Contents
Chapter 52: Tris
Overview
Tris rides north with Evelyn’s Hemlocks to assassinate Marcus Eaton, weapons in hand. Torn between saving Marcus for the Memory Vault and removing him for Tobias’s sake, Tris leads the team to Building B. Instead of Marcus, they encounter Eric holding Natalie Prior at gunpoint, upending Tris’s plan.
Summary
On a speeding train north, Tris waits with Evelyn, Sly, and Gretchen as Evelyn reveals stolen Dauntless guns, making clear the mission’s lethal intent. Tris realizes their target is Marcus Eaton and prepares to disembark near the Abnegation sector.
As Tris guides the group through the neglected station and familiar streets toward Building B, she wrestles with a choice: save Marcus for the Memory Vault’s importance to Natalie and the city, or let him die to end his hold over Tobias. She resolves nothing, acknowledging she might not save him.
Tris leads them to the unlocked back stairwell and up to Marcus’s floor. The building’s scents trigger memories as Evelyn advances, gun clenched. They burst into Marcus’s apartment—only to confront Eric, the Dauntless youth leader, aiming a gun at a shadowed figure.
The figure steps into the light: Natalie Prior. As Natalie gasps “Beatrice,” Tris’s plan collapses, and the mission shifts from assassination to an unexpected, immediate threat with Eric controlling the room.
Who Appears
- Tris (Beatrice Prior)Narrator; leads Evelyn’s team to Marcus’s apartment, conflicted about saving him; finds her mother held at gunpoint.
- Evelyn Johnson-EatonFactionless leader; arms the team with guns and drives the mission to kill Marcus.
- EricDauntless youth leader; lying in wait in Marcus’s apartment, holds Natalie Prior at gunpoint.
- SlyHemlock operative; armed and ready, closely shadows Tris during the mission.
- GretchenHemlock operative; accompanies the team, skeptical of Abnegation, prepared for violence.
- Natalie PriorTris’s mother; unexpectedly present in Marcus’s apartment, revealed under Eric’s gun.