What is going on Four? I have had Jeanine on the phone ranting about what hooligans we have as initiates. Who is this?" Max says pointing to Caleb.
"Caleb," Tris says and rushes over to hug her brother.
"Caleb?," Max says. "As in Caleb Prior? What is he doing here Four? And why is he dressed in black?"
"Caleb do you want to explain?" I ask him. As I usher everyone into the lounge room to sit.
"The tracking serum that they are going to inject Dauntless with isn't a tracking serum," Caleb says.
"How do you know this?" Max asks.
"I have been working with Jeanine. As soon as I got to Erudite she took me under her wing. She doesn't usually have anything to do with training initiates. I was told that she hates having to deal with them, especially transfers. I thought that it was strange that she would do that for me. Especially after dad told me that I needed to be careful around her. I was in a meeting and someone let slip about how stupid Dauntless was and that they will get theirs when everything goes down," Caleb says.
"So I started to look into what was going on. Jeanine had given me access to computers that initiates don't usually get the chance to use. There is a real hierarchy there, you only get access as you progress further. So I took copies of what the serum really is and put it onto the thumb drive I gave to Tris. I thought that Jeanine was onto me but I couldn't just walk out, it would be to conspicuous," Caleb says.
"What is the serum they want to inject into our members?" Max asks.
"It's a long range serum. The person who has been injected can be manipulated to do whatever they program them to do," Caleb says. "Everything you need to know is on the thumb drive."
"What's going to happen to Caleb?" Tris asks.
"He is going to have to stay here for now," Max says. "He won't be able to leave this apartment until we have everything sorted. We can't afford to have him seen on cameras anywhere. We don't know who is working with Jeanine within Dauntless."
"Four we are going to have to get this information to Candor. They are going to have to be involved in this. Plus, we are going to have to look and see exactly what is on that thumb drive," Max says.
"We can go through the thumb drive this afternoon Max. Once I know what we are dealing with I will let you know. Then we can make a report for Candor," I say.
"I will meet you back here tonight," Max says. "Caleb do not leave this apartment."
Caleb just nods and Max walks out the door.
"I can't believe this is happening," Tris says. "Did you know of any of this?"
"Max and I had an idea that what Erudite had told us was I lie. But we haven't been able to prove anything, until now," I say.
"Caleb do you want to lie down, you look like you haven't slept in days," I say.
"No. I will help you go through the information first. Are you sure I will be safe here?"
"There isn't anywhere safer for you to be. Tris and I will never let anything happen to you Caleb. Ever," I say. "Now let's have a look at what is on that thumb drive of yours."
Max and Scott arrive at my apartment after dinner. "What is going on?" Scott asks.
I explain to Scott what has been happening and that I now know who is involved and what they have planned.
"So Vera and Graham both know what Jeanine is really doing? I can't believe this," Scott says.
"The information also implicates Eric and a few other lower ranking members," I say.
"Okay," Max says. "We are going to have to be extremely careful how we handle all of this. We need to get to Candor and talk to Jack Kang. But we need to do it without Vera getting wind of it. She likes to deal with Jack herself, so we are going to have to come up with an excuse why we want to see him."
"I will make up an excuse about the dependants. We had all that trouble with them mixing with other factions at lunch last year. I will say I am wanting to talk to him about what rights dependants have. Say we don't want a repeat of last year. It's lame but it might work," Scott says.
"That will work," Max says. "Go first thing in the morning. Don't make an appointment to see him. Just drop by, he won't refuse to see you. We just need to keep carrying on as if nothing is going on, once we know what Candor want to do with them, then we will act."
"Not a word of this can leave this room," Max says. "Jeanine is probably aware that she has an intitiate missing by now. So we need to move this along quickly. Are fear simulations starting tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I am going to monitor them from inside the room. I can't afford to have Eric terrorize the initiates," I say.
"Can't you just pull him out, let him go back to his normal job?" Scott asks.
"I don't want to make him suspicious," I say. "Look if he does anything wrong I will have him straight out of there."
"I'm going to go down to the dining hall and get us all some dinner," Tris says. "I think Caleb needs to try our Dauntless cake.
"What's so special about Dauntless cake?" Caleb asks.
"You'll see. I'll be back soon," Tris says.
"What's going to happen to me now Tobias?"
"I'm not sure," I say. "But for now you ae safe. There are only five people that know you are here."
"How is Beatrice going in initiation?" Caleb asks.
"Really well. She is coming second among the transfers," I say.
"How are you two getting along?"
"She's agreed to move in with me after initiation finishes," I say.
"I'm glad. I think you two were always meant to be together," he says. "You know I almost chose Dauntless."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I knew Beatrice was coming here and you are here. I could never have stayed in Abnegation. But I still hadn't made up my mind when we got to the Choosing Ceremony. It was the hardest decision I ever made. Then when I got to Erudite I found out that there is a program for doctors. They can work in other factions. I was going to try and get into the medical programme, then I could volunteer to work in Dauntless. I thought maybe I had made the right decision."
"Well if you hadn't made the decision you did then we would be in a whole lot of trouble in a couple of weeks time," I say.
"Do you think it will be safe to go back to Erudite after this?"
"I don't know Caleb," I say. "We will just have to wait and see. Dad's the leader of the council. I'm a leader here. I don't know what happens with Erudite initiation but I am sure that once this mess is worked out we can work something out for you," I say.
"Do you want to go back?" I ask.
"I don't know. I have been so scared ever since I first found out what Jeanine was planning. Then when I started to gather information I was sure I was going to be caught. I don't think I've slept for the past three weeks," he says.
"Well you can now. You are safe here Caleb. I won't let anything happen to you," I say. "I promise."
"Do you think I could see mum and dad?"
"Yeah. I can call them. Have them come here for dinner if you like?"
"That would be great," he says. "I thought they would have come and seen me on visiting day."
"They wanted to," I say. "Jeanine banned all Abnegation from Erudite. The only place they are allowed is the hospital and only if it is an emergency."
"I didn't know that. I thought they had forgotten about me," he says.
"As if that would ever happen. They love you," I say.
There is a knock at the door and I go and answer it. Tris has her arms full of take away boxes from the dining hall. I keep forgetting to give her access to the apartment. I help her to carry the food in and then I drag her back outside the apartment.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
"Well if you are going to be living here you need to be able to open the door," I say. "Now put your hand on the scanner."
The scanner beeps and I check that she can open the door.
"Why the hurry now?" Tris asks.
"Well Caleb is here. I want you to be able to visit him whenever you like. Plus, I sought of let Zeke have access," I say.
"You sort of? What kind of answer is that?" Caleb asks.
"Okay, I did give Zeke access. Although I will have to cancel it. Otherwise he will be walking in whenever he wants," I say.
"You told him your name. Why?" Caleb asks.
"You did?" Tris asks.
"Yes. I knew it was the only way for Caleb to know he could trust him," I say.
"That's true, I remembered you telling us how you had changed your name. When he said Tobias had sent him, I knew I could trust him," Caleb says.
"Are you worried he will tell anyone?" Tris asks.
"No. I threatened him with death if he did. He already knew. He said that he knew but had forgotten about it," I say. "Now I think it is time for Caleb to try some Dauntless cake."
I hand Caleb a piece of cake and Tris and I just watch him as he is about to take a bite.
"Do you both have to stare at me like that?" Caleb asks.
"Yes," Tris and I say at the same time. We all just start laughing.
"This is just like it was when we were all living together," says Caleb.
"Just try the cake Caleb," Tris says.
"Okay, okay. Seriously, I don't understand why this is so important," Caleb says.
We watch as Caleb finally puts a piece in his mouth and we wait. And wait. He hasn't said anything, maybe he doesn't like it.
"Well?" Tris finally asks.
"Can I come and live here?" Caleb asks. "If I got to choose again. I would come here just for the cake.
Tris and I just laugh at him.