Harri shuddered as she watched Ben jump out of the Land Rover. He ran to the boot, opened the tailgate, and grabbed a black backpack that was hidden beneath the woollen blanket Harri had seen earlier. He jogged to the passenger door and pulled it open. Elliot struggled against the man, and Harri could hear the poor boy’s voice even at a distance.

‘Let go of me! I don’t want to do this. I want to go home!’

‘What do we do?’ Sabih asked.

Ben dragged Elliot out of the car, and Harri felt her anger rise, not just at him, but at herself. How could she have been so wrong about this man? She switched on the full beam headlights, and Ben froze in the dazzling glare. Elliot broke free of the man’s grasp and raced into the woods.

‘Elliot!’ Ben yelled, before giving chase.

‘He’s a lunatic.’ Sabih had said those words before, the night they’d encountered Alan Munro, and Harri saw something change in him. He needed to prove something to himself.

He jumped out of the car and sprinted after Ben. Harri followed, and they ran through the gap in the treeline and were soon in the forest. The moonlight was blocked by thick canopy, and only a few fingers of shimmering silver managed to reach the mossy ground. This was all they had to guide them through the woods. Sabih opened up a gap and Harri followed, dodging broken branches, jumping large logs and scrambling over fallen trees. Leaves whipped at her face, and she heard Ben calling for Elliot ahead, but there was no sign of the boy.

‘Ben! Stop!’ Sabih yelled.

Harri saw Ben, maybe thirty yards ahead. He turned and registered their presence, but carried on running. Sabih leaped over a rotting tree trunk and sprinted on. Harri tried to follow, but her shoe got caught on a stump, and she tumbled over the trunk and fell onto the moist earth on the other side. She landed heavily and tears filled her eyes, but she fought the pain, got to her feet, and ran on.

Sabih was up ahead, not far from Ben, who broke the treeline and raced into a clearing. Sabih followed and Harri was a few yards back. As she reached the clearing, an open circle perhaps forty yards in diameter, Harri saw Sabih was about halfway across, but to her surprise, Ben, who was almost at the other side, stopped and turned to face her former partner.

‘Don’t!’ he yelled, but Sabih wasn’t listening.

He tackled Ben, and knocked him to the ground. Harri picked up the pace as the two men rolled around exchanging wild blows. Ben’s backpack bore the brunt of many of Sabih’s punches, and Harri worried about what was inside. If there was any Cobalt 60 . . .

‘Sabih!’ she called out, but he didn’t hear her.

He was lost in the heat of the moment, but Harri was concerned he was also acting out the past, using Ben to rewrite his history with Alan Munro.