Tris’s group goes into the next building to look for a ladder to bridge the street between windows. Tris spends some time establishing that the robot guards are literally the worst guards ever to be set guarding anything. I mean, they’re as bad as video game characters: they have zero peripheral vision and don’t respond to any activity or noise unless it’s right in front of them. Again, for no reason. We’ve seen attack simulations in action; they’re capable of being much more complex. The only reason to suddenly change into being this utterly dead is…there is no reason. Hell, they could even still have the break-in as planned, all they’d need to do is exert a smidge more sneakiness. Literally all the robotification serves is to say “oo, creepy robot eyes.”

They throw something to break the window across the street, and when glass hits the street all the Candor-robots fire up in the air.

At the same time, the Candor twist and fire up into the sky. Everyone else drops to the ground, but I stay on my feet, part of me marveling at the perfect synchronicity of it, and the other part disgusted at how Jeanine Matthews has turned yet another faction from human beings into parts of a machine. None of the bullets even hit the classroom windows, let alone penetrate the room.

Still not creepier than last book. Not gonna lie, if I’m going to be mind-jacked, I would SO rather being made to shoot badly than to actually, ya know, kill people.

And then the robots go back to resting position, not doing anything, no one alerted to the activity. Damn, they don’t even have one awake guard just on hand to report on if their robots start shooting at something?

Even if the Erudite aren’t that kind of smart, certainly some of the Dauntless would have thought of that? I mean, there’s no reason for them to be the military unit this book thinks they should be, but guarding shit is canonically part of their repertoire.

I notice that Marcus, who is supposed to selflessly offer himself up for every task, does not volunteer.

So, what, is he Divergent, too? Not that this book could ever keep any of its own core concepts straight anyway…

Tris climbs across the ladder to the other building. There’s some fake tension with the ladder slipping and all that, but since we’ve established that nothing short of literally falling on top of the robots below will alert them, meh.

An Erudite woman comes out of a stall, and I scramble to my feet, draw the stunner, and point it at her, all without thinking.

She freezes, her arms up, toilet paper stuck to her shoe.

So…we heard gunfire during the approach, the place is ringed with robot guards, there’s an invasion due to occur today…did this woman just really, really have to pee, or is it business as usual going on in here for some unfathomable reason?

Tris, being dressed all in blue, tries to spin some tale about re-entering the building in order to get some data that was left behind. Somehow the woman accepts this story, despite the fact that it seems like the Erudite are still in control of the building and thus a dangerous window entry shouldn’t be necessary?

What is going on?

Well, the rest of the group comes across the ladder, and Fernando is last across. But halfway, his glasses fall off into the street and all the Candor-bots turn and shoot him.

And then go back to position. Having alerted literally no one.

Why was Fernando here? Everything about this situation it so ridiculous. It’s like he was only here to die to make things tense, but because the bots are so useless and Fernando was so new and unknown, instead of any kind of tension, I’m just thinking “okay, so I guess the useless and the useless just canceled each other out? Ish?” I mean, it’s such a self-contained situation. Fernando was only there to get shot by the bots, and the bots were only there to shoot Fernando. Nothing else was affected, nor will it be affected going forward, so I feel nothing. I didn’t even know this character; he was around for, what, two chapters?

“I don’t mean to be insensitive,” says Marcus, “but we have to go before the Dauntless and factionless enter this building. If they haven’t already.”

Were the Candor-bots just shooting at squirrels and that’s the gunfire we heard before? I’m just going to assume that. It does at least make things slightly more sensical.

They get out into the building proper, which is full of panicked people talking about how “they” are at the door and disabled elevators. Well, there goes my squirrel theory. That didn’t take long. It’s amazing how the building is actively under attack, and the story couldn’t even convey that much through the past three chapters of hanging out right next to it.

They blend in with the running around panicked people and go upstairs to a control room. Unfortunately, it’s on the same floor as Tris’s prison cell/torture room, and she freaks out in the hallway and has to be dragged along. That’s a nice moment.

Then Caleb shows up, and he staunchly refuses to believe that they’re there on an information-saving mission. Then as he banters with Marcus, it becomes clear that he knows what this information is because Jeanine told him. Hear that, Marcus? It is possible to explain this shit. Shocking, I know.

Tris, want to weigh in on the fact that it’s explainable and yet you’re following a man who still won’t tell you what’s going on?

Nope?

Just gonna yell at Caleb for not going on a failed rescue-suicide run? (Literally, she says he should have died in an attempt to save her, not that he should have saved her, but that he should have died trying. I mean…I actually kind of like it. It’s the kind of fucked-up thing someone would say when they’re super upset. Such drama. Very good.)

(But really fucked up, like, wow.)

Caleb finally informs them that Jeanine has the information they seek contained somewhere other than the networked computers, for safekeeping. Because obviously. Why wouldn’t there be protected backups of everything? Not just because of impending invasions, but because that’s what you (should) always do with computer data?

Is there a library somewhere that the factionless plan to set fire to as well?

Marcus knocks Caleb out so he can’t warn anyone of their presence, and then he, Tris, and Christina go off in search of this oh-so-important data while Cara stays behind to save what she can of the rest of it.

Tris gets all conflicted and furious over the reminder that Marcus is a two-faced hypocrite abuser and she’s stuck following his hypocritical abuser ass around.

“Your brother is a traitor,” says Marcus as we turn a corner.

Except that Caleb was always totally loyal to his own faction and leader, which supposedly you guys value over family and all else, so– eh, you haven’t been consistent with that yet, I don’t know why it keeps irritating me that you aren’t consistent still.

They head up to the top floor, where Jeanine’s personal laboratory is, figuring that’s where the protected data will be. Except when they get there, they see Edward there standing over the guard he just killed.

So they fight him? I really don’t understand all this animosity that seems to exist just because the book decided it needs more drama. Tris and Edward are, nominally speaking, on the same side. He has no reason to think she’s working against him in any way. He has no reason to protest her going into the lab. Well, he does, it’s suspicious as hell that she’s shown up out of nowhere, but they don’t go into that, they just go straight into “let’s fistfight about it!” Just like there was no reason for Tris to keep her info secret, no reason for her to think “it’s Marcus or Tobias, I have to betray him!” Fights are just happening because reasons.

They all fight, Christina gets shot in the leg, and after subduing Edward they decide that Marcus and Tris should go on while Christian stays behind as lookout.