"In return," Evelyn says, "you will not attack or try to seize control of the city. You will allow those people who wish to leave and seek a new life elsewhere to do so. You will allow those who choose to stay to vote on new leaders and a new social system. And most importantly, you, Marcus, will not be eligible to lead them."
It is the only purely selfish term of the peace agreement. She told me she couldn't stand the thought of Marcus duping more people into following him, and I didn't argue with her.
Johanna raises her eyebrows. I notice that she has pulled her hair back on both sides, to reveal the scar in its entirety. She looks better that way— stronger, when she is not hiding behind a curtain of hair, hiding who she is.
"No deal," Marcus says. "I am the leader of these people."
"Marcus," Johanna says.
He ignores her. "You don't get to decide whether I lead them or not because you have a grudge against me, Evelyn!"
"Excuse me," Johanna says loudly. "Marcus, what she is offering is too good to be true—we get everything we want without all the violence! How can you possibly say no?"
"Because I am the rightful leader of these people!" Marcus says. "I am the leader of the Allegiant! I—"
"No, you are not," Johanna says calmly. "I am the leader of the Allegiant. And you are going to agree to this treaty, or I am going to tell them that you had a chance to end this conflict without bloodshed if you sacrificed your pride, and you said no."
Marcus's passive mask is gone, revealing the malicious face beneath it. But even he can't argue with Johanna, whose perfect calm and perfect threat have mastered him. He shakes his head but doesn't argue again.
"I agree to your terms," Johanna says, and she holds out her hand, her footsteps squeaking in the snow.
Evelyn removes her glove fingertip by fingertip, reaches across the gap, and shakes.
"In the morning we should gather everyone together and tell them the new plan," Johanna says. "Can you guarantee
a safe gathering?"
"I'll do my best," Evelyn says.
I check my watch. An hour has passed since Amar and Christina separated from us near the Hancock building, which means he probably knows that the serum virus didn't work. Or maybe he doesn't. Either way, I have to do what I came here to do—I have to find Zeke and his mother and tell them what happened to Uriah.
"I should go," I say to Evelyn. "I have something else to take care of. But I'll pick you up from the city limits tomorrow afternoon?"
"That sounds good," Evelyn says, and she rubs my arm briskly with a gloved hand, like she used to when I came in from the cold as a child.
"You won't be back, I assume?" Johanna says to me. "You've found a life for yourself on the outside?"
"I have," I say. "Good luck in here. The people outside—they're going to try to shut the city down. You should be ready for them."
Johanna smiles. "I'm sure we can negotiate with them."
She offers me her hand, and I shake it. I feel Marcus's eyes on me like an oppressive weight threatening to crush me. I force myself to look at him.
"Good-bye," I say to him, and I mean it.
Hana, Zeke's mother, has small feet that don't touch the ground when she sits in the easy chair in their living room. She is wearing a ragged black bathrobe and slippers, but the air she has, with her hands folded in her lap and her eyebrows raised, is so dignified that I feel like I am standing in front of a world leader. I glance at Zeke, who is rubbing his face with his fists to wake up.
Amar and Christina found them, not among the other revolutionaries near the Hancock building, but in their family apartment in the Pire, above Dauntless headquarters. I only found them because Christina thought to leave Peter and me a note with their location on the useless truck. Peter is waiting in the new van Evelyn found for us to drive to the Bureau.
"I'm sorry," I say. "I don't know where to start."
"You might begin with the worst," Hana says. "Like what exactly happened to my son."
"He was seriously injured during an attack," I say. "There was an explosion, and he was very close to it."
"Oh God," Zeke says, and he rocks back and forth like his body wants to be