“Someone already on the island?”

“Yes, that’s what I believe. The ship is on a rescue mission. The officer’s been under deep cover, but they’re blown. The signals blackout is to allow for their escape. This is a maneuver to retrieve them before they fall into the wrong hands.”

“Does Vauxhall know any of this?”

“I doubt it.”

“All the noises from the MOD suggest they believe the sabotage is external, coming from off the island, possibly from the boat itself.”

He passed over copies of recent governmental cables—both UK and US—all pushing for intervention: Downing Street, British Forces South Atlantic Islands, the US Department of Defense’s Combatant Command. Taylor looked through, checking the data they were drawing on, just to be sure of her own theory. Could she be missing something? The officer responsible for a lot of the instructions from the US side was a General Anne Lindgren. The name caught Taylor’s eye. It was Kane’s host.

“This woman,” she said. “Do you know anything about her?”

“We believe she heads the Space Force over there,” Fischer said. “Seems hawkish, ready to get their retaliation in first.”

“My officer on the island was with her,” Taylor said, puzzled. “Anne Lindgren was sheltering him last night.”

It was starting to seem more than coincidence, and she wondered how and why Kane had ended up in their home.

“Get me a phone line,” Taylor said.

Fischer brought a phone over. She called Kudus and he answered on the first ring.

“Where are you?” he said.

“Somewhere safe for now. Thomas and Anne Lindgren, the couple that were with Elliot—did you get anything?”

“Yes. Anne Lindgren. Google her. Take a look.”

She turned to Fischer. He’d already typed it in. His monitor showed a woman in a space suit, her youthful face behind the curve of an astronaut’s helmet. It was on the NASA website.

“Born Anne O’Shea,” Kudus said. “Doctorate in laboratory astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania, then joined the Air Training Corps. She transferred to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1995 as part of the Mission Operations Directorate, where she was selected for the astronaut program.”

According to the website, Anne Lindgren had earned herself five NASA Space Flight Medals, two Distinguished Service Medals, and the Legion of Merit. She flew on four Shuttle missions between 1998 and 2005, served aboard the International Space Station as a member of the Expedition 18 crew. Next seen working at Lake Ravenna. The website didn’t specify what she was doing there, just that she served as a consultant.

“Consultant for a defense company,” Taylor said.

“Presumably,” Kudus said. The site carried an interview with her in which she spoke about life in space, how she enjoyed the peace, how chocolate tasted like wax, how she used to sleep strapped beneath the windows so that when she woke she saw the whole world floating before her.