The oppressive silence droned on as Dr. Barlow stared at Alek and Deryn. She was unusually dishevelled, as if she hadn't quite finished dressing before tearing out of her room; one of the buttons on her coat was undone, and her bowler hat was tipped to one side. But she hardly seemed to notice. She had been much too distracted, it appeared, even before she had walked in on this.

"I—I can explain..." Deryn croaked. It was a lie. It was a big barking lie and all three of them knew it. "It—um, I... we were... practicing... see, there's a lass back home, and I thought, maybe if Alek didn't mind..."

"You're a girl," Dr. Barlow said matter-of-factedly. "Of course! I should have known. And you and Alek... oh, of course. It was bound to happen if you ever let him know."

"In my defence, I figured it out," Alek muttered. Deryn elbowed him softly. Now wasn't the time for details.

She pleaded, "I know I lied to you and everyone else, but please don't tell anybody! Too many people know already..."

"Your secret is safe with me," Dr. Barlow assured her. The ice prickling up Deryn's neck thawed a little. "It was just an unexpected surprise. But on the topic of unexpected surprises, something terrible has happened!"

Alek and Deryn snapped to attention, Deryn out of habit and Alek out of astonishment. He'd never seen Dr. Barlow in such a state, but Deryn had, back during their peacekeeping mission in Istanbul that had ended so disastrously. It worried her; what could possibly have happened to merit that same shock?

"I had taken Tazza for a walk by myself for once," Dr. Barlow explained hurriedly. "It was a short walk, only ten minutes at the most, but when I returned to my room, the perspicacious loris was gone! I searched long and hard, but it couldn't have fit into the messenger lizard tubes, and there was no other way it could have wandered out of the room. I searched everywhere, and I still didn't find it, and that can only mean that it's been kidnapped."

The words froze Deryn in place all over again and sent a chill down her spine. She had known. She had known about Hall, and she had never told Dr. Barlow, and now whatever he had done to this loris was all her fault! She should have sacrificed her secret. It wasn't worth the danger this spy was putting them all in. If only she could have figured it all out earlier! But no, she had been moping over Alek instead. You're a stupid Dummkopf, that's what you are, she told herself bitterly. This entire mess was her fault, but she was fiercely determined to clean it up. She would do everything she could to save the loris, if it was still alive, and if she had to, she would tell Captain Hobbes about her secret. It was the least she could do to make up for how she'd been.

"It has to be Mr. Hall," she replied. "I discovered that he was a Clanker spy almost a week ago, but he also discovered that I was—that I'm a girl, and neither of us could tell anyone or the other would give them away. That's why I couldn't tell you. But now I can, because you already know. He must be the one behind it. I don't know how he'd get into your room. Maybe you forgot to lock it. But he's your man."

"Yes, you should have told me," Dr. Barlow snapped. "Do you really think I'd have been concerned with your gender-bending? This is far more important, Miss Sharp! I thought of you as my confidante. Apparently I was wrong." Her voice was so cold that both Alek and Deryn were intimidated by it.

"Clanker spy," Bovril reminded them shrilly, climbing from one of Alek's chairs to the table. "Kidnapped!"

"Bovril is right," Alek said, picking up the remaining loris and putting it on his shoulder. "We can worry about this later. Right now, we need to do something about that other loris. Maybe Bovril can help!"

"Aye, the beastie's smart enough," Deryn agreed. Dr. Barlow nodded crisply then headed out the door. "We'll split up. I'll find Mr. Newkirk, and we'll check the inside of the ship. Miss Sharp, you look in Mr. Hall's room, or wherever he sleeps, alone or with the other men from the Esperance. It doesn't matter. Alek, I am going to temporarily liberate you from your room so that you can help us, no matter what the captain says or thinks. You go with Miss Sharp, and if neither of you find anything, then check the spine." Before either of them could ask any questions, the boffin was gone from the doorway.

Deryn glanced at Alek for a split second before they tore out of the room too, Bovril clinging to Alek's shoulder for dear life. She took the lead and he followed, staying as close behind as he could without crowding her. He secretly agreed with Dr. Barlow that she should have told them earlier, but it conflicted with his understanding of her fear. He would have kept it to himself too, in her place. Maybe that just meant neither of them would have had the strength to do what was right. It was a dark thought, but he couldn't think of any other reason.

With the pace they were going at, it didn't take long at all to reach Mr. Hall's room. He shared it with Mr. White, so it seemed unlikely that he would have been able to hide a loris inside, dead or alive, without the other man noticing. Unless Mr. White was a spy too...

Alek scanned the hallway quickly. "Nobody here." Deryn tried the doorknob, but it was locked. She threw herself against the door instead, but all that accomplished was to make an awful racket. She took a second to recover before she slammed into it again, but this time Alek was beside her, and their combined strength forced the door open. They both ran into the room. It was plain, dimly lit by phosphorescent worms. There was little more inside than two beds. "I don't think we'll find anything here," Alek remarked.

"Best check it anyways," Deryn replied. "Just in case." Her voice squeaked girlishly at the end. Alek gave her a rueful look, and she cleared her throat then began searching various drawers under one of the bedside tables. A razor, a cloth, and what seemed to be a picture of someone's wife were inside the top. If these belonged to Mr. Hall, then she doubted it was his real wife.

There was only one other drawer. Alek had already searched most of the room, albeit haphazardly, but they both had a feeling they wouldn't find the loris here. This drawer was locked, and it took some tugging before it finally came loose.

Deryn gasped softly when she saw its contents. There were surgical scissors, scalpels, all sorts of nasty devices... exactly the sort of things one might use during a dissection. She had seen Dr. Erasmus taking apart messenger lizards before, to figure out why they'd died if he didn't already know, and these looked similar enough that they must have been meant for the same purpose. "I think I know what our spy was going to do with Dr. Barlow's loris," she murmured. Alek peered over her shoulder, causing an unwanted wave of giddiness to wash over her.

"That's awful," Alek remarked with disgust. "But still, we aren't going to save that loris by staying in this room. There's nothing here. To the spine?" Deryn nodded her assent and they departed hastily, heading towards the stairs which would lead them there. There was no time to lose.

Nevertheless, shortly after they left the room, they came across Mr. Bennett, who scowled distrustfully upon sighting Alek. "What is that boy doing out of his room?" he snapped. "Someone such as himself requires far more than an inexperienced midshipman as a guard! Go back to your duties, Mr. Sharp, and leave this boy to me. You can be sure that the captain will hear of this!" The man reached forward and grabbed Alek's wrist in an iron grip before he or Deryn could make a move to stop him.

"Let me go!" Alek protested angrily, trying in vain to jerk away. "This is serious! One of the lorises went missing! Dr. Barlow's asked for my help! You can't just bring me back to my room like—like some child!"

"Watch me," Mr. Bennett replied coldly. He began dragging Alek back along the hallway. Deryn stared after him, torn between arguing for him and continuing the search for the loris. But there was nothing she could do to help Alek now, and she could see in his eyes that he knew it too. With a final worried glance in his direction, she turned and continued towards the spine by herself. She would have to do this alone.