Chapter 38: Four

Four leaves his apartment under the pretense of an errand, lingering on the memory of near-intimacy with Tris and admitting he’s simultaneously drawn to and wary of her insight. At the Pit, Zeke and Shauna pull Four into a small memorial drink for Amar, their late instructor, which rekindles Four’s guilt for avoiding leadership after Amar’s death and his unresolved suspicion about the “suicide.”

After parting from friends, Four approaches Tori in the dining hall to ask about the initiate he was seen with. Tori, who administered Tris’s aptitude test, downplays it as a system error; Four, recalling Tris’s unusual fear sim, reads her hedging as a cue toward Divergence. Tori advises him to clean up the log—code for concealing suspicious data.

Four heads to the simulation rooms and runs into Edward, who reports someone was inside. Concerned—only leaders should access sims alone—Four investigates. He notices the emergency exit not fully sealed, indicating a covert departure, and connects to the simulator to replay the last session.

The system first shows Al’s kitchen simulation, then, on Four’s command, reveals the last accessor’s image: Jeanine Matthews. Four realizes the Erudite leader has been secretly tapping Dauntless fear logs, confirming Erudite intrusion into Dauntless systems and escalating the stakes around Divergent detection.