Escape and Infiltration

Escape and Infiltration

The voice of the woman called Fumiyo Edogawa rang out first. "Has he woken up yet?"

That Mr. Lin replied with a cold laugh, "Not yet. I'd say the drug hasn't worn off. The one inside should be the high school detective Kudo Shinichi, right?"

Fumiyo Edogawa still sounded deeply doubtful. "I still don't quite believe it even now. But just like you said, the day Kudo Shinichi disappeared lines up exactly with the day that boy appeared at the agency. And after that, every case that happened around that brat was resolved perfectly. So I think it must be this new drug the organization developed that made his entire body shrink. You really are impressive, figuring out from that alone that he's Kudo Shinichi." The last sentence was spoken with clear admiration.

Lying on the floor, Conan thought, So he was the one who discovered my identity. If I'd known, I wouldn't have been so active when solving cases back then. But Uncle Mouri really was too stupid, forcing me to step in and solve them, which led to my identity being exposed now.

That Mr. Lin let out a strange chuckle. "In that case, I'll give it a try too." His odd laughter interrupted Conan's thoughts and drew his attention back to their conversation.

Fumiyo Edogawa asked in confusion, "Give it a try? What do you mean?"

Mr. Lin took a box of medicine from his coat and said with a strange laugh, "Heh heh! I brought some of that new drug the organization developed with me when I came out. As long as I make someone else take it, I'll know whether it can really make a person shrink."

Fumiyo Edogawa said with a terrified expression, "Who are you going to make take that drug?"

"Isn't there still a Doctor who knows about Kudo Shinichi and the organization? We'll use him for the experiment. Everyone who knows the organization exists has to be dealt with in the end. Rather than killing him, we may as well put the waste to use." Mr. Lin said words that filled Conan with utter terror. He was actually going to use the Doctor for a drug experiment, and he wanted to eliminate everyone who knew about the organization—surely including Conan himself.

When Fumiyo Edogawa heard that the drug was not for her, she immediately relaxed. "Then, after you know this drug can make people shrink, what do you plan to do?"

Mr. Lin said icily, "In short, we kill that Doctor first, then deal with this brat. Then everything will be fine."

When Fumiyo Edogawa heard Mr. Lin say he wanted to kill Conan, she immediately became angry. "Didn't I tell you? The organization wants to investigate the side effects on this brat. My superiors have already ordered me to take him back. Don't you understand?"

Mr. Lin asked Fumiyo Edogawa with a cold laugh, "Can someone who knows the organization's secrets still be allowed to live?"

Fumiyo Edogawa still wanted to argue. "But..."

Growing impatient, Mr. Lin took out a handgun, pointed it at her, and ordered, "Enough. I've already decided to do this. If you keep nagging, there'll only be one more corpse here."

Seeing Mr. Lin pointing a gun at her, Fumiyo Edogawa immediately shrank back and replied fearfully, "I... I understand."

"Good. Lock this brat in here for now. Tomorrow, we'll go deal with that Doctor." After saying that, Mr. Lin was the first to walk out.

Hearing the door close, Conan immediately stood up from the floor. He looked outside through the hole in the door, but there was no one there; clearly, both of them had already gone out. Thinking that the two of them were going to kill the Doctor tomorrow, Conan grew anxious. He thought he had to escape while they were gone and notify the Doctor and the police so they could arrest these two and interrogate them about the organization.

He glanced at his watch. About another three hours had passed. They should be asleep by now. By the moonlight outside the window, Conan carefully felt his way around the room, trying not to make even the slightest sound so he would not wake anyone who might already be fast asleep.

Looking at Fumiyo Edogawa lying on the **, Conan badly wanted to catch this woman right now. However, since he could not be sure whether the other one, Mr. Lin, was in the room next door, Conan had no choice but to give up on that wonderful idea. As he was thinking about this, Conan accidentally knocked a bottle of Moutai onto the floor. Fortunately, the woman on the ** seemed to be sleeping very deeply and showed no sign of waking up at all.

"What's that sound? The liquor that broke just now leaked over there, this, this is..." Conan, who had just been about to walk toward the window, suddenly heard a strange sound. Following the sound, he saw that it was coming from where the liquor had just leaked. He walked over and examined it carefully, and Conan could not help but reveal a smile.

Early the next morning.

Conan heard Mr. Lin's voice. "That brat is gone? What's going on?"

Fumiyo Edogawa's voice sounded very helpless. "Yes. When I woke up, that brat was already gone." As she spoke, she pointed at the open window. "I think he must have escaped through this window."

"Damn it." Mr. Lin ran to the window and looked down. It was a field of white, with nothing there at all.

Fumiyo Edogawa's voice rang out again. "He must have used the accumulated snow to jump down from here. He can forget about escaping." As she spoke, she ran toward the door.

Looking at the man standing there motionless, Fumiyo Edogawa grew anxious. "What are you doing? Hurry up and look for that brat. What are you still standing there for?"

Mr. Lin replied with a strange laugh, "Wait. That brat is still in this room."

Mr. Lin's words shocked Fumiyo Edogawa. "What did you say? How is that possible?"

Mr. Lin said with a smile, "How is it impossible? He wants us to think he's already escaped. In fact, he's right here, waiting for us to leave so he can run away." As he spoke, he looked at the only thing in the room where a child could hide—the refrigerator—and burst into laughter. "Prepare to die." As he spoke, he took out his handgun, pointed it at the refrigerator, and slowly opened its door.

But the refrigerator was empty. There was nothing inside.

Looking at the completely empty refrigerator, Fumiyo Edogawa said impatiently, "What's going on? I think you guessed wrong. That brat wasn't hiding in the refrigerator at all. I think he ran off long ago. Hurry up and go chase him down."

Having guessed the brat's hiding place wrong, Mr. Lin looked extremely angry. "Hah! That brat has nowhere to go anyway. After we kill that Doctor this time, we'll find him, and then we'll deal with him."

Conan listened to the sound of the two people's footsteps going downstairs.

Conan opened the lid and let out a breath. "I really thought I was done for. If I hadn't discovered the small box under the blanket back then, I would've been finished."

Hearing the sound of a car starting downstairs, Conan looked out the window. The car quickly drove away from the snowy ground. Watching the departing car, Conan muttered to himself, "Great. While I've got the chance, I'd better find that drug first. After that, I'll go to the Doctor's place and tell the Doctor and the police to get ready, then arrest them."

After searching the entire room and failing to find the drug, Conan had no choice but to leave the house and hurry toward the Doctor's home.

By the time he finally reached the Doctor's house, Conan was deeply frustrated when he saw the wide-open front door. Damn it. Am I still one step too late? The Doctor couldn't already have been... No. The Doctor will be fine.

Conan remembered that there was a small door behind the Doctor's house. That door had been blown apart the last time the Doctor was conducting an experiment, and he had not had time to repair it then, only doing some rough patching. Conan hoped it had not been properly fixed yet. He carefully circled around the side of the house to the back door. He still did not know whether those two people had left, so he had to be careful in everything. When he reached the back door and saw the small hole blocked by a wooden board, Conan was instantly overjoyed. Fortunately, the Doctor still had not repaired it.

Conan went forward and gently pushed the wooden board, but it had been blocked from inside by something and would not budge at all. "Damn it, how could this happen? What do I do now?" Seeing that the board could not be pushed open, Conan had no solution for the moment and could not help feeling a little discouraged. He looked around, trying to see if there was any other way to sneak in. When he saw the two people's car parked not far away, his eyes lit up. Although it was a little risky, this was the only method he could use now.

Conan crouched down, turned the dial on his Power-Enhancing Shoes, and brought the enhanced power to its maximum. Then he ran quickly toward the car and used his enhanced leg strength to jump onto it. Borrowing the powerful recoil from the car again, he leaped toward the Doctor's second floor. Conan worked hard to control his body to avoid being injured when he landed.

Bang! The powerful impact sent Conan crashing to the floor. Fortunately, he had controlled his body well and was not seriously hurt.

"That hurts." Conan only felt as if his butt were about to split open. It was his own fault for failing to control his body properly—his butt had ended up hitting the ground first. Although there was no serious injury, his butt was too vulnerable, and right now it felt so painful he could die.

"What was that sound? It seemed to come from upstairs. Go see what's going on. Be careful." Clearly, the sound of Conan falling had been discovered by the people downstairs.

From the voice, Conan knew the speaker was Mr. Lin, which meant the one coming up would be the woman called Fumiyo Edogawa. Looking at the watch on his wrist, Conan's lips curled into a cold smile. He quickly slipped into the room and hid.

Thud, thud, thud!! Footsteps rang out in the hallway.

The person who came opened the room door by hand and looked at the state of the room. There was nothing unusual, and no sign that anyone had touched anything. But when she saw the window that had not been shut tight, her pupils contracted and she quickly ran over. After reaching the window, she stuck her head out and looked outside, but there was nothing there.

At that moment, Conan, who was hiding to the side, quickly pressed the cover of his watch and fired at the person's neck through the sight.

"Hiss!" By the time the person realized something was happening behind her, it was already too late. The tranquilizer needle had already shot into her neck.

Bang! This person's constitution was not even as good as Kogoro's. When the tranquilizer needle struck, her body swayed, and she collapsed.

"Fumiyo, what happened on your side?" Hearing the sound, Mr. Lin immediately called out loudly from downstairs.

"Cough, cough. Nothing. I accidentally bumped into something. There's nothing going on here. You don't need to worry." Hearing the question, Conan immediately used the Bowtie Voice Changer to change his voice into Fumiyo Edogawa's and answer Mr. Lin's question.