fearless

Chapter 65: Master of Plots.

"We need to think about it. Put your Erudite to use. How would someone plan to set it up and how would they carry it out. There's gotta be a clue somewhere." Ty looks at me, squinting as well.

I nod, then say yes once I realize that he didn't see me nod.

I begin walking around on the roof, looking at possible hints as to what happened. I climb up a ladder on the side of the air conditioning unit, and see a large hook stationed on the very top, rusted, with some thick rope connected to it.

That's probably meant to be there, but I'm gonna put it on the list of things we've found.

I sit down, or perch myself, on the ladder, and look down at Ty. He sits on the edge of the building, looking down in the net connected to the building that holds all of the gear. He picks up various harnesses and hooks and such.

He picks up one harness in particular, and stands up, walking in my direction. "Look. I don't know if it's much, but just look." He holds a harness in his soft hands, and the harness is ripped. A large black rope is tied to it, and Ty holds that in his other hand.

"Ty, this is great." I say, jumping off of the ladder into the ground. He nods.

"I think it's Shelly's rope, that's my theory- with the black rope and all. There was another ripped harness in the bunch. It might have been tied to this one and ripped." He fingers the rope in his hands, turning it over.

"See, there's another piece of a harness tied in it. We'll take this back to my dad when we meet him at the chasm. It's not much as far as closure goes, but it's something." He shrugs. I nod, and show him the hook with the other rope.

"Hmm. Maybe it was tied to something, but the person untied it when they left, when all of the focus was on Tris." Ty says, putting his Erudite-ness to good use.

I hug him, leaning up against the rusted air conditioning unit for extra leverage against the wind. "I just wished that none of this even happened." I say. Ty kisses my temple as I lay my head to rest on his shoulder. He lays the harnesses and rope down on the ground.

"I know, but this is another thing that makes you stronger. We'll get through it-your mother will be okay in the end- she always is, and look at me. I'm going to be right here through it all." He turns to look at my head, smiling.

"Always, Maddie. Always. I'll never leave you. We'll get to the bottom of it. The Candor are going to put Shelly under truth serum- that will be where most of the answers come in." He pauses.

"This is only the surface. We're just scratching it. We haven't even started to dig yet." He kisses my forehead, and I deepen the kiss.

I pull away and lean our foreheads together. "Together?" I ask him. He smiles, our breaths intermixing.

"Together." He replies, reassuring me.

>>

I glance down at my watch. Seven fifty eight. I lean against the bridge railing, and sigh. Ty stands beside me, fumbling with the harnesses. "I wonder if the attacker, yeah, that's what we're gonna call them, left some kind of a note for us to find- some kind of a hint." He glances over at me.

"This person had to know Dauntless well. Of course, it could be anybody from Dauntless in another faction, or someone within Dauntless. This person had to have something against your mother. They just had to." Ty closes his speech with a chilling note just as Zeke arrives.