Aberrant

Thirty-Four: Brooke

That evening, I see Isaac climb down from his bunk again and tiptoe out of the dorm. I climb down as silently as he can and follow him. But as I'm about to put my hand on the door to follow him out, I hear voices on the other side and I freeze. 

"Well?" hisses a voice. It's clearly the same person that I heard Isaac meeting earlier, and, like before, their voice is vaguely familiar. But I still can't work out who it is. "How many have you got?"

"I need to wait for the timings to be released to be sure," Isaac's voice replies, "But so far I'm only sure on two." I feel a chill run through me. They're talking about Divergents. They must be. 

"Is one of them Plato?" The other voice scoffs, "Oh, please Isaac. Plato's so obvious. You must have done better than that." 

"I want to have concrete evidence before we start getting rid of them." He is talking as if Divergents are objects rather than people. 

"Jeanine wants to get rid of as many as possible!" So Amar was right. Erudite is behind this and Jeanine is the mastermind of the operation. 

"But we can't get rid of them all!" Isaac protests, "The Dauntless will definitely know something's up then!"

"Most of the Dauntless are stupid anyway," says the other voice in disgust. 

"They may be stupid but they're not completely oblivious!" Isaac retorts. 

"Fine," the other voice snarls back, the impatience is clear, "If you want concrete evidence, send the Dauntless leaders into the simulation room. That way, we'll know for certain!"

"I've told you before! The Dauntless leaders will only go in if there's an anomaly! I want the times released first!" 

"Oh Isaac, this is just going round in circles! Fine, do it your way. How long until the times are shown anyway?"

"A few days," Isaac replies. 

"Ok," says the voice, more calmly now, "But Jeanine wants immediate action taken right after that. I'll be waiting in the wings if you need me." 

There's a pause and I freeze, listening to see if Isaac is coming back into the room. But then he says, almost as if he needs a reason to be annoyed, "I take it you told the other transfers to be wary of me before you left?"

The other person laughs, "Yeah. They're absolutely terrified of you. They know your intelligence far exceeds theirs."

Other transfers? What are they talking about? Do they mean...

I can literally hear Isaac smirk, "Good. If Plato is scared, he won't be thinking straight. And if he has friends who are Divergents too, it will make my job a lot easier." 

I hear movement on the other side of the door and quickly creep back onto my bunk. Just I manage to feign sleep, I hear the door swing open again and Isaac moves quietly back into the room.

During training, I relay the information straight to Amar. He's worried and agitated, to say the least. 

"Plato's smart," he tells me, "But in the past couple of days, he's just not doing well enough." He pauses and then asks me, "Do you know who the other person he suspects is?"

I shake my head, "I have no idea." Isaac, so far, has not been giving much away. Ever since he told me that he wanted me to help him find Divergents, he's been surprisingly unresponsive. And his silence is worrying me. 

We spent the next few days going through my own fear landscape. I find myself drowned, ostracised and kicked out of Dauntless. Not only do I try to extend the time by going against all my instincts and forcing myself to panic, but I also try to do what a Dauntless would do.