Divergent: Four's POV

Chapter 28

We are taken by gunpoint to Abnegation headquarters. I'm not sure what awaits us, but I will do whatever I need to do to try to save her life. Plans of how to get her out of this roll around in my head, but in every scenario, we are both shot and killed.

We are pushed into a room and a woman sits behind a desk. She is wearing Erudite blue, the president of the Erudite, Jeanine. This is woman who has been filing all of the reports about the Abnegation and trying to stir up resentment between the factions. She is talking on the telephone giving orders. She places the phone firmly back on the desk and she looks at us, but her eyes train on Tris.

"Divergent rebels," one of the Dauntless leaders says.

"Yes, I can see that," she says coldly as she takes her glasses off.

"You," she says pointing to Tris, "I expected. All the trouble with your aptitude test results made me suspicious from the beginning. But you..."

She shifts her eyes from Tris to me, "You, Tobias- or should I call you Four? -managed to elude me. Everything about you checked out; test results, initiation simulations, everything. But here you are none the less. Perhaps you could explain to me how that is?"

I guess Amar did a better job at hiding my Divergence than I ever realized. He gave me my aptitude test, so he probably manipulated that as well as my simulations. Tori gave Tris her test, and although she tried, she didn't hide her as well.

"You're the genius," I say coldly. "Why don't you tell me?"

She smiles, "My theory is that you really belong in Abnegation. That your Divergence is weaker."

Little does she know. "Your posers of deductive reasoning are stunning," I snipe. "Consider me awed."

Tris looks at me. She has just seen a side of me that she has never really seen. The side of me that is volatile, explosive, and very dangerous. The side of me that will sooner explode than lie down and die. I feel like my insides are going to spew molten lava. The fire from my rage is building inside me to the boiling point. But I need to hold it together for Tris.

"Now that your intelligence has been verified, you might want to get on with killing us." I close my eyes. "You have a lot of Abnegation leader to murder, after all."

Jeanine stands in front of us smiling. It is a smile that makes me want to rip off her face. "Don't be silly," she says. "There's no rush. You are both here for and extremely important purpose. You see, it perplexed me that the Divergent were immune to the serum that I developed, so I have been working to remedy that. I thought I might have , with the last batch, but as you know, I was wrong. Luckily I have another batch to test."

"Why bother," Tris asks. She is weak and has slumped against me more. I place my arm around her to support her from the waist.

"I have had a question since I began the Dauntless project, and it is this." She walks around the desk. "Why are most Divergent weak-willed, God-fearing nobodies from Abnegation, of all factions."

"Weak-willed," I sneer. "It requires a strong will to manipulate a simulation, last time I checked. Weak-willed is mind controlling an army because it is too hard for you to train one yourself."

"I'm not a fool," she says. "A faction of intellectuals is no army. We are tired of being dominated by a bunch of self-righteous idiots who reject wealth and advancement, but we couldn't do this on our own. And your Dauntless leaders were all too happy to oblige me if I guaranteed them place in our new, improved government."

"Improved," I snap.

"Yes, improved," Jeanine says. "Improved, and working toward a world in which people will live in wealth, comfort, and prosperity."