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Chapters 6–10 

Summary: Chapter 6, June

It's the day of Metias’s funeral. All funerals in the Republic are conducted in white. The tradition began after there was a volcanic eruption, and hundreds of bodies were covered in white ash. June wears an elaborate, corseted white gown. Several people give her admiring glances, including Thomas, who tells her she is beautiful. Chian, the man in charge of administering all the Trials given in the Republic, is seated next to June. She finds Chian repulsive and remembers how Metias made a special request to be reassigned because he didn’t want to administer the Trials with Chian anymore. Thomas grabs June’s hand underneath the table, signaling to her to play along with Chian. He reveals that Chian has a grudge against Day for giving him a scar across his face and assures June that they’ll find and capture Day. 

Summary: Chapter 7, Day

Day dons a disguise and walks around the sector trying to find information about the person with the plague cure. He walks into a bar and asks the attractive young bartender if she’s heard of someone selling plague cures. She affirms that there is and that the person said he would be at the “ten-second” place tonight. Day realizes the man is looking specifically for him because the “ten-second” place is a reference to a bank heist Day pulled in less than ten seconds. Day used the money from the heist to buy an electro-bomb, a black-market device that disables guns in its vicinity for some time. 

Summary: Chapter 8, June

June dresses up in black to go on her special mission to meet Day. She wants to look genderless and unidentifiable, but rich enough to afford plague cures. She knows she probably won’t capture Day tonight, but she will get information from him. June meets Day at the ten-second place. He has rewired the speakers so he can speak through them without giving away his location. Day refers to June as “cousin,” which tips June off that he’s probably from the Lake sector. Day asks her how much she wants for the cure. He notices that the knot on her uniform is a Canto knot, which tips him off that she works for the military. Day then rushes off. June is satisfied, however, because now she knows where Day is from. Because Commander Jameson won’t agree to round everyone up in the Lake sector whose house has been marked with an X, June knows she’ll have to go to the Lake sector and hunt Day down herself. 

Summary: Chapter 9, Day

Day and Tess are hiding out under a pier near the lake. Day remembers the time when he first met Tess. She was a scared ten-year-old orphan picking garbage out of a dumpster in the Nima sector when Day, also scrounging for food, approached her. When Tess tried to run away, she scraped her knees, and Day helped her. Tess has stayed with him ever since. While they’re hiding out, Day and Tess hear a pair of officers from above talking about a new strain of the plague that is hitting the Zein district. Earlier, Day went home and learned that his brother Eden is sick and has lost weight. Day worries that Eden might have this new strain. As Day and Tess listen to the officers talk, Tess notices they’ve been resting against a hollow metal structure. Day inspects the metal and notices a Republic seal with the number 318 written on it.

Summary: Chapter 10, June

June is at Batalla Hall. She and Thomas argue about her going out in the field to track Day alone. Thomas is afraid for her and thinks he should be sent on the mission instead. In an adjacent room, Commander Jameson is torturing a spy from the Colonies, Emerson Adam Graham. June notices that the spy’s buttons, a flat style like those used on Colonial uniforms, are what likely gave him away. Jameson invites Thomas to take over torturing the spy, and June is uncomfortable watching how Thomas almost relishes the job. Back home, June recalls that Metias had said he had something to tell her the night he died, and she wonders what it was. June heads over to the Lake sector dressed in thrift store clothes. She scavenges for food in bins, just like a homeless person, to fit in. For a moment, June judges the people around her. By the fourth day, she notices how she is beginning to look like them. 

Analysis: Chapters 6–10 

The Republic’s tradition of using white to signify mourning is a reversal of the norm in Western society now, where people usually wear black while in mourning. This tradition of wearing white at funerals was started in the Republic to commemorate the time when everything on earth was covered with volcanic ash after a huge eruption. The change in color at funerals symbolizes how cataclysmic events can lead a society to reimagine life and establish new traditions to reflect the drastic changes to life on earth these events cause. When June attends her brother’s funeral, everything about her is white—her dress, her shoes, her makeup, even the powders put on her eyelashes to make them seem white. In this all-white garb, June describes how she feels stripped of color just like how her brother Metias has been stripped from her life. This stripping of color mirrors the way the Republic strips its members of identity. People are “whitewashed” of personality, facial features, and other elements of personal complexity and reduced to simple tests and markers of special attributes. It makes for a cleaner society, but a less diverse one. 

When June tries to lure Day out by telling him to meet her at the ten-second place, she reveals her competitive streak. She could have chosen other ways to lure Day out, but she refers to one of his well-known achievements, which seems like an acknowledgment as well as a challenge. June would very much like to go head-to-head with an opponent who can equal her, something she hasn’t been able to find yet. She may be cocky and like attention, but her desire to fulfill the expectations of the Republic shows she’s responsible, too. This dutifulness will both serve her and limit her throughout the novel. It will help her carry out her mission and capture such an elusive and powerful opponent as Day, but it will also put her at odds with her instincts and emotions. Over the course of the novel, June will have to choose between being loyal to the Republic or following her own instincts.  

June does find an equal in Day, which becomes obvious when they rendezvous outside. It doesn’t take long for Day to notice that the knot on June’s cloak is one used by those in the elite military. June criticizes herself for making such an easy mistake and giving herself away. At the same time, she realizes that she has met her match and a formidable opponent. 

There are key differences between Day and June. At the hospital, Day makes it a point to make sure the doctor ducks out of the way before Day releases him from his hold so that the doctor won’t get hurt by the shower of bullets meant for Day. Even though he’s on the wrong side of the law, Day is a good person. June, however, seems unlikely to share the same morals. At this point, she’s just a girl out for revenge. As a loyal citizen of the Republic, June’s priority is to catch Day at any cost; she says earlier that she will “lie, cheat, and steal” to capture him, which doesn’t bode well for Day.

Among the important attributes June and Day share is their remarkable power of perception. June concludes that her brother’s killer is both left-handed and right-handed because of the way the sewer cover was turned and the way the knife was lodged into her brother’s heart. Although this turns out to be false (there were two different-handed people at the scene of the crime), her perceptions were correct. June also notices the buttons on the Patriots’ coat that give him away as a spy. Day notices everything around him as well and determines that June is working undercover simply by the way she wears her clothes. In this way, Lu shows that whether rich or poor, people can have equally powerful innate skills and abilities. Thomas is evidence of this assertion as well. He grows up poor; his mother is a cook, and his father is a janitor. However, he has innate abilities that grab the attention of Metias, who takes Thomas under his wing and allows him to succeed in the military.

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