I laugh furiously, stunned that I’m about to be forced to sit through more lies.
‘You don’t expect me to believe you’re part of it?’
‘As Chancellor, I am uniquely placed,’ Hollingsworth says. ‘My position keeps me close to Wyvernmire—’
‘You got my parents arrested,’ I say. ‘You gave me my mother’s research because youwantedme to crack the code, wanted me tohelpWyvernmire win the war!’
Hollingsworth is shaking her head. ‘Your parents would have been arrested with or without me. The government had been watching them for months. But Wyvernmire was growing suspicious of me, and her request that I investigate your parents – and recruit you – was a test of loyalty. Turning your parents in renewed her trust in me, therefore keeping me in her inner circle.’
Hot anger seeps across my skin, threatening more tears. Is she telling the truth? Or is this just a ploy to keep me distracted until Wyvernmire gets here?
‘So you’re saying the Coalition knew my parents were going to be arrested?’
‘Yes.’ Hollingsworth raises an eyebrow. ‘Though they didn’t count on you releasing a criminal dragon who broke the Peace Agreement in the aftermath.’
‘But then … the rebels betrayed their own.’
‘When your parents joined the Coalition, they agreed that, in the event that their position was compromised, the rebelswould do what was best for the cause, even at the cost of their lives. On the condition that their children be protected. Helina and John didn’t know who I really am, Vivien. Most people don’t.’
I think of the Hollingsworth I saw at the ball, how she made people’s heads turn just by walking past. She rubs shoulders with the government’s highest-ranking members, and yet she’s telling me she’s an undercover rebel, too?
‘After your parents were arrested, I sent a dracovol to tell Wyvernmire that you weren’t interested in a job at the DDAD. I did intend to recruit you, butnotfor herorfor the Academy. A rebel group was dispatched to your house to pick you up, but you were already gone. When you released that dragon, Wyvernmire knew she could strike a deal with you.’
‘So if I’d have just stayed at home …’
Hollingsworth nods and pats her hair. ‘I was going to negotiate Marquis’s release, but then we found out you’d convinced Wyvernmire to let him go to Bletchley, too. I’m afraid you made things easy for the Prime Minister.’
‘And my mother’s research?’ I ask. ‘Why would you give it to me if the rebels didn’t want me to decipher echolocation?’
‘I knew you had the potential to crack the dragon code,’ she says. ‘Forgive me for being so cryptic, Vivien, but giving you what you asked me for was my way of letting you know I was on your side.’
‘But – but how did you know?’ I stutter. ‘How did you know I wouldn’t give Wyvernmire the code? That I’d join the Coalition?’
‘Atlas,’ Hollingsworth says simply. ‘He told me it wasquite impossible that you would choose Wyvernmire over the rebels, and that you simply needed time to understand that for yourself.’
I blink.
Atlas.
A low drone sounds outside and I peer out of the window. Marquis’s plane soars over us, looking for a place to land. I glance back at Hollingsworth. She wasn’t lying.
‘You’re really part of the rebellion?’ I say softly.
‘Part of it?’ Hollingsworth smiles. ‘Vivien, Iamthe rebellion.’
The plane begins its descent above a field behind the farm.
‘Where are we going, after this?’ I ask.
‘Me – back to London,’ Hollingsworth says. ‘If I am to continue my undercover work, then there must be no trace of my presence here at all. You – to Eigg.’
‘Eigg?’
She nods. ‘The Coalition Headquarters.’
So that’s where Dr Seymour was sending the dracovol.
‘There’s something else,’ I say. ‘You took a piece of paper from my father’s desk back in Fitzrovia. What was it?’
