‘I think she’s alive,’ he said, ‘but just.’

*

‘I’m afraid, Mr Cavalier, your daughter has less than a fifty per cent chance of survival,’ the Thai doctor in Mae Sot said over the phone, ‘she is haemorrhaging from the head.’

Cavalier had gone to desperate lengths just six months earlier to save his 33-year-old daughter from a Mexican drug lord, who had captured and brutalised her for several years. Now she was in big trouble of a different kind. In shock, Cavalier got on the phone at his Chiang Mai apartment and tried to book an immediate flight. There were none.

He decided to ride his Harley motorbike the six-hour trip south to Mae Sot. Just as he was throwing together a travelling bag, his phone rang. It was his good friend Tommy ‘Wombat’ Gregory in Australia.

‘Have someone I’d like you to talk—’

‘Not now, mate,’ Cavalier said. ‘Pon’s been in a terrible crash. May not make it.’ He told Wombat about the Mae Sot accident.

‘You’re on speaker,’ Wombat said. ‘There’s someone here who thinks he can help. His name is Al Haut.’

Cavalier wanted to get off the phone.

‘Not now, Wombat.’

‘It’s Al Haut,’ a voice said. ‘I’m a pastor. I’ll pray into it.’

‘What does that mean?’ Cavalier asked impatiently.

‘I’ll pray for her.’

‘Thank you.’ Cavalier hung up.

He finished packing the bag and was just locking up the apartment when the phone rang again.

It was Al Haut.

‘I’ve prayed into it,’ he said. ‘God is merciful.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘That’s the message I received. Your daughter will be fine. The bleeding will stop. Her brain will be fine.’

Shaken, Cavalier asked, ‘What about her body, her limbs?’

‘There will be no damage. She’ll be okay.’

‘Thank you, Mr Haut,’ a bewildered Cavalier said as he rushed to the condo’s lift. The phone rang a third time. It was the Mae Sot doctor.

‘Mr Cavalier? There has been a miracle! Your daughter has stopped haemorrhaging. We can’t believe it. All her vital signs are good. She’ll be in a coma for some time. That’s the usual outcome after such an injury. But it is amazing!’

Cavalier was stunned. He thanked the doctor uncertainly and jumped on his Harley. He pushed the powerful machine harder than ever on the long ride. He easily outgunned the Thai ‘cowboys’ thrashing their motorbikes with threatening roars as they tried to overtake, even during a one-hour downpour that made the trip dangerous.

Two hours into the trip, his former wife, Pin, called. Cavalier juggled the phone to answer it in the treacherous conditions. She was distressed, despite the doctor also informing her of their daughter’s amazing recovery.

‘What happens if she’s paralysed, or has some severe limb damage?’ Pin asked.

‘She won’t have any problems.’

‘How do you know?’