anwhile, lody Sumrs had driven to the area near The Crestview Hotel.
Unlike the Oceanus Hotel, located in the heart of the city, The Crestview Hotel was in a more remote area.
lody Sumrs parked in a hidden alley near the hotel. Seeing no caras around, she stored the car in her space.
She sized up the hotel by the dim glow of the scattered streetlights. ’This place seems even better suited for illegal activities than the Oceanus Hotel...’ she thought.
With no tall buildings nearby, The Crestview Hotel was completely shrouded in the night. The only thing to break the oppressive silence and darkness was the faint light seeping from its windows.
lody Sumrs took a deep breath and walked toward The Crestview Hotel.
As she walked, she recalled her drive over. She had encountered two separate groups of people trying to flag her down, but she hadn’t stopped either ti.
Thinking of the recent string of kidnappings, lody thought, ’If I were a kidnapper, I would absolutely take advantage of a remote hotel like this.’
But on her walk over, she hadn’t encountered any kidnappers or other suspicious characters.
As she reached the entrance of The Crestview Hotel, the bright lights made her squint. She pushed her thoughts aside and walked straight inside.
Just as she entered the lobby, a greeter in a suit approached her. He glanced at lody Sumrs’s neat and tidy attire before asking, "Are you here to check in?"
lody Sumrs replied, "No, thank you. My cousin arranged to et in room 1108."
Upon hearing this, the greeter’s smile stiffened. He gave lody Sumrs a strange look and asked, "May I have your last na, please?"
lody Sumrs replied, "It’s Sumrs."
The greeter froze, a flash of surprise on his face, but he quickly composed himself and said politely to lody, "Please wait a mont. I’ll go inform the guest in 1108."
Then he turned and walked away.
lody Sumrs walked over to a sofa in the lobby and sat down, discreetly observing the people coming and going.
So far, nothing about the hotel seed out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, she saw the doors of an elevator directly across from her sofa slide open.
Inside stood two people: a pot-bellied, middle-aged man with his arm around a slender young woman.
As the doors opened, the pot-bellied man leaned over and planted a kiss on the young woman’s cheek before reluctantly stepping out of the elevator.
The young woman, however, did not follow him out. Instead, she pressed the ’close door’ button, and the elevator doors began to slide shut.
In the last second before the doors closed completely, lody Sumrs got a clear look at the young woman’s face. She shot to her feet. That girl—
She looked exactly like Adam Lawson and Noelle Quillan’s daughter—Joelle Lawson!
The scene before her was almost identical to the one lody had witnessed at the Oceanus Hotel!
The sa setting in an elevator, the sa girl who was a dead ringer for Joelle Lawson, and the sa type of pot-bellied, middle-aged man.
lody’s brow twitched. She rushed to the elevator, but the doors were already closed, and the car was descending.
Watching the floor indicator above the door, lody saw the elevator stop at the second basent level.
anwhile, the greeter had slipped around a corner and was hurriedly calling Flynn Adler.
Flynn Adler had given prior instructions: if a young woman with the last na Sumrs asked for room 1108, he was to be notified imdiately.
The call connected quickly. On the other end of the line, Flynn Adler was surprised to hear that lody Sumrs had actually co.
His n had reported Blondie’s little sche to him, and he’d thought it was utterly idiotic and riddled with holes.
’In this day and age, how could lody Sumrs possibly co all the way out here alone?’
He had anticipated that she might call the police or notify Nina Sumrs’s parents, and he had already made the necessary arrangents to handle that.
He was even preparing to send people to stake out her house and try a different approach.
But he never expected her to actually take the bait.
Flynn Adler fell silent for a mont, then said, "Let her co up. Be careful. Don’t let her get away."
After hanging up, Flynn Adler patted the woman lying beside him. "You have one minute," he said. "Get dressed and get out."
******
Just as lody Sumrs was trying to figure out how to get down to the second basent level, the hotel greeter returned.
He smiled politely at lody and said, "The party in 1108 invites you to go up."
lody froze. All she wanted right now was to get to the second basent level.
But the greeter had already called another elevator for her, swiped a keycard, and pressed the button for the 11th floor.
lody was about to say sothing, but she noticed the greeter watching her nervously, as if he were afraid she would make a run for it.
lody could only say to the system in her mind, ’White, I need you to go check out the second basent level. See what’s going on down there. I’ll head up to the 11th floor and wait for you.’
Albus replied, a hint of worry in his voice:
’You have to be careful. If you’re in danger, hide in your space imdiately.’
lody saw a flash of white fur as Albus appeared in a potted plant by the fire stairwell. After watching him deftly scamper toward the basent, she finally stepped into the elevator and pressed the ’close door’ button.
The elevator ascended smoothly to the 11th floor.
The mont lody stepped out of the elevator, she saw two burly n standing in the hallway. Seeing her, they both shot her nacing glares.
lody guessed, ’These two must also be Flynn Adler’s goons. They’re probably posted here in case I have second thoughts and try to bolt.’
lody ignored them completely, walking composedly to the door of room 1108 and knocking softly.
******
Albus prowled around the first basent level and found it was just an ordinary parking garage. Lots of luxury cars were parked there, but otherwise, nothing seed out of place.
He then headed down to the second basent level.
But the mont he darted out of the stairwell on the second basent level, he froze in his tracks—
A strange, eerie feeling crawled up his spine, and Albus shivered.
There, in front of the stairwell, a massive Leopard was slowly erging from the darkness.
The Leopard’s magnificent coat of gold and black fur seed to shimr like silk even in the dim light. It locked its gaze on the small, white ball of fur on the ground before it, as if targeting prey.
Muscles tensed, the Leopard stalked toward Albus, stopping just a few steps away. It was now close enough that it could, at any mont, tear the little white fluffball to shreds and devour it.
Seeing that Albus seed to be frozen in fear, standing perfectly still, the Leopard suddenly opened its mouth and let out a low growl that rumbled deep in its throat. Its sharp fangs glinted coldly in the dim light.
As if startled by the growl, Albus glanced around frantically, seemingly looking for a place to hide.
The Leopard looked at the lowly housecat before it, thinking it was already scared so witless it couldn’t even flee. Finding this a bit dull, it prepared to pounce and tear the creature to pieces with a single swipe of its paw.
But just as it crouched to attack, an utterly bizarre scene unfolded before its eyes—
The tiny white cat’s head began to inflate like a balloon, expanding in the blink of an eye from the size of a fist to a sphere two or three ters in diater.
Then, to the Leopard’s utter shock, Albus opened its massive mouth, leaned down, and with a soft "nom"—
the massive Leopard was swallowed whole.
Then, the giant cat head slowly shrank back to its original, fist-sized form. He lowered his head, licked his paws, and once again beca that sa weak, helpless little kitten.
As for the majestic and powerful Leopard, it had vanished without a trace.
Albus had already scanned the area and confird there were no security caras or other people around.
So, without lingering, he used the dim light of the wall sconces to guide him as he ran deeper into the second basent level...
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