Gathering Intelligence
"I see—so they have the same blood type."
The moment Conan sent over the results of the blood test, Judy passed the news straight to Akai Shuichi, who stood at her side.
Akai gazed down at Kir on the hospital bed, his expression unreadable, a tangle of emotions flickering behind his eyes. He had just received intelligence that a homeless man had witnessed the CIA undercover agent's death—and that the one who pulled the trigger was none other than Kir herself. If Kir really was Hidemi Hondo, then what had happened to Ethan Hondo back then...
With this crucial piece of the blood-type puzzle in hand, the FBI had planned to contact Eisuke Hondo and stop him from snooping around the hospital for information on Kir—one careless move, and the Black Organization might notice that this boy bore an uncanny resemblance to her. But before they could act, Eisuke vanished without a trace, barely two days later.
Conan heard from Ran that Eisuke had run into an old colleague of his father's while investigating at Beika Central Hospital, and had followed the man off. Conan had assumed it was a colleague from his father's CIA days—until he learned the man had actually worked alongside his father during his undercover years. The moment he heard that, the realization struck him like a bolt: the Organization had planted people inside Beika Central Hospital.
Worse, it meant the Organization had already marked Eisuke. The boy was very likely in danger right now.
As for Cointreau, who had learned through the Wanderer that Kir was on the verge of waking—he had originally intended to keep the information to himself, planning to wait until Gin's people tracked down which hospital held her before mounting any operation. After all, he had no good way of explaining where the intel had come from.
But now that he knew Kir was about to regain consciousness—well, he didn't much care about her cover identity either way. In fact, he'd been counting on exploiting the possibility that she would soon come into contact with the FBI, planning to strike some deals with her once that happened. Even so, he had no intention of giving Kir too much time to talk with the Bureau. And frankly, he was getting tired of dragging the Wanderer along on assignments. It was bad for his mood.
The Wanderer had no codename yet, so the boy trailed after him; but once he earned one, he would fall under Gin's operations division, and from then on it would be Gin's headache to deal with the boy's social quirks. All the more reason, then, to accelerate the codename evaluation mission. Cointreau simply didn't want to wait any longer.
Gin, who now knew Kir was at Beika Central Hospital, glared at Cointreau for a long moment, brow furrowed—then issued a series of orders to Kusuda Rikumichi, a peripheral member already inside that hospital gathering intelligence. He never once asked where Cointreau's information had come from, which left the excuse Cointreau had carefully prepared utterly wasted. He felt a flicker of disappointment about that.
The FBI and Conan, for their part, quickly learned that Organization members were lurking in Beika Central Hospital, and wasted no time narrowing the patient list down to three suspicious individuals.
Exploiting the fact that adults rarely guarded themselves against a small child, Conan probed each of them in turn—and ultimately zeroed in on Kusuda Rikumichi, whose medical records contained fabrications. He was the most likely to be an Organization man.
Over the course of these encounters, with each new interaction, Akai Shuichi found it easier and easier to see that Edogawa Conan was abnormally clever for a child. He said nothing, though—only quietly observed the boy's expressions and movements from day to day.
Once Kusuda was identified as the prime suspect, the FBI declined to startle the snake. They posted a few watchers to trail him in secret, intending to wait until he showed his tail before making an arrest—they had no hard proof that he was actually a member of the Black Organization.
But after a full day of shadowing him, the watchers found Kusuda's behavior strange indeed: he spent the entire day wandering the hospital with his wrist raised, visiting practically every corner of the building. Odd as that was, they never caught him fishing for any information related to Kir, nor straying into any restricted areas. Whenever he came across a place that was off-limits, he would merely peer through the doorway with curious eyes for a moment—never showing the slightest intention of actually entering. And once he had finished his circuit, he stopped leaving his room altogether, holing up in his sickbed doing who knew what.
When Conan, Judy, Akai, and James compared notes on the situation, they walked together toward Kir's room as they talked. Akai brought up the rear, listening in silence as Judy and James debated ahead of him whether they should move Kir to a different hospital.
Suddenly, Akai sensed something. His eyes flicked to the right, his step faltering for just an instant—then he withdrew his gaze and kept walking with the others.
When they entered the ward, they found Dr. Baizhu already inside, examining Kir.
The group waited patiently at the side of the room for him to finish before reporting on her condition. For Conan, this was his first time laying eyes on the doctor—Judy had mentioned only that the physician treating Kir came recommended by the hospital director and had excellent hands, nothing more. He hadn't expected him to be so young.
Conan studied him with open curiosity. At first glance, Dr. Baizhu gave the impression of someone gentle and dependable—not unlike Dr. Araide, though he looked a touch frail, almost sickly. A smile never left his face as he went about the examination in his plain white coat, attentive and thorough. He looked no different from any ordinary doctor—and yet, Conan couldn't shake the feeling that there was something peculiar about the man's presence.
On a hunch, he drifted closer and circled the doctor once, taking in every detail. No familiar accessories anywhere. Conan let out a quiet breath of relief. Well, of course. If he really were one of them—from that mysterious organization—Kir's information could never have stayed hidden this long. I'm overthinking it.
Beside him, Akai Shuichi noted Conan's rather abrupt maneuver, and his eyes glinted, just slightly.
When the examination was complete, Dr. Baizhu told James and the others that Kir was recovering well, and that she should regain consciousness within a day or two at the most. Then he left the ward.
Because of Conan's little stunt just now—and to cover every contingency—Akai signaled a colleague with a glance to follow the doctor out and see whether he made any suspicious moves at this critical juncture.
What none of them knew was that, right there inside the ward, under every last pair of eyes, Baizhu had already passed along the news: Kir was awake, and had been feigning her coma all along.
When the message reached Cointreau, he thought it over for a while—then contacted the Wanderer and had him run an errand to Beika Central Hospital in his stead.
Meanwhile, Gin—having received the three-dimensional map of Beika Central Hospital that Kusuda had compiled through his special terminal—was studying the layout on the screen, thinking through his operational plan, even as he issued a fresh order to continue collecting information on the patients.
Unfortunately, shortly after that order went out, Kusuda went dark. Gin understood at once what it meant: the FBI had found him, and his odds of still being alive were slim. He didn't particularly care. The man's disappearance was valuable in its own right—it all but confirmed that Kir really was at Beika Central Hospital.