Pan was stunned and unable to respond.

‘Do you hear me, Mr Pan? Your funds have been frozen in your Holland account. You can’t access them.’

‘You can’t …’

‘We have. Just remember, your daughter will come to serious harm if you deal with Haut.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Again, not important. Arrange a meeting at your office with Haut.’

‘He’s not in Singapore!’

‘I’m sure you can persuade him to return.’

After the call, Pan scrambled to access his Holland account. After several hours of frantic calls, he realised his account had indeed been blocked. He had his personal assistant phone Haut in the hope of influencing him to fly back to Singapore.

*

A few hours later, Pan’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Penny, was walking home from school when a car pulled up close. There were three men in suits. The back door flew open.

‘Hey, Penny,’ a gruff voice said, ‘your father asked us to drive you home.’

The girl glanced at them and kept walking. The car eased along, keeping pace with her.

‘He’s worried about you,’ the man called. ‘C’mon. It’s for your own safety.’

Penny broke into a run, then a sprint down the street. The car roared off after her but she had soon disappeared in a maze of city back alleys.

*

The next morning, Haut phoned Cavalier in Chiang Mai.

‘My radar is on full alert,’ Haut said. ‘Pan has asked me to visit Singapore post haste. He’s called for a meeting in forty-eight hours. There’s some issue over the funds he has for my project.’

‘What do you think it’s about?’

‘Bleulance. Jacques Bleulance.’

‘The fourth baron? Why?’

‘He has a big slice of the Netherlands Bank. He could have Pan’s Holland account frozen. They have a big investment in Conquer too.’

‘Bloody Bleulance!’

After the call, Cavalier phoned Wombat.

‘What do you know about Bleulance?’ he asked. ‘Have you got anything at all?’

‘Oh, yeah, it’s well known in the intelligence community that he pays a protection agency one hundred and fifty million US dollars a year to look after him. The agency, the ironically named Gentle Company, has top former operatives of many spy and police outfits—German, French, British, Israeli, you name it.’

‘Christ! I’d better let Haut know.’

Cavalier rang Haut but his phone was off. It was already noon in Singapore. He sent a message:

Avoid meeting at all costs. Leave Singapore asap. Urgent. VC.

27 THE NAKED DISCIPLE

27

THE NAKED DISCIPLE

Haut walked into CK Pan’s oak-panelled office on Singapore’s Beach Road at noon. Pan and three lean, suited, European-looking men aged in their thirties and forties were seated at a round conference table. They did not leave their seats or proffer their hands when Haut entered. He knew that they were trouble.