On the Verge of Hatching

"Eh?! FBI agents?!"

"Shh, keep it down, shh—" Jodie, reclining against the hospital bed, hurriedly raised a finger to stop the startled girl from saying anything even more outrageous.

"Oh..." Before Ran Mouri could help cover her mouth, Sonoko Suzuki lowered her voice, though she still could not hide her excitement. "But Jodie-sensei is an FBI agent—that's so cool! So did you come to Japan to secretly investigate some case?"

Thanks to the influence of stylish spy films like the 007 series, when people thought of intelligence agencies or special departments nowadays, the first thing that came to mind for many was certainly not military police with the power of life and death, but agile, capable, handsome heroes. Sonoko Suzuki's reaction was hardly unusual.

"How could that be..." Jodie smiled, her eyes curving. "The last case I handled before coming to Japan went wrong. I failed to arrest the criminal, so I was suspended. I came to Japan to relax. I'm not joking, either. I really love arcade games, and I'd always wanted to visit Japan, so I decided to become an English teacher."

That explanation was meant for people who knew nothing about the organization, and it was not entirely a lie.

After assisting Shuichi Akai, whose cover had been blown, in leaving Japan, their team had returned to Japan once more after discovering Thomas Sindora's connection to the organization, following the release events for his new work.

Thomas Sindora's many illegal activities had been exposed alongside Noah's Ark's plan. Kenmura, who had received Noah's Ark's gift, had brought the evidence to America, and the suffering endured by Hiroki Sawada, that genius who had died far too young, was still the subject of intense public discussion.

But Thomas himself had indeed vanished mysteriously inside the embassy. They had remained