A Deflowered Lotus

Robert Lockwood

Description

The earthy Maoist Revolution produced several generations of privileged, elitist leaders. They, and their no-less mini-monarch offspring continued a hard core of leadership dominating all major industries. Han Kai, the grandson of one who marched with Mao, attended America’s best boarding schools and universities; these earmarks projected him to manage Chinese Sovereign Fund investments in the US. He encounters the plotting Greta Stadler, an American committed to recovering Nazi-looted art rightfully owned by her ancestors lost to the Holocaust. The unlikely twosome greedily engages in deceptions that dust away all obstacles to their rubbery restlessness for vast wealth.

Sujets

• Lockwood
• Lotus
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 30 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669860839
• Langue: English

Extrait

Books by Robert Lockwood

Nonfiction
French Nuclear Energy
Military Unions
Legislative Analysis

Fiction
A Culture of Deception
Political Ducks: Lucky, Lame and Dead
Au Revoir, Israel
Sweet Revenge
A Dragon Defanged
Artful Murder in the Hamptons
A Rogue’s Gallery
Jacob’s Legacy
Peter’s Pall
Murdering Matisse
A Deflowered Lotus



A DEFLOWERED LOTUS

A Novel








ROBERT LOCKWOOD





Copyright © 2023 by Robert Lockwood.

Library of Congress Control Number:
2022924017
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-6085-3
Softcover
978-1-6698-6084-6
eBook
978-1-6698-6083-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.





Rev. date: 12/27/2022




Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
849493



Contents
Acknowledgement
Cast of Characters

Chapter 1 — Welcome Back?
Chapter 2 — Squaring The Circle
Chapter 3 — Next Moves
Chapter 4 — The Dragonians
Chapter 5 — Whither?
Chapter 6 — Chinese ‘Checkers’
Chapter 7 — Unmasking
Chapter 8 — Whither?
Chapter 9 — Unmanageable Risk
Chapter 10 — Cobblings
Chapter 11 — Westward Leanings
Chapter 12 — Byzantium Europa
Chapter 13 — Righteous Rogues
Chapter 14 — Swiss Miss — And Hit
Chapter 15 — Jacob’s Legacy Is Realized
Chapter 16 — Reckless Steps Forward
Chapter 17 — What To Do With Greta
Chapter 18 — “Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned”
Chapter 19 — Changing Hands…And Hearts
Chapter 20 — Shifting Anchorages
Chapter 21 — Getting On With Business
Chapter 22 — A Longer Wall
Chapter 23 — Target Practice
Chapter 24 — Rumblings
Chapter 25 — An American Xanadu
Chapter 26 — Cultural Forage?
Chapter 27 — Political Tornado In Yuan Yuzhou



Acknowledgement
Throughout my experience in dabbling with writing, my esteemed companion, Diana Brennan, has been instrumental. Both of us met four years after losing spouses the same year, three months apart. More than any other person I’ve ever known, she embodies the integrity, kindness, altruism and other elements of character that set her apart from her peers, origins notwithstanding.
She has been an enlightened researcher, a steadfast editor, and humble critic whose guidance always demanded my attention. For the last nine of the twelve works, I became increasingly reliant on her restless intellect, instinctive commitment to accuracy and truth, and high-functioning perception of a story’s setting – all derived, I suspect, from her own successful business management.
Her intuitiveness on matters related to the East End of Long Island, something now referred to as the “Hamptons” by less-secure seasonals, where she was born and lived her entire life, instrumentally shrubbed our stories with refreshing scenarios. But well beyond Long Island, her cultured astuteness could be as surprising as refreshing: For example, during a visit to the chapel in Vence, France, built and designed by Henri Matisse, she interpreted and explained Matisse’s neo-abstract wall sketching. All this to the immense delight of the museum guide and other staff members who long wondered about their meaning. The experience opened the door to our next book, entitled: Murdering Matisse .
Age, we both discover, doesn’t dim astuteness, rather it signals new beginnings.



Cast of Characters
Major Characters
Albert II, Prince
His Serene Highness, rightful heir to the Monaco Principality throne of the Grimaldi family dynasty.
Dreyfuss, Doris
Wife of Peter Rosenthal, and principal shareholder of the family-o owned SGI company of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Dupont, Marc
President of France
Eastwood, Earl
Former US President and neighbor of Peter Rosenthal on Mecox Bay
Howard, Monica
Wife of former US President Earl Eastwood
Kollar, Jean-Paul
French Special Envoy for Cultural Affairs and adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York City.
Levine, Paula Rosenthal
Niece of Peter Rosenthal
Malot-Fouquet, Pierre
Close confidant of Prince Albert II
Mayer-Lambert, Morris
American-French director of the Monte Carlo-based Centre des Recherches International de Monaco (CRIM)
Rosenthal, Jacob
Grandfather of Peter who rescued Nazi-looted art during WWII
Rosenthal, Peter
Principal shareholder and CEO of Rosenthal Development Corporation, a fifth-generation family owner New York City real estate development company.


Chinese Characters

Chao Yao
Distinguished scientist who returns to China
Deng Xiaoping
Premier in the 1970’s who encouraged Western contacts
Han Kai
American-educated director of Chinese Sovereign Fund overseas investment

Wu Jan
Premier of China
Xie Chun
Chairman of China Investment Corp, and Han Kai’s superior
Yuan Chu
Vice Premier to Premier Wu


Swiss Characters

Burk, Karl
President of the Swiss Federal Council and the Swiss Confederation
Burk, Marie
President’s sister, and President, St. Gallen Canton Parliament
Cotti, Pascal
Swiss Federal Assembly representative from St. Gallen
Eicher, Rudolf
Vice President, Federal Council
Stadler, Greta
Former Swiss parliamentarian who joins Rosenthal Development Corporation



Chapter 1
Welcome Back?
Han Kai was deep in thought as he approached the imposing laboratory building at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was Thursday, November 22, 2018, the rainy season was now formally over. The rains often lessened the smog. The remarkably cleaner air made it easier to breathe, deep breaths, the type that trigger coughing fits in the polluted air elsewhere, in other parts of the city just a few miles away. The setting was strikingly different from the suffocating summer and early fall humidity of Beijing. These academicians take care of themselves, and the party gives them the tools¸ he thought, smiling inwardly, referring to the Communist Party of China, the CPC.
Located in the Xicheng District of the capital, and the communal neighborhood of Haidian, this small slice of the city had the highest concentration of universities in China. Students---and professors---loved it here. The nightlife was a bustle of café-like, terraced restaurants, well-shrubbed paths and walkways with strict traffic controls; ergo, the cleaner air, Kai thought, still smiling.
Kai was responding to a call from Chao Yao, one of China’s most respected and prolific scientists. He replied with an appointment to see him. Dr. Chao’s stature compelled Han Kai to appear in person. Chao’s scientific accomplishments at Cornell and Columbia led to a personalized invitation from the premier himself, Wu Jan, to return to China as part of the “Thousand Talents” recall. Hundreds of accomplished Chinese scholars in the diaspora, mostly in the US, were encouraged to hasten back to China. Many repatriates were given coveted research, teaching and even high-level positions in the bureaucracy; a very few got jobs in Communist Party and government institutions.
The trend created paralyzing paranoia among the Obama administration’s career scientific community. But other diplomatic priorities sidelined any serious attempts to interfere. Occasional and very informal peeks at