What Kane saw was a vast plain of rippling black. He could only tell it was birds by their cries.

“Wideawakes, that’s what people call them. Because they never shut up.” The postman stared out, breathing slowly. “Yeah, they’re there.”

The signals interception facility was apparently unremarkable.

“What’s the thing that looks like a golf ball?” Kane asked.

“Radar.”

“Must be strange living here with all that going on on your doorstep.”

“You don’t notice it after a while.”

A few minutes later they arrived at a scattering of pale bungalows. A sign said WELCOME TO GEORGETOWN—PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY. Only two structures achieved any visible height, the spire of a church and the clocktower of the old barracks. Waves crashed beyond them.

“This is Georgetown.” He stopped the truck. “You’ll be all right?”

“Better be. Can I give you some money for the petrol?”

“That’s okay. Was hardly out of my way.”

Kane thanked him and got out. The man wheeled around and drove back in the direction of the airport. Kane watched the taillights fade, then contemplated his new home. All the buildings looked anonymous and identical. The sea glistened darkly beyond them, waves booming as they hit the shore. But his attention was stolen by the night sky. Stars covered it like a rash, larger and brighter than any stars he’d seen before. They stretched from horizon to horizon, unfamiliar constellations: the Southern Cross, the Great Bear turned upside down. And the spotlight moon. The rest of humanity was a thousand miles away. The moon was only twice as far.

No bright hotel sign called to him. No street signs. Georgetown was deserted. Only the occasional sound of a television disturbed the stillness. The air was briny and the heat had settled in for the night. The ground was black grit, like poorly laid tarmac. Everything had a disjointed air, with big gaps between properties and no clear suggestion of where the road ended and plots of land began. According to Kane’s notes, Georgetown housed three hundred people, but that seemed unlikely right now. He had the sensation of being watched, but couldn’t see another soul.

It seemed logical that the hotel would be close to the center. Kane associated the center with the two big buildings. St. Mary’s Church had a spectral luminescence, its whitewash trapping moonlight. Facing it across an expanse of black ground was the old barracks. This was the site of the original military garrison, now known as the Exiles Building. In the silver light it appeared like something from a dream, with a pillared colonnade along the ground floor creating black arches. A few hundred meters beyond it, jutting into the water, was the island’s port.

Maybe the hotel was by the sea.