Chapter 105, Twentieth Round (24)
"Rum, are you serious?" Vermouth's expression changed as well.
"Who gave you the right to arbitrarily torture codename members?" Gin said coldly.
“I have already obtained that gentleman’s permission,” Rum said. “We absolutely cannot let the undercover agent out. Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free. Isn’t that exactly your principle, Gin?”
“I’m a person who values evidence.” Gin stared at the robot with his menacing green eyes. “If you want to use torture, you have to produce evidence.”
Others couldn't hold back any longer.
"But isn't this going too far? If we really can't find the mole, are we really going to torture everyone to extract confessions?"
"Rum, are you crazy?"
"I don't believe the BOSS agreed to this. Rum, are you trying to rebel?"
But no matter what, Rum still reacted the same way, looking completely confident and seemingly authorized by the BOSS.
"Think what you want, but as long as the mole isn't found, anyone who goes out will be mistaken for a mole and shot dead. I advise you not to try it," he said.
After Rum left, the others lost their will to sleep for a while.
"Is Rum really insane?" Vermouth turned to Bourbon, walked over and whispered, "Why are you so quiet? Do you know something? Rum was just joking, wasn't he? Just trying to scare that mole among us?"
Bourbon shook his head: "I just really can't understand why he would do this, or why he dared to do it."
This was a development he had never imagined. How could the organization dare to attack so many codename members in such a horrific and cruel way at the same time?
“This is very strange.” Bourbon said seriously. “Judging from this, Rum is most likely an undercover agent, looking for an excuse to wipe out most of the organization’s top codename members in one fell swoop. Ah, am I going to discover something terrible and get silenced?”
Vermouth: "..."
The others who heard it clearly: "..."
Has he gone beyond simply suspecting Gin and started suspecting Rum directly?
It's outrageous, yet surprisingly reasonable.
*
October 24th.
10 PM.
Vermouth and Bourbon were watching a movie in the movie room on the basement floor.
"There are only two hours left until the vote for the undercover agent. What are your thoughts? Who are you planning to vote for?" Vermouth asked.
“Absolutely not, Touken Bar,” Bourbon said.
Vermouth sighed: "Don't joke around. Rum said that voting must have a logical reason. Random voting will make you look like a spy."
“Alright, then it’ll be either Ito Takahiko or Kir,” Bourbon said casually.
"So it really was them. I thought so too." Vermouth smirked. "Ito Takahiko and those two organization members who got the information wrong were acting together. Kir's reaction was a bit off. They're the prime suspects right now. Even though we don't have concrete evidence, if we're going to vote, we should definitely choose them."
Bourbon hummed in agreement, watching his face illuminated by the light on the screen, his blond hair reflecting a dazzling light, only his eyes remaining dark and deep.
“But you should be careful, Bourbon,” Vermouth said slowly, looking at his expression.
Bourbon turned to meet her gaze: "Hmm?"
“You’ve offended too many people,” Vermouth said. “And you’re an intelligence agent. Even if they don’t suspect you’re an undercover agent, there are definitely a lot of people who want to take this opportunity to get back at you.”
“The logic of suspecting me simply because I’m an intelligence officer is flawed.” Bourbon tilted his head.
“Yes, so they’ll probably target the people around you first.” Vermouth rested her chin on her hand. “Like Scotland.”
"Although I don't believe you're sincere, we've spent several years together. Even raising a dog would have created some affection, not to mention Scotland's strong abilities. So teaching Scotland a lesson is pretty much the same as teaching you a lesson."
"Who told him that his seat happened to be the same one as Judas, who betrayed Jesus? A ready-made reason for choosing him."
The movie on the screen was playing at the point where the first person was killed.
“Ah, I know,” Bourbon said casually.
The movie is titled "And Then There Were None".
Vermouth stared at the gruesome corpses on the screen, lost in thought.
A strange nursery rhyme began to play.
Ten Native American boys, struggling to find food.
If one chokes to death, they can't be saved; if ten choke, only nine will survive.
Nine Native American boys, exhausted and sleepless late at night.
[If one falls asleep immediately, nine are left with only eight.]
The nursery rhyme wasn't finished because the movie suddenly went black.
In such a basement and movie theater setup, once the movie lights go out, the room immediately becomes pitch black.
"What's going on?" Vermouth immediately became alert and reached for her gun.
"The power's out." Bourbon fumbled for the light switch on the wall a few times, but nothing happened.
Vermouth frowned: "Was it deliberate or accidental?"
“It was snowing heavily outside before we came down.” Bourbon pulled out his gun, ready to pounce. “Anything could happen, be careful.”
Vermouth quietly walked to the door and hid behind the wall, whispering to Bourbon on the other side, "Are you going out?"
Bourbon thought for a moment: "Wait a while longer, don't make any rash moves."
The two quieted down and listened carefully to the sounds outside, but the movie theater was so well soundproofed that they could hardly hear anything after the door was closed.
About three minutes later, the light flickered twice and then came back on.
Vermouth and Bourbon exchanged a glance, then gently opened the door, and some noise came from outside.
As soon as the two stepped outside, they saw Calvados quietly leaning against the wall with his sniper rifle in his arms, and Ito Takahiko running towards them, panting.
Vermouth raised an eyebrow, first looking at Calvados: "You've been here the whole time?"
Calvados nodded silently.
Bourbon turned to Ito Takahiko and asked, "What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure. It seems the heavy snow broke the power lines, and we're using emergency power now, which won't last long. That's why I've come to call a few adults to come up and meet everyone," Ito Takahiko honestly replied.
He seemed to have positioned himself as the only junior member among a group of codenamed senior members, and in fact, he had always maintained this stance, so it's not surprising that he's saying this now.
Vermouth frowned: "Something feels off..."
"The rat is dead." Rum's voice suddenly came from the back of the movie room. "Just now, the undercover agent killed him."
The group was taken aback, then immediately turned around and went inside, where they saw the footage from the monitoring room on the giant movie screen.
The man, whose body was covered in gruesome wounds, had been lying in bed receiving treatment to keep him alive so that the interrogation could continue. But now, a knife was stuck in his chest, and blood was flowing all over the ground. He was clearly dead.
The scene shifts again, and the two guards at the door are also dead, their throats slit with a single blow.
Curaçao quickly passed by the stairwell at the entrance, followed by a group of people, and continued down the stairs.
The people in the movie room followed.
The interrogation room on the second basement level wasn't far from here, and they quickly arrived at the scene, personally confirming that the two guards and the man were all dead.
"So, there really was an undercover agent..." Vodka murmured.
But who exactly is it?
It was only three minutes. Even if most of the organization's members were not greatly affected by operating in the dark, this was still incredibly impressive.
*
“I already said it wasn’t me. I’ve been with Vermouth the whole time, how could I have had time to commit the crime?” Bourbon rolled his eyes. “Lumilo’s reaction is done, can you let me go now, Detective Gin?”
"We can't rule out the possibility that you committed the crime together," Gin said coldly.
Vermouth exclaimed incredulously, "Gin, you actually doubt me?"
“At that time, the four of you were the most likely to kill the undercover agent,” Rum said.
However, no matter how they investigated, they couldn't find any evidence that they had committed the crime.
The Rumillo reaction had no effect on either Bourbon Vermouth, Calvados, or Itō Takahiko.
However, Bourbon and Vermouth are much less suspicious, as they can testify for each other, while Calvados and Itō Takahiko cannot.
According to surveillance footage prior to the power outage, Calvados had been quietly crouching outside the movie theater.
The testimonies of Vermouth and Bourbon also indicated that he did not make any noise that they could hear during the three minutes following the power outage, and it is uncertain whether he was outside the whole time.
However, it's not surprising that this happened to Calvados.
Then there's Takahiko Ito. His statements and actions were not problematic; he simply happened to be standing at a first-floor window looking out at the blizzard before the power outage.
After the power went out, he remembered Bourbon and Vermouth watching a movie in the theater downstairs. He heard Gin upstairs loudly telling everyone to gather in the lobby, so he immediately ran downstairs to find someone to inform them.
The investigation has reached a stalemate, with no evidence to prove who the real undercover killer is.
Curaçao walked over carrying a tray with twelve black collar-like objects on it.
“Put them on,” Rum said. “These are lie detectors. They can monitor your heart rate and blood flow in real time, and they can also pinpoint your exact location and movement. Only an undercover agent would resist at this time, right?”
Everyone frowned, but eventually they put them on.
Until midnight, the investigation had yielded no crucial evidence.
But the voting time has arrived.
Rum gave each of them a voting machine; they just had to select the name on it.
By this time, the power had been fully restored, and everyone was sitting at the long table in the hall. On the opposite wall, a screen, like a voting machine, displayed the names of 12 people.
Voting begins
Kiel chose Calvados.
However, in the end, Takahiko Ito still received the most votes on the screen.
That's understandable, since he doesn't have a code name and can be thrown out as cannon fodder or used for experiments at will.
[Voting Results: Takahiko Ito is the undercover agent]
[Execution begins]
Execution?
Kiel's breath hitched.
Wait, isn't this supposed to be an interrogation? Why is the word "execution" being used?
[Selection of Execution Methods]
Method of execution: slow slicing
Kiel was stunned.
"I'm not an undercover agent!" Ito Takahiko finally broke down, abruptly standing to his feet. "I've been framed! Are you just going to kill me like this? I—"
His body suddenly went limp, and no one touched him except for a red flash on the collar around his neck.
"Anesthetic needle?" Ray reached up and touched the collar around his neck.
“Yes, a small mechanism to prevent anyone from getting too excited and doing something bad,” Rum said.
Takahiko Ito was taken away by a man in black. Curaçao and Rum took the remaining 11 people back to the movie theater on the basement level by elevator.
In the elevator, Bourbon spoke up: "Isn't this an interrogation? Even if we've confirmed his undercover identity, we shouldn't kill him, right? Shouldn't we slowly extract information from him?"
Rum did not answer him.
In the movie theater, the group sat down in a row again, just like last night, and the surveillance footage of the interrogation room appeared on the big screen.
Takahiko Ito, who had been under anesthesia, was quickly awakened by an electric shock. He glanced at the laptop screen on the table next to him, and at the group of people watching him, then gritted his teeth and closed his eyes again.
Conventional interrogation methods were used on him, but he still insisted that he had been wronged and that he was not an undercover agent.
“Then execute him directly,” Rum’s voice rang out in the interrogation room.
Lingchi, or slow slicing, is a form of capital punishment, also known as the legendary death by a thousand cuts.
It involves dismembering a person while they are still alive, ultimately leading to death from excessive blood loss.
The expressionless man in black, like a robot, held a sharp knife and asked after each strike, "Are you an undercover agent?"
"Is this any different from being tortured into confessing? Or has it already been confirmed that he is the undercover agent?" Scotland asked Bourbon in a low voice.
“I’m completely confused about the situation now,” Bourbon frowned.
Kiel remained silent.
When the cuts reached twenty, Takahiko Ito couldn't hold back any longer.
"Yes! I'm an undercover agent! I'm the undercover agent! I'm the one who killed that man during the power outage! So just kill me already!"
The man in black paused for a moment.
A huge light screen suddenly appeared on the wall of the small, dark interrogation room.
【RUM】
"Then tell me which other CIA agents are in the organization, and tell me all the details about the CIA and your role as an undercover agent." A emotionless, synthesized electronic voice came through, "Tell me, and I'll give you a quick death."
Ito Takahiko gritted his teeth and said after a few seconds, "I don't know the specifics. I'm just a low-level member. Even if you asked me, I couldn't say anything."
“He’s still lying, keep using torture,” Rum said.
The art of slow slicing is meticulous; it aims to inflict maximum pain with the smallest possible wound, bleed the least amount of blood, and result in the slowest possible death.
It's clear that Takahiko Ito is on the verge of collapse; he confesses to being an undercover agent and hopes to die quickly.
But because he couldn't reveal any CIA information, Rum didn't let him go.
"Is he really an undercover agent?" Bourbon asked with a suspicious look. "He only admitted to being an undercover agent because he wanted to get rid of himself as soon as possible, right? One minute he says he's not an undercover agent and lets him go, the next minute he says he is an undercover agent and that he should be killed. It doesn't seem like it at all."
No one else spoke.
If they can't find the mole, then the same thing will happen to them.
Ultimately, Takahiko Itō died without revealing any CIA information.
“He might not actually be an undercover agent,” Rum said. “Then let’s continue voting tomorrow, and hopefully you can catch the undercover agent by the skin of your teeth before then.”
Even though that's what they say, everyone already has a goal in mind.
Calvados.
If Takahiko Itō isn't an undercover agent, then it can only be Calvados.
It's impossible that both Bourbon and Vermouth were undercover agents, and it's unlikely that anyone would cover for the other to commit crimes together.
Although they seem to have a good relationship, it's just a superficial friendship.
*
October 25th.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the atmosphere at breakfast was terrible, and Calvados did not come out to eat.
Bourbon sat down next to Vodka with his order in hand.
"Doesn't what happened last night seem familiar? Doesn't this pattern resemble Danganronpa?" Bourbon asked.
"Right, right! So you think so too, Bourbon?" Vodka immediately chimed in excitedly.
Gin, who was standing next to him, asked, "What is Danganronpa?"
“An anime about hope and despair, and about killing and executing each other,” Bourbon said.
“Yes, it does look a bit like that, but it’s anime after all. We shouldn’t end up like that, right?” Vodka scratched his head. “A lot of people die in those games.”
“Who knows?” Bourbon chuckled.
Gin frowned and gave Bourbon a deep look.
*
Midnight.
The remaining 11 people gathered again at the long table.
Voting begins
[Voting Results: Calvados is an undercover agent]
[Execution begins]
[Selection of Execution Methods]
Method of punishment: Caning
Does caning mean whipping someone to death with a barbed whip in the interrogation room?
Calvados suddenly pulled out a gun.
The collar around his neck flashed red.
But at the same time, he had already pulled the trigger, having been prepared all along.
"Bang--"
Crimson blood splattered in the air as Calvados's body collapsed onto the table, blood gushing from the black hole in his head and quickly spreading across the surface.
Gin silently put away the gun he had taken out and aimed at him.
Calvados committed suicide.
He understood the organization's methods very well.
Rather than being tortured to the point of wishing for death and then being killed, it's better to just commit suicide.
Vermouth froze, and after two seconds she reached out and took off Calvados's sunglasses to look at him.
“Calvados is dead,” she said.
The scene was deathly silent.
Rum seemed a little surprised, but quickly recovered: "It seems Calvados isn't an undercover agent either. In that case, we'll continue to choose the next undercover agent tomorrow night."
Vermouth fell silent.
Logically speaking, even if the first suspect, Takahiko Ito, had no evidence to confirm his undercover work, and the forced confession was not convincing, the suicide of the last suspect, Calvados, could be explained by the fact that his undercover identity was exposed and he immediately committed suicide.
But Rum nonchalantly let them continue this game of deadly choice, completely ignoring other possibilities.
Rum's target wasn't just that one undercover agent, was it?
What exactly does he want to do?
And who will be chosen by vote tomorrow night?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
