After Akai Shuichi left, the Ren family of three quickly packed light and headed towards the laboratory. The top floor there was their temporary residence.
Upon arriving at the place, they found only two rooms.
There were two options: one, Ren could sleep with Miyano Shiho, or two, the two sisters could sleep together. Obviously, they chose the second option.
As the older sister, Miyano Akemi felt comforted that her younger sister had such a man in her life.
But as a sister, she didn't want her to grow up too soon. So she had no objection to sharing a room with her sister.
Gin also came and took away the test-phase drone. This time, he would make sure nothing could go wrong. The silver bullet? He made sure it couldn't be fired.
...
Near the Mouri Detective Agency, in a rented house.
"Shuichi, you're back. Did you find people from the organization?" Jodie asked first.
"Yeah, but we were discovered." Akai Shuichi's face darkened. Now they knew the situation clearly.
"Discovered?" The other FBI agents looked surprised.
"Yeah." Akai Shuichi began to explain what had happened.
After searching several villas, Akai Shuichi looked towards the next place — it was near Ren's villa.
Soon, he drove to Ren's residence. A Porsche was parked in front of the door. He recognized the license plate — it was Gin's car. When he tried to get closer, he spotted a pinhole camera and quickly avoided it.
Though it lasted less than three seconds, he knew he had been filmed. The other side definitely noticed. However, Hennessy had to die; his abilities were too dangerous.
They didn't know what was happening inside the villa yet. Akai was alone, so rushing in might cost him his life. But if they didn't act now, the others might move or prepare defenses.
In the end, Akai Shuichi decided to go back. This time, they needed to work with the Japanese police. And it had to be tonight — time was running out.
After hearing the whole story, the FBI agents fell silent. The mission tonight might cost someone's life.
But it was their best chance to get close to the organization. The longer they waited, the more distant the organization would become.
"I'll contact the police immediately," Jodie said and quickly made a call.
"No, it's better not to act this time." Conan's voice came from outside the door.
Akai Shuichi looked around at his colleagues. They were embarrassed. Their surveillance had been discovered by the enemy.
Jodie opened the door. "Little brother, what's coming next is very dangerous."
"Why?" Shuichi Akai naturally wanted to hear Conan's thoughts.
"Big sister, sorry." Conan took the bugging device off her clothes.
"When was this?" Jodie was a bit incredulous. As an FBI agent, she hadn't noticed being bugged.
"I know the whole story."
"Impossible. I don't wear this coat every day." Jodie frowned.
The weather was good, so the coat hadn't been washed much. She looked at the agent monitoring the bug, wondering what nonsense he was talking about.
"You mentioned the Japanese police, so I asked Ran to get in touch with them," Conan said.
"Exchanging your own intelligence for their information? That doesn't seem balanced." Shuichi Akai didn't expect Conan to have figured things out himself.
"In fact, it was equal. I told them the location of the researcher's lab, and they shared their intelligence with me," Conan said straightforwardly. He knew he had to prove his value to be taken seriously.
"The researcher's lab!" The other agents were shocked.
"Oh?"
Conan began explaining. "When I first contacted them, it was during a Valentine's Day case. I met the two of them in a restaurant. Hennessy solved the case, but from the details of how he handled it, I noticed that his female companion was an expert in biology or pharmaceuticals."
The people present didn't know the full story until Conan finished explaining.
"We also confirmed at big sister's house that Hennessy is a researcher in the tech field. But when we first met, he wanted to say he was researching love, yet he didn't even clearly express what kind of hormone was involved. Still, he was confident, which means he must have a biologist or pharmacologist assisting him."
"Why did you conclude it was his female companion?"
"Would you let a third person join a study on love?" Conan asked back.
"This... probably not," Jodie glanced at Shuichi Akai.
"Of course, I have reason to believe his female companion is a researcher in the relevant field. After Hennessy mentioned hormones and such, her expression looked like she thought he was an idiot, which means she at least understands it."
"Then how do we figure out where the researcher's lab is?"
"Judging by the organization's style, it can't be biology, only drugs." Conan was confident in this because he had experience being drugged.
"With these two clues, it's simple. If they want to develop medicine, they can buy many raw pharmaceutical materials that aren't available on the market through a pharmaceutical company, and the research won't raise suspicion. It's a good cover."
When Conan said this, everyone understood. In Mihama, such companies are rare and easy to investigate.
The second way to identify is whether there are any unseen technological products. With these two points, Conan quickly learned the exact location.
Using this intel, and exchanging it for police information and the latest progress, Conan now had a certain understanding of the organization.
The agents looked at each other, overwhelmed by the amount of information, unable to fully accept it all at once.
"Why can't we act now?" Shuichi Akai was concerned about this. He now respected Conan's ability.
"Because the phone is probably being monitored. Your actions could be known by the organization."
"This phone though..."
"From a previous Valentine's Day case, the enemy's phone exposed everything about the victim's life and hotel call records. Plus, their advanced technology makes hacking possible." Conan's explanation was reasonable.
"From now on, avoid using phones as much as possible. Communicate using codes whenever you can." Shuichi Akai thought about the things Hennessy developed and that heavily secured villa. Conan's words seemed plausible.
"Okay."
"The enemy already saw you at their villa. Insisting on going there isn't right. We know little about the organization, but they have information on us. Their assassins will surely wait for you there." Conan opposed the rushed plan.
"We escaped this time, but who knows about next time." Shuichi Akai's words decided tonight's operation.
At that moment, another person entered — Rei Furuya.
He glanced at Shuichi Akai but said nothing.
Now was not the time for arguments.
"This time, our Public Security will join the operation," Rei said directly.
"The lab and the villa are four blocks apart. It takes ten minutes to drive between them. From here, it takes forty minutes to get to the villa and thirty minutes to the lab. Even speeding, it would take at least fifteen minutes. I will only send some elite agents to the lab; the rest will go to the villa."
Shuichi Akai agreed without objection.
"Jodie, you and your team go to the villa. My team will go to the lab. If anything goes wrong, we rush to support each other immediately."
"Got it," Jodie said decisively.
She exchanged looks with the other agents and then set off right away.
"Tonight's operation must be swift. We can't give the enemy any time. If we miss this chance, it will be hard to get another," Shuichi said, his tone heavy with despair.
Conan's expression darkened as well.
If the organization was this powerful, protecting Ran and the others would be very difficult.
No matter what, he had to take part in this mission to see if the FBI and Public Security could actually defeat the organization.
**********
Support me on my patreon and read upto 20 early chapters.
patreon.com/PirateKing24