Finding The Courage

Part 62

Tris shook me around midnight, I slipped on a black hoodie and my boots before we left to meet Nita. The lobby was empty as we approached it. The first thing Nita noticed was Tris. Her face tightened in distaste.

"You promised you wouldn't tell her. What happened to protecting her?" Nita was furious as she pointed at Tris. Nita looked at me accusingly.

"I had nothing to do with it. I told him you would be upset."

"I changed my mind." Four answered.

"That's what you told him? That's a pretty good manipulation well done." Tris laughed harshly. Four raised his eyebrow at Tris while Nita rolled her eyes.

"It wasn't manipulation, only the truth." Her anger dropped as she ran a hand over her face. "You could be arrested for knowing this and not reporting it, I wanted to avoid that." I nodded in agreement. It was better the less people in our group knew, especially being outsiders.

"Tris is coming, is that a problem?" Four asked.

"If the implication is all of you or none of you then I would rather have all of you." Nita rolled her eyes again and started moving. We followed her to the Lab where she worked and no one said anything along the way. Four was on high alert I could tell as he flinched at every sound. Nita stopped in front of the doors and scanned her card. We followed her past the gene lab we had all been in before further in the web of labs. Finally we reached another door and followed her in. This room was different from the others; there were metal drawers everywhere with faded labels. In the middle of everything sat a young man with blonde hair.

"Guys, this is my friend Reggie, he's a GD." He shook both Tris and Four's hands and gave me a nod since I was tucked behind them.

"Show them the slides first." Nita instructed. We all moved closer as Reggie tapped the screen. Pictures started showing up on the screen, only they were gray and grainy. All of the pictures contained different types of suffering. Ditches filled with bodies, hungry children, piles of burning papers. The pictures moved too quickly to get a good look at them but the idea was all the same. I caught Four as he turned away from the pictures laid out before us.

"This gun is incredibly old, even the Bureau would have to agree with that. These pictures are of genetically pure people who waged war against one another."

"How do you hide war?" Four asked.

"People only know what they are taught. We are isolated so we only saw what was available to see, what the Bureau wanted us to see." Nita explained.

"So they're just grossly ill informed, that doesn't make them bad." Tris tried to reason.

"They're hurting people." Nita shot back. "When Abnegation wanted to reveal the truth of the world sooner than they were supposed to and Jeanine wanted to erase them, the Bureau was all too happy to provide her with a new serum. One I am sure you are very familiar with."

"That doesn't make any sense. Jeanine said the highest population of genetically pure was in Abnegation. The Bureau values the pure, enough to send someone to save them so why help her kill them?" Four muttered.

"Jeanine was wrong. Evelyn said the highest population was in the factionless." Tris mumbled.

"I need more proof." I said as I met Nita's gaze.

"That's why we're here." Nita switched on some lights that illuminated more drawers. "It took me a long time to get clearance here, longer to understand it all." She raised a vial out of one of the drawers. "Look familiar?"

"The colors match what's your point?" Four asked. Reggie placed two drops of the orange serum on a slide and placed it under a microscope.

"This room is for failed experiments, outdated useless things. I was given the password by a GP sympathizer and that gave me the ability to access all this information. It isn't hidden if you have the password. Reggie hit a scan button and paragraphs of text popped up. He pointed to one in particular. I scanned the words trying to make sense of it all "Transmits signals over long distances. Hallucinogen from original not included- simulated reality is predetermined by the program mater."