Vodka packed up and got out of the car, his heart brimming with the joy of an imminent mission completion.
"As long as I get that guy's laptop, I'm confident I can follow this lead and uncover all his communication records. Then the other target who had contact with him will be easy to catch, won't he?—Once I take him out, I can go back to Tokyo!"
After rejoicing for a while, Vodka touched his chest. Perhaps things had gone too smoothly; for some reason, he instead felt an indescribable unease.
"What's there to be nervous about? Setting aside Uzo, who suddenly appeared in the middle of the mission, this whole operation has no difficulty at all." Vodka quietly reassured himself: "As for Uzo, that brat got tickets to the soccer exhibition match yesterday. He should be sitting in the stands right now, admiring a stadium full of prey. Why would he suddenly come to a place this remote?—Calm down. There's no need to scare yourself at a time like this."
As he thought, Vodka climbed over the wall with Calvados and landed on the ground.
The next instant, a voice so familiar it was etched into his very bones came from overhead. "Mr. Yamada? Mr. Yamaguchi?—Why did you climb over the wall to get in?"
Vodka: "..."
Vodka: "?!!"
Had he seen a ghost in broad daylight? Why did he seem to hear Uzo's voice?!
Beside him, Calvados's eye twitched as well. He looked up, his gaze dark—one of the windows in the circular hotel had been opened, and a young man was leaning out from it, bending down and waving at them.
"...Why is that detective here?"
The words "haunting like a ghost" surfaced in Calvados's mind. His hand quietly gripped the pistol beneath his arm. "Since he