They’ve made good progress, much better than Matt expected – the combination of their faster pace and the slight shortcut they’ve taken has put them way ahead of their 13-year-old selves – and Matt thinks they’ll reach Hayworth Tor by around midday tomorrow. Maybe sooner.

He feels tired, but not too bad. Years of running have kept him in fairly good shape. He sits on his upturned rucksack a few feet from the fire, walking boots off so he can massage his feet. A metal tin of water simmers on a stand in front of him. He has no blisters today, which is a good sign. He’s had his current pair of boots since sixth form – ever since he began training for the 13 Peaks Challenge, before ultimately deciding it wasn’t for him – and they still fit like a glove.

He looks round the fire at the others. Tim is sat opposite him and James is on his right, back leaning against the trunk of a tree, and for a minute Matt gets a sense of déjà vu so strong it makes him feel dizzy. He has to look to his left, just to make sure Mr Stevens isn’t sitting there too.

‘Aching?’ Tim’s voice floats across the fire. Matt looks back at him and squints through the flames.

‘What’s that?’

‘I said are you aching? You looked as though you were in pain for a moment there.’

Matt forces himself to grin. ‘Believe it or not, I’m feeling surprisingly good today. Think I might even be in better shape than I was back at school.’

‘It’s all that reporting work,’ James says. Matt looks at him and he smiles back, his face a mask. ‘Keeps you on your toes, running from place to place, right?’

‘Are you out in the field quite a bit then?’ asks Tim. ‘Going out to do proper reporting and stuff, not just stuck behind a desk?’

‘Oh, they let me out now and then,’ says Matt. ‘I used to be in the office most of the time, but when I moved on to investigative stuff I started going out a bit more. You have to, really.’

‘What, meeting people for interviews?’

‘Yep, that sort of thing. Meeting people for interviews, chasing down a story. Following people around.’ Matt grins. ‘Proper MI5 stuff, you know.’

Tim laughs. ‘Sounds a hell of a lot more exciting than my job.’

‘I know I say this every time,’ says James, ‘But what exactly—’

‘Do I do again?’ Tim chuckles. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not even sure myself half the time. I work on different contracts so it varies but, basically, I’m an auditor. So, I’ll go into different companies across the UK and make sure their finances and everything are in order.’

‘So you must get to travel quite a bit too, then?’ asks Matt.