Insurgent by Veronica Roth Page A

asks Tobias.
    The first soldier exchanges looks with some of the others.
    “I’m sorry,” she says. “But we were instructed to arrest you upon your arrival.”

T HEY SURROUND US, but don’t handcuff us, and walk us to the elevator bank. No matter how many times I ask why we are under arrest, no one says anything or even looks in my direction. Eventually I give up and stay silent, like Tobias.
    We go to the third level, where they take us to a small room with a white marble floor instead of a black one. There’s no furniture except for a bench along the back wall. Every faction is supposed to have holding rooms for those who make trouble, but I’ve never been in one before.
    The door closes behind us, and locks, and we’re alone again.
    Tobias sits down on the bench, his brow furrowed. I pace back and forth in front of him. If he had any idea why we were in here, he would tell me, so I don’t ask. I walk five steps forward and five steps back, five steps forward and five steps back, at the same rhythm, hoping it will help me figure something out.
    If Erudite didn’t take over Candor—and Edward told us they didn’t—why would the Candor arrest us? What could we have done to them?
    If Erudite didn’t take over, the only real crime left is siding with them. Did I do anything that could have been interpreted as siding with Erudite? My teeth dig into my lower lip so hard I wince. Yes, I did. I shot Will. I shot a number of other Dauntless. They were under the simulation, but maybe Candor doesn’t know that or doesn’t think it’s a good enough reason.
    “Can you please calm down?” Tobias says. “You’re making me nervous.”
    “This is me calming down.”
    He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and stares between his sneakers. “The wound in your lip begs to differ.”
    I sit next to him and hug my knees to my chest with one arm, my right arm hanging at my side. For a long time, he says nothing, and my arm wraps tighter and tighter around my legs. I feel like, the smaller I become, the safer I am.
    “Sometimes,” he says, “I worry that you don’t trust me.”
    “I trust you,” I say. “Of course I trust you. Why would you think otherwise?”
    “Just seems like there’s something you’re not telling me. I told you things ….” He shakes his head. “I would never have told anyone else. Something’s been going on with you, though, and you haven’t told me yet.”
    “There’s been a lot going on. You know that,” I say. “And anyway, what about you? I could say the same thing to you.”
    He touches my cheek, his fingers pushing into my hair. Ignoring my question just like I ignored his.
    “If it’s just about your parents,” he says softly, “tell me and I’ll believe you.”
    His eyes should be wild with apprehension, given where we are, but they are still and dark. They transport me to familiar places. Safe places, where confessing that I shot one of my best friends would be easy, where I would not be afraid of the way that Tobias will look at me when he finds out what I did.
    I cover his hand with mine. “That’s all it is,” I say weakly.
    “Okay,” he says. He touches his mouth to mine. Guilt clutches at my stomach.
    The door opens. A few people file in—two Candor with guns; a dark-skinned, older Candor man; a Dauntless woman I don’t recognize. And then: Jack Kang, representative of Candor.
    By most faction standards, he is a young leader—only thirty-nine years old. But by Dauntless standards, that’s nothing. Eric became a Dauntless leader at seventeen. But that’s probably one of the reasons the other factions don’t take our opinions or decisions seriously.
    Jack is handsome, too, with short black hair and warm, slanted eyes, like Tori’s, and high cheekbones. Despite his good looks, he isn’t known for being charming, probably because he’s Candor, and they see charm as deceptive. I do trust him to tell us what’s going on without wasting time on