Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Four

The Orange Inn is a run-down two-story building in the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, three blocks from Murt Street. As Kelly and Diana got out of the cab, Diana saw a large billboard across the street showing Kelly in a fancy evening gown, holding a bottle of perfume. Diana looked at it in surprise: "So this is you." "You're wrong," Kelly said. "That's my job, Mrs. Stevens. It's not me." She turned and walked into the hotel lobby, followed by a battered Diana. A Chinese receptionist sits behind a desk in the small lobby, flipping through a copy of the China Post.

"We want a room for the night," said Diana. The receptionist looks up at the two well-dressed ladies and almost blurts, Here?He stood up. "certainly." He took a closer look at the tailor-made clothes on them: "One hundred dollars a night." Kelly looked at him in astonishment: "One hundred—" Diana said quickly, "Very well." "Pay first." Diana opened her wallet, pulled out a few bills, and handed them to the receptionist.He handed her a key. "Room No. 10, at the end of the corridor, on the left. Do you have any luggage?"

"Being there soon," Diana told him. "If you need anything, just ask Lin." Kelly said, "Lin?" "Yes. She is your maid." Kelly gave him a suspicious look: "Okay." The two women walked down the bleak, dark corridor. "You give too much," Kelly said. "How much is a safe roof over your head worth?" "I'm not so sure this place is as good as you think it is," Kelly said. "That's all there is until we think of a better place. Don't worry. Mr. Kingsley will take care of us." When they reached door number ten, Diana unlocked it, and the two of them stepped in.

The small room looked and smelled like it hadn't been lived in in ages.There were two single beds covered with crumpled sheets and two battered chairs beside a scarred table. Kelly looked around. "Maybe a little small, but ugly for sure. I bet it's never been cleaned." She touched the cushions and watched the dust kick up. "I wonder how long Lin's been dead. " "Just tonight," Diana reassured her. "I'll call Mr. Kingsley right now." Kelly watched as Diana walked to the phone and dialed the number on the card Tanner Kingsley had given her.

The call was connected immediately: "Tanner Kingsley." Diana breathed a sigh of relief: "Mr. Kingsley, this is Diana Stevens. Sorry to bother you, but Kelly Harris and I need your help. Someone is trying to kill us and we don't understand What's going on. We're running for our lives." "I'm glad you called, Mrs. Stevens. You can rest easy. We've just found out the truth behind all this. You won't have any more problems. I can assure you that from now on you and Harris will The wife will be absolutely safe." Diana closed her eyes for a moment.Thank God: "Can you tell me who—"

"I'll tell you everything when I see you. Stay there. I'll send for you in thirty minutes." "Then—" The phone was disconnected.Diana put the microphone back, turned to Kelly, and grinned. "Good news! Our problems are over." "what did he say?" "He knew who was behind the trouble, and he said that we are safe from then on." Kelly breathed a sigh of relief: "Great. Now I can go back to Paris and start living again." "He sent someone to pick us up in half an hour." Kelly looked around the small, dark and dirty room in front of him: "It's going to be very hard to leave all of this."

Diana turned to her and said sadly, "It will feel strange." "What do you mean?" "Back to a life without Richard. I can't imagine how I could—" "Then don't imagine," Kelly said stiffly. Don't pull me in, ma'am, or I'll break down.I can't even think about it.Mark is my whole life, my only reason for living... She was like a lifeless work of art, Diana thought, looking at Kelly's indifferent expression—beautiful but indifferent. Kelly sat on one of the beds with his back to Diana.She closed her eyes, refusing to peek into the pain in her heart, and slowly...slowly...slowly...

She and Mark walked together on the Left Bank, chatting openly.Kelly felt she had never been so comfortable with anyone else before. She said to Mark, "There's a gallery opening tomorrow night, if you're interested in—" "Oh, sorry, Kelly. I'm busy tomorrow night." Kelly felt an unexpected surge of jealousy. "Dating someone else?" She tried to keep her tone light. "No. No. I'm going alone. It's a party—" he saw the look on Kelly's face. "I—I mean just a scientist's fellowship dinner. You're going to be bored."

"Will I?" "I'm afraid it will. There will be—there will be a whole bunch of words you've probably never heard, and—" "I think I've heard it all," Kelly said angrily. "Why don't you quiz me?" "Well, I really don't want to—" "I'm a big girl. Take the test." He sighed. "Okay. Initial syllable repetition... marine crustacean zoology... aneroid barometers...periodic—" "Oh," Kelly said, taken aback, "that vocabulary." "I knew you wouldn't be interested. I—"

"You're wrong. I'm interested." Because you're interested. The banquet was held at the Prince de Gaulle Hotel, and it turned out to be an extremely grand gathering.There were three hundred guests gathered on the dance floor, among them several of the most important dignitaries of France.At the front table where Kelly and Mark were seated, there was a handsome, expansive and friendly guest. "I'm Sam Meadows," he told Kelly, "and I've known you a lot." "I've known you for a long time," Kelly replied. "Mark said you were his mentor."

Sam Meadows smiled slightly. "I'm honored to be his friend. Mark is an extraordinary man. We've worked together for a long time. He's the most devoted—" Mark listens, embarrassed: "Would you like some wine?" he interjects. The master of ceremonies stepped onto the stage and the speech began.Mark was right, the dinner party was a dull one for Kelly.Science and technology awards come one after another, and in Kelly's case, the speakers may all be in Swahili.But Kelly, watching Mark's glowing face, was glad she was there. When the dishes were cleared away, the President of the French Academy of Sciences appeared on stage.He began by praising the scientific achievements of France in the past year, and it wasn't until the end, when he held up a small gold statue and called out the name of Mark Harris, that Kelly realized that Mark was the star of the night.He was too modest to tell her.This turned out to be why he was trying to persuade me not to attend.Kelly watched as Mark rose to his feet and walked onto the stage to rapturous applause from the audience. "He never said a word to me about it," Kelly told Sam Meadows. Meadows smiled. "This is Mark." He looked at Kelly for a moment. "You know he's madly in love with you. He wants to marry you." He paused, then said bluntly, "I hope his Heart is not hurt." Kelly felt a sudden pang of guilt as he listened to those words.I can't marry Mark.He's a close friend, but I don't love him.What am I doing?I don't want to hurt him.It might be better if I never saw him again.I can never give a man what he expects from a woman.How can I tell—? "Did you hear what I said?" Diana's angry voice rouses Kelly from her memories.The fancy dance floor was gone, and she was in a cheap hotel room with a woman she wished she had never met. "what?" Diana said eagerly, "Tanner Kingsley said someone would be here to pick us up in half an hour." "You told me. What?" "He didn't ask where we were." "He probably thought we were still in your apartment." A moment of silence.Kelly's lips parted in a long silent "oh". They turned to look at the clock on the bedside table. The Chinese receptionist raised his eyelids when Flint entered the lobby of the Orange Hotel. "Is there anything I can do for you?" He saw Flint smile and returned one. "My wife and her friend just checked in. My wife is a blonde. Her friend is a hot brunette. Which room do they have?" "Number ten, but I have to call first. You have to call—" The instant he picked up the phone, Flint raised a suppressed Forty-Five Luger and fired a round into his forehead. Flint pushed the body behind the counter and walked down the corridor, gun by his side.When he came to door number ten, he stepped back first, then took two steps forward, knocked the door open with his shoulder, and walked in. The room was empty, but through the closed bathroom door Flint could hear the sound of the showerhead being used.He walked to the bathroom door and pushed it away.The faucet was wide open, and the closed shower curtain swayed slightly.Flint fired four shots into the shower curtain, waited a moment, and pulled the curtain back. No one is inside. From a snack bar across the street, Diana and Kelly watched Flint's sport utility vehicle arrive and then saw him walk into the hotel. "My God," Kelly said, "he's the one trying to kidnap me." They wait.When Flint came out a few minutes later, his lips were smiling and his face was a mask of rage. Kelly turned to Diane: "The giant monster is gone. What's our next wrong step?" "Must get out of here." "Where are you going? They guard the airport, the train station, the bus station..." Diana thought for a while. "I know a place where they can't touch us." "Let me guess. The spaceship that brought you here."