Corsica

Craig couldn’t remember the last vacation he’d had, and he thoroughly enjoyed the first day he and Elizabeth spent on Corsica.

Ah, Corsica. France’s Isle of Beauty. A hundred and ten miles long and fifty miles wide, plunked down in the Mediterranean nine miles north of Sardinia, located between Southeastern France and Northwestern Italy. The place that savvy, wealthy Parisians went to avoid the crowds in the south of France.

Corsica. The birthplace of Napoleon. Ruled by one power after another for more than two thousand years until Napoleon asserted French control in 1796.

With so much to see and do on the island that had everything—beaches, mountains, ruins, and great food—Craig and Elizabeth decided to start in the north, spending a couple of days in Calvi at La Villa, a small luxury hotel with forty rooms. On Saturday, they rented a car and explored mountains, stopping for lunch. Then they returned to Calvi and walked along the beach. They had a superb dinner at La Villa in the veranda dining room overlooking the Bay and the Citadel, which had resisted the onslaught of foreign armies over many centuries.

When they returned to the suite, Craig dimmed the lights and reached for Elizabeth.

“You’ll have to wait,” she said. “I left my purse in the dining room. I have to go back and get it.”

He didn’t remember her having a purse, but he wasn’t observant about those things. “Listen, call over there. They’ll hold it for you.”

“I’ll feel better if I get it now. Only be a minute. Why don’t you take off your clothes and stretch out on the bed.”

When she made up her mind to do something, there was no point arguing with her.

Five minutes later, she returned. She was carrying a bowl and a spoon. “What’s that?” he asked.

“Chocolate mousse.”

“Yeah. We had it for dessert. It was great.”

“Well, I want some more.” She put the bowl down and was undressing. “I intend to get your cock hard, spread mousse all over it, and lick off every bit.”

And she did just that. Licking and sucking him until he came in her mouth.

Afterwards, to get cleaned up, they took a double bubble bath. Back in bed he returned the favor, going down on her. They spent another hour making love until neither one could move.

As she fell asleep, the last words out of her mouth were, “That mousse was sure good.”

At six the next morning, Craig woke up and left a note on his pillow for the sleeping Elizabeth. “Went for a run. Be back for breakfast.” He tucked his cell phone into his pants pocket and ran half a mile down the hill, to the sea. They planned to spend a week in Corsica unless one of their jobs called them back to Paris. He hated dragging the phone everywhere, but he had to know if anything happened with General Zhou.

His bruises had stopped hurting. And he was feeling marvelous. He was running barefoot on the deserted, soft, sandy beach enjoying the breeze and cool air when the damn thing rang.

Craig stopped and yanked the phone out of his pocket. As he did, he was a mixture of emotions. He hated having his vacation interrupted. But he knew no one would call, certainly not at this hour, if it wasn’t important. And they might have a lead on General Zhou.

Craig saw from caller ID that it was Marie.

“Sorry to disturb you,” she said.

“Don’t worry about that. What do you have?”

“General Zhou had a phone call an hour ago with his brother Zhou Yun in Beijing. It lasted twelve minutes and forty three seconds.”

Craig was bursting with excitement.

“Can you forward a transcript to my Blackberry?”

“Unfortunately not. The words were encrypted. I have two of our top techies on the way to the office now to try and decipher it.”

“Let me know as soon as you have something.”

For a few seconds, she didn’t respond. Then she said, “You should know they’re not optimistic, but I promise they’ll try everything.”

Climbing the hill back to the hotel, Craig thought about the call. His instinct and experience cried out: this is important. Something must be happening, or about to happen involving General Zhou in China.

And he wouldn’t be able to find out. The CIA experts would probably be able to decipher the call, but that wasn’t an option.

Dammit! Dammit!

He had to find another way.

Elizabeth was just stirring when he returned to the suite. He waited until they were having breakfast on the patio to tell her about the call from Marie.

“I guess our vacation just ended,” she said glumly. “Oh well, it was fun. All twelve hours. I’m not surprised. And if I’m dumb enough to be disappointed, well, that’s my fault.”

He raised his hand. “Whoa. Whoa. We’re not going back to Paris. Not because of this. But I would like you to make another one of those calls to Carl Zerner, your reporter friend in Beijing. Be sure to make it sound like nothing more than one reporter calling another, in case his calls are being monitored.”

“Sure. What do you want me to tell him?”

“You’re doing an article on the top leadership in China. Ask him if there are any major developments on the horizon. “

“Sounds innocuous enough.”

She finished a cup of coffee and went into the suite for her cell phone. Back outside, she placed the call on speaker so Craig could listen.

“Liz, good to hear from you,” Carl said. “You’re lucky you found me in China.”

“Why? What’s happening?”

“I was supposed to be reassigned to New York, which I desperately want. I’m sick of China, but then I stupidly told my editor that I’ve heard unconfirmed rumors that President Li is seriously ill. That provoked an immediate response. ‘You’re staying until you can clarify his health situation.’ So here I am. What can I do for you?”

Craig was mouthing the word, “Yes.”

She repeated Craig’s question about major developments in Chinese leadership.

Without missing a beat, Carl replied, “Nothing so far, but if President Li is really seriously ill, then anything’s possible.”

“Who’s his likely successor?”

“None of my sources has coughed up a name. So I haven’t been able to write an article on the subject.”

“Will you let me know when you do?”

“Absolutely.”

When she hung up the phone, Craig said, “That call was very worthwhile. President Li being seriously ill is valuable information.”

“I don’t believe Carl.”

Craig was puzzled.

“About what?”

“He’s heard who’s being considered by the Central Committee as a possible successor to President Li. He won’t tell me until he’s written his own story on the subject, which gets past the censors and appears in print.”

“But he’s your friend.”

She laughed. “Among reporters who work for different newspapers, friendship only goes so far.”

“Fair enough. But we still learned plenty. I’ll bet anything General Zhou and his brother are mixed up in the question of who the next Chinese president will be if President Li is forced to resign for health reasons. They have to be manipulating the process for General Zhou to succeed President Li.”

“You think General Zhou would be able to grab the Presidency?”

“With that scum, anything’s possible. And if he succeeds, it would be a disaster.”