That was how the island had been for the last sixty years: useful, secretive, silent. As NASA began to develop its Apollo program, they built a tracking station on the island. When the Falklands kicked off, Ascension provided a staging point for bombing raids. Otherwise it was uneventful, if events meant a physical occurrence in the public domain. Saint Helenians provided a local workforce. They were known as Saints, manning the bars, teaching at the school, helping with maintenance and fishing. They came over from the sister island on temporary permits and brought their families with them. In 2005, George and Jackie Wade came over with their three-year-old daughter, Petra. George worked as a private contractor doing operational support at the airfield; his wife secured a job in the US base canteen. Petra joined the small community of Ascension Island children who attended a nursery and school in Two Boats, the village in the center of the island.

Petra did well at the Two Boats school, which followed the English curriculum. Extracurricular activities included camping, diving, and singing. Last year, at age fourteen, she won Miss Ascension. In pictures she looked older than her years: confident, healthy with a life of sun and sea. Locals described her as lively, spirited, charming.

At five p.m. on Tuesday, November 7, she told her mother she was going out to meet a friend, Lauren Carter, who lived in Two Boats. Petra’s father was working. School was finished. Her mother said the girl was keen to get out, but in no way upset or distressed. She was wearing denim shorts and a striped vest top, pink Adidas trainers, and an unbranded pale blue baseball cap. The day had topped thirty degrees Celsius. She took her bike.

The last sighting of her was by a shopkeeper in Two Boats roughly an hour later, who said Petra was looking for someone, or on her way to meet someone, but they didn’t know who. She still had the bike with her. Lauren Carter said she never saw her; said that they had had no arrangement to meet in the first place.

Petra didn’t come home. It would have got dark around seven p.m., according to Kane’s research. There was no mobile reception on the island. At ten o’clock her mother got a lift up to Two Boats and began asking around. It wasn’t so unusual for Petra to stay out. No one knew anything. Jackie Wade returned to Georgetown and informed the police, who had closed the station for the night but were easily found in the Exiles Bar nearby. Whether for this reason or others, the police didn’t launch into a full search right away.