The stack of files in my hand drops and scatters across the floor like they are moving in slow motion. Tobias stops what he's doing and rushes toward me, taking me in his arms, ignoring the official paperwork strewn throughout our kitchen. Panic, which started in my chest is rapidly moving outward and taking over my body. My knees buckle but Tobias keeps me from crumpling to the floor in a heap. He helps me into the living room so that I can sit down on the loveseat.
"Tris, love, you need to calm down before you go into labor," he gently says. That wouldn't be so bad. "We don't know if someone has been in here."
"You don't believe that any more than I do," I say, my voice quivering.
"Listen, we've been packing items and moving them to the new apartment, so we could have accidentally misplaced things. We've both been stressed about initiation and then Sam died. We learned Molly is up to something. Now we have Harrison's death to contend with. Maybe we've just been preoccupied." I think about what he's saying and it makes perfect sense. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.
"Can we at least have Zeke check the security cameras?" I ask. "It would make me feel better."
"Of course," he says. A knock on the door tears our attention away from each other. Tobias gets up to answer it.
"Hey, man," Zeke says as he steps inside. Speak of the devil. The minute he sees the look on my face he knows something is wrong. "What's going on? Did you get some news about Harrison?"
"Zeke, I'm glad you're the first one here," Tobias says, closing the door behind him. "Tris and I might have a problem." As he emphasizes the word "might," he looks my way. "Without going into a lot of detail – there's just not enough time right now – we have reason to believe that someone's been breaking into the apartment." Zeke's normally happy go lucky expression slowly fades and is replaced by an eerily similar Four-like look.
"I expect an explanation later but what do you need from me?" he asks, sounding more like his best friend's alter ego than himself.
"I need you to pull security cam footage from the stairway and hallway," Tobias says.
"The footage from the Pire, too," I say. "What's going on here could be related to Molly's intrusion or Sam and Harrison's deaths."
"We don't know that," Tobias says.
"You're right," I say. "We don't know anything."
"That's a lot of footage, Tris, on top of all the other feeds we have to go through," Zeke says, interrupting our bickering. "It's going to take time to go through it."
"I'm volunteering myself to help go through it," I say. "I contemplated maternity leave last night when we were walking to the Pit. I'm going to have to start limiting the number of trips there so spending my days in the control room seems perfect."
"In that case, I'll get right on it after the meeting," he says. "Uh, what's up with the paper?" Oh, I forgot about that.
"I dropped it," I say.
I start to get up so I can clean up my mess but Tobias says, "I'll get it."
"I'll help you," Zeke says.
"Just pick them up, and I'll fix the files." They quickly gather the scattered paper and Zeke hands them to me. I put them in a large pile so I can sort them later. "Wow it smells good in here." My stomach growls embarrassingly loudly when I sit down next to Zeke at the island.
"Hungry, Tris?" he asks with a smirk on his face.
"You want a beat down?" I ask, a little brusquer than I intend.
"Don't irritate my pregnant wife, Zeke," Tobias sighs. I flashback to my irrational meltdown less than an hour ago and groan.
"Sorry, Tris," he says.
"It's okay, Zeke," I mutter. Neither he nor Tobias say anything, which is probably a good thing. I don't want my bad mood to return in front of our guests. I've had enough of that to last a lifetime. Just as Tobias puts a platter of fluffy buttermilk pancakes on the island with the rest of the food, our other guests arrive.
"Come in," I say as I open the door to Will who looks on edge and Tori who looks like she hasn't slept a wink. "You're just in time. Breakfast is ready."
"I'm not hungry," Tori mutters. "I want to know what happened to Harrison, and I want to know now."
"We don't have any new information," Tobias says, obviously trying to rein in his anger. "So why don't you sit down and grab a plate. We'll talk business once we've eaten."
"Do you think you made enough food, Four?" Will asks.
"Tris is hungry," Zeke says, picking up the plate in front of him. I roll my eyes and fight the urge to make a snide comment. Everyone stares at him while he loads up the plate then digs in. "Are you all just going to sit there and watch me eat?" This finally breaks the tension and everyone makes themselves a bite to eat, even Tori.
"We have some news," I say.
"Let me guess," Zeke says. "You're pregnant." Everyone groans at his joke.
"Seriously, dude," Will says with an exasperated sigh. "Have you been drinking?"
"When I'm on edge, I make jokes," he says. "It's a coping mechanism. Sorry, Tris. What's your news?"
"When I went through Peter, Drew, and Molly's files, I found something." I quickly tell them about the suspected familial connection that I found. "I'd show you but I accidentally dropped the files earlier and have to put them back in order. I wanted to call Ruth and confirm my suspicions but Four didn't think it was a good idea."
"I agree with him. She might not be able to be trusted," Will says. I furrow my brows at him in confusion and he says, "Christina told me about Ruth."
"Who is this Ruth person we're talking about?" Tori asks. Her hands are wrapped around a mug of hot coffee. I imagine it's the only thing that's keeping her awake at the moment.
"Peter's mother," I say.
"I'm confused," she says. "Why would Peter's mother be visiting you?"
"We're friends." This gets a reaction out of her, and her face actually becomes animated for the first time since walked through the door so I give her a brief overview of our relationship. "I like her."
"I like her, too," Tobias says, "but I think it's a better idea to contact Jack Kang to see if your suspicions are correct."
"Even if they're family, it doesn't tell us what Molly is doing breaking in here or if it's related to Sam and Harrison's deaths," Tori says.
"It could be a motive," Tobias says. "They could want revenge for Peter's death."
"If that's the case, then Sam and Harrison's deaths are probably not related," Will says, pushing his now empty plate away. "They have no connection to Peter."
"You might be right," I say. "Although, I don't want to dismiss anything just yet."
"Should we take this into the other room?" Tobias asks since we've all finished breakfast. "It's more comfortable, and we have a lot of ground to cover." I know he's only moving us for my benefit but I'm thankful. The barstools aren't as comfortable as they once were. We leave the dirty dishes on the counters and head into the living room. Tobias and I will clean the mess up later.
Will and Zeke sit down on the loveseat while Tori and I sit down on the opposite ends of the couch. Tobias perches on the very edge of the club chair, poised to jump up at any moment so he can pace in front of us. There's a palpable melancholy in the room. The last time we had an official meeting, Harrison was with us, safe and sound, and now he's in the morgue.
"Before we get started, I need to say something," Tobias says. "I misconstrued how difficult it would be to balance leadership and initiate training. I thought I was doing the right thing by turning over the reins to you and training the transfers like I've done the past two years but I now know it was the wrong decision. It left us unnecessarily shorthanded and put unneeded stress on you.
"Tris has already told me that she won't be training the transfers again next year, and it's my decision that I won't be as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that if I had been in charge the things that happened wouldn't have happened but maybe if we'd have had all hands on deck, Sam's murderer would have been caught before they could have killed Harrison, too."
"You're talking like you have proof that they were killed by the same person," Tori says.
"It's just conjecture at this point but last night, Zander's new intern brought me a copy of Sam's autopsy report and Harrison's detailed preautopsy visual inspection report. They had identical markings on their necks. When I was going over these reports, I realized that I had assumed Sam died of strangulation because of those markings but as of right now her cause of death is listed as homicide-undetermined. Did you know this?"
"Yes," Tori says.
"Why didn't you let me know?" he calmly asks.
"You were on leave," she defiantly says. "I was in charge. I was making the decisions."
"Hey, there is no need for that tone," Tobias sternly says. "We are supposed to be a team. If we're fighting amongst ourselves what kind of message does that send to the Dauntless members? We've worked too hard to turn things around here this past year to let what's going on now ruin it. If the situation is too difficult for any of you, speak up. We'll move forward without you, no hard feelings." Silence fills the room after Tobias finishes his speech.
"I'm not going anywhere," Tori finally says. She lifts herself from the couch and walks over to the wall of windows and stands there staring out, her arms wrapped round herself like she's trying to hold herself together. "I don't know how to process how I'm feeling. Harrison wouldn't be dead if it weren't for me. Not only did I volunteer his name for leadership but I'm the one who tasked him with following up on all the leads in Sam's death. If it weren't for me he'd still be here."
"Harrison's death is not your fault, Tori," I say. "He was an adult who made his own decisions. If he didn't want to be a leader, he would have declined our offer."
"You've got to find a way to deal with the guilt," Will says. "Might I suggest putting your energy in helping catch whoever killed him? Now let's get this meeting started. What do we know?" Tori pulls herself together and sits back down on the couch.
"Alright this is what we know: Sam's manner of death is undetermined, although it's been classified as a homicide. There was an unidentified dark, hooded figure moving through Dauntless on security camera footage around the time of her death. Molly was also seen on the security cameras around the time of Sam's death talking to the unidentified person. Tris scoured all the Candor transfer files from the last three years looking for a connection between Sam and Molly but there doesn't appear to be one. Last night, Harrison called me and asked to meet by the net door. He said he found something but refused to give me an explanation until we were face-to-face. Tris and I arranged to meet him in one hour. When we arrived at the prearranged meeting spot, he wasn't there. I called him, which led two young girls to find him alive but unconscious in a little used hallway that doesn't have security cameras. Like I said earlier, Zander's new intern brought me copies of reports after I had a conversation with Avery and Afton. They said there's a rumor going around Dauntless that Sam was poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Tori and Zeke say at the same time, interrupting Tobias but Will just hangs his head.
"You've heard the rumor," I state, knowing what I'm saying is true.
"Not directly. I heard it from Christina," he says. "Apparently, it's all the initiates talked about right after Sam's death. I probably should have reported it, but I thought it was just the kids spreading unsubstantiated gossip."
"It could be," Tobias says. "Hopefully, we'll have some answers soon. We don't know a lot about Harrison's death but what we do know is that he had the exact same redness, bruising, and swelling on his neck that Sam did. They both also had injection marks near the reaction site. To me, that's concrete proof the deaths are related. Tori, what exactly did you have him working on?"
"He was solely tasked with following up on the leads that came in about Sam's death," Tori says.
"Do you have a copy of the leads?" I ask.
"On my computer in my office," she says. "I'll print a copy for you after the meeting."
"Had he made any progress?" Tobias asks.
"None that he told me about," she says, sounding frustrated. "I should have followed up with him more often but I had my plate full, too."
"Tori and I have been busy with the day-to-day operations," Will says. "We haven't been able to dedicate much time to the investigation but that's why she put Harrison on it fulltime." Tobias gets up from the chair and starts pacing before us.
"I haven't said this enough but you guys are doing a great job," he says. "Zeke, do you have an update on the control room?"
"I enlisted Lauren's help in tweaking the facial recognition program," he says. "It can now be run in real time and alert us when a match is made."
"In Dauntless?" Tobias asks.
"The city," he says, obviously proud of himself. "I uploaded Molly and Drew's photos and am running them through the past six months of footage throughout the entire city. The only downside is there are no cameras in the factionless sector so if whoever is helping them goes to them, we won't see it. All matches are going into a special folder on my computer. I asked James to help me out. I think we all trust him."
"Excellent choice," Tobias says, "and good thinking enlisting Lauren to help you with expanding the facial recognition parameters."
"I'll start sorting through the files later today," he says. "I have James looking at the footage from the Pit last night. Is there anything you want me to have him look out for?"
"Let's not bias him," I say. "Hopefully, he'll see something that stands out to him as odd and it will lead us in the right direction."
"I like that idea," Tobias says. "Maybe we've been too specific when telling the control room personnel what to look for. I think we need to regroup and start at the beginning. How's Nathan doing?"
"He's a quick learner but he only started yesterday," Zeke says.
"How about teaming him up with James?" Tobias asks. "What do you think?"
"I actually think that's a great idea," Zeke says. "It'll free me up."
"There's something else we need to talk about," I say. "Should we go through Harrison's things or leave it up to Simon and Tony?"
"I think we should go through his office," Tori says.
"I agree," Will says. "I'm fine with Simon and Tony cleaning out his apartment. They'll look for work-related items, correct?"
"Yeah," Tobias says. "Are we all in agreement?"
"Yes," Tori says as Will says, "Yeah." Zeke and I nod.
"Alright then. I'll call Simon and Tony and have them start cleaning out his apartment. I'll also call Jack Kang and ask him to investigate the connection between Peter, Drew, and Molly. I'll spend the rest of the day in the control room looking for leads," Tobias says. "Tori, I need you to get me a copy of what Harrison was working on. Is it too much to ask you to go through his office? If it is, I'll get someone else."
"I can do it, Four," she says. "But I thought we were all going to do it together."
"We have a lot to do. Contact me immediately if you find anything," he says. "Tris, I need you to pull an additional five years of Candor transfer files and go through them with a fine-tooth comb."
"I'll get started on that as soon as I fix the files I dropped earlier," I say.
"When you're done with that I need your assistance in the control room," he says. "Will, I need you to canvass the Pit. Talk to as many people as you can. Maybe someone saw something and doesn't even know it. Zeke, as soon as James has a summary of what he saw on the Pit footage last night, let me know. I think that's everything. Any of you have anything for me?"
"I don't think so," Zeke says. "Loved the eggs, by the way. They were delicious. They were even better than my mom's." Hana's a magnificent cook but no one makes eggs like Tobias.
"The food was wonderful," Will says. "May I make a suggestion?" We all nod and give him our undivided attention. "We need to make this a monthly occurrence. We can alternate homes or maybe Four, you and Tris would like to volunteer to hold it all the time, especially with your new apartment being finished soon. You have the most space."
"I like the idea," I say.
"So do I," Tori says.
"Are you going to replace Harrison?" Zeke asks. Tori gasps.
"Eventually," Tobias says. "We're used to running a five-person team; however, we need to be smart about who the replacement will be. It needs to be someone we all trust completely. As of right now, we aren't in any hurry. Everyone agree?" A chorus of yeses echoes throughout the room just as knocking sends Tobias to the door.
"That's probably Dr. Parrish," I say.
"Hello," Zander says as he walks into the room. He holds up a folder and says, "I've got Harrison's autopsy results right here. I need to show you something. Can we use the island?"
"Of course," Tobias says. "I'll clean it off."
"I'll help you," I say as I lift myself off the couch with a little trouble. I load the dishwasher as he puts the leftovers away. After I wipe off the countertop, Zander opens the folder and pulls out two photographs and lays them side-by-side on the island.
"Are you all aware that I found an injection mark on both Harrison and Sam when I performed their autopsies?" he asks and we all nod. "You see this area around the injection site?" Zander points at the photo of Harrison first and then to Sam's. "It's called necrotic tissue."
"English, doc," Tori gruffly says.
"Sorry, Tori," he says, displaying more patience with her than I would be able to muster. "It's basically dead tissue and, in my opinion, it's quite unusual for this degree of necrosis to occur in such a short amount of time so I excised both wounds and ran some tests on the tissue." He hands two sheets of paper to Tobias. "These are the results."
"Am I reading this right?" Tobias asks as the color drains out of his face.
"What is it?" I ask. "What killed them?"
"The results are inconclusive but my best guess is some form of advanced death serum," Zander cryptically says.