Page 157 of The Sixth Fraction

Tobias, scanning the Pit path, touches a finger to his lips. I follow his gaze, and all I see is stillness. The lively marketplace is empty. But if I was Jeanine Matthews, planning this kind of attack, I wouldn’t leave the simulation unguarded.

We run up the Pit path, Tobias and me with our weapons drawn, Marcus and Andrew panting at the back of the group. I listen to the stone scuffing our feet with every step, our heavy breaths, every sound amplified by the emptiness of this cavern. We make it to the top, and our footsteps slow as Tobias leads us down the hallway that will take us to the simulation room.

I hear voices around the corner ahead and touch Tobias’s arm to stop him. Then I creep forward, my heart racing, to get as close to the wall’s edge as I can.

“—long is left?”

I recognize that voice, though I’m having trouble placing it.

“The simulation lasts until the job is done,” another voice replies, clear and even. That one I have no trouble placing: That’s the Mender.

I knew Hemlock was involved with this, but I thought I understood the scope of the bargain they made: They supply the weapons and the transportation, and Evelyn gets Marcus Eaton. But it seems they’re more connected than I realized, if they’re the ones tasked with guarding the simulation room. I wonder what kind of deal Evelyn made with Jeanine. How deep it goes.

It should shock me, maybe. But at this point, I’ve been let down too many times by too many people to be shocked.

“So you’re saying it could be hours,” the other voice says. I recognize it now; that’s Boots, the one who still calls me “Priss.” “What do I do if I have to take a piss?”

“Hold it in like a big boy,” the Mender replies.

I look back at the gun in Tobias’s hand, and then up at his face. I’m sure he’s capable of shooting both Boots and the Mender, but maybe not before they shoot him back. And I’m not interested in anyone becoming a killer if they don’t have to. I wave the others back, and we retreat to the end of the corridor.

“You said there’s another way in,” I say to Tobias.

He nods.

“Some of us could stay here and make sure they don’t move from their posts,” I say, pointing behind me. “The others could go in the back.”

“I’ll stay,” my father says. “Marcus and I will only be a liability if you need to be stealthy.”

I say, “If they move, you’ll have to shoot them. Are you going to be able to do that?”

In response my father just holds out his hand, palm up, for my gun. Tobias raises an eyebrow.

“If my daughter is at risk,” my father says, meeting my eyes, “I’ll do what needs to be done.”

Somewhere beneath the numbness I feel is an ache at being called his daughter again, at the utter commitment that I see in his eyes. I hold it at bay.

I give my father my weapon, and Tobias shows him the safety. My father holds it with surprising confidence, and I wonder if my mother taught him how to do it, or if he, like her, has some history I don’t know. As I pass him, he reaches out and touches my hair, the side of my head. He offers me a weak smile.

“See you soon,” I say, and I hope it’s the truth.

Caleb, Tobias, and I go back to the top of the Pit path and then up the stairs that lead to the glass building above us. Through the glass floor, I can see all the way down to the churning water of the chasm. Tobias leads us across the gleaming lobby to an unmarked door with no handle. There’s just a strip of metal that sticks out from the wall. He tugs it, and the door opens.

The service hallway beyond it is dark and dank. It smells like mildew. There are pipes running through the walls, warm and thrumming. We go down a staircase and around the corner, where an emergency lamp signals the end of the hallway.

Tobias pushes the door open, slowly and carefully, in case someone waits for us inside the simulation room. Nothing happens. The room is empty.

“Here,” Tobias says, offering me his gun. “I’ll see what I can do with the computer.”

It occurs to me that this unguarded room, and the fire exit we just used, feel like an oversight. Jeanine Matthews knows this exit exists, and she left it unguarded? I would have guessed she would be too detail-oriented for that. I think about saying something as Tobias kneels next to the cauldron of flames that serves as the Dauntless computer terminal.

“Stop the simulation,” Tobias says, his tone commanding. The flames freeze.

And then I notice Caleb taking off his jacket, and drawing a gun that’s holstered beneath it.

He points it at the back of Tobias’s head.

“You’re both going to do exactly what I say,” Caleb says. “Or this will get messy.”