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Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Oliver Harris
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. FORTY-FOUR
  47. FORTY-FIVE
  48. FORTY-SIX
  49. FORTY-SEVEN
  50. FORTY-EIGHT
  51. FORTY-NINE
  52. FIFTY
  53. FIFTY-ONE
  54. FIFTY-TWO
  55. FIFTY-THREE
  56. FIFTY-FOUR
  57. FIFTY-FIVE
  58. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I drove over to the airport hotel. Stefan answered, looking unslept and unshaven.

There was a hard drive on the carpet, connected to his laptop, the beige case of the PC it had belonged to beside it.

‘Is that what I think it is?’

‘That’s right.’

‘You took it?’

‘I couldn’t sleep so I went out. The door was practically open. They have everything on here. This must be her, right?’

On the screen of his laptop was a Google search history from the time Joanna had been in the internet café. It included the search strings: Elliot Kane; Elliot Kane Kazakhstan; Elliot Kane MI6. There were also four different cover names I’d used on operations.

‘She’s trying to see if you’re out there, what you’re up to. Less than a minute later someone goes to the Earth Explorer site.’

He showed me: the user checked through a series of sites that let you search recent satellite imagery: Digital Globe, the European Space Agency, finally Earth Explorer, which gave you access to NASA’s Land Data feeds. In each, she typed in the same coordinates.

‘She’s trying to get up-to-date imagery of a particular region,’ Stefan said.

I punched in the GPS coordinates she’d been searching. They took me to white spaces in the east of Kazakhstan. I heard Shomko’s voice – I saw them studying a map, talking about the possibility she went east – then thought of the chain of events he had suggested: before disappearing, she stole a Chevy Equinox.

I looked at the imagery again. What I had taken for blank had a faint pattern visible: roads, that appeared to have faded. I cross-checked with Google Maps, then official Kazakh maps. Neither recorded anything for the area. But, zooming in on satellite view, I could make out right angles suggesting man-made structures.

‘You think she’s there?’ Stefan asked.

‘Something is. Can you check to see if anything with a nearby geotag has been uploaded? Photos, video, anything.’

My phone screen lit up. It was Callum Walker. I didn’t answer. I considered speaking to Aliya, asking straight out what was going on, what took her to London. Instead I studied the photograph of Joanna that Reza had sent through, feeling increasingly sure this connected to the location in the east. Ten minutes later, Stefan said, ‘It’s wrong.’ He had the satellite images up again.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘The weather doesn’t fit current reports.’ He showed me two current weather reports. ‘I think someone’s hacked the feed.’

‘What about local uploads?’

‘Nothing at all. Not even a phone call.’

‘Someone’s trying to hide something.’

‘They’ve succeeded. This is advanced cyber. The people trying to hide something are state-level, possibly military.’

I clicked ‘directions’ on Google Maps: 240 miles.

‘Google doesn’t allow for people trying to kill you on the way,’ Stefan said.

FORTY-TWO