I opened the window from outside and jumped into the emergency passage on the twelfth floor.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder. From here, the fire that erupted had been put out by the fire sprinkler that activated automatically, which showed that the original fire was not that big.

At this moment, I suddenly remembered what the prisoner said in the broadcast just now - take the elevator.

You need to take the elevator to the top floor.

But I clearly remember that immediately after the explosion, the floor management staff confirmed the elevator's operating status and that no one was trapped in the elevator, and then locked the elevator and stopped its operation.

This is to prevent someone from accidentally entering the elevator to escape in dangerous moments.

An emergency plan like this is definitely formulated uniformly for the entire hotel. There is absolutely no possibility of difference between floors, and such emergency plans must be formulated in advance.

Then why don’t the prisoners themselves know?

For such an important matter, the criminal had already prepared his own plan. For such a serious case, wouldn't he first inquire about the hotel's emergency plan?

No, with the control he has shown so far, such a mistake should never happen, unless -

Unless he is not as in control as he appears to be.

bluff.

Just like I thought before, it is almost impossible for one person, or even a team, to control hundreds of rooms and thousands of people at the same time. But the broadcast at that time was even able to identify the people in a room who moved without permission and then issue a warning.

Moreover, this happened just when the explosion forced everyone back into the room. The two consecutive shocks were enough to break the psychological defenses of ordinary people.

Yes, that's right.

I was wondering why I always had this sense of disharmony, and it turns out it was because of this.

Even the feeling of changing voice is a manifestation of controlling pressure, as if nothing will be exposed.

But according to Conan, the criminal exposed himself on the 16th floor and did not use a voice changer.

Therefore, at least the prisoners on the 16th floor are not afraid of exposing their voices.

But he covered his face.

Is it because you are afraid of being caught?

No, for such a big case, no matter what the final result is, whether the hostages are completely safe or not - the probability of the prisoner escaping is too low. If you really don't want to be caught, you shouldn't appear in front of the people on the Sixteenth Floor in the first place.

Could it be that... covering your face is not because you are worried about being caught later, but because you are afraid of being recognized right away!

A person who could be exposed must also appear on the 16th floor by himself - maybe there are not two people at all, nor any team, but just one person directing and acting by himself, taking advantage of the fear and conformity generated by people's psychology.

I felt like something was connected in my brain.

But at the same time, it also brings up another question: how were such a large project completed using so many micro cameras and pinhole cameras?

It is difficult for one person to accomplish this, and it is also difficult to accomplish in a short period of time. It is almost impossible, but not absolutely.

Being able to understand the hotel structure and enter every room at will - there are already such people in the hotel, so can the cleaning staff do the same, right?

However, if it is a short-term cleaning, it is entirely possible that there is not enough time to learn the emergency plan.

I always feel like I've overlooked something, but I can't figure it out for a while.

I took two steps at a time and hurried up the stairs.

There was no elevator, so others had to take the emergency escape. When we reached the 15th floor, I was holding onto the railing with one hand and was about to go up when the emergency escape door on this floor suddenly opened.

It almost hit me in the face, and I stepped back. The face that appeared was really unexpected.

"Takagi-kun?"

"Furiya-kun!"

The world is so small, how come everyone is an acquaintance in any place? Can I even meet the police in Beika Town?

But I quickly reacted, "Are you from the fifteenth floor?"

"Then, Fūya-kun, you——"

"I'm on the fourteenth floor."

I looked down and found that apart from here, no one had pushed the door of the emergency escape.

It is not difficult to understand that as ordinary people, after hearing the instructions, they will naturally go to the elevator entrance, but at this time the elevator entrance has been locked. Faced with the unknown, they are unwilling to come up, so they will naturally stand at the elevator door and waste time.

Besides, the emergency escape had just exploded. How could an ordinary person be so brave as to rush in?

But as a policeman, Takagi can't escape, so that's why he appears here?

As a policeman, he had an obligation to stop me from getting close to danger, but I couldn't listen to him.

"Takagi-kun, Conan-kun and the children are upstairs. I have to go up and see it with my own eyes. Don't worry, I'm a detective, and now is not the time to hesitate."

In an emergency, there is no way to have the best of both worlds, but after hesitating for only a second, he decided to go first and asked me to wait in the corridor and stop other people who might come up.

I knew very well that no one would come up on their own initiative before the prisoner gave clear instructions.

I looked at the sky outside the window and finally nodded seriously.

In this case, it will be the same if I take another path, one is bright and the other is dark, which may be better.

I watched Takagi walk up to the 16th floor, and I stopped to listen to the sound of his footsteps fading away, and started my Spider-Man route here.

The phone is pressed to my ear. "Conan-kun, did you hear what I just said?"

Of course, cell phone calls never stop. Although we don’t have to talk all the time, the unobstructed lines ensure that both parties can get information in the shortest time possible.

Anyway, Conan has a lot of mobile phones, but I can only use text messages to contact Ando Mako - it's a ready-made resource, so why not use it?

When I return to Beika Town, I will also get another mobile phone.

"Well, the criminal is outside, and Officer Takagi is here too. I always feel that the voice of this criminal is very familiar, but I just can't remember where it is."

One could hear a hint of anxiety in Conan's voice. The answer seemed to be right in front of him, but he couldn't touch it.

I was silent for a moment, then said, "The criminal probably has no control over the downstairs, only the power to shock them. His core target must be on the sixteenth floor, which is also in the room number just reported."

At this point, I suddenly heard another instruction coming from the radio, forcing the hotel managers on each floor to open the elevators, and everyone could only take one elevator to reach the top floor.

At the same time, after the elevator arrives, all elevator doors downstairs will be locked again.

Locking the elevator on a floor means that the elevator will no longer stop at that floor. After everyone enters the elevator, all floors except the top floor will be locked, which means that those people will be trapped in the stairs on the top floor.

Stairs to the top floor.

It's an opportunity!

I quickly crawled to the roof from outside the building, and after landing carefully, I looked around and confirmed that there was no one on the roof.

From the rooftop looking down - they say it's the top floor, but actually the prisoner is talking about the top floor where guests live. There is actually a partition above it, and people can't even stand up inside. It's only about one meter high.

But, it's enough.

Because the passage was locked from the inside, I took out a gun from my waist, broke the lock with one bullet, and sneaked in smoothly.

From here, I can see the highest point of the elevator shaft.

I fished out my usual lancet from the inner layer of my clothes. The special metal and thin blade can barely be used as a tool for cutting and disassembling.

That's right, since there will be people trapped in the elevator, I just need to wait for the elevator to reach the top floor, and then cut off the power supply to the hotel elevator from above -

The elevator itself has an emergency circuit that will restart quickly, but the monitoring in the elevator is different. Without power supply, there is naturally no monitoring.

I concentrated on dismantling the top structure of the elevator, from which I could create an ungentlemanly passage.

It just takes a little time.

I held the phone between my shoulder and ear at the same time, listening carefully to what was going on over there.

Because they are all dialogues, the relevance is rather scattered.

However, it was still very easy to extract the key information. In fact, as soon as the prisoner opened his mouth and talked about the phone call to contact the police for negotiation, I suddenly realized his identity.

"Look at this brave officer. You are still standing here after all the fireworks. I sincerely commend your courage."

"But this time, the choice will be left to other police officers to see if they have the courage to make a decisive decision."

"I wonder if the police officers on the other end of the line have ever heard of the trolley problem? What exactly determines a person's worth?"

"Now, don't be trapped in the elevator. There is the police officer who saved 12 million hostages, the assistants of the smart detective Mori who cracked my code, the only child of the mayor of Yokohama who is loved by the citizens, President Kono who donated half of his property to the earthquake-stricken areas last year, and Ms. Imai who maintains several orphanages on her own..."

"They are all people with the trait of 'bravery'. So today, do you want them to carry out 'bravery' to the end, and do you want them to carry out 'sacrifice' to the end?"

My fingers paused, and I suddenly understood his intention.

"Officers on the other end of the phone, prepare to make your choice. As long as you choose to detonate the bomb in the elevator, then everyone else in the building will be able to survive. Of course, if you choose the heroes in the elevator, then I will randomly detonate a hundred rooms and leave everything to fate."

"But...if you want to find a good solution, I will help you out."

"If a speeding train doesn't want to kill anyone on the track, there is only one way - destroy the train."

"Yes, if the police officers who have gathered downstairs can select sixteen officers to commit suicide... I will let everyone go and keep them safe."

"Well, that's fair, right?"