The sea is a mess.
No, not only on the sea, even on the shore are the wreckage of the cruise ship, many people were lifted to the shore by the huge impact of the explosion, are writhing in the mess, there are also a lot of people in the sea up and down, even the most basic to maintain their own surfacing can not be done, can only hold on to the larger wooden debris around the countless pieces of the cruise ship are heavier than the large or smaller than a person are sinking down.
The sound of pouring rain seemed to be countless times louder than before, filling the world and suppressing all the sounds that human beings could instinctively make, so that, except for their own voices, everyone could only hear the sound of the rain and the sea.
Suddenly, a new and distinct sound inserted itself, the sound of a hurrying automobile, the sound of braking, the sound of a door being thrown open with great force, and the sound of rapid footsteps.
Taking a break from his quick survey of the surroundings to ascertain the situation, Conan sniffed out over the water and realized that it was the new police force that had arrived.
The new police force was large, about thirty to forty in number, many of them high ranking, the highest being a young officer at the head of the force, who was a few steps ahead of the other officers, not only the first to race to the emergency stop, but also the first to rush over to the scene.
Conan had seen this young officer, know his last name Inuo, although not familiar, but also know that he is very good and capable, is the police in the few capable of serious crime solving the backbone of the police, usually also not the meaning of the dish colleagues, are nothing to the point of off-duty, there are things to work overtime after the end of the shift, many people speculate that there should be a honeymoon girlfriend at home, but no one ever saw.
The young Inuo police officer recognized the mess at the scene in a short moment and met Conan's eyes, and then, while giving a few hand signals to his subordinates who were hurrying behind him to issue a brief order for search and rescue, he jumped in without hesitation.
But not to Conan, a small child, or anxiously swam to a remote corner of the pier, where a pile of debris by the sea, he did not look back into the debris to look for a few moments, will be pulled out of the debris and pushed away, the sea was dialed with a layer of red color, indicating that there is a wounded person, and finally, he called out in surprise: "My lord!"
My lord?
Conan had just been picked up by a police officer, his head was still dizzy like a tofu brain that had been turned upside down, and the blinding light of the fire still seemed to be in front of his eyes, and as soon as the question of 'who is this excellent police officer calling out with his respectful title' popped up in his mind, his mouth had already spoken without thinking, "Mr. Mirai!"
Along with his mouth, his body also moved without thinking. He subconsciously got out of the rescue officer's arms a little and looked towards Officer Inuo. A question emerged in his mind that that he couldn't understand: "Why..."
Why did it explode?
He just kicked the soccer ball, that's all... it's a soccer ball, not a bomb... why did it explode so soon after he kicked it!
Even if the soccer ball had hit the boat, even if the soccer ball had hit the chief, given the size and distance of a soccer ball that was only a little bigger than a man's head, Conan would have sworn without hesitation that he would never detonate the bomb.
But the bomb went off.
Did Gin with the remote control push the button?
But the leader was not completely out of the range of the explosion at that time, and now he is in danger of death, which is enough to prove this point. Gin, who installed the bomb, should be well aware of the range and power of the bomb. If he is really loyal to the Boss , shouldn't he press the bomb at this time?
In his mind, what was shot at the chief was just a soccer ball.
Why did the bomb explode?
Conan couldn't figure it out, and as soon as he got over the shockwave of the explosion, the questions popped up in his head like bubbles, but at the sight of Ichijō Mirai, all the questions that were bubbling up paused for a second, and then were squashed by worry, "Mr. Mirai!"
Ichijō Mirai looked a mess, not only was he soaked to the skin, but most of his body was stained with a reddish color, as the water floated, the bright red faded from his body, but each time some of it faded away, a new red came out.
The deepest color of the blood was near his right shoulder, he was supported by Officer Inuo, his left hand was covering the place where his shoulder meets his neck, blood was pouring out from between his fingers, and in contrast to the bright red blood was his pale face.
But he himself didn't seem too concerned about the injury, instead he looked at Officer Inuo as if he was curious, and after a few moments, he looked at Conan, who had called out to him dryly, "Scared?"
"When you kicked the soccer ball over, that guy looked over, I was going to shoot the Boss while his attention was distracted,"
Ichijō Mirai gave a helpless look, his pale face from the loss of blood adding to the conviction, "But..."
Obviously, perhaps Belmode had taken advantage of the opportunity to attack him as well, perhaps Gin had reacted, perhaps there had been some other mishap, in any case it hadn't turned out well, and in the fierce fight that had escalated once again, Ichijō Mirai had been seriously injured.
Conan didn't know if Gin and Belmode had been injured, but he could tell from Gin's choice to detonate the bomb that they hadn't fared too well either: the fact that he had detonated the bomb before the leader was even out of the blast range meant that he was no longer able to protect the leader, so the bomb was the only option.
Conan nodded, and was about to speak when he saw Officer Inuo, who was holding up Ichijō Mirai in the water, look at himself, "I've already sent my men to start searching and rescuing at once, my lord, why don't you go ashore first?"
His attitude was friendly and respectful, clearly admiring Ichijō Mirai, a colleague who had been undercover since graduation and had become a trusted advisor, but...
I don't know if it's because he's still a bit brain-dead or not, but Conan somehow felt that the look he gave him just now wasn't very friendly...
"Okay," Ichijō Mirai responded, "Thanks, Inuo."
He said he'd talk about it on the shore, but as soon as he got to the ambulance, Officer Inuo took the case from the paramedics and shooed away the medics, and began to bandage up Ichijō Mirai himself, moving so quickly that his hands were practically waving out of existence, not as if he was giving first aid to a seriously injured person, but rather as if he was nervously Cleaning up the traces of the crime.
In less than a minute, he had finished treating all the wounds on Ichijō Mirai's body, visibly relieved, but looking a bit worried, "Sir, your identity..."
"Do you want to go to the hospital?"
Ichijō Mirai's status as an undercover agent is fine when he's undercover, but after the showdown, it's a bit risky. He has to deal with retaliation from the undercover party, and if he were to be hospitalized in the open, the hospital's defenses would have to be doubled at the very least.
Officer Inuo's concern was so obvious that Conan could easily guess it.
"No," Ichijō Mirai shook his head and looked out to sea, his face sinking a bit, "I'm not sure I hit him with that shot, and with the explosion, it's fine if he's alive, but if he's dead..."
"The organization is a spider web, everyone can only see a few nodes in front of them, only the leader knows every node of the web."
In other words, once the leader is dead, it's impossible to trace all the members of the organization from top to bottom.
But the good news is: "Gin,"
There was a pause before Ichijō Mirai gave a positive judgment with a straight face, "Most likely dead."
"I shot him in the chest before the explosion, not directly in the heart, but he would not have had the strength to survive the sea, even if Belmode had been there."
The bad news: "My lord! The body of the target has been found!"
Several officers were carrying a body ashore, and one of them rushed to report to Inuo after dropping off the body; he was clearly calling out to Inuo-sama, but when he got close enough he looked at his superior, met his superior's eyes for a few seconds, and knowingly skipped over his superior to report to Ichijō Mirai, "My lord, it's target number one."
"Targets number two and three have not been recovered yet, the rest of the search has been successful with three criminals, and many more are being recovered."
Target number one is, of course, Rum.
Conan had already stared over at the police officer when he reported the discovery of the body, he stared intently in the direction of the body, easily recognizing the deceased as Rum from his figure, his face immediately hardened, and he went back to look at Ichijō Mirai.
"...It seems the worst has happened," Ichijō Mirai said, "Take his cell phone and crack it."
When the officer left on his orders, he patted officer Inuo on the shoulder again, "Your men, don't leave it to me, take command, search for Gin and Belmode's location or bodies as soon as possible before the explosion takes too long, the two of them can either be apprehended alive and give up the only intel they know, or they can die just like the leader, but they must not return to the organization alive."
"Once they return, the now-unknown organization will be set in motion, and whether it's a new leader leading another infiltration or a fierce retaliation against the police, it's not an outcome we're willing to accept."
Officer Inuo responded respectfully, "Yes."
But he didn't seem to understand the 'you take command' line that Conan could hear, and after looking at Conan, he took out his walkie-talkie and acted as if he was going to take command over the walkie-talkie.
Ichijō Mirai added, "It's still raining, so the walkie-talkie's signal might be affected... By the way, could you please ask where the chief's body was found, and if there's a white box nearby that contains the organization's secrets."
Hearing about this important mission, Officer Inuo looked at Conan again before packing up his walkie-talkie, jumping out of the ambulance and leaving.
Conan looked at Inuo's back, and then at Ichijō Mirai, and guessed that they might have known each other before, but didn't care too much about it, and was more concerned about, "Mr. Mirai, after that... the organization..."
"I'll sneak back into the organization," Ichijō Mirai said calmly, "Whether Gin and Belmode do or not, they won't be able to let all the scattered members of the organization know that they're undercover agents anytime soon, so until then, I'll try to gather as many of the members of the organization as I can reach."
And then arrest them all.
But there's a golden time limit, after which, the more responsive members of the organization will sense something's amiss.
It was a risky approach, but it was in line with Conan's thinking, and he nodded as Ichijō Mirai said, "The medicine in that case..."
"I'm not sure of the potency, the drug I was taking was the result of another lab, they only worked on one, after I verified the potency the chieftain ordered them to make it again, but they never made a decent result again, even if they copied it one for one based on the process of making the first one,"
"This drug in the production of a slight change in the dose, humidity, temperature and even the producer's force and mood may affect the results, it is difficult to mass production, the same batch out of the drug may also appear to have a different potency is not the same situation,"
"The chief didn't have time to verify this batch of drugs."
"Your current body..."
Conan's body is still a child.
"Do you want to tell the police?" Ichijō Mirai asked, "If you believe the authorities, I can give the medicine in the box to the authorities, who will call in researchers to study the antidote,"
"Or, should I give it to you? Mr. Kudō should be able to get a good researcher."
Of course.
Conan was keenly aware of one thing, "If you give me the drug, the official side..."
He hadn't even thought about 'handing over the drug to the authorities'.
First of all, Conan didn't believe that the government could develop an antidote.
Secondly, if he really gave it to the government, would they want to research the antidote, or would they want to copy it?
It's not just the leaders of evil organizations who want to live forever.
"If you want the drug," Ichijō Mirai gazed at Conan, "then Inuo will regretfully tell his superiors in his report that the search party found no traces of the drug, and that it was suspected to have been taken or destroyed by Gin and Belmode."
His face is still pale, and his gentle demeanor adds to the weakness, gently reminding, "They don't know I'm using this drug."
Ichijō Mirai and Conan were on the same page when it came to the Organization, and they were still on the same page when it came to the Crown.
Conan realized Ichijō Mirai's attitude: they were the same: they didn't want to give the drug to the authorities, they didn't want to state that they had taken the drug, and they didn't intend to cooperate with the experiments the authorities might conduct.
Looking at each other, he nodded solemnly.
The ambulance door opened again, and Inuo appeared with the white case, not getting into the car, but reaching out and handing it to Ichijō Mirai, "I found it, my lord."
And then hesitated, "All survivors on the surface and some of the sunken bodies have been identified, no sign of Gin or Belmode for now."
"But someone found blood in a remote part of the pier...some injured people have come ashore."
In other words, these two members of the organization have escaped.
Neither Ichijō Mirai nor Conan spoke.
Ichijō Mirai pushed the case to Conan after Inuo had left again, and a low silence spread for a few moments, "Belmode is skilled in disguise, once she leaves the encirclement she can easily blend into the sea of ordinary people, the police won't be able to catch them."
"Looks like we'll have to keep trying."
"But," he sat up straight and smiled, "did I mention that you're great?"
"If you hadn't kicked the soccer ball out, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had a chance to keep the chief, and the report would have been 'all primary targets missing'."
"Although there are still two more targets to chase..."
"But," Ichijō Mirai opened the case with a gentler smile, the kind smile of an adult to a child, "at least the big boss was defeated, right? Before you get frustrated, I think you should claim the fallen treasure, little detective."
Inside the box were several thumb-sized glass vials, each containing a small capsule, the glass reflecting the light from the roof of the car.
Gazing at the white reflection, he said, "At the end of the story, good will triumph over evil, and light will dispel darkness, won't it?"
Conan looked up at Ichijō Mirai, he thought for a few seconds and nodded vigorously, "Yes!"
"We will!"
It's just a matter of time.
...
It could be a day, it could be a month, it could be a year, a decade, it could be a long century, a thousand years, it could last ten thousand years.
Ignoring everything, it's really just a matter of time.
Ichijō Mirai smiles, encouraging, "