‘Your Grace, you are edging close to the way I think and what motivates me.’ Cavalier raised his glass. ‘Or did. I want to settle down with a good woman, or even a not-so-good one, and live the hedonist lifestyle I have always aspired to and never attained.’

‘That sounds like an impossible combination—hedonism and a good woman.’

‘Not at all. The trick is to find a partner with a similar sense of living—for pleasure.’

‘I’ve never known one.’

‘I have. A one-night stand with a Bangkok Thai physio. I’ll try to find her one day soon.’

‘What about that amazing Thai female who kicked the arses of those thugs in Hamburg?’

‘I told you. She’s one of my closest friends,’ Cavalier said with a grin. ‘And that is the way she shall remain.’

‘I’m thinking about Mon,’ Haut said in a maudlin tone. ‘I think now you may be right about her. Things are coming back. She may have been in a conspiracy against me.’

‘What?’

‘I just learnt today that Gram broke into my Koh Samui villa and stole all my computers, and Mon’s.’

‘Shit!’

‘The manager of the villas told me. Someone witnessed the break-in.’

Cavalier sipped his drink, smiled at the tall African-American woman and said, ‘You’re confirming something that’s bothered me since you said Mon had turned up soon after Gram.’ He waved a hand at the barman, indicating he wanted a third Ginger Yum Yum, and a second for Haut.

‘Let me run this past you,’ he said. ‘Just suppose, for argument’s sake, Gram is still on Tielisten Allan’s payroll, and that he has been sent to spy on you, steal your technology …’

Haut shook his head.

‘Just hear me out,’ Cavalier said. ‘Tielisten Allan realised that they would lose the contract for your services to NASA so they sent Gram to you. Now here’s the bit you’ll hate and be in denial over. Suppose, just suppose, Gram knows about Mon. He tracks her down at the Spotlight club on Koh Samui and offers her, say, twenty grand to carry out the scam on you …’

Haut looked away and nodded to a redhead as if he were more interested in her than what Cavalier was saying.

‘Your Grace, forget your human Ginger Yum Yum and please hear my narrative.’

‘That’s all it is, a bloody narrative.’

‘Okay, hear out the possible “story” then. Mon spins you a cock-and-bull tale about turning Christian because she’s in love with you and wants to live with you.’

Haut became more attentive. He inclined his head and grimaced.

‘She did say to me she “didn’t want the money”, without explaining what she meant.’

‘Did you notice anything about her and Gram on Koh Samui?’