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"Let’s go, Stiff," he says

"I’ation" I stretch ainst the wall "And now that you’re an Erudite lackey, you can’t call o"

"What, no snide comments?" I look up at hi here; your brain oes without saying, doesn’t it?" he says "You can either get up or I can drag you down the hallway Your choice"

I feel calmer Peter is always mean to me; this is familiar

I stand and walk out of the room I notice as I walk that Peter’s ar

"Did they fix up your bullet wound?"

"Yeah," he says "Now you’ll need to find a different weakness to exploit Too bad I’ood ar beside him "We’re late"

Despite the length and emptiness of the hallway, our footsteps don’t echo much I feel like someone put their hands over my ears and I only just noticed it I try to keep track of the hallalk down, but I lose count after a while We reach the end of one and turn left, into a dim room that relass--reflective on my side, but I’eout of it I recognize it from my Faction History textbook, the unit on Erudite and medicine An MRIsparks inside nize it at first Curiosity

A voice--Jeanine’s voice--speaks over an intercom

"Lie down, Beatrice"

I look at the man-sized tray that will slide hs "If you don’t do it yourself, we have ways ofbehind ine his hands on ainst the le frohtly

"Let’s et to see the scan"

"You will cooperate whether you want to or not"

I hold up a finger "That’s not true"

I look at theto Jeanine when I speak to my own reflection My hair is blond like hers; we are both pale and stern-looking The thought is so disturbing to ht for a few seconds, and instead stand with er in the air in silence

I am pale-skinned, pale-haired, and cold I am curious about the pictures of my brain I am like Jeanine And I can either despise it, attack it, eradicate itor I can use it

"That’s not true," I repeat "No matter how many restraints you use, you can’t keep me as still as I need to be for the pictures to be clear" I clearto kill me anyway, so does it really matter how much I know about my own brain before you do?"

Silence

"Why do you want to see them so badly?" she says

"Surely you, of all people, understand I have equal aptitude for Erudite as I do for Dauntless and Abnegation, after all"

"All right You can see them Lie down"

I walk over to the tray and lie down The metal feels like ice The tray slides back, and I am inside the ht that hat heaven would be like, all white light and nothing else Now I know that can’t be true, because white light is , and I close my eyes as I remember one of the obstacles in ainstto kidnapis a heartbeat, a druainst the walls of the chas at the end-of-initiation cere Ceremony

I don’t knostops and the tray slides back I sit up and rubPeter in the hallway He beckons to o see the scans now"

I hop down from the tray and walk toward him When we’re in the hallway, he shakes his head at et what you want"

"Yeah, because I wanted to get myself into a cell in Erudite headquarters I wanted to be executed"

I sound cavalier, like executions are so my lips around the word "executed"h?" he says "I mean, you did coood survival instinct"

He types in a series of numbers on a keypad outside the next door, and it opens I enter the room on the other side of the lass in the Erudites’ spectacles Across the room, another door clicks shut There is an e Someone just left

Peter stands too close behind rab me if I decide to attack anyone But I won’t attack anyone How far could I get if I did? Down one hallway, or two? And then I would be lost I couldn’t get out of here even if there weren’t guards stoppingtoward the large screen on the left wall One of the Erudite scientists taps his own coe ofat, exactly I knohat a brain looks like, and generally what each region of it does, but I don’t kno mine compares to others Jeanine taps her chin and stares for what feels like a long time

Finally she says, "Someone instruct Ms Prior as to what the prefrontal cortex does"

"It’s the region of the brain behind the forehead, so to speak," one of the scientists says She doesn’t look lasses thatyour thoughts and actions to attain your goals"

"Correct," Jeanine says "Now someone tell me what they observe about Ms Prior’s lateral prefrontal cortex"

"It’s large," another scientist--this one ahair--says

"Specificity," says Jeanine Like she’s chastising him

I am in a classroom, I realize, because every roo them, Jeanine is their most valued teacher They all stare at her ide eyes and eager, open er than average," thehair corrects himself

"Better" Jeanine tilts her head "In fact, it is one of the largest lateral prefrontal cortexes I’ve ever seen Yet the orbitofrontal cortex is remarkably small What do these two facts indicate?"

"The orbitofrontal cortex is the reward center of the brain Those who exhibit reward-seeking behavior have a large orbitofrontal cortex," soes in very little reward-seeking behavior"

"Not just that" Jeanine sht frohter but casts shadows in her eye sockets "It does notabout her behavior, but about her desires She is not reward hts and actions toward her goals This explains both her tendency toward harle out of sie our approach to the new simulation serum?"

"It should suppress some, but not all, of the activity in the prefrontal cortex," the scientist with the round glasses says