Professor Agasa did not think being discovered by Jiang Xia was much of a problem. In his view, compared to the neighborhood child he had once held in his arms as a boy, the danger clearly came from the darkness on the other side.
Professor Agasa looked at the snow-covered road ahead and belatedly sensed that something was wrong. "Shinichi, are we really just going straight there? If The Organization was willing to patiently wear him down with both carrots and sticks for a year or two, they must value that software highly."
"That's right!" Conan focused on the wrong point. "From what I know of the Black Organization, if it were just an ordinary program, they would have already pointed guns at that unlucky programmer and forced him to develop it. If he refused, they'd kill him and find another one.
"But when dealing with Itakura Suguru, they not only made thorough arrangements tailored to his personality and patiently plotted for nearly a year, they also honestly paid an expensive deposit. They even agreed to Itakura Suguru's demands and never showed up around him.
"That whole series of actions could be called exceedingly cautious—if they put on such an attitude, that software must be extremely important. It might even concern their most fundamental plans and conspiracies!"
"..." Professor Agasa looked at the excited neighborhood child and sighed. "What I mean is, if the software is so important, what if those Men in Black are lying in ambush near Itakura Suguru's villa?"
"Don't worry." Conan chuckled. "Didn't Mr. Itakura write in his diary that he had an agreement with the Black Organization? He told them they were not allowed to monitor him, much less snoop around him.
"He was so neurotic that he could immediately notice if something on the