Jiang Xia: "..."
Fortunately, someone in the audience was smart enough. Conan looked at the oval dining table, then at the chairs around it, and it was as though a bolt of lightning flashed through his mind.
"Right now, they just look like ordinary tables and chairs." Conan said excitedly. "But viewed from above, every four round-backed chairs surround an oval table in the middle. Combined with those uniquely shaped chair backs... they look like white crabs lined up neatly across the ground below!"
"Is that so?" Professor Agasa stood on tiptoe, trying to spot the so-called "crabs" from above. He sighed in amazement. "That child really knows how to abstract objects—so when the kidnappers called Doctor Endo this morning, they were having a meal here with the child?"
Jiang Xia shook his head. "Whether they wanted to see a 'whale spouting water' or 'crabs,' this height is still nowhere near enough. The floor has to be close to the height where the 'whale' is floating—so the kidnappers and hostage should be in a room upstairs, one that can see the distant whale, the smoking chimney, and the 'crabs' below."
There were quite a few guest rooms that met those conditions, though not too many.
Jiang Xia led the others toward the elevator as a formality, preparing to head to a higher floor. Just as he was about to step inside, his phone buzzed. He had received an email.
The email contained only a few brief digits: "2409."
Jiang Xia glanced at the familiar sender, stepped into the elevator, and pressed the button for the 24th floor—his boss really would not stand by and ignore this kidnapping case. Whether it was "Amuro Tooru," who valued the safety of the citizens' lives, or "Bourbon," who found them troublesome and wanted him