Hearing the codename "Uzo" over the phone, the FBI agent's gaze at the cat instantly became more wary than ever—as though the cat might somehow produce a knife the next second and stab him to death right here.
Just then, Akai Shuichi's voice came through the phone again. "Can you catch it?"
"No..." The FBI agent answered instinctively, then added rationally, "I can't. It's standing by the vent. By the time I jump up there, it'll have already run far away through the ventilation duct."
—It wasn't that he didn't want to catch it. The cat was simply too cunning and had chosen its position too well.
On the other end, Akai Shuichi could hear the evasion in his voice, but he didn't press the matter.
—Sending someone into the venue to look for the Listening Device Uzo had presumably taken away had already been a considerable risk. From any angle, this looked very much like a trap.
Fortunately, nothing bad had happened so far. And in another sense, they had not come away empty-handed this time—the appearance of this cat at least proved that Uzo truly had a hand in the case.
Could he and Vermouth really have become allies? Akai Shuichi pondered. But if that were the case, shouldn't they keep it hidden and catch us off guard? Yet from the looks of it, Uzo doesn't seem to mind exposing this. Or rather, he deliberately delivered this information right to me.
He must be after something. What exactly is he plotting?
As he thought, Akai Shuichi decisively gave his next instruction: "Withdraw."
Hearing the order, the FBI agent let out a heavy sigh of relief.
He hung up and instinctively looked overhead... only to see the cat glance at him. More precisely, it seemed to glance at