Chapter 232 Traitor Bourbon?

◎Day 13 of the Highway Survival Game!◎

Meanwhile, Curaçao, who had been taken back from the Japanese Public Security Bureau by the organization and brought to a hypnosis room in a research institute, regained her memories of being Curaçao after being illuminated by the unique decor and lighting of the hypnosis room.

She stared blankly at the ceiling, memories of her amnesia after the injury flooding her mind: kind and innocent children who would readily lend a helping hand to others; her body childish, yet clearly resembling Haibara Ai from Sherry's elementary school photos…

A mix of emotions welled up inside her. How wonderful it would be if she could continue being an ordinary woman, unrelated to the organization, loved and helped by the children. Now that her memories had returned, she had to act as Curaçao, following Rum's orders.

What about Shirley? If we report it to the organization, given their style, they'll definitely kill her to silence her, or ruin her current life as a normal girl. If we keep it a secret, once the organization finds out, she'll be treated as a traitor!

Just as her mind was in turmoil, wondering whether she should report Ai Haibara's existence to the organization, Rum's voice, electronically altered to be indistinguishable gender, suddenly rang out from the loudspeaker in the silent hypnosis room: "Curaçao, have all your memories been restored?"

“…Yes.” Curaçao hesitated for a moment before replying, then suddenly asked, “Mr. Rum, I remember being chased by the Japanese Public Security Bureau. How did I end up here?”

Having witnessed Ai Haibara's ordinary elementary school life firsthand, and how it contrasts sharply with her personality as she appears in real life, Curaçao couldn't bear to report her information to Rum and disrupt her current life.

Especially given the organization's modus operandi, once they receive intelligence about Sherry and discover her childish physical state, there's a high probability that the children who played with Sherry will be considered close contacts of her.

If they and their relatives are considered as part of the effort to erase all traces of Shirley, then those three children will not only lose everything, but they will also lose their lives—at least, that's Mr. Rum's style.

Shirley could harden her heart and use reasons like "we're all part of the organization, we know what each other has done, and it's not something that can be forgiven just by changing" to convince herself to ignore how the organization would deal with her. But those children couldn't be forgiven; they were truly innocent.

So, if I want to protect them while also protecting myself, the only way is to pretend that after regaining my original memories, I lost the memories of the dozen or so hours I was out of contact with the organization after being injured. Only in this way can I protect those children...

"You lost some of your memory after you were injured, but that's not important. The key is the information you obtained from the Japanese Public Security Bureau's server. The information about Kir and Bourbon only includes their names, nothing else."

"Didn't you find their information?" As far as Rum was concerned, even if Curaçao, who was in a state of amnesia, was once captured by the Japanese Public Security Bureau, he would not be able to obtain any information that would be detrimental to the organization from her. Therefore, he did not care about Curaçao's experience during the period of amnesia.

What he really cared about was the information Curaçao had obtained from the Japanese Public Security Bureau. This was the intelligence he desperately needed. Rum was very perceptive; he had recently sensed that there seemed to be some kind of unfavorable atmosphere brewing within the organization.

It seems that the Lord, Gin, and Vermouth are hiding very confidential information from him. In the past, he was able to deduce the Lord's intentions based on any mission instructions he issued.

.

However, in the past two years, he has been completely unaware of many of that person's actions and has no clue how to make any sense of them. For example, in the past year, how did that person know that one of the core industries of that organization in the United States had been infiltrated by a mysterious force? Why did he suddenly reopen the investigation into the information surrounding Akai Tsutomu's incident 17 years ago?

As that person's confidant, he knew nothing about the reasons behind his actions, yet one of his capable intelligence agents, Bourbon, was highly valued by that person, and even seemed to know all the information.

Furthermore, Bourbon has been getting too close to Gin lately. Given Gin's personality, he should have reacted immediately after the Curaçao list arrived, regardless of whether Bourbon had detailed information or not, as long as his name was on the list.

He would rather kill the innocent than let the guilty go free. After trying to get some information out of him, he would kill him as soon as possible. As a result, not only was Gin's own subordinate, Gil, not killed to silence him, but even Bourbon was able to escape from his clutches.

Given Gin's abilities, unless he deliberately lets them get away with it, how could anyone he's already captured possibly escape? Therefore, there must be some kind of tacit understanding between them; it's very possible that Bourbon has already switched sides to Gin's side…

Although they were all members of the organization, whether they were working for him or for Gin, they were all serving the organization and shouldn't be concerned about such things, Rum didn't like his subordinates having unclear connections with others.

His first motto in life is that time is money, and his second is that he despises traitors. To him, it is a betrayal for someone who is his subordinate to defect to Gin's side, which has caused Rum to become estranged from Bourbon.

If it were three years ago, Rum wouldn't have been so domineering. However, that person went missing three years ago and hasn't been summoned even once in those three years. You have to know that Rum used to be able to see that person at least once a year.

Therefore, Rum has felt for the past three years that something has happened to that person, and he suspects that Vermouth and Gin have conspired to create the illusion that that person is still alive and in control of the organization.

After all, with Vermouth's ability to mimic voice, she could completely disguise that person's voice. Since she couldn't see the person in person and it had been going on for so long, the probability of something going wrong was very high.

Rum also secretly tried many ways to find his whereabouts in order to confirm his life or death, but to no avail. When he tested him too much, he would be reprimanded and punished by that person in the same way as before.

He tentatively tried to communicate with that person about things he and that person had experienced together in the past, things that very few people knew about, but he was able to get a completely normal reply from that person on the other end of the email, the one whose authenticity he didn't know...

In short, Rum was completely in the dark about what had happened to that person, but regarding Gin, having seen photos of that person when he was young, Rum knew that he was probably the 'young master' chosen by that person.

He had often shown his support and protection for the organization's 'young master' in front of that person, but that person hadn't shown up for three years. In his eyes, the 'young master' was far inferior to that person, not someone strong enough to earn his respect and admiration.

Moreover, Rum has the highest level of control over all aspects of the organization, the most subordinate members, and the highest authority. If it were that person, Rum wouldn't dare to have any thoughts. But if for the past three years Gin and Vermouth have been playing tricks, pretending to be that person and giving him orders...

.

Because of various suspicions, Rum was very wary of his subordinates defecting to Gin's side. He was also particularly concerned about things that Gin was hiding from him. Bourbon's close relationship with Gin was suspected of being a 'traitor'.

When he realized that Bourbon was a suspect, he already had the idea of ​​taking the opportunity to eliminate the traitor. The more Gin protected Bourbon, the stronger Rum's murderous intent became.

However, Gin had already obtained permission from that person, whose identity was unknown, to suspend the interrogation and pursuit of Bourbon. Therefore, he was now eager to obtain evidence from Curaçao that Bourbon was an undercover agent.

This would give him a legitimate reason to kill the traitor, and prevent his men from following suit and betraying him to join the more legitimate 'organization leader' if they saw that Bourbon's betrayal went unpunished.

To put it bluntly, when the organization's boss shows no abnormalities, as the founder of the organization and its sole manager for many years, Rum, even as the organization's boss's confidant, dares not harbor any ill intentions regarding the organization's prestige, capabilities, and manpower command.

After the organization's boss was suspected of having an accident, Rum was unwilling to serve his 'young master' in his eyes, who was inferior to him in every way, given the organization's current situation of a weak leader and strong subordinates. Moreover, Gin's personality of not giving face to anyone caused Rum some trouble...

Curaçao was unaware that her superior, Rum, was determined to kill the 'traitor' Bourbon and was eager to obtain detailed information about Bourbon's treachery so that 'that person' would be unable to protect him due to organizational rules.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Rum didn't press her for details about the time she claimed to have amnesia. But when she heard Rum's question, her extraordinary memory immediately brought to mind the detailed information about Bourbon and Kir on the Japanese Public Security Bureau's server.

She had no connection with Bourbon or Kiel, and upon hearing this, she immediately replied in her usual indifferent and calm tone: "Bourbon, Japanese Public Security, Inspector-level, graduated from the Japanese Police Academy in 1994..."

"Are you sure?" However, what she reported made Rum frown. He stared at the hypnosis room camera from behind the screen, his expression complicated. The fact that she graduated from the police academy in 1994 and the information record showed that Bourbon's real age was too different from the organization's Bourbon's appearance.

If he graduated in 1994, even if we take the minimum age for non-university graduates to enter the police academy, he would be over 40 years old by 2015. No matter how baby-faced Bourbon is, he couldn't possibly be over 40 years old and still look like he's in his 20s.

He couldn't possibly have been the one who took that drug. When the first batch of drugs was completed, apart from the test subjects who had already died, the only ones who survived after taking it were that gentleman and himself. Besides, Bourbon hadn't even joined the organization yet!

He's not some high-ranking 'young master' like Gin, who might be approved to use that drug under special circumstances. This information is clearly problematic; reporting it to 'that person' certainly wouldn't convict Bourbon...