‘Pay-off for the secret work you were doing in China?’

‘Correct.’

‘Very dangerous, Al! So the Chinese front …’

‘VictoryPlus, in Hong Kong.’

‘It wants its money back?’

‘It’s more complicated. They realise those Tasmanian oil leases are huge so they’ve bribed one of my company’s directors, Dillon—known as “Dill”—Lawry, who has in turn “persuaded” a corrupt mines official in the state government to hand over my licences to him. You’ll recall Fat Cow Ingrid Orangey announced the licences would be rescinded because she claimed there was no oil under Tasmania. Dill Lawry knows this isn’t true.’

‘Tell me about what Lawry did,’ Cavalier asked.

It angered Haut to think about it. ‘I had pre-paid $1.2 million for a big expensive drill rig to start work on my lease. It had to have the right specifications to begin drilling. But the Tasmanian Mines Department did not register it, and did not inform me that the rig had not met the right specs, which was only a technicality. Therefore the rig sat on the site without doing anything. The $1.2 million was effectively stolen. It sabotaged my operation.’

Haut grimaced and added, ‘To make the corruption worse, another of my directors, Scott Bruce, became involved. Lawry paid $40,000 to have the unused rig moved to a lease controlled by Bruce.’

‘Did he drill with it?’

‘Yeah, but it malfunctioned,’ Haut said with a measure of satisfaction. ‘He produced no oil.’

‘Is this because you’ve left Tasmania? While the cat’s away the rats play up?’

‘It’s worse. The Chinese through VictoryPlus don’t give a tinker’s cuss for the five million dollars they ploughed into my company. They are very happy to have a foothold in Tasmania and access to such amazing oil discoveries. That way they’ll have control over huge supplies and they can cut the Americans out of access. The Chinese are now attempting one of their “belt and road” deals with the Tasmanian government.’

‘Won’t the federal government intervene?’

‘No. It believes the VictoryPlus front.’

‘Not good!’

‘My sentiments too. The bastards are also pursuing me in the courts for the five million dollars, which is a red herring. They want to destroy me and my operations along the way.’

‘Payback for you refusing to work in China.’

Haut nodded. The conversation was draining him. They watched a club hostess sit in a cubicle with a handsome, lean Englishman in a pin-striped shirt. It broke the tension. She noticed them, smiled and from then on avoided their gaze.

‘So you have Conquer and the Chinese, and a few corrupt Tasmanians to deal with. Not to mention some sections of the bikies who’d like your guts for garters. A few challenges …’