Rampant: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Two) ©

Chapter 26

                “So what time should we wake up the initiates?”

                “What?” Banks frowned as he continued to rifle through his papers. “What are you talking about?”

                “Tonight, what time should we wake them up?” I repeated. “We’re scheduled to play capture the flag.”

                Banks paused, cursed quietly under his breath, and then pinched the bridge of his nose with obvious frustration. He’d instructed me to come directly to his office after the day’s training was over, and I’d complied without even the slightest bit of argument because he’d seemed more on edge than usual. You could practically feel the waves of exasperation that emanated from him.

                Quite out of character, Banks had also acted distracted and preoccupied. His mind was obviously on other things. When I’d first arrived, I’d even seen him just sitting stoically; staring straight ahead at nothing in particular as he absently ran his fingers along the odd circular scars along his arms. Whatever had him so out of sorts must’ve been important, because he rarely allowed any of his real emotions to drift so close to the surface; easily available for all to see.

                Even now, I could tell that he was irritated with the fact that I’d brought up the topic of tonight’s game. I stayed quiet, but watched him closely as he thought through what I’d asked. He furrowed his brows, staring first at his computer, then back to the papers in his hand. It took him so long to respond that, for an instant, I thought he’d forgotten I’d even asked him a question.

                “Midnight,” Banks finally said as he reached for a different folder in on his desk. “Wake them at midnight.”

                “Okay,” I answered, and when I saw that he was again lost in his notes, I cautiously added, “so are we done here?”

                “For today, yes,” he said as he waved a hand at me. “Be careful when you take those sensors off, they’re delicate.”

                I nodded, and then began the painstakingly long process of peeling the multiple electrodes off of my forehead and unclamping the sensors from my fingers. Today’s tests had been odd, really odd, even for Banks. I was so used to all of them involving pain, that I’d been more than shocked when it never came.

                As soon as I’d sat in his testing chair, he’d hooked me up to his computer and then simply asked me a series of random questions; ones that I couldn’t imagine being important whatsoever. He’d held up cards with strange ink splats and asked me what I thought they looked like, he’d given me simple math problems to solve, shown me a series of shapes and numbers and asked that I find the pattern they made, and he’d even made me spell long words aloud. It was all suspiciously easy, and had admittedly unnerved me more than if he’d simply chased me around the room with a needle and syringe.

                “Sage, wait,” Banks said just as I’d been about to stand. “I’m occupied at the moment, so here, take this and go to the transfer’s dorm, then write down the names in order for me,” he said as he handed me a slip of paper.

                “Names?” I asked as I took the slip and unfolded it.

                Reading silently, I saw that the names on the paper were actually the ranks of the transfer-initiates. I frowned when I saw that there were only seven names on it, and I actually turned it over twice to see if there were maybe more on the back of it. Only seven, how could it be? There’d been so many transfers in the beginning, was it possible he’d already cut more than half of the group?