‘That’s a problem,’ Mon said, wiping her eyes, ‘nurses are looking after her, not doctors. I’m not sure if she is even receiving food.’

Haut waited until they were airborne before he asked, ‘What did you mean when you said you didn’t care about the money? What money? Who is giving you money?’

Mon turned away and sobbed.

*

‘We were wondering if you could follow up on something in New York?’ Wombat asked in a phone call to Cavalier.

‘Haut’s on his way there,’ Cavalier said.

‘We know. He’s cut up about his best mate dying. Sounds a little unhinged. He claims to be in touch with Donnelly in the spiritual. Thinks he was murdered.’

‘By whom? How?’

‘He has had “poison” coming on his radar,’ Wombat said.

‘But who did it?’

‘Al doesn’t know. But he mentioned “Occam’s razor”, the most obvious and simplest reason being the most likely.’

‘And what’s that?’ Cavalier asked.

‘Well, Donnelly was going to put a billion dollars into backing Al, which was in the American’s will. Now that investment will be in doubt. So whoever benefits from thwarting Al’s inventions is on his list.’

‘Bleulance and Conquer, yes …’ Cavalier said.

‘And Tielisten Allan. On the point of thwarting our friend, we’re receiving data that may indicate related activity. It seems that someone may be going to pick up where that sad trio left off at Sandy Bay.’

Cavalier was silent for several seconds.

‘You there, Vic?’

‘How solid is it? Is Farquar involved?’

‘He seems to be active again, judging from his dark web, social media and email traffic. It’s all in code of course. But we can decipher bits of it, enough to deduce certain things. He’s having the target monitored for some sort of action.’

‘Will the target need protection? What about Big Brother?’

‘They can protect him while he stays in the Roosevelt. But not when he leaves the building.’ Wombat paused and added, ‘We’d pay all expenses.’

‘Wombat, you know that’s not necessary.’

‘Just a suggestion. We know you agree with us that the target is worth preserving.’

‘If I do anything, I don’t want any assistance.’

‘Not even from our lovely Melody, who keeps asking after you?’

‘You know the answer to that.’

58 THE FOURTH MAN

58

THE FOURTH MAN

Cavalier would love to have contacted his step-daughter Far in New York but was aware that his visit might be correlated later with any action he might need to take. He checked in at the Algonquin Hotel, Times Square, where he had stayed before, again using a false English passport. He was surprised to be given a diplomatic courier pouch at the front desk. He settled into his suite and then opened the pouch. There was a note from Anthony Jones.

Dear VC,