Allegiant

The two trucks drive toward another city. The buildings are smaller than those of Chicago but are just as numerous. The group approaches the outer limits of the Dauntless patrols, and Johana says Abnegation gives anyone who goes this far a memory serum so that they forget the experience.

The group reaches another boundary, and Robert and Johana drop the group off and take the trucks back to the city. The rest follow the train tracks in near silence. They see walls covered with advertisements that make no sense to them. Tris hears a steady rumble and commands everyone to stop.

A large, black truck appears and stops near the group. A man drives, and a woman gets out of the passenger seat. She shows she’s unarmed and introduces herself as Zoe; the driver is Amar, a former Dauntless believed dead. Zoe hands Tris a picture; Natalie Prior, Tris’s mother, is in the image with a group of people. Zoe tells them there’s much to explain and that they should go to headquarters. Everyone decides to trust Zoe and Amar, so they get in the truck and drive away.

As the group rides in the truck bed, Tris looks at the photograph of her mother. The landscape turns flat and has scattered buildings and overgrown trees. Tobias feels overwhelmed by all of the new information. The truck approaches two fences; the outer one is tall, and the inner is electrified chain-link with barbed wire positioned at the top. People with guns walk in the space between the two fences. As they drive through, Tobias reads that this compound is the vast but low-lying Bureau of Genetic Welfare headquarters. The truck stops, and the group gets out.

Zoe welcomes them to what used to be the O’Hare Airport, northwest of Chicago. Zoe then takes them to David, the leader of the Bureau. They go through a security checkpoint, leaving their weapons behind. Tobias notices that nothing seems hidden but is open for everyone to see. Once they’re in the control room, David tells them that this moment is what the Bureau has been waiting for.

David addresses them and says Edith Prior’s information was only half-accurate. Three hundred years ago, the United States began enforcing desirable behaviors in its citizens to reduce violent tendencies. The result was an experiment in genetic manipulation. However, the experiment resulted in damaged genes instead of corrected ones. This caused The Purity War, a civil war between those with good genes and the government and those with damaged genes. This war eliminated half of the country’s population, and the government created the Bureau of Genetic Welfare after the war as a permanent solution to the problem.

The goal of the Bureau was to design experiments to get humanity back to genetic purity. The government placed the genetically damaged in secure cities, hoping the genes would heal over time. These genetically healed people were called Divergents. David says Chicago is the most successful experiment because the factions they used helped improve human behavior in addition to genetic healing. He says the Bureau has done much to protect, observe, and learn from the Divergents. However, the Bureau isn’t looking for a Divergent army to save them. The Bureau just needs the Divergents’ good genes to be passed on.

The group is shocked by this news, and Tris asks how the Bureau has been observing them. David asks someone to display the security camera footage in the city, and Tris realizes the Bureau has been watching them. Tris feels violated and wants to leave, but she also wants to learn more about her mother. David takes the group to a former hotel connected to the airport by a tunnel. He leaves them in a ballroom-turned-dormitory, but Tris follows him back into the hallway. She shows him the picture and says he knew Natalie. David tells Tris that Natalie was one of them and that they sent her into the experiment to stop the killing of Divergents. Tris begins to shiver and walks back into the dormitory.

Tris returns to find the others choosing their beds. No one is taking the news well, and they are all quiet. Tris talks to Cara, who struggles with who she is and what her new identity will be. Tris then checks on Tobias, who considers how meaningless the factions are. Tris is more upset that the Bureau has been watching them and not intervening to save them. She then realizes that Tobias had previously warned her about the Dauntless compound’s cameras. Tris finds comfort in knowing herself, which has nothing to do with factions.