Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 990 A play within a play

When approaching Toru Amuro's car, Tang Ze, sensing something, had already opened his special vision and scanned the vehicles in front of him.

It's not that he is too cautious, it's just that the phone call just now was very strange.

Toru Amuro didn't show anything unusual on the phone. The content and tone of his conversation were the same as usual. He probably just asked him where he had been so late and whether he needed someone to pick him up.

It was indeed a very normal everyday conversation, if the two of them were ordinary guardian and ward.

Ever since knowing Tang Ze's true identity, in private occasions, although Tang Ze still calls him Mr. Amuro out of habit, they almost never use honorifics to each other, and the tone of their conversations is also more relaxed.

In addition, the number from which the call was made was also very strange. It specifically used Bourbon's number. Either there were members of the organization near him, and Toru Amuro was implicitly reminding him to pay attention to what he said, or the call itself might be being monitored.

In short, no matter which one it is, it shows that the previous conversation and the subsequent meeting may not be a safe environment for dialogue.

It was true that Toru Amuro was the only one in the car, but after Tang Ze got closer, he unsurprisingly discovered several hidden red dots.

Tang Ze immediately understood.

It seems that he ran to a certain organization's stronghold or base, and someone affixed a bug or a transmitter on him.

Considering that Toru Amuro himself is also a cautious undercover agent, these remaining eavesdropping devices must have been intentional.

Tang Ze, who had some understanding of the situation, understood what he meant, subtly adjusted his pace, opened the car door, and sat in the back seat of the Mazda.

Amuro Toru, who was waiting with one hand on the steering wheel, turned his head and glanced at him casually.

Well, judging from this expression and body movements, this is Toru Amuro in complete Bourbon state.

"...Oh, it's rare that you know a little bit of rules. Not sitting in the passenger seat shows that we have a good relationship?" Amuro Toru said this calmly as he withdrew his gaze.

This sentence is just a reminder just in case.

Obviously, although Toru Amuro was very confident in Tang Ze's abilities, Tang Ze's choice to sit in the back seat instead of the usual co-pilot seat also expressed a silent response, telling him that he had understood what he meant. For him, he was still very cautious as an intelligence officer.

"It's rare that the detective upstairs and his family didn't notice me, senior, you should stop making things difficult for yourself, right?" Tang Ze got into the car, closed the door, and responded with a mocking tone in a similar daily tone, "What's wrong? You came to care about the juniors so late, is there something else that needs my immediate attention, boss?"

"That's natural. Some things are much easier for you to investigate than for me, right? 'Famous Detective'." As he said this, Amuro Toru cast a threatening look into the rearview mirror, "If I leave it to you, you can send back the results before dawn tomorrow, right?"

Amuro Toru is acting his whole act today...

Tang Ze understood what he meant almost immediately.

——Toru Amuro didn’t know what the surveillance equipment placed in the car was, so to be safe, he simply immersed himself in the role.

Tang Ze knew the details of the surveillance, but since the opportunity was rare, he might as well act it out first.

It just so happened that the two of them had designed the dialogue mode between Kumail and Bourbon for so long, but there weren't many opportunities to use it.

Tang Ze thought so, put down the commuter bag in his hand, adjusted his voice, and answered calmly in the voice of Kumail: "Then, you once again sent it back to the superiors in the name of the information collected by 'Bourbon'? You are getting more and more greedy, Bourbon-senpai."

"Why, are you dissatisfied with my actions?"

"How dare I? You are the boss, you have the final say."

"Even if you complete the mission, there won't be any substantial reward for you, but increasing our funding won't do you any harm."

"Haha, the income from the operation of the firm till now has never been handed over to the organization, right?"

"Why should we hand it over? The income earned by Amuro Toru and Akechi Goro is of course their own. We are not the kind of organization that would blackmail our subordinates."

"Yes, and the funds needed for the event still need to be approved by the organization."

"That's natural."

“Even if a large part of the firm’s reputation and traffic is driven by organized forces?”

"Hahaha, if Rum wants to, he can contact me. I'll be willing to pay him for the advertising."

"boom--"

Gin, who was listening to the content in the monitoring headphones, noticed the movement behind him. He turned around and saw Rum, who was staring at him, crushing the cigar in his hand into the ashtray, causing the exquisite crystal ashtray to hit the table with a slight sound.

I really can't keep my cool.

If this continues, it remains to be seen who will have the last laugh between rum and bourbon.

Gin never interferes in matters such as power struggles, and never tries to influence the final outcome based on personal likes and dislikes.

...Unless the other party really makes him very annoyed.

What's more, although Gin doesn't think highly of ambitious conspirators like Bourbon, he also looks down on Rum, whose character and means don't match his resources.

As for Kumail, who annoys him the most, neither of them would give up such a potential subordinate, so the result would not change, so it is better not to mention it.

"Senior, you really don't respect your superiors."

"Stop pretending, Kumail. I don't believe that Gin didn't tell you that there is no structural status gap between the codename members of the organization. The real difference in status is the difference in personal ability and resources. Rum manages a lot of organizational assets. In theory, his status is higher than that of most people. How much does Gin respect him? Don't you also know this very well, so you are unwilling to respect me?"

"Ah, are you going to bring up old issues again, Senior? Haven't I respected you enough now?"

"Whether you respect me, money, or the resources and leverage I have, you just need to know the answer in your mind. A mad dog like you, if you are given the chance, you will bite me to death without hesitation."

“…Same here.”

After hearing these words, Rum, who was sitting behind the desk, began to breathe a little heavier.

Gin didn't react this time, and he didn't even bother to look back. Bourbon's words were a little unpleasant to hear, but at least this time, he was telling the truth.

However, after a fierce confrontation, Kumail and Bourbon barely established a superior-subordinate relationship, and now their relationship is quite delicate. Gin, who hadn't been in contact with both of them at the same time for a while, was somewhat surprised.

This kind of partnership, in which both parties have their malice written on the surface but know that it is impossible to cut ties with each other in a short period of time, can perhaps be considered an ideal state.

"You too, Kumail. Watch your skin. Don't mess up the most important thing by indulging in fun."

"Eh? Senior, are you unhappy that I'm still hanging out with the detective upstairs so late? I'm not a child anymore."

"Is that so? I see you quite like this kind of ordinary student life, 'Kangze'."

"I was just a little curious at first, but it's been a few months now, and now I'm a little bored."

"I'm just tired of being ostracized as a juvenile delinquent."

"Probably so."

Because everything was calm, Gin, who hadn't paid attention to Kumail's daily disguised life for a long time, nodded silently and slightly put aside some of the doubts he had when he called earlier.

For other children who grew up in the organization and have not experienced a rich and comfortable life, Tang Ze Zhao's living conditions may be enviable and enough to corrupt their will, but it may have no effect on Kumail.

Apart from his ordinary high school life which was bleak due to his criminal past, Kumail has always received praise and compliments when using his face to face the public.

Regardless of his intelligence or glamorous background, he is a complete fraud who lives in the spotlight and is flattered by the public.

After putting on the disguise, he has to face the normal life of juvenile delinquents being isolated, excluded and looked down upon. He may even suffer even more severe bullying because of this situation. However, he needs to maintain Tang Zezhao's state and can only passively endure these experiences and cannot change them without authorization.

Recalling that he had not heard of any strange deaths or suicides at Teitan High School recently, Gin nodded, tentatively finding a reason for Kumail's increasingly sarcastic words.

Well, at least he was quiet when he completed his mission.

"You're so annoying, but you still want to go out with Maori Kogoro so late?"

"Ah, that's another matter. After all, firstly, his daughter is my current classmate and a friend of Suzuki Sonoko. Secondly... I'm still young and need to learn from Detective Duoduo."

When Kumail said this, there were two cheerful laughs, and the people on both sides of the eavesdropping device fell silent at the same time.

On the surface, it seems that he is learning from the experience of other detectives, but it sounds like he is learning something more dangerous...

"I'm glad you really think so." After a few seconds, Bourbon's voice came back, "Then about today's goal... hm?"

With a questioning ending, one could clearly feel the sound source rapidly approaching the direction of the bug.

A few seconds later, there was an impatient curse from someone who seemed to have discovered the source of the bug. After a brief beep, the other end of the bug fell completely silent.

"Where did you put the bug?" Gin took off his headphones, threw them on the panel in front of him, and looked at Rum.

His eyes were as cold and indifferent as ever, as if he was looking straight ahead, and as if he was not looking at anything, with an arrogant look, but this made Rum feel an extra sense of scrutiny.

"…Probably near the clutch." Rum snorted as he relit his cigar. "It's a new model developed by the organization."

No wonder.

He was wondering how Rum could eavesdrop on Bourbon successfully, even though it was only for a short period of ten or twenty minutes. After all, the credit did not lie with Rum, the eavesdropper.

Gin nodded after his doubts were answered, stood up, and left without saying goodbye.

He said nothing, but he had answered with his actions the questions that Rum had asked him to come.

The question is what is causing Bourbon's recent restlessness.

Obviously, Rum wanted to exaggerate the situation in a more serious direction, preferably to deprive Bourbon of some of his resources and the authority to drive Kumail. But after listening to him, Gin once again classified his questions as the kind that Rum least wanted to see.

——There is no suspicious behavior. Rum is just taking the opportunity to fight for power again.

As for this kind of internal intrigue, which did not involve Gin, Gin had never bothered to pay attention to it, nor did he want to be used as a gun, so he certainly had no burden in showing his disapproval.

After smoking a whole cigar with a gloomy face, Rum turned his office chair and looked at the shadow behind the potted plant.

The silver-haired woman lowered her head and sat there quietly, as if she was just a decoration in the room, just like the potted plant beside her.

Obviously, neither Rum nor Gin cared about the existence of such a person in the room and completely ignored it.

"Okay, the task force has determined that the recent issue does not involve confidential information, so they will definitely not interfere. Curacao, find a way to get into the Metropolitan Police Department and find out where the person who took over the case before Kumail got the cross-age facial recognition system from." Looking at the night view of Tokyo outside the floor-to-ceiling window behind him, Rum lowered his voice, "Binga's news hasn't come back yet, and the system data has been leaked. What the hell is Binga doing there?"

This is the fundamental purpose of his visit to Gin this time, which is the relevant information submitted by Kumel in the case of Ito Suehiko.

Perhaps he was unaware of Yuan Jiaming's research direction. Even Kumail, the codenamed member who had captured a technical backbone, did not take this system seriously. He just submitted it together with the messy new information of the zoo, an organization that had surfaced, which aroused Rum's high alert.

Of course, he had his dissatisfaction and hostility towards Bourbon, but what he hoped to see more was Gin's avoidance of suspicion and turning a blind eye.

It is more helpful for some of his own ideas.

"Yes, I understand." Curacao responded, stood up, walked into the secret door from the other side of the room, and left quietly and lightly like a cat.

Here it comes, the "opportunity" that Kumail delivered through secret channels has finally arrived.

On the other side of Tokyo, Toru Amuro, who had quickly destroyed the bug, stepped on the brakes, pulled Tang Ze down, and together they cleared all the suspicious attachments on the car before sitting back in the driver's seat with an unhappy expression.

"I knew that Rum had to call me over for an interview because he was going to do something. This method is too crude." He turned his head and looked at Tang Ze who was fiddling with the transmitter and the bug in the passenger seat. "What about you? What about the message you sent me before? Did Gin catch you?"

(End of this chapter)