Determinant: One choice will change everything

Chapter 11: Tris - Breaking In

Chapter 11: Tris – Breaking In

The Dauntless are being housed in the north end of the Erudite compound, so our closest option is a building on the other side of Garland Court. We slip quietly past the large supports under the train tracks and into the Wabash Avenue entrance just as the sun is starting to light the sky. The building is silent and empty as we make our way cautiously to the back of the eighth floor.

The windows don't line up well, so it takes several tries to find a spot where we can see the broken window next to Zeke's room. We're above and to the right of a straight view, but it's as near as we can get – some forty feet away. A ladder clearly wouldn't have worked from here.

We watch the street below for factionless patrols and time the guards as they pass. There's almost an eight-minute interval between rounds. It's long enough to work with.

A minute after the third patrol, Tobias pries the window to the fire escape open, positions himself where he has a clear shot, and begins throwing pebbles carefully at Zeke's window. He hits it every time, and I can't help but smile a little at his aim.

"He's a heavy sleeper," Uriah says with a shrug after the tenth pebble. At least we have a bucket full of them.

Tobias stops a minute before the next patrol is due, stepping back from the window and next to me. We wait in silence, but after a moment, he turns to look at me, a little smile on his face. I can't prevent a return smile from forming. In some ways, today feels awkward, after last night, but I've also never felt closer to him. He places his hands on my hips and leans down, kissing me slowly. It feels like electricity is pulsing through every part of my body.

"You know, there are other rooms you two could go to if you really need one," Cara says eventually, and I realize the guard must be well past by now. Tobias pulls away, his eyes on mine for a moment longer before he turns to the others.

"Just filling the time," he answers calmly as he resumes his place by the window, tossing pebbles again.

I clear my throat and turn to Christina. "How did the test go?"

She grimaces in annoyance. "I'm resistant, but not as much as they'd like. Between that and my leg injury, they basically put me on the bottom of the list. If they get enough other people, I'm out. Otherwise, maybe I can go." She shrugs as if to say who needs them anyway. Then she adds, "Cara did better."

"Yes," Cara answers in her precise manner. "It seems that betraying Jeanine from within Erudite took a high level of resistance. And helping you took even more. They said I tested almost as high as the Divergent."

She purses her lips thoughtfully and then adds, "I don't quite trust them, though. They don't seem to be telling us everything."

"What do you mean?" Tobias asks, an edge to his voice.

"Well, some of their explanations didn't make sense, and they didn't answer when I pressed them on it." She looks at us like she's trying to figure out how to explain it in simple enough terms and then says, "For instance, they said that Jeanine isolated the serum by comparing unfiltered water from outside the city with the water after it's been filtered. But if the point of founding this city was to breed a resistant population, they wouldn't do that by filtering out the serum. It's a basic principle of science that more exposure leads to more resistance, not the other way around."

"So, they've been adding the serum to our water?" I say, my voice tight.

"That's the most logical explanation," Cara answers. "Assuming they started with a naturally resistant population, the best way to make us more resistant would be to keep us constantly exposed to higher and higher doses. It's like an alcoholic needing to drink larger and larger quantities to get drunk."