‘I’m pleased that my radar is working,’ Haut said. ‘Not had a case like that for more than twenty years, during the Port Arthur massacre. I was the “go to” pastor.’

‘Meaning?’

‘I ministered to the dead in and outside the cafe where Martin Bryant murdered thirty-five people. One of the victims was in a coma for five days. The state governor wanted me to have a look at her. I sat with the woman in hospital for five hours. I persuaded her not to go to the light.’

‘You mean, die?’

‘She had terrible gunshot injuries. Her son had gone over. She wished to be with him. I talked her out of it.’

Cavalier was silent for a moment.

Haut added, ‘I did that with your daughter. She was making her way to the spirits of relatives when I talked her back.’

Cavalier felt a chill up his spine. This was more or less the story Pon had told him about what had happened when she was in the coma. He didn’t tell Haut about this, but asked further questions, learning that Haut was a Tasmanian geologist, and once the leading pastor and director of a fundamentalist church with Pentecostal roots: Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International.

Wombat had told Cavalier that Al Haut had been anointed by the church as a key spiritual adviser to the US president. ‘Do you literally advise him?’ Cavalier asked Haut.

‘I pray for him.’ He paused and added, ‘My main role is as a prophet of nature. The Earth is a living entity. I am responsible for its well-being.’

‘Wombat told me you were a Shaman who deals in the spiritual world,’ Cavalier prompted.

‘With good and evil spirits, yes.’

*

Cavalier had scheduled a trip to Melbourne to discuss his work as a freelance correspondent in Southeast Asia with some newspaper and magazine editors. His payment for a recent project with CIA backing had made him more secure financially than ever before, yet he still wished to continue his journalism. And, as usual, he wanted to be debriefed by Wombat, who had been appointed Head of Homeland Security in Australia, making him the nation’s intelligence supremo.

Just before booking his flight, he received a call from Wombat.

‘The Thais are beginning to introduce facial recognition at airports,’ Wombat said, ‘starting with an experiment in Bangkok.’

‘So not wise to travel through there?’

‘Not until we know that the DNA sleuth Topapan Makanathan has dropped the case of the Bangkok Express killing. If she began using the technology to compare passport photos from people on the train it could prove awkward. They could have two passport photos that may look remarkably like yours.’

‘There is no reason to link me, is there?’

‘No, but what if she snoops around your condo in Chiang Mai?’

Cavalier shrugged. ‘I have Jacinta Cin Lai monitoring it.’