Chapter 284: The missing engineer did not run away, but approached me...
"Ms. Lin, you can no longer live in your original house. The organization will definitely find an opportunity to capture you or kill you."
"Miss Haibara...and Conan-kun, for safety's sake, you have to leave too. I heard that Mr. Kudo Yusaku commissioned M16 to create your fake identities?"
Conan nodded.
His father has quite a few connections in the UK.
Well, maybe not just the UK either.
"Then we shouldn't be able to find anything from your fake identities. But since Haibara lives with Ms. Lin, they might suspect you as well. So, my advice is to move as soon as possible."
"After you go to the United States, the FBI will provide you with accommodation if you need it. You may have new names again, Conan-kun, Miss Huibara."
"Actually," Conan said, "my dad said he would be back in Japan for a while."
"Oh, is Mr. and Mrs. Kudo's tour over?"
Conan shook his head and said helplessly, "They can't stay here. At most, they'll just come back for a while to see me. I want to discuss this with him."
In fact, Kudo Yusaku had already offered to help, but Conan was young and frivolous at that time and didn't want his parents to interfere.
Now...
He glanced at Lin Xi.
Innocent people have been implicated, and this is no longer just his problem.
"Their flight arrives today," he said.
Judy nodded and looked at Lin Xi: "Ms. Lin, what about you?"
"As for me..." She looked at Huibara, "I can accept the witness protection program, but I still have an unresolved matter in Japan."
"Um?"
"It's about Kiichirō Numabuchi," Lin Xi said. "Teacher Judy, you've met him too... I promised Ai that we'd go find the truth together. This man was one of the experimental subjects persecuted by the organization, and he's now being detained by the public security bureau. I asked my friends to take care of him."
"According to Xiao Ai's recollection, his mental state was stable when he escaped from the organization. However, over the past three months, his mental state has rapidly deteriorated, and he has killed three people in a row. Xiao Ai and I both think there is something wrong and want to investigate the crime scene ourselves."
"The three crimes were committed in Kamakura, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture, respectively. They are quite far from Tokyo. I think as long as we are careful, Gin won't find us so quickly."
Judy gave a look of disapproval.
"Ms. Lin, the organization is different from 'Jack,'" she said. "They are dangerous, very dangerous. From the moment you showed your face at the subway station, you were destined to face the organization's pursuit."
"That's why we didn't send you home, because if you show up there again, you might be in danger. Miss Haibara can't go back either, because the organization might use her to threaten you, or worse, discover her and Conan-kun's identities."
Lin Xi nodded. "You're right. But I insist. After this job, I'm going to quit, accept the witness protection program, and live in another country."
Judy was helpless.
Hey, Ms. Lin...Are you not afraid of danger, or are you deliberately heading towards danger?
Besides, what kind of weird term is "wash your hands of the gold basin"? It makes the investigation sound like you're going to do something bad.
"Then go ahead," she compromised. "Don't forget to contact us when you need help. You're still a non-staff member of the FBI, so don't always think about acting alone."
Hearing the key words, Conan turned his head: "A non-staff member of the FBI?"
"Part-time job." Lin Xi waved her hand. "You don't think I just stay in the house doing nothing every day, do you?"
Conan's half-moon eyes.
Isn’t it?
Unless she sees something interesting, Sister Lin would rather stay at home and play games, right?
"You can stay here for the next few days." Judy said, "It's safer here. Conan-kun, remember to tell Miss Lan."
The three nodded.
.
A suburban villa.
Gin entered a long string of keys into the combination lock.
With two beeps, the door opened automatically.
He casually threw the CD on the table and took out a hairpin from his pocket.
The long string of symbols and numbers engraved on the back of the hairpin is a very simple fence code, which can be cracked into a string of numbers and a signature.
The number is an email address prefix and the signature is "Sherry".
Gin sneered.
What's the point of contacting him now?
He said he would kill her if she betrayed him, and that was no joke.
The only difference is that this betrayal doesn't mean betraying the organization...but betraying the boss.
That's why she is still alive.
But Gin still logged into his email, added the organization's suffix after this string of symbols, and sent a message.
"What are you doing? Sherry."
After a long time, the other party replied:
"I have news to tell you. But first, you have to tell me, what is the relationship between Punch and Linxi?"
What made her think he would tell her?
"No comment."
Although sometimes not answering is also an answer, Gin thought.
Anyway, she would be back in a week or two, and this clumsy game of pretending would finally be over. He didn't mind speeding up the process.
"Is she important to you?"
Is it important? Of course it is.
That was the shadow that he had been longing for since his youth.
The shadow was right there, visible if one turned one's head, but if one reached out to it, there was nothing to touch.
He hates the feeling of being out of reach, so he doesn't like to look back, he just moves forward.
This doesn't mean that shadows are unimportant.
But Shirley didn't need to know that.
For some reason, Gin's mood became a little bad.
So he lit another cigarette.
If he were just an ordinary person, he would have been killed by the large amount of nicotine long ago. But Gin was not an ordinary person, so he didn't care.
"Don't ask such disgusting questions."
The other side fell silent again.
Gin waited until the cigarette in his mouth burned out before she replied, "Sister Lin is in a very bad state. I mean mentally. Do you still remember Kiichiro Numabuchi? Her current state is similar to when Kiichiro Numabuchi was first sent to my lab. She's been feeling better recently, and I suspect she's been secretly taking psychiatric drugs."
"You know what the consequences will be if this continues."
Who is Kiichiro Numabuchi?
How could he remember.
Sent to the laboratory, is he an experimental subject?
Oh, he remembered.
It was a mouse that Shirley secretly let go.
Is this guy still alive?
He remembered Madera saying he would be responsible for silencing the witness.
Gin frowned.
Lin Xi's mental state is very bad... What kind of bad is it?
This guy has always been crazy. He doesn't look at people as if they are living things. He is a high-functioning sociopath and lacks morals and empathy... Did Shirley just realize it?
If this isn't what I'm talking about...
Gin suddenly remembered Lin Xi's injured fist.
She often hurts herself, even those injuries that could have been avoided, because she is a person who likes to seek excitement, and slight pain may make her more excited.
But the injured part is the fist, which is not a fragile part. Getting injured there does not conform to Lin Xi's aesthetic pursuit of excitement.
Fists only hurt when they strike.
But there are many ways to attack. Compared with direct attack, Lin Xi prefers to use other methods to subdue or kill others.
And only one fist was injured.
Gin began to regret not removing the bandages that were in the way.
Otherwise he would know what type of wound she had on her hand.
Considering what Shirley said about her unstable mental state, Gin suspected that Lin Xi punched a hard object in extreme anger.
...Extremely angry, these two words don't fit her.
He had never seen her angry before.
"When did you start noticing anything unusual about her?"
he asked Shirley.
"…She started to act strange in late June. At that time, she bought a house in a corner of the neighborhood to use as a studio. She wouldn't let me see her paintings. I secretly collected her pigments for testing, but found no suspicious chemical components. Later, I noticed she was having insomnia at night. At first, I thought she was going out at night to complete an organization mission without my knowledge, but later I realized that wasn't the case."
"One time, she was out and caught me peeking at her... She smiled at me but said nothing. At that time, I felt she was strange and scary. She was completely different from the person I knew. I suspected she was sleepwalking, so I didn't communicate with her and watched her go back to the bedroom."
"The next day, this happened again, and it lasted longer and longer. She only slept a few hours a day and refused to tell me she was tired. I knew she didn't want me to worry."
"She's also trying to find a solution. She went to the hospital. But I don't know if that will help..."
Gin frowned deeply this time.
He only knew that she would eventually...
Is this part of what *had to happen*, or is it just one of the factors that led to the outcome?
His eyes passed over the sofa and fell on the CD on the table.
...The matter ultimately comes down to the whereabouts of Itakura Taku.
Only by finding Itakura Taku and getting the software can we change the ending... and save her.
.
"Ms. Lin, I found Itakura Taku." The phone vibrated. Lin Xi glanced at the screen and saw Noah's message.
Itakura Taku finally clicked on the phishing link.
Noah quickly analyzed his IP address.
…in a small town in Northern Ireland.
Run far enough.
"Wait, Ms. Lin." Noah suddenly displayed on the screen, "The other party seems to have noticed us and is trying to contact us. Do you want to approve his application, Ms. Lin?"
Lin Xi tilted his head.
Instead of running away, are you approaching me?
interesting.
Do you agree to video access?
Yes/No.
Lin Xi clicked yes.
The phone flashed and Itakura Taku's face appeared.
He was wearing a sweater and sitting on a stone bench, looking in good spirits.
"Vermouth, or whoever you are, as you can see, I have left Japan."
"I have no ties in Japan and have made enough money... I hope to find a quiet place to spend the rest of my life."
"To prevent you crows from bothering me again, I left the completed software somewhere before leaving Japan. The address will be sent to you twelve hours after our call ends."
"The transaction is more than half a day late, just as a safety precaution. After this video call, I will immediately deactivate all my current phone cards and email accounts. I will also entrust someone else to transfer my credit card assets. Don't even think about finding me anymore."
Itakura Taku paused for a moment and adjusted the frame of his glasses.
"I'll give you one last piece of advice."
"I already know why you asked me to create the software... Honestly, I'm starting to admire you. You're simply a bunch of lunatics. But I still have to say, no matter what... no matter how precious the person you want to save is to you, wasting time will be punished."
"Perhaps you will say that you are prepared. But perhaps not only you, but all of humanity will be buried with you because of your crazy actions, especially when you and I both know that this world is far more fragile than it appears."
"Maybe I'm a crazy person too. I'm actually starting to hope that you can succeed."
His expression was already a little regretful, as if he had foreseen the failure of the organization.
"Take care... Goodbye."
Lin Xi had been listening quietly until here.
"Wait." She said, "Mr. Itakura, please hold on. I want to talk to you."
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