“But who were they? And where were they? We spent three months trying to sniff out Gemstone, then got the result that gave us as many problems as it did solutions. Early last year Gemstone sent through a report with high-urgency status. It included a photograph showing British officials meeting senior US commanders on Ascension, and it included speculation that they’d been in discussions regarding the future of the island. So now we knew Gemstone was probably on Ascension—they’d been able to photograph this event but hadn’t been part of the group that traveled over. But we also knew, thanks to him, that the UK was preparing to join the US in an exclusive space defense program. We asked around and couldn’t find anyone who would admit to this. So what had we discovered?

“A month later, the RAF took on command and control of all UK military space operations. We began pulling away from the European space agency. Big changes were afoot. According to Gemstone’s report, the officials he’d seen were discussing the possibility of making Ascension a high-security command site, central to a ground-based space surveillance system.”

“When exactly was this meeting on the island?” Taylor asked.

“About eighteen months ago. As far as I’m aware it’s still going ahead. Ascension will connect to observatories in Hawaii, New Mexico, Alaska, and the Marshall Islands.”

The sun came out, catching them in an incongruous mesh of golden shards. Latham shielded his eyes. Taylor tried to process what she’d heard so far. The scale of it all was breathtaking, the implication and stakes involved.

“Then what happened? You raised this with superiors?”

“We knew we had to hand over. Spying on the Americans is one thing, spying on ourselves . . . We were instructed to deny ever seeing any of it, of course. To erase records.”

“Did they fire you?”

“No, I left of my own accord.” Latham stopped among the trees and looked at Taylor. “When I first began meeting with Zhao, we discovered we were the same age. We talked about our memory of the moon landing, both young boys, both fascinated by it. What an extraordinary achievement. Do you know what people said at the time? We did it. And they meant humans, as a species. Everyone.” He shook his head. “That was one of the main reasons Zhao felt compelled to work for us. He thought China was going too far. I promised him that the risks he took would help us keep space peaceful. I think even then I knew I was lying.”

Latham looked away. Now his infirmity seemed born of a more emotional breakage, a collapse of his moral center.

“I objected to the whole direction of policy,” he said. “Because I also believed we were at a dangerous crossroads. It wasn’t an argument that was going to be had. By that point, I’d done my time.”

“And Gemstone?”