Chapter 198 Another Possibility

Day 12 of the Highway Survival Game!

If this isn't the real truth, and Akai Tsutomu is also connected to the Silver Bullet, wouldn't that mean the deaths of Amanda, a leading US presidential candidate, and Koji Haneda, a grandmaster-level Japanese Go player, could also be related to the Silver Bullet?

Tsk! How did that coward cause so much trouble! The thought that Akai Tsutomu was also involved with the Silver Bullet, and that the Silver Bullet was connected to something as far back as 17 years ago, made Gin, who already had little patience, even more unhappy.

While continuing to open the few remaining closed doors in the carriage to check if Shirley was hiding inside, he sneered, "That guy is still alive? Didn't Rum claim he had killed him?"

“Yes! I was surprised too!” Bourbon’s expression showed no surprise at all. In fact, with his reasoning ability, he had already made many connections when he heard Vermouth’s words, but he lacked the information to complete his deduction.

The most difficult situation right now is for Shuichi Akai. From his time studying in the United States to now, whether he was a student, working, joining the FBI, infiltrating an organization, or being exposed and then returning to the United States to continue tracking the organization.

To achieve this goal, he has never slacked off for a moment over the years. Unlike his younger brother, he did not inherit his father's photographic memory. In terms of talent, he is only average, lacking the skills and techniques that others might find outstanding.

He had honed his skills by seizing every opportunity to train himself, all in order to find out his father's final fate and avenge him. However, there was no relevant information about his father's fate or whereabouts in the FBI archives.

There were no records in the organization's database, only a few words circulating among the organization's cadres about how Rum had taken care of the person who was secretly investigating Amanda's case in the United States 17 years ago, and who was suspected to be his father.

Neither alive nor dead, this is the result he has come to all these years. The only thing he can be sure of is that his father was indeed killed by Rum, the organization's second-in-command, which makes him clearly understand who his enemy is.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, he heard information about his father again, information completely different from what he had investigated over the years. Rum had failed to kill his father at all, and it seemed that the organization had also failed with his father.

So, if the father was still alive when the conflict with the organization ended, what happened to him afterward? If he was still alive, why did he send that kind of text message to the mother? Why didn't he come back? Instead, why did he tell Uncle Haneda in advance that he had hidden the mother and children in Japan for refuge?

He had too many questions in his mind, and he also had a feeling that if he continued to listen, he might be able to hear some information about his father that he had not found out himself from Vermouth and Gin, which would allow him to deduce relevant information about his father.

However, although the three were talking, their hands never stopped moving. In just a few words, they had roughly checked all the rooms in the carriage.

By hacking into Ai Haibara's phone, he knew that the two sisters were hiding in Room C of the next train car. As long as he made a move to distract them at this moment, it would be enough to delay until Akemi's plan was completed, allowing him to calmly escape with Haibara.

However, there are very few opportunities for them to mention their father's confidential information. If he were to interrupt at this moment, he would very likely miss the chance to learn important information about his father, who was the father he had respected and loved since childhood and who had been very kind to him and his brothers!

If, in the face of the countless deaths from illness in the future and the aftereffects of the Silver Bullet, Shuichi Akai was conflicted, he would still subconsciously think that Gin's sister and her boyfriend might be bad people like Gin, and that they might even be members of the Future Organization.

The information they provide about the future may not be entirely reliable. They may simply be acting from their own perspective, believing that Sherry is harmful, which makes them subconsciously inclined to save the Miyano sisters and prevent Gin and Bourbon from killing Sherry for the sake of what others call the future.

However, this matter involves crucial information about her father's life or death. She knows that she doesn't have as much influence with Vermouth as Conan does. If she misses this opportunity, it will probably be very difficult to get any real information about her father out of her in the future.

Therefore, even though they knew that if Gin and the others entered the next carriage, the Miyano sisters' chances of danger and exposure would increase significantly, and they would likely be caught by the group, missing their chance to escape, they were still in a predicament.

Still seemingly conflicted and hesitant, he subconsciously stopped his actions that were disrupting the organization's members, concealed his presence, and continued to listen to their voices, since he had never met or interacted with them before his father's accident.

Before infiltrating the organization, the FBI had already provided him with a lot of relevant intelligence, knowing that the other party had indeed committed crimes for the organization, which is why he contacted and used them. His relatives with complicated emotions were his father, who had raised him from childhood and with whom he had a strong father-son bond.

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Fortunately, Shuichi Akai's choice at this moment was the right one for his obsession with his father, because when he heard Gin and Bourbon's words, Vermouth immediately blinked her beautiful Persian cat-like eyes.

He reached out, lit a cigarette, took a drag, and exhaled a beautiful smoke ring before saying with a half-smile, "Since you can use the term 'silver bullet,' why ask a question you already know the answer to?"

After all, the only person who knows that APTX4869 exists and is still alive, and who would refer to it as the Silver Bullet, is Akai Tsutomu, whose death is still uncertain. Since you refer to APTX4869 as the Silver Bullet...

This means your information about APTX4869 definitely comes from Tsutomu Akai, either directly from him or indirectly from someone connected to him and also to APTX4869, right?

No! There is another possibility... At this moment, when he heard Vermouth point out the mystery in his mind, Shuichi Akai felt a chill run down his spine, because he realized from Vermouth's words that there was a mistake in his previous reasoning.

After overhearing about the future from Gin's sister, he made various deductions, especially after learning that the antidote Sherry was researching would cause a catastrophe for all mankind in the future, which left him with many questions.

He was just thinking that since Shiho Miyano could be listed as a researcher on the Silver Bullet research by the Miyano father and daughter, and that her research results could be named Silver Bullet.

She must have had sufficient authority with official pharmaceutical companies in the US and Japan. Given that she had such authority, her research should not have been forced; it was conducted voluntarily. Her future self and her present self have completely changed their concepts regarding this drug.

Unexpectedly, the name "Silver Bullet" was not Shiho Miyano's original creation, but rather her father's. Although she still did not know why her father would use the name "Silver Bullet" to refer to APTX4869.

However, since Vermouth's tone clearly indicated that this name was only known to her father and that the person who had been identified as the deceased was known to the Japanese and American pharmaceutical companies that released the finished product of APTX4869 under the name "Silver Bullet," it is understandable that they would use this name.

They are definitely connected to their father's life and death. They may have even gotten the name of the drug from their father, and may even have the drug's research and development data, after all, their father has a photographic memory.

Shuichi Akai reasoned this way because he recalled the truth of the Haneda Koji case 17 years ago that Conan and he had investigated over this period, the symptoms of APTX4869 poisoning that he had overheard, and the list of APTX4869 deaths that Shiho Miyano mentioned in her conversation with Conan.

It has been confirmed that Amanda and Koji Haneda died from APTX4869. Given the father's abilities, he should be able to find out the suspicious points in their deaths. Moreover, the original researchers of APTX4869 were his uncle and aunt.

Even though the Akai and Miyano families rarely met because one family had settled in England and the other in Japan, he had never met any of them before he first met Akemi. That's why he didn't recognize her as his cousin when he met her under the alias Masami.

Although the two families rarely met, they maintained necessary contact and might discuss their research, which gave the father some understanding of the toxic effects of APTX4869.

Perhaps my father heard the real name of APTX4869 from my aunt and uncle, which is why he called it the Silver Bullet. Then, considering the forbidden effects of APTX4869 on humans and my father's personality, he might have been influenced by that.

If my father really knew the effects of this medicine and realized that this forbidden drug had been completed, he would definitely have tried to destroy the finished product and research data.

According to what she overheard, Shiho Miyano did mention to Conan that her research on APTX4869 was based on the remaining data on APTX4869 provided by the organization, because the research institute where APTX4869 was located had suffered a major accident, resulting in the loss of almost all of the research data.

Given the organization's cautious approach, how could its research institute have suffered such a major accident? It was probably his father's doing. However, no matter how powerful his father is, he is still just one person. He certainly couldn't destroy a well-managed research institute, which is like the organization's headquarters, by himself.

He must have found an accomplice in this matter. He went to the United States to investigate this case, and his contact with his mother never mentioned that he left the United States, which proves that the research institute that the organization was studying APTX4869 was in the United States.

Britain's national strength is far weaker than that of the United States. It is impossible for British intelligence agencies to enter the United States in large numbers to assist my father in completing his mission. Therefore, if my father wants to break through the defenses of the organization's research institute and destroy those research materials, he can only do so through the official United States.

Given that he was a British agent, he had a lot of contact with political figures, business leaders and celebrities in the United States and Japan due to his work. Even Amanda, one of the biggest sponsors of the FBI headquarters, was a good friend of his father. It shouldn't have been difficult for him to ask a US agent for help at that time.