AN: Thanks to the reviewers, and welcome to new readers :)
Chapter 16
By the time she finished her workout, Tris was tired, but mad. All she had done was think over everything that had happened that afternoon.
Eric and the unnamed woman. Was she an agent Tris didn't know? Who could she be if she wasn't from Dauntless? Would she even be able to talk to Four about what she'd overheard? And why had Four been so cool with her in the dining room? Was he over her already?
This mood and train of thought led her straight to the floor where Four's room was, right up to his door, which she rapped sharply on with her knuckles.
Four opened the door after only a few brief moments.
He looked startled to see her there, in plain sight of everyone (had anyone been present), and apparently very angry.
"What are you doing?" he asked in a low voice.
"I could ask you the same thing," she retorted sharply.
"Shh, get in here and quiet down before anyone hears you and wonders what is going on," Four commanded.
He grabbed her arm to usher her in.
She resisted his touch, but stomped into his apartment anyway.
"What the hell is this? Do you want to pretend you don't know me or something?" Tris ranted as soon as the door closed behind her.
"I don't want to, but in case you've taken too many hits to the head and forgotten, it needs to look like I don't know you, or at least very well," Four pointed out coolly.
"It's not like I tried to make out with you in the dining hall!" Tris exclaimed hotly. "You can be friendly with recruits."
"Yes, but I'm not," Four pointed out calmly. "It's completely out of character for me to show any affection or closeness with a recruit, and to start with you, in the way you were in the dining hall would have been completely unwise. I want to be with you, and I'd like you to make it through training without us becoming an issue with senior agents."
"So, you aren't through with me?" Tris asked quietly, quite a bit calmer.
"Of course not," Four said, slightly amused.
"It's not funny, you really hurt me," Tris said her voice strained, her arms across her chest.
"I'm sorry about that," Four said, drawing her comfortingly into his arms. "I didn't know what else to do. You were being so familiar, so warm and affectionate, I couldn't reciprocate and risk anyone suspecting anything."
"I guess I wasn't thinking," Tris mumbled into his chest.
"I tried to find you right after lunch, and called your cell," Four pointed out. "Didn't you see?"
"No," Tris said sheepishly, pulling back and smiling guiltily. "I kind of got mad and distracted and went to the gym, and didn't check my cell at all."
"That's not very good practice for the top ranked recruit," Four teased. "For the record, I am proud of you. Very proud, you worked hard, and it paid off. Keep it up, and you'll ace the last stage of training."
"Aw, you're proud of me," Tris said, pretending to gush.
"Shut up," Four retorted lightly.
"Make me," Tris countered impishly, sticking out her tongue at him.
Four grinned roguishly and kissed her, ensuring that she did indeed shut up, at least for a few minutes.
They were interrupted in the middle of their make out session by Tris pulling back suddenly and exclaiming, "Oh, I forgot, one of the reasons I was so distracted and forgot to check my cell was because I overhead this conversation. Between Eric and some woman whose voice I couldn't recognise."
"What's so special about that?" Four said, kissing her neck, trying to distract her.
"It's what they were talking about," Tris said insistently, pushing him away, trying to get his attention.
"What were they talking about?" Four asked, obligingly taking an interest.
"They didn't say specifically, but they were talking quietly, hidden up on level 16, and they were plotting something," Tris explained. "The woman wanted to make sure Eric was holding up his end of the deal."
"And is he?" Four asked curiously.
"He said he was. They said some pretty nasty things about Dauntless," Tris answered. "The woman referred to us as 'them' so she mustn't be Dauntless. And Eric says he's not really one of us, he's only here for himself."
"That's pretty obvious," Four said dryly. "That Eric is only looking out for himself that is."
"So, what do you think they're plotting?" Tris asked. "What can we do?"
"There's nothing we really can do," Four said slowly. "All we have is you word. I believe you, but senior agents aren't likely to go off the vague details you have. Eric is too wily to get caught out by a report from you of a vague conversation he had. The only thing to be done is to monitor him closely."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Tris asked, accepting his words for the common sense that they were.
"Well, I will be monitoring him, not you. I'm not having you get into trouble, sniffing around a senior, and cruel, agent like Eric. You are to focus on your training," Four told her firmly. "I will keep an eye on Eric, we do work closely together. Also, I might try to work on hacking his cell or computer account to find out who he's communicating with. It will be pretty hard, our servers and security are high, but I've got a few ideas on how to approach it."
"Fine," Tris agreed. "But can I help in my spare time?"
"In your spare time you should have fun with your friends, when you're not sneaking around with me," Four said lightly, giving her a quick kiss on the lips.
Tris giggled and let him scoop her up into his arms and continue to kiss her, picking up where their make out session left off.
On Monday Four's recruits met in the lecture room they had been directed to over the speaker at the end of breakfast.
Four stood before them and said, "Today I will go through, on paper, everything you will need over the coming two weeks as you complete practice missions. They will prepare you for your final mission, and final test of your training."
The recruits listened intently, then Four projected a list of outcomes onto the screen at the front and continued to talk, "Your final mission will test everything from your ability to make quick, sound decisions under pressure, to blocking out fear, to analysing situations, to blocking out your fears, all while completing your set mission in the time frame allowed. Your marksmanship and combat skills will be tested, along with your technological ability, as well as keeping within the laws and guidelines you have been taught."
"So, is our final ranking based only on the outcome of this mission?" Will asked.
"No, as mentioned before, your first two stages are taken into account, but this final stage is weighted more heavily," Four answered.
"What happens to those who are cut?" Peter asked curiously. He was clearly preparing to fantasize about getting rid of recruits he did not like.
"That's not important. If you're cut, you'll find out," Four said coolly. "On that note, to clarify, the top ten recruits will kept and become agents. You reach agent status almost instantly, after the rankings are announced. The rankings are announced by total score from the two months of training, with both groups of recruits combined on one list."
"When do we pick our positions?" Tris asked.
"Your final rankings will be announced Friday evening, having completed your final testing mission over the Thursday and Friday. You will immediately become an full agent, your recruit status will be gone. You will have the weekend for celebrations, and then on Monday you will have a meeting with a couple of the senior agents involved in training, such as Harrison, to determine your position within Dauntless. You will be given a time for your meeting, in the order of your rankings, with the highest ranking going first, and so on and so forth," Four explained thoroughly, kindly going into quite some depth, particularly for the benefit of Tris. "After your position is determined you will do more training, specialising in your role. It will not be anything like what you go through in the recruit training process. It is specifically about learning, not about competing."
With that they moved more in depth into preparing to do their first simulated practice mission on the next day. Four ran through slides with examples of what to expect and how to approach tackling missions, both with and without a partner.
"For each simulated mission you are given, you will receive a case file with several things always included," Four told them. "Most importantly, your end goal, as well as suspects, with photos, weapons and technology at your disposal, and any officials you will come up against. If you are assigned a partner, this will be listed too."
"Will we actually be given real weapons and gadgets in simulated missions?" Christina asked.
"Good question," Four said with a small smile. "The weapons and devices you use in a simulation are altered to suit the purpose of the exercise. You use them as would in the field, but they don't cause damage like they would there. The tech. devices you use are only altered if they could upset the simulation, or cause potential damage. Like I said, you use everything as you were trained to, and it will give the required result."
"So, it's like a more complex version of what we do in that live video game style training exercise?" Drew asked.
"Sort of like that," Four allowed. "That's a simple way of looking at it. Like I just said, there are a lot of new components in addition to just shooting at a simulated enemy. You won't just be blindly shooting at people who you know are the enemy, you will have to figure out who is your enemy, and strategically take them down. Sometimes killing them isn't the solution, sometimes you will need to capture them, making sure you yourself, or your partner, aren't injured or killed."
The more Four talked, the more the recruits realised that they still had a lot to learn, and in not very much time.
"This may seem like a lot now, but tomorrow we'll do our first practice mission together, and things will start coming together and making sense," Four told them somewhat encouragingly. "Once you start using everything you've learnt, all of this will become second nature."
They continued on, with Four going into more detail, with example missions, accompanied by complete case files.
That night as they lay in bed, Christina mused, "What do you think happens to the recruits who are cut at the end of training? " kind of have this vision of them all being dropped through a trap door."
Tris giggled and replied, "I hope Molly, Drew and Peter all get dropped through a trap door into a pit of snakes."
"Well, unfortunately, Peter probably won't be, but fingers crossed that Molly and Drew get cut. It's quite possible," Christina pointed out optimistically.
"I hope we get to see a video of it, as a reward for making it through training," Tris suggested hopefully.
"I doubt it, seeing as this is all a fantasy formed in our exhausted minds," Christina said with a chuckle. "Plus, it's not likely they would show us, from what Four explained today. He really went into a lot of detail, didn't he?"
"He's usually pretty good like that," Tris agreed. "I guess he wants us to succeed. He doesn't want to set us up for failure, or scare us into early graves. He seems to be fairly balanced in his teaching methods."
"They all do, except for Eric of course," Christina commented.
This returned Tris's thoughts straight to Eric and the mystery woman.
She didn't think long on it though, for sleep filled her quickly and soundly.
AN: Thanks for reading! To celebrate the upcoming release of Divergent, I will do a few quick updates. So, I will upload another chapter after 10 reviews :)