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‘So this was about vengeance,’ Ducos said coolly. ‘All those extended assignments. You would disappear for weeks at a time.’

‘Sometimes I was harvesting intelligence from other sub-networks. When I wasn’t doing that, I was either at the Fluke, sharing it with my birdwatcher, or in London,’ Cordier confirmed. ‘I found my mother in Mayfair. She pretended she didn’t know who I was, but I left her a means to contact me in Paris, in case she or Alice wanted to get out. I didn’t hear a word for years.’

Claude Burnish kept a low profile, but I had glimpsed her in theDescendantevery now and then. Now I wondered whether her Scion-born spouse had known the truth about her.

‘In the Archon,’ Cordier went on, ‘Alice worked with a … sympathiser, code name Lepidopterist.’

Ducos narrowed her eyes. ‘Another Domino agent?’

‘No. An independent defector,’ Cordier said. ‘In December, Alice sent him to Paris to find me. To tell me she had accepted her duty, and that I should leave Scion. Leave her.’ She closed her eyes. ‘A week after Versailles, the Lepidopterist got in touch again. Alice had entrusted him with something of immense value, which he was meant to pass to me, but he wanted something in return – Paige. He knew I could get her. That’s why I did it.’

‘You’re lying,’ I said. ‘You put the tracking unit in me before Versailles.’

‘Yes, because Tinman had separately ordered me to extract you and Warden.’

‘Why?’

‘Why do you think?’ Cordier wheezed a laugh. ‘You’re a miracle, Paige Mahoney. Don’t you know how devastating a weapon you would be in the right hands, or the wrong ones?’

‘I’m aware.’

‘I really don’t think you are,’ she said. ‘The Lepidopterist stipulated that I had to split you up from Warden. As soon as you left the safe house, I got him detained.’

So the Lepidopterist knew about Warden. That narrowed down the number of people it could be.

‘You held me for six months,’ I said. ‘What were you waiting for?’

‘He wanted you kept away. And he didn’t want you anywhere near Warden.’ Cordier took a deep breath. ‘Tinman smelled a rat.My birdwatcher had told me to bring you to Amsterdam, but I couldn’t risk the loss of whatever my sister got out of the Archon, so I took you to Switzerland instead. From there, we had to go on the run.’

‘Tell us how Harald Lauring got involved,’ Ducos said.

‘Harald had more experience with voyants than I did. He found a Domino associate who could keep Paige under control. His gift made him immune to hers.’ Cordier glanced at the corpse. ‘I hadn’t realised Harald was Grapevine. When I realised he was going to try to take Paige, we gave him the slip. I bribed Lennart to come with me.’

‘Harald found her,’ Ducos said. ‘He was on his way to Scion with her when our paths crossed.’

‘Did you kill him?’

‘Yes.’

‘Shame. He was a good man, at one point.’

‘Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it,’ I said. ‘Not only did you hold me hostage for months, but you condemned Arcturus to a torture chamber.’

‘I did try other ways. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,’ Cordier said to Arcturus. ‘I’m glad you made it out, handsome.’

‘You just shot him,’ I bit out.

‘He can take it. Besides, there are worse things in store for him if you’re not careful, Paige.’

‘What the fuck does that mean?’

‘Our world is about to change. The secret is bursting its bounds. Too many people know or suspect,’ she said. ‘It’s only a matter of who gets to it first, and who is the one to reveal it. Tinman is grasping the extent of this. They’ll do anything to get their hands on a specimen.’

‘They’ll have to come through me.’

‘I’m sure they’d enjoy that opportunity. They have a tracker in me now, by the way,’ she added to Ducos. ‘You should move.’

‘You’re working for them again?’