Page 160 of The Sixth Fraction

And then I feel stone beneath my knees.

Chapter 59

Four

In the moments after I delete the simulation data, neither Caleb nor I move. I brace myself for what comes next. Because it should have been obvious from the start: He doesn’t need me anymore, he actually never did, and if his job is to cover up the attack simulation, he can’t leave a witness.

Jeanine Matthews is a storyteller. I can see, so clearly, the narrative she’s set up for what happened today. I’m the twisted Dauntless boy who spends too much time alone, too much time going through his fear simulations. Everyone knows there’s something off about me, they always have. And no one’s supervising what I do here; it would be so easy for me to manipulate the simulations. I have access to my initiates, and I have plenty of reasons to attack Abnegation. Maybe, if Jeanine feels like turning on Evelyn, I was even radicalized by the factionless, through my mother.

And if I die here in the simulation room, right now, they can say I did it to myself.

So tidy. All wrapped up like a gift.

“I see,” I say softly. “You’re going to have to kill me, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know you,” Caleb says, his voice unwavering. “I do know my father. It’s unfortunate, but the choice between me accomplishing my mission or me failing it is very simple.”

Across from me, Tris is reacting to the simulation, her arms wrapped around her head, her mouth open in a silent scream.

“Unfortunate.” I laugh a little. “And you think when Tris comes out of that simulation and sees my dead body on the ground, that’s going to go over just fine with her?”

“I’ll tell her we fought,” Caleb says, but he doesn’t sound sure of himself now. “I’ll tell her I had no other choice.”

Tris falls to her knees, curled up into a tight ball. I worry for just a moment that my faith in her is misplaced. Maybe she’s been through too much, today, to get through this fear simulation as quickly as she did the last one.

“She won’t believe you,” I say.

“It doesn’t matter what she believes!” Caleb snaps. “As long as she’s alive and safe.”

And then, just like that, her body unfurls like a flower, blooming. She sits on her heels, and tips her head back to the sky. I watch her muscles relax, all the horror that twisted her face a moment ago gone.

She is, of course, just as remarkable as I thought.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I say. “It always matters, looking at someone as a person instead of a precious object that you need to preserve.”

Then in one sudden, fast movement, Tris lunges for the gun she set down on the ground earlier and stands with it in both hands, pointing it at Caleb. I surge to my feet, about to dive out of the way, but Caleb is faster than I thought. He grabs me by the back of my jacket and wrenches me so that I’m right in front of him. A shield.

The gun is still against my head.

“I have no choice, Beatrice,” Caleb says. “I have to do this, to save our father. I have to finish it.”

“There’s always a choice.” Her voice is unsteady. “You can still make a different one. I’ll help you. We’ll both help you.”

“You can’t,” Caleb says. “It all has to go according to plan.”

I’ve seen Tris like this before. In her fear simulation. Standing there with a gun, a choice in front of her. Only in this case, the choice is reversed. The person she loves is behind me. She may care about me, but she hasn’t known me that long. Not as long as she’s known her brother.

I relax a little as I realize what I have to do. I have to make this easier for her. She just lost her mother. She shouldn’t have to lose any more family.

“It’s okay,” I say. “You don’t have to do this.”

Her eyes find mine. They’re full of tears, glittering. The light of the Dauntless flames is warm against her face.

I say, “It’s okay.”

And I wait for her to put down her gun.

Chapter 60