Sleepy town. He found the post office with its red post box standing surreally outside. Close by it was a delicate pink-colored building that turned out to be the seat of government for the island, with a Union Jack on a pole sunk into the lava. Further along was a picket-fenced vicarage, then the small building signed POLICE STATION. Kane heard the boy’s laugh when he’d suggested reporting the incident to the police and wondered what that was about. The station door was locked. On a side wall, someone had affixed a torn poster for the missing girl. CAN YOU HELP? It was dominated by the school photo image Kane had seen: bright smile, hair plaited. Last seen at Two Boats, 6 p.m. on November 7th. If you have any information, please speak to Sergeant John Morrogh. It looked like a second one had hung beside it at some point but had been torn down.

He returned to the harbor and checked the boats. They were several hundred meters out, turning on their anchors, masts swaying. Last resort for an escape. He didn’t think it was quite that desperate yet, but worth researching the option. Fishing boats for the most part, small and solid: a couple of older-looking trawlers, but mostly cabin cruisers with outboard motors. These would be pull start, no key needed—you just needed to procure a dinghy to reach them. A full tank of fuel would get you a hundred miles or so. Enough to be out of sight. It wouldn’t exactly get you to Angola.

He watched the lines of rolling swell heading to shore, then turned and admired the hill looming over Georgetown taking on a murky shade of red in the dawn. Cross Hill. It looked manmade, like a slag heap. Halfway up, the remains of one of Georgetown’s historic Victorian-era forts clung to its grit.

Kane walked toward the hill, and then, without fully intending to, began to climb. The red earth was like ground-up brick beneath his feet, rolling down with each step. But Kane progressed, and as he climbed he felt previous visitors alongside him making the same instinctive journey: to achieve height, to survey the parcel of land on which they’d found themselves and establish how alone they were. To set up a cross, give the place a name, and shake off the image of a hostile planet.