‘You mean Bleulance will pursue him?’

‘Yes, and the Chinese, led by Richard Ni, who’s connected to Dill Lawry, the bloke who double-crossed Al over his Tasmanian oil leases. They’ll want to kill Al or take him back to China. They feel invested in him because he and the Golden Brain worked closely together on cold fusion.’

‘Why worry about Dill Lawry?’ Cavalier asked. ‘He’s such small fry in the list of Al’s antagonists.’

‘Al wants justice. It’s part of his DNA. He’ll pursue him through the courts over fraud and theft. We’re monitoring Lawry. We expect him to try to do a runner soon.’

‘And Farquar? I suppose he’s the assignment Melody and Big Brother would like me involved in?’

‘Very intuitive, Vic. He’s abandoned his Mekong River cruise business and sold his Texas property. We believe he’s in Indonesia. He has a fire-extinguisher manufacturing business there. The extinguishers have a false bottom, which contains the opioid fentanyl. Farquar ships them to Brisbane. The extinguishers are taken by boat to Hobart. A Tassie crime gang then collects them and removes the fentanyl.’

‘I read about that,’ Cavalier said. ‘Didn’t an innocent radiologist who owned the boat get killed?’

‘Correct. The gang didn’t know he was on the boat when they went to collect the extinguishers. They murdered him. They made sure his wife was fitted for the murder. She’s in jail for it now.’

‘Farquar has a lot to answer for.’

‘We and Big Brother would like to find him, not to mention Bleulance and Conquer. He’s taken the money and failed in the plan to eliminate Al.’ Wombat paused. ‘He did commission Dubois to murder Deere, too …’

‘Don’t even suggest it, Wombat.’

‘Not even if you were to act alone?’

‘I don’t have the stomach for it anymore.’

‘Okay, I understand,’ Wombat said. ‘You’ve gone well beyond what was expected.’

POSTSCRIPT

POSTSCRIPT

The black BMW skidded its way towards the sloping road where Al Haut was on an electric bike riding downhill. Haut heard the crunch of wheels on gravel. He turned his head to see the car and managed to just push forward of it before any collision. He sped off the road and onto a footpath, pursued by the vehicle. Haut wheeled off down a bike track. The car skidded to a stop. The four Chinese in the car alighted but Al was out of sight down the twisting, narrow path.

He attempted to mount another footpath but crashed to the ground, breaking his shoulder. Fearful the Chinese would come after him, he struggled onto the bike, left arm dangling, and rushed back via side streets to his hideaway on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

*

Cavalier had just returned to his Chiang Mai apartment when Wombat informed him of this further attack on Haut.

‘I’d better get there,’ Cavalier said.