“He wasn’t well,” Taylor said. “That’s what I think. He shouldn’t have gone.”

“Was he drinking while there?”

She shrugged. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Where did he hang himself?”

“Off an antenna tower.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish I was. A transmitter tower belonging to the BBC, near where he was staying. There are no trees, you see. Or none tall enough. I don’t know.”

“Any note?”

“None that’s been found. We know nothing about his last few days. That in itself feels odd. Nothing about the hours preceding his death. I have no idea where he was, who he saw, what he was doing. You can see that that’s unsettling. I would have loved to say to the police over there: treat this as suspicious, but of course the last thing we want to do is to attract a whole load of attention.”

“You mentioned things missing, belongings.”

“Yes, in particular a file I know he had. I don’t believe there were sensitive documents lying around—Rory was too professional for that—but we were quite careful with maintaining an inventory, and a box file of information about the installation is missing. Nothing sensitive, but maybe someone thought it was. Or he left it somewhere. Maybe that would give us some idea of who he hung out with. I have no idea if he had friends over there, enemies, lovers.”

“When did you last see him?”

“At the briefing for the job. He volunteered, by the way. I didn’t force him into it. But I passed the opportunity his way. He wasn’t getting much work. Obviously no one knew what happened in Seeb, but it had affected him.”

“He said he liked islands. Do you remember? He wanted to go to Masirah Island when we were in Oman.”

“Well, he certainly got an island. Maybe too much of one.”

Kane tried to imagine the experience: working alone there, intermittent communication with HQ. You have isolated yourself from the rest of humanity, for humanity’s sake. Left with only your thoughts for company. But that’s the problem.

“What else do you know about Ascension?” he asked.

“It really didn’t occupy much of my time until Dominic called. The radars do their thing. It’s important enough that one of the main reasons we keep the Falklands is to defend Ascension in case anyone gets too interested. This cable project is partly so we can show the US that we’re maximizing its potential.”

Kane removed a cigarette from Taylor’s pack, lit it, and took her place by the window. A TV flickered in the living room across the road. In twenty minutes, the couple watching it would go to bed. A man would return to the house next door wearing paint-covered overalls and eat standing up alone in his kitchen. Clouds the silver of pencil lead crossed an orange night sky.