How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
She held his gaze a moment. "I can't babble all our secrets to you, Alek. But it should be obvious that I am a scientist, not a soldier."
"And a diplomat?"
Dr. Barlow smiled. "We all do our duty." (34.46-47)
Very sneaky, Dr. Barlow. Poor Alek: he tries to beat her at her own game and ask leading questions of his own, but Dr. Barlow is just way too quick for him.
Quote #8
"Please, ma'am," Alek said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "Don't tell anyone else who I am. It might complicate things." (34.74)
Ugh, that moment when you are one hundred percent busted. We feel bad for Alek here because he is totally at Dr. Barlow's mercy, which goes to show how much good being a prince will do you sometimes. This crack in his armor reminds us of when he wakes up in the gun turret after Klopp and Volger sedate him—again he sounds less like the heir to an empire than a scared little boy.
Quote #9
This was the moment, of course, when duty required her to tell the captain all she knew—that Alek was the son of Archduke Ferdinand, and that the Germans were behind his father's murder. Alek had said it himself: this wasn't just family business. The assassinations had started the whole barking war, after all.
And now Lord Churchill himself was asking about it!
But she'd promised Alek not to tell.
[…]
She couldn't break her promise—not like this, without even talking to Alek first.
Deryn saluted smartly. "I'm happy to do whatever I can, sir."
And she left without telling the captain any of it. (40.28-30, 32-34)
Deryn has a tough dilemma here. On one hand, she has a duty to tell the captain everything she knows, but on the other, she told Alek she wouldn't tell. It seems no matter what she does, she's betraying someone—so she'll have to decide whom she minds betraying the least.